German mythology

German mythology is the title of a book by the Germanist and folklorist Jacob Grimm . Here he tried to reconstruct the mythology of the Germanic peoples through fairy tales , legal antiquities and folk customs . "Every reason is the myth" claims the author. The legend is indeed more general and more volatile than history, but it has greater temporal depth (ibid.). “Where distant events would have been lost in the dark of time, the legend binds itself with you and knows how to cherish a part of it, where the myth is weakened and wants to dissolve, then history becomes its support.” The interplay of myth and history emerges then the epic . Grimm argues for an identity of the Nordic and German doctrine of gods.

The book is dedicated to the historian Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann . In his foreword, Grimm also thanks John Kemble and Wilhelm Wackernagel for their help.

method

From the fact that the mythological tradition in Scandinavia is much richer than in Germany, the wrong conclusion was drawn that there was no worship of gods in Germania. In order to eradicate this misinterpretation, “I have realized that I did not have to read ears from a representation of the Nordic abundance, but rather from German poverty. I was not allowed to cut sheaves from such ears and their grains All in all, I hope that the right has been preserved. ”So the German tradition“ could reward the richer North with invaluable information about the connection between its mythical ruins by providing it with older historical evidence for the more recent writing. ”

Grimm uses the traditions of Roman authors, saint legends and folk tales as a source . In the legends, distortion is to be expected, “the more precise joints in the myth [have] cracked”, but “the truth of the basic meaning may have been preserved unspoiled”.

expenditure

• German mythology . Dieterich'sche Buchhandlung, Göttingen 1835. ( Internet Archive )
• German mythology , 2nd edition.
  • Volume 1. Dieterich'sche Buchhandlung, Göttingen 1844. ( Internet Archive )
  • Volume 2. Dieterich'sche Buchhandlung, Göttingen 1844. ( Internet Archive )
• German mythology , 3rd edition.
  • Volume 1. Dieterich'sche Buchhandlung, Göttingen 1854. ( Google Books )
  • Volume 2. Dieterich'sche Buchhandlung, Göttingen 1854. ( Google Books )
• German mythology , 4th edition. Edited by Elard Hugo Meyer .
  • Volume 1. Ferdinand Dümmlers Verlagbuchhandlung, Berlin 1875. ( Internet Archive ; Google Books ; Google Books )
  • Volume 2. Ferdinand Dümmlers Verlagbuchhandlung, Berlin 1876 (with continuous page number). ( Internet Archive ; Google Books ; Google Books )
  • Volume 3, Supplements and Appendix. Ferdinand Dümmlers Verlagbuchhandlung, Berlin 1878. ( Internet Archive ; Google Books )
  • Reprint, with an introduction by Leopold Kretzenbacher , Graz 1968; Reprint Wiesbaden 1992.

See also

• Continental Germanic mythology

Web links

• German mythology in the Gutenberg-DE project

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jacob Grimm 1835. German mythology. Göttingen, Dieterichsche Buchhandlung, iii
2. ↑ Jacob Grimm 1835, German Mythology. Göttingen, Dieterichsche Buchhandlung, iii
3. ^ Jacob Grimm 1835. German mythology. Göttingen, Dieterichsche Buchhandlung, iii
4. ^ Jacob Grimm 1835. German mythology. Göttingen, Dieterichsche Buchhandlung, iv
5. ^ Jacob Grimm 1835. German mythology. Göttingen, Dieterichsche Buchhandlung, iv
6. ^ Jacob Grimm 1835. German mythology. Göttingen, Dieterichsche Buchhandlung, iv
7. ^ Jacob Grimm 1835. German mythology. Göttingen, Dieterichsche Buchhandlung, iv