The Echo of Odin: Norse Mythology and Human Consciousness

212 Pages·2018·1.972 MB·English

by  Edward W.L. Smith

The Echo
of Odin
AlsObyEdwArdw.l.smiTh
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The Psychology of Artists and the Arts(2012)
ThePersonoftheTherapist(2003)
The Body in Psychotherapy(1985; softcover 2000)
The Echo of Odin
Norse Mythology
and Human Consciousness
E w.l. s
dwArd miTh
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
ISBN (print) 978-1-4766-7509-1
♾
ISBN (ebook) 8-1-4766-3402-9
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2018 Edward W.L. Smith. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
front cover: illustrations depicting the Volsung saga
(dover clip art)
Printed in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
Toamanwhohearkens
to the echo of Odin,
Edward shannon “Eddie” smith
directyoureyerightinward,andyou’llfind
A thousand regions in your mind
yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be
Expert in home- cosmography.
—henry david Thoreau
[Walden, conclusion]
Table of contents
Preface 1
Introduction 3
1. The nature of myth 11
2. norse mythology as cynosure 27
3. The lower world: niflheim, muspell
and hel 33
4. The middle world: midgaard, svartalfheim
and Jötunheim 53
5. The Upper world: Asgaard, Vanaheim
and Alfheim 84
6. The Emerging Gestalt: yggdrasil, norns
and runes 116
7. The wisdom of Odin 146
Conclusion 178
References 193
Index 197
vii
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Preface
soon after its publication in 1981, i discovered charles hampton-
Turner’s Maps of the Mind. studied, then set to rest on my bookshelves
save for an occasional consultation, i re- read it a few months ago. The re-
reading of this encyclopedic work rekindled my interest in theories and
philosophy of mind, and left my mind afire. The purview of this tome
extends far beyond the psychological theories of mind that were included
in my graduate studies, such as those of freud, Jung, Adler, henry murray,
Kurt lewin, Gordon Allport, Kurt Goldstein, Abraham maslow, carl
rogers, and others. rather, its scope reaches out to the theories and phi-
losophy of mind of figures such as Kierkegaard and camus, Jean- Paul
sartre and r.d. laing, max weber and claude levi- strauss, Alfred Korzb-
ski and noam chomsky, william blake and saint Augustine, hegel and
marx, and to Zen and catastrophe theory. Maps of the Mindis remarkable
not only for its scholarship and its breadth, but for the fact that it was
written in such an accessible style. it renders complex theory and rarified
philosophy into tasty and digestible portions.
Another work i found both interesting and valuable as i continued
my pursuit of theories and philosophy of mind was Metaphors of Con-
sciousness, edited by ronald s. Valle and rolf von Eckartsberg (1989). Also
rich in content, it is a more challenging work to master than that of
hampton- Turner, many chapters exceeding the boundaries of usual aca-
demic erudition and entering the realm of the recondite.
while reference to classical (Greco-roman) philosophy and mythol-
ogy is included in Metaphors of Consciousness as well as in Maps of the
Mind, norse mythology is not considered in either of these books. it is
this notable omission that i hope to compensate for in the present work.
Perhaps, then, norse mythology will take the place that it deserves among
the multifarious maps of the mind.
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