What do you think?
Rate this book
Otto Rahn And The Quest For The Grail
Who was the amazing Otto Rahn? How come if Rahn was such an amazing man has hardly anyone outside specialist pre-WW2 history circles ever heard of him? But is he really such an unknown? The story lines of Raiders of the Lost Ark to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade mirror Rahn's incredible adventures in the South of France in the early 1930s.
369 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
8 people are currently reading
124 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 6, 2010
What a glorious mess of a book. Copping heavily from the 'floating duck and weave of inference and proximity' stylebook of his subject (not unlike the better-known rahn imitators baigent, lincoln and leigh), Graddon leads us on a merry chase through a shadow world where ancient left-hand paths meet the early 20th century freakshow of nazi/tibet shamanistic syncretism.
And for most of the book its a wild ride. Imagine clinging desperately to the back of a hummingbird as it alights at only the most exotic flowers of european occulture, just long enough to implicate or exonerate Otto Rahn of this nefarious deed or noble that. Plotting a narrow moonlit path for our hero, cast as a cathari parfait in the lair of the beast, a noble knight smeared in ashes in order to get close enough to pierce the heart of evil. And like the author i so want to believe, who wouldnt...
Unfortunately as we near the end, the author leaves the lovely mythopoetic shadows to delve into the gross materia of WW II politics and the whole thing comes to a shuddering halt. The lovingly crafted tapestry unravels on the floor of history. This unfortunate detour seems to be part of the authors half-hearted attempt to justify the, most likely publisher-instigated, "Indiana Jones" business. Not sure who thought this was going to work but whatever... the occult stuff is still aces and a whole field of rabbit holes is effortlessly opened up, for those who go for that sort of thing to fall into.
And for most of the book its a wild ride. Imagine clinging desperately to the back of a hummingbird as it alights at only the most exotic flowers of european occulture, just long enough to implicate or exonerate Otto Rahn of this nefarious deed or noble that. Plotting a narrow moonlit path for our hero, cast as a cathari parfait in the lair of the beast, a noble knight smeared in ashes in order to get close enough to pierce the heart of evil. And like the author i so want to believe, who wouldnt...
Unfortunately as we near the end, the author leaves the lovely mythopoetic shadows to delve into the gross materia of WW II politics and the whole thing comes to a shuddering halt. The lovingly crafted tapestry unravels on the floor of history. This unfortunate detour seems to be part of the authors half-hearted attempt to justify the, most likely publisher-instigated, "Indiana Jones" business. Not sure who thought this was going to work but whatever... the occult stuff is still aces and a whole field of rabbit holes is effortlessly opened up, for those who go for that sort of thing to fall into.
Read
February 2, 2022You need to have NOTHING to do with "great uncle Otto." I don't care how much this author pretends or promotes him as a "real Indiana Jones". He was a hardcore Nazi and did his searching in order to find OCCULT stuff for Hitler and the Nazis.
That's the reason he has made it to my "touch-and-lose-your-soul" book shelf.
Sincerely, Laura-Lee RAHN
That's the reason he has made it to my "touch-and-lose-your-soul" book shelf.
Sincerely, Laura-Lee RAHN
Read
August 19, 20223,7
September 10, 2008
Hmm. I picked this up expecting it to be a biography of one of the more unusual characters in pre-WWII Germany. However, it rather fails in that regard. While there is some biographical information on Rahn, the author has relied as much on speculation as fact.
Rahn spent much of his life looking for the Holy Grail and believed it was linked to the Cathars, and indeed published on the subject in the early thirties. This inevitably brought him to Himmler's attention, so he was drafted to serve on Himmler's staff. Ultimately, he was supposed to have committed suicide on a Tyrolean mountain, having been given a choice of ending his own life (largely because he was gay and indiscrete about it, given the SS attitudes in that regard) or having it ended for him.
However, that's about where the facts run out and the author launches into speculation. So all in all, the book is more about trying to prove whether or not Rahn was pro or anti Hitler and the Nazi cause, what esoteric and occult links he may have had, etcetera, than a biography. Thus far, though, the author's conclusions have been confused, rather inconsistent and far from convincing.
Okay, those who know me know I've got something of an interest in the weirder/esoteric side of pre-WW2 Germany, as well as the actual history, but even I found the last third of this to be unstructured and confused, with the author throwing in pretty much every weird and occult society ever mentioned in connection with the period, and more besides, and remaining unconvincing in his conclusions.
It's a pity the author didn't just stick with a more standard biography!
Rahn spent much of his life looking for the Holy Grail and believed it was linked to the Cathars, and indeed published on the subject in the early thirties. This inevitably brought him to Himmler's attention, so he was drafted to serve on Himmler's staff. Ultimately, he was supposed to have committed suicide on a Tyrolean mountain, having been given a choice of ending his own life (largely because he was gay and indiscrete about it, given the SS attitudes in that regard) or having it ended for him.
However, that's about where the facts run out and the author launches into speculation. So all in all, the book is more about trying to prove whether or not Rahn was pro or anti Hitler and the Nazi cause, what esoteric and occult links he may have had, etcetera, than a biography. Thus far, though, the author's conclusions have been confused, rather inconsistent and far from convincing.
Okay, those who know me know I've got something of an interest in the weirder/esoteric side of pre-WW2 Germany, as well as the actual history, but even I found the last third of this to be unstructured and confused, with the author throwing in pretty much every weird and occult society ever mentioned in connection with the period, and more besides, and remaining unconvincing in his conclusions.
It's a pity the author didn't just stick with a more standard biography!
April 5, 2015
The first 2/3s of this book are a decent history and breakdown of the life of Otto Rahn. As the book progresses into its' final part, the author begins to try to break down the different mystical ideas and groups and give some form of insight into the thought processes of Otto Rahn. In my opinion, he fails. Mostly because it seems very disjointed. Maybe taking a second look at an outline and finding a way to codex the idea he was trying to present would have made it easier to read. All in all though, this was a decent book on the paranormal history of the Third Reich and one of its' most interesting characters.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews