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Northern Mythology (Myth Legend & Folklore)

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"Northern Mythology From Pagan Faith to Local Legends. Compiled from original and other sources" by Benjamin Thorpe, was first published in three volumes in 1851. This is a slightly revised text, with an Introduction by Jacqueline Simpson, issued in 2001 in the Myth, Legend And Folklore series of Wordsworth Editions, in association with The Folklore Society, and The Warburg Institute.

The notable contents of the omnibus printing include: Introduction; Abbreviations and References; Further Reading in English; and an Index. The main divisions are -- Volume One: Northern Mythology and Illustrations. Volume Two: Popular Traditions and Superstitions of Scandinavia; Volume Three: Popular Traditions and Superstitions of North Germany and the Netherlands.

This was a major popularization by a scholar distinguished in his own time (1782-1870). Among other labors on behalf of Germanic studies, he was an early editor and translator of "Beowulf". His 1855 (second) edition of the work (original text and facing translation) was even reprinted in Barron's Educational Series in 1962, although probably because it was well out of copyright protection. Unlike this compendium, it could hardly have enhanced his reputation for those trying to use it (what with separate numbers for half-lines, the assumption that skipped section numbers meant lost lines, and obsolete interpretations of the text) without realizing what it was.

Simpson, who is well known for her own translations from Scandinavian texts, including Icelandic folktales, finds Volume One to be dated, although not inaccurate, but claims that the material in Volumes Two and Three is still valuable. Since I have found few works in English that are so comprehensive for the folklore of these areas, I would agree.

Volume One is still of some value, not as a source on Norse mythology, but for students of literature trying to verify what information would have been available in English in the later nineteenth-century. However, a discrete note with the publishing data reveals: "Where there is an anachronistic use of language or punctuation likely to be misunderstood by the general reader, some small changes have been made to the original text of this book." Those who need precise accuracy in citations, may, therefore, need to specify this edition, or find a library with an original edition to compare.

An even more comprehensive work from the same period is Jakob Grimm's "Deutsche Mythologie" (second edition, 1844) translated in the 1880s as "Teutonic Mythology" (by Jacob Grimm); I have reviewed the recent hardcover reprinting by Dover -- their 1966 paperback edition is long out of print -- and briefly compared the two. Thorpe's whole plan was less ambitious, so there are fewer places where he could go wrong; but some of the excitement of discovery is lost.