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 Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 7:40 pm
Okay, so I just got this book by Scott Mohnkern today. I ordered it off of Amazon and kind of had to take a chance on it as it only has four reviews. Now from the beginning, I was going into this one primarily for the ritual ideas. Get a slightly broader base and all. So far they're okay but I'm having some issues with the other stuff. To give an example, I'll give you some of his stuff on Freyja. My commentary, basically as it came to me while reading, will be italicized and parenthesized. Quote: Freyja is the goddess of sexual love, beauty, and the Valkyries. ( And magic. It's a minor gripe really but I think this is important enough to be included in her primary description, though he does get to it further down the page.) She is described as being blue eyed, raven haired, and extremely beautiful. ( Where is she described as such? I've never heard any mention of her hair being dark. If this is a UPG thing fine but that's never specified. I've always seen her as a lighter toned red-head myself.) Freyja is called upon to assist in matters of sexual love, and also with respect to good seasons...( Huh? I realize she's a Goddess of fertility but it's a fertility of a flesh and blood sort. I've never seen her associated with this before. Now her brother sure, but not so much her.) Freyja is also the goddess of wealth ( technically gold but whatever, I can see the connection) and is highly attracted to those things that have financial value. Many of the tales about her relate to troubles she gets into because of her desire for "bright shiny baubles". ( What stories? Where? What trouble has she gotten herself into? Does he mean when her husband left her because that's the only thing even remotely like this that I can remember and he had a tendency to wander anyway.) ...This can be attributed to the dualistic nature of Freyr and Freyja who are often portrayed as "Lord" and "Lady" in other pagan religions... ( Ew. I've discussed my issues with this view before.) He seems to think that while a backyard BBQ is a great idea for Thor (which I can actually go with) Freyja requires a formal, multi-course sit down. Just becasue she likes rich things, it doesn't mean she's got a stick up her a**. There is a middle ground here. Also, what about a warm lobster salad says Freyjablot feast food? He likes phrases like "It's said..." and "Many tales..." but gives no examples of any such tales, doesn't cite sources (except when he's taken a part of a ritual from someone else) and doesn't even have a bibliography. Sill, it's fairly early in the book yet. I might find something I like better later on. What do you folks think. Am I just being too picky with someone else' UPG (uspecified though it maybe) or do I have some valid issues?
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:24 pm
I have issues with that too. Now if it was me, and I was holding a feast for Freyja, it would be more of a relaxed affair, probably a brunch, with bubbly and strawberries and melon, maybe hot croissants with butter.
I hate when they say stuff like "it is said" or "it has been recorded" and don't say where. That's just inexcusable. If you don't say where, I'm going to assume that a) it's not said anywhere and you're just making s**t up, or b) you're too lazy and incompetent to bother looking it up to find the source.
This is one of my major issues with ADF, as an aside. They go on and on about how they're totally the only scholarly Pagan organisation, and then their booklets are full of "it is said", "times in history" and "many Pagan groups" and so on. Not a single example was given, not a single citation made. Disgusting.
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:52 pm
Sanguina Cruenta I have issues with that too. Now if it was me, and I was holding a feast for Freyja, it would be more of a relaxed affair, probably a brunch, with bubbly and strawberries and melon, maybe hot croissants with butter. Yeah, she's more the fruit, chocolate,and pastry type in general and if you're having an actual dinner, I'd go for nice meat dishes, not lobster. Anyway, that was just a specific example. We'll see how the rest of the book goes. Quote: I hate when they say stuff like "it is said" or "it has been recorded" and don't say where. That's just inexcusable. If you don't say where, I'm going to assume that a) it's not said anywhere and you're just making s**t up, or b) you're too lazy and incompetent to bother looking it up to find the source. This is a huge problem for me too. I know this isn't a lore book but that doesn't excuse you from backing up your claims. And if it's UPG or similar, then tell me that. I mean no bibliography! Come on! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, there are runes in this.
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:13 pm
So today I've gotten through his blots to Freyr, Ostara (of all people), Frigg, Sunna, the Disir, and Baldur.
Hmmm. In the Freyrblot, you pass the horn with a "May you never thirst" blessing. I've seen this used before but not in a Heathen context. Anyone know the origins of this blessing? He also keeps linking him to the sun which makes sense form a certain perspective since, as God of the harvest, he's responsible for a good growing season. However, he's not a sun God. Harvest deities and sun deities are rarely the same Gods and are often not linked at all to my knowledge. I mean, I've never seen Demeter connected to the sun. He also suggests a vegetarian feast for Freyr. I'm all for veg friendly options and the focus should certainly be on the fruits of the harvest but really, all the Norse Gods that's I've dealt with seem to like meat. Also the rune discussion he suggests. What the crap do Hagalaz and Dagaz have to do with with Freyr?
And why is Ostara in here? I'm confused. She may or may not have ever actually existed but she's not really part of this pantheon. Meh, not one of the bigger issues I've got with this. He claims in his rune discussion that Pertho "...represents both the concept of the three Norns and also the feminine mysteries which are closely tied to Ostara." Huh what now? We know very little about Ostara at all. We're not even sure she wasn't a fabrication. What feminine mysteries is he talking about? And Perto? We know even less about that. The verses we have about it are head scratchingly vague and never mention Norns or feminine mysteries. Once again, if this is UPG that's fine but that's never specified.
No real issues with the Friggablot. Honestly, I'm kind of skimming this one.Though why is the discussion of Inguz here instead of with Freyr? He even mentioned the name Ingvy-Frey.
Nothing much to mention about the Sunnablot.
For the Disablot he takes all the various ideas about who or what the Disir are and jams it all together, equating them with Norns, Valkyries, and fylgja all at the same time. there's even the suggestion that maybe the number three should have special significance because there are three Norns, and the Norns and the Disir are sometimes correlated. However isn't that usually the larger number of generic Norns, not the three fate style Norns.
Much skimming for the Baldurblot because i honestly don't give a crap about the Beautiful Baldur. I enjoyed his use of the Longfellow poem though. Lovely. One of his citations in this section simply says "modified from an article on Pagan News." That's vague enough to be almost useless.
He cites wikipedia as a source. No I love wikipedia but it's a starting place for researce. A good article can lead you to sources but it's not a great source on its own. It can work for an online argument but not so much for a book. It tends to change so in two years that article you've referenced may be entirely different.
Also, I've noticed something. Nearly all of his in text citations are websites and they're not even properly cited. When it's not a website, it's a person (often poetry) with not other info but their name and sometimes the name of the poem. All of his citations for lore are from websites, not primary sources. And he still has a problem with mentioning that there are stories of a certain type but never even giving us an example, much less a source.
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