The Well and the Tree: World and Time in Early Germanic Culture

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Summary: Uncertain as a Foundation for Reconstructionists
Review: I am not a linguist or an anthropologist; I read this book because of its enormous influence in modern Heathen reconstructionism. It was extremely interesting, but I want to make a point that may be lost on Heathens who sieze on this work as an exposition of their "lore." It is not the Lore. It is a linguistic and cultural analysis very much in the vein of modern scholarship. It is speculation, heavily influenced -- determined, one might say -- by the cultural presuppositions of its author. Did ancient Teutons really think and believe and feel the way this work suggests they did? Well -- the real answer is, Who knows? Just because you find the conclusions amenable to the world-view you're constructing doesn't mean they're true, or reflective of the beliefs of your real forebearers. As an example, the author -- for the purposes of drawing contrasts -- makes a very brief sketch of an "Augustinian" view of temporality, and that sketch is misleading, inadequate, and oversimplified, especially since it suggests that Augustine's views exhaust the entire speculative and dogmatic content of "orthodox" (i.e., Patristic) Christianity. His handling of ancient Christian thought is inept; why should his handling of ancient Germanic thought -- based on speculation, linguistic extrapolation, archaeology, a few texts, and the structuralist methodology -- be any better? This is all just a way of saying to Heathens, be careful -- don't be too enthusiastic about this just because it's handy. Read his last chapter carefully. Bauschatz himself would be very skeptical about the reconstructionist enterprise. You can't assume that this sort of scholarship is a solid foundation for the genuine re-creation of an ancient culture and ethos. And certainly, don't read this and take it as a triumphal vindication of the "Heathen worldview" against the "Christian worldview." It doesn't accurately portray the latter in any comprehensive or profound sense, and I rather doubt that it genuinely portrays the former either.

Rating:
Summary: essential
Review: This book is essential to understanding the pre-Christian Germanic culture and cosmology. In particular emphasis is placed on the view of time, action, death, change, wyrd (similar to fate, but very different), orlog.

Well researched and documented with quotes from original sources (e.g. Beowulf, the Eddas).

Rating:
Summary: Superb work - destroys misconceptions
Review: This glorious work (very dry reading for many, I'm afraid) puts the nails in the coffin of the highly-popular and much-promoted idea that the ancient Germanic (Norse/Saxon/Gothic/Frankish-Teutonic/Frisian.....and even Slavic and Celtic) cultural-world view can in any way be reconciled with the Masonic/Hermetic/Jewish-Kaballistic drivel that many "Aryan" occultists and politicos have insisted on for the last several hundred years. The "Superman" notion that the Nazi party fixated upon and the "Faustian" ideal that generated it, which seeped across Europe thanks to various "Saturnian" elements (Freemasons, Rosicrucians, etc.) has NOTHING at all to do with our ancient heritage or the outlook native to our race. In fact, the view of "present-becoming past" that our ancestors held to IS far more valid than the lie and deception of a "future" which everyone has swallowed today. Because of their views, our ancestors lived in the present and did not WAIT for some "future" to traspire. As you will see in this book, they recognized that the "swirl of life" and circumstances could not be predicted and therefore they concerned themselves with the present and the past....unlike so many people from the plague of early Christianity onward, who neglected their lives in the present and focused on some trumped-up notion of a "future" handed to them by culture-subverting con men. Of couse, seeing life in terms of a "present-becoming past" perspective did not inhibit our ancestors from advancing technologically. One look at the expansive drive that they had in pre-Christian/pre-Kabbalistic/Jewish times will serve to show that our relatives of those far distant days were much more dynamic than we are now! And perhaps the absolute LIE of a "Future" and the hypnotic hold this gyp-notion has on our race today might explain why our numbers are dwindling to the point where we aren't even replacing ourselves with offspring.....in other words, we are headed for extinction as a race if this trend continues for much longer. Not that such a development wouldn't absolutely delight the Kabbalistic con men who promoted the "future" hogwash in our lands to begin with (read "Judaism's Strange Gods" for more details)! If the concepts of this book are grasped, and you begin to make an effort to view your life in the original way of our ancestors, I think you'll find it exceptionally empowering.
An excellent work and very much worth reading. Unfortunately, I doubt if many will ever be exposed to it.