Customer Reviews

The Masks of Odin: Wisdom of the Ancient Norse

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Starting with Balder as the Sun God, this book manages to go even further downhill in regard to the lore of Asatru. The authors are entitled to their interpretation, but should make that clear, not pass off their writings as lore.

This book is written by a fairly well acclaimed Theosophy member. Though they try their hardest to stay objective, I have ^personally found this, and other writings of this vein to either encourage my drive to seek out more details and directions, or completely discourage and frustrate me by stretching the comparisons of belief systems, mythology, and translations a little too far (often leaving a "universalist" taste in the mouth). I RECOMMEND THIS FOR ENTERTAINMENT AND/OR AN INTRODUCTION TO THESE STORIES. Her writing layout was nice. This is NOT an intro to Asatru, Odinism, or Germanic Tribalism.

This work is flawed in one fundamental area - research.
Drawing conclusions about the deeper meaning conveyed by Eddaic poetry means nothing unless you examine it in the language in which it was composed.
A good understanding of Germanic mythology is a goal almost completely inaccessable to the interested layman because of the recent proliferation of works like this.
I would have given it no stars if the option were available.

From an esoteric viewpoint, this book is one of a kind. The book is very well-researched, and treats the Norse myths with respect and thoughtfulness.

For those people out there who, following in the steps of the fanatical followers of the monotheistic religions, want to create a new type of "Norse fundamentalism", I have this to say:
Fundamentalism is utterly foreign to the spirit of our Norse ancestors and to the Norse tradition, and you are really taking on an attitude that stems from Churchianity, Islam, and other intolerant religions. Think about it.

For the esoteric minded person, who is interested in finding the deeper perspective and wisdom of the wonderful and deep Norse tradition, this books is invaluable. Buy it!

The controversy expressed in these reviews revolves around the author's interpretations of the Edda in Theosophical terms. In an over-broad nutshell, Theosophy is a "wisdom religion" that posits a universal higher power, a common purpose and underlying deeper understanding in all religions, and, as a result, heavily encourages comparative religious study. The Masks of Odin is just such a study. (I'm not a Theosophist, though I'm familiar with the basics of their beliefs. For information on Theosophy, you might start with Wikipedia then go to the Theosophical Society's website - theosophical dot org).

The reason I would encourage reading this book and stepping back from the controversy, however, is that most of Theosophy's themes really are found in all religions in one form or another, to one degree or another, including Norse religion. Some Theosophical notions, as you'd expect, are not found everywhere or are more of an interpretive stretch in a given religion (e.g., reincarnation), but I did not find that these weighed into this book's content too much. The author organized the entire front section of the book around just a handful of common themes: myth itself, the tree of life (what could be more universal than that?), gods and giants, the mind, initiation, etc. Whatever you think of universalism as a religious approach generally or Theosophy specifically, you should not ignore the simple fact that much experience and inner life is common to all mankind. Theosophy - and Titchenell - at least offer comparative analysis based in solid scholarship.

Titchenell ties Norse specifics into universal themes in convincing fashion ... mostly. Take the tree of life chapter. She starts out with a paragraph describing the appearance of the tree of life in a variety of religions around the world and through history. She then goes immediately to Yggdrasil, covering language and meaning, the Norns, Odin and Mimer's well, its 3 roots, and more. The way she integrates bits and pieces from multiple lays of the Edda in putting together a comprehensive view of the tree's many meanings is really illuminating. Moreover, it is mostly in plain-sense terms. She does go off here and there into pure flights of unsubstantiated fancy, as she does when she segues from Odin sacrificing his eye into a discussion of the "third eye" (as in Hinduism) and the pineal gland, of all things. 90% of this chapter, however, is in the Edda's own terms and will advance your appreciation and understanding of it's complexity and the cohesiveness of its world view. And so it is with the other introductory chapters as well.

The Theosophical content in the rest of the book is found in opening remarks to each lay, occasionally in the footnotes, and in her short summation chapter. The translation of the lays themselves are more problematic. While Titchenell starts with earlier translations in Swedish (the author is Swedish, by the way), she states that the intent is not "to produce merely another translation but to attempt to penetrate to the core of inspired meaning often concealed ... by resorting to the foremost eludicating work of our time, The Secret Doctrine ..." The Secret Doctrine is the central book of Theosophy, written by its founder, Blavatsky. The implication is that the translation has been manipulated to fit Theosophy's themes.

The author appears to be aware of this, however, and has taken some steps to offset the concern. First, she mentions in the preface that only certain themes receive this treatment. Second, where meanings have been derived in this manner, they are described in the lay's opening notes, with references to the verse numbers. Third, she goes out of her way to point out that no attempt is made to comprehensively explain everything in the lays, whether in Theosophical terms or not. In short, there is no hidden agenda here. Everything is disclosed and above board.

I've compared several lays side-by-side with Lee Hollander's versions (The Poetic Edda), and find nothing objectionable in Titchenell's versions. Titchenell's are actually more easily readable, while Hollander preserves more original meter and language. It's quite interesting to read one then the other, and I'd recommend it as a study experiment.

In the end, I find The Masks of Odin a useful addition to Edda study. The Theosophical content is, in the main, helpful, and easily detected and rejected where it seems out of place. To me, the most useful aspect of this book is in the integration of the Edda's character's and themes in the opening, thematic chapters. I don't believe I ever fully appreciated the depth of the literature to that point. And for that I'm profoundly grateful.

I'll be honest, I'm not a verbose gal. It took a little while to get used to this author's style. That aside, this book is EXCELLENT. It opened my eyes to how deep Norse Mythology truly goes. Of course, it wasn't a mythology at all; it was how the Norse people explained life on earth, through out the cosmos, and the spiritual world beyond. This book is fascinating and will get many more reads from me in this lifetime.

As a lifelong student of Blavatsky and Theosophy, and a confirmed and active Odinist, I can only take issue with the other reviewers who have disparaged Tichenell's work.

Every religious philosophy has variances of opinion and doctrine, and its "fundamentalists" who insist that everything written in words must be hard fact. There are also those who see myths and parables as allegory intended to illustrate eternal truths. Tichenell treats the myths of the Northern Tradition in the latter fashion, and in my opinion does an admirable job of it. Of all the books on Odin and Odinism that I have, this is the one that inspires me most. Not only does the book contain excellent essays on the meaning of Odinism, but the second half of the book contains translations of some of the old written material itself.

We have to remember that there is no extant record of precisely what the ancient Odinists actually considered true and what not. Neither is there a record of how they practised their religion. It is, therefore, somewhat specious to decry one person's analysis of Odinism, as if there is an "authorised" version of it elsewhere. There isn't. Read the book and take what you can from it. Highly recommended by me.

As a follower of an ancient nordic religion known as Asatru (or Odinism)I felt that this book did an excellent job at breaking down and translating the meaning of the Eddiac Verses.(ancient norse scriptures passed down by skalds, or in laymans terms poets who receive divine inspiration and repeat it through song and kenning.)I recommend this book to anyone who follows the norse tradition or researchers of theosophy and history.