Status Updates From Gods and Myths of Northern ...

At the CONCLUSION section now and I must say, I am very underwhelmed by the "introductory" work of Miss Davidson here, literally just reiterating the bullshit of people Dumézil - WHO REMAINS THE MOST CONSISTENTLY CITED SCHOLAR IN THE WHOLE BOOK I MAY ADD, SO SHE HAS NO EXCUSE TO IGNORE HIS OTHER MORE SYSTEMATIC ARGUMENTS - had absolutely obliterated as early as the 40s, it's actually embarrassing ngl

The insistence that XYZ basic religious concept like the World Tree was "taken from the Near East" is also absolutely hysterical lmao it's like Davidson genuinely cannot get over 19th century-ass hyper-diffusionist theories where whoever did X first (ON ATTESTED RECORDS) must have come up with it necessarily.

Davidson is so obsessed with the "shamanic" elements in Germanic religion and myth and it's absolutely insane how she keeps insisting that XYZ element comes from "the Asiatics", "the East" like DUDE IT'S JUST THE FINNIC PEOPLES, WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT, YOU EVEN INDIRECTLY SAY AS SUCH WHEN YOU SAY THAT "Finno-Ugric people have remarkably similar conceptions" like dude sob emoji.

Dude the Loki and Baldr chapters on this one are so fucking shitty, literally just repeating beyond outdated 19th century bad scholarship GOD

as a reader of Dumézil specially, which Davidson repeatedly cites, more than anyone else, it is embarrassing as he collected an enormous mass of comparative data that showed that none of these divine characters were "abstractions", the extant records are simply missing, but can be seen to be genuine for peoples with a genetic tie had an either identical or structurally identical counterpart...

"Some [Germanic gods] may have begun as abstractions used by the poets, and have gradually developed a literary personality of their own. Some may have been imported into the north from foreign sources, and ultimately gained a place in Asgard through the poets and storytellers" it's like Davidson and co do not grasp that there is no such thing as "literary/poetic invention" when it comes to full-fledged deities

bro Davidson keeps insisting on the separation of "religions", the "Odin religion", "the Thor religion", "the Vanir religion" - all with their own afterlives. like oh my god this is so embarrassing, it's almost like she didn't even read as much as the Odyssey let alone Dumézil, the stagism straight outta the Victorian period is CRAAAZY

Same paragraph: "Legends of the peace kings coming over the sea and bequeathing their rule after a while to a successor play a significant part, as we saw earlier, among the traditions associated with the Vanir. Such legends emphasize the importance of rebirth rather than resurrection or life in a realm of the gods away from the earth" what THE fuck does ANY of that have to do with mf ANCESTOR [FERTILITY] WORSHIP BRO

"...and perhaps to sit on their burial mounds for wisdom and inspiration" what THE fuck does that have to do with fertility, either agrarian or animal? Literally just stereotypes over 60 years old when this was written, complete presumptions, as is much of the commentary on goddesses and anything to do with the third functional deities.

"In the fertility religion, the emphasis is not so much on a world of the gods to which man attains after death if he fulfills certain conditions as on the importance of the veneration of dead ancestors, and the need for the living to remember them at various feasts and festivals, to visit their graves, and perhaps to sit on their burial mounds for wisdom and inspiration" what is this Frazer ass shit bro lmao

"The idea that the dead men rested inside his grave mound as in a dwelling is one found repeatedly in the Icelandic sagas. Sometimes it is crudely and childishly expressed, as when a dead Christian hermit appears in a dream to rebuke a herd-girl for wiping her muddy feet on his house [...]" okay but this is LITERALLY how the Soslan (non-Ossetian: Sosruko) arc of the Ossetian Nart Sagas end lmao.

"There are several links between Odin and the Vanir which at first sight seem puzzling, since the two cults were apparently opposed to one another" siiiiiGGGH NOOOO, MISS DAVIDSON, THAT'S NOT HOW PAGAN RELIGION WORKS. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "OPPOSING" CULTS UNTIL WE REACH AT LEAST AN HENOTHEISTIC DEVELOPMENT

IT'S NOT EVEN A MATTER OF WHETHER THE FINNS WERE ALREADY THERE, WHO WOULD DAVIDSON THINK TACITUS' "FENNI" ARE BESIDDES PROTO-FINNS?? D U D E

"...there are certain marked shamanistic elements in the fertility cults of Scandinavia also. This raises the whole question of Eastern influences on Scandinavia in the Viking age, about which we know all too little."
bro how can Davidson even say such a thing? Who in their right mind thinks the unusual shamanic element in Germanic pagan religion comes from ANYWHERE but the Finns/Sámi???

All this stuff about Fertility Cults™, despite Davidson only quoting Dumézil (like, exclusively lmao), is straight outta the fuckin', Frazer school, the Bachofen matriarchy "one goddess with many sides" school, the insistent delusion that the Near Eastern Religion can be compared not just with Greek religion (which at least makes some sense) but with all European IE religions (which is certifiably clinically insane).

"the horse belong to Freyr's cult" noooOOOOOO IT WAS NJORDR'S SOB. Freyr-Njordr just straight up not getting that divine twin recognition :tragedy:

The chapter on Þórr is fine, I guess, but the amount of times Davidson refers to Dumézil, WHO IS IN FACT THE ONLY SCHOLAR REFERRED TO BY NAME SO FAR, OUTSIDE OF THE BIBLIOGRAPHY, while structurally going against his most important points - Þórr as a representative of physical strength & might - is absurd, the Þórr=Sky-God hypothesis SPECIALLY is COMPLETELY ridiculous and smells straight out of 19th century classicism