Roles of the Northern Goddess

By investigating women's special skills related to goddess cults together with legends and popular traditions, the author explores the importance of the goddess as a subject for study today.

While much work has been done on goddesses of the ancient world and the male gods of pre-Christian Scandinavia, the northern goddesses have been largely neglected. Roles of the Northern Goddess presents a highly readable study of the worship of these goddesses by men and women. With its use of evidence from early literature, popular tradition, legend and archaeology, this book investigates the role of the early hunting goddess and the local goddesses who were involved in all aspects of the household and the farm. What emerges is that the goddess was both benevolent and destructive, a powerful figure closely concerned with birth and death and with destiny of individuals.

'Highly recommended [it] illuminate[s] a profound understanding of the goddess, heretofore largely neglected by scholars or else romanticized by popular books.' - Annabel Lee, Runa

Autorentext
Hilda Ellis Davidson has been a lecturer at Royal Holloway College and Birkbeck College, London, Vice-President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, and President of the London Folklore Society. Her many publications include The Anglo-Saxon Sword (1962), Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (1964) and The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe (1991).

Zusammenfassung
By investigating women's special skills related to goddess cults together with legends and popular traditions, the author explores the importance of the goddess as a subject for study today.

Inhalt
Introduction I Mistress of the Animals II Mistress of the Grainb III Mistress of Distaff and Loom IV Mistress of the Household V Mistress of Life and Death