Scandinavian Mythology: Introduction by H.R. Ellis Davidson (1969)

Source: Viking and Norse Mythology, pp. 6-15 We tend to think of Scandinavian mythology as the beliefs of the Vikings, those tough adventurers who were the scourge of Christian lands in the ninth and tenth centuries, whose ships sailed all the seas of the known world, and who left traces of their activities from Greenland to the …

After the Bronze Age: Conclusion by Hilda Ellis Davidson (1969)

Source: ‘Part II: After the Bronze Age,’ Chariot of the Sun and Other Rites and Symbols of the Northern Bronze Age, 1969, pp. 180-183.   It is now possible to attempt an answer to the question asked at the beginning of the second section of this book. The main symbols of the Bronze Age seen …

After the Bronze Age: Snakes by Hilda Ellis Davidson (1969)

Source: ‘Part II: After the Bronze Age,’ Chariot of the Sun and Other Rites and Symbols of the Northern Bronze Age, 1969, pp. 153-155. Throughout the heathen period serpents remain powerful symbols in Scandinavian art. In Roman times the serpent crowned with horns, a Bronze Age symbol, is still found associated with the war-god in Celtic art …

After the Bronze Age: Weapons by Hilda Ellis Davidson (1969)

Source: 'Part II: After the Bronze Age,' Chariot of the Sun and Other Rites and Symbols of the Northern Bronze Age, 1969, pp. 145-152. All through the pagan period in Scandinavia the weapons of the Bronze Age remained important symbols, and were linked with religious cults. The axe, here as elsewhere, was consistently associated with the deity …

Reviews of Pagan Scandinavia by H.R. Ellis Davidson (1967)

Review by: E. O. James, Folklore, Vol. 79, No. 1 (Spring, 1968), pp. 71-72. CONSIDERING the significance and importance of Scandinavian prehistoric archaeology and Northern antiquities the literature on the subject is surprisingly meagre compared with that devoted to other contemporary cultures. Therefore, this concise, very well informed and comprehensive survey of the religious symbolism in …

Thor’s Hammer by H. R. Ellis Davidson (1965)

Even in our sophisticated, urban civilization, we can still feel something of the terror and marvel of a thunderstorm. 'That is God's voice speaking', I was solemnly told by my grandmother when I was a small child. When the thunder breaks, as it seems, directly overhead, it is either an inspiring or an intimidating experience, …

Reviews of “Gods and Myths of Northern Europe” by H.R. Ellis Davidson (1964)

THIS survey of the Nordic pagan gods and their mythology in the Scandinavian countries derived from the literary and archaeological sources constitutes a very useful and illuminating introduction to Professor Turville-Petre's recent volume on Myths and Religion of the North. For some time a quantity of evidence has been accumulating in this field with the …

Folklore and Man’s Past by H.R. Ellis Davidson (1963)

We realize now that folklore is not merely a study of survival - fossilized pieces of quaint tradition from a hypothetical past. Yet it does provide a link with the past, and as a student of early literature, archaeology and religion, this is the aspect of folklore studies with which I am most concerned. What …

Gods and Heroes in Stone by H.R. Ellis Davidson (1950)

To seek for illustrations of the legends and myths of the pagan past carved on the memorial stones and crosses of Anglo-Saxon is to embark on a subject which has provided wilder flights of interpretative fancy than perhaps any branch of Anglo-Saxon studies. On such a topic thought is indeed free, and the vague, often …

Sigurd in the Art of the Viking Age by Hilda R. Ellis (1942)

The youthful adventures of Sigurd the Volsung, before his fateful meetings with Brynhild and the sons of Gjuki, have given plenty of opportunities for argument and the weaving of contradictory theories. To some it has seemed that here we find ourselves with the tangled remains of a myth; to others that we are dealing with …