Balder the Beautiful, Part 1

The Golden Bough #10

by James George Frazer

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

369 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1914

About the author

Sir James George Frazer was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion. His most famous work, The Golden Bough (1890), documents and details the similarities among magical and religious beliefs around the globe. Frazer posited that human belief progressed through three stages: primitive magic, replaced by religion, in turn replaced by science.
He was married to the writer & translator Lilly Grove (Lady Frazer)

Reviews

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Balder the Beautiful, Part 1 is the tenth volume in James G. Frazer's massive third edition of The Golden Bough. We are now really in the home stretch, as I believe the next volume is the last part of the text; the twelfth is an index of the previous eleven. Only a brief chapter discusses the myth of Balder, which I have become familiar with in my study of Old Norse. The rest of the book deals with a lot of purification rituals and festivals. The details are repetitive over the course of the book. I look forward to Part 2, where Frazer will hopefully tie all the evidence together and bring his long argument to a conclusion.