This was a very uneven collection. Some stories were great. For example: When a child killed a priest, at the priest’s request to prove he (the priestThis was a very uneven collection. Some stories were great. For example: When a child killed a priest, at the priest’s request to prove he (the priest) was wrong that everyone did have a soul, “and this was the first butterfly that was ever seen in Ireland; and now all men know that the butterflies are the souls of the dead, waiting for the moment when they may enter Purgatory, and so pass through toture to purification and peace.� (239)
Some stories were ridiculous. For example: The Fate of Frank M’Kenna was that he died hunting wabbits…sorry hares. See, he liked to hunt hares on Sunday instead of going to church. His father got upset and cursed him. So the next time he went a-hunting, he got trapped in a snowstorm and died. Then he started haunting the daughter of the house nearest the site of his death. The lass drummed up the courage to find out what he wanted, since that will allow the ghost t go on his way. What he wanted? Make sure none of the friends that were with him before he died didn’t get his new pants. Seriously.
A couple of quotes and a note to end this review.
"It is said by those who ought to understand such things, that the good people, or the fairies, are some of the angels who were turned out of heaven and who landed on their feet in this world, while the rest of their companions, who had more sun to sink them, went down further to a worse place." (12)
“The lips, half closed and perfectly ashy, discovered just so much of the teeth as to give the features of death their most ghastly, but most impressive look.� (126)
Anyone who’s cow give more milk and makes better butter than everyone else is almost assuredly a witch ...more
I was going to edit my notes but you know what? I'm not. Here they are, warts and all:
“The name ‘Hermes� once meant ‘he of the stone heap� which tellsI was going to edit my notes but you know what? I'm not. Here they are, warts and all:
“The name ‘Hermes� once meant ‘he of the stone heap� which tells us that the cairn is more than a trail marker- it is an alter to the forces that govern these spaces of heightened uncertainty, and to the intelligence needed to negotiate them.� (p. 6) Did his name really mean that? Yes:
Most tricksters are male, even in Matrilineal society. The author posits that this may be due to their lusty, yet lacking many offspring, nature. Women Tricksters would be apt to have more kids if so lusty. Not sure if this idea holds water, though. Neither is he. (8)
There’s Tricksters in the Blues. Stack-O-Lee? (9)
“The Devil is an agent of evil but a trickster is amoral not immoral.� (10) That’s why the Devil is not a trickster, despite some in Christianity claiming so.
Cheyenne stories sometimes name Coyote “White Man�. This could be European Influence or coincidence since Old Man Coyote has white hair. (12)
“If Trickster were ever to get into power, he would stop being Trickster.� (footnote on 13) Hermes invented lying because he wanted to eat meat. (17)
The earliest mention of the word “dolos�, trick in Greek, is baiting a hook to catch a fish. (18)
“So Trickster is cunning about traps but not so cunning as to avoid them himself.� (20)
Magpies are recurring antagonists for Coyote (28)
Winnebago is the name of a tribe in Wisconsin. (29)
Trickster look for opportunity, which comes from the Greek word, “poros�, from which we also get the word, pore, as in skin pore or opening. (46)
Once upon a time each city-state in Ancient Greek had their own gods. When Hesiod was around, generally thought to be between 750 and 650 BCE (same time as Homer), there was a pan-Hellenistic movement. The different forms the Trickster takes in different Native American tribes is like this pre-unified Greece. The effort to try to label each Trickster the same, or at least mostly the same, is the Pan-American Tradition only attempted by colonizers. The tribes considered themselves distinct and proudly so. (68)
Some traditions say the Trickster invented language, whether literal of simply gave people permission to talk where before it’d been forbidden, is uncertain. (76)
Myth Overlaps Coyote can bring his wife back from the land of the death, only if he doesn’t look back to see her on the way out. Is this influenced by the Orpheus tale? I really wish we hadn’t killed so many natives for many, many, many, reasons. The relevant one here is to see if this story was retro-fitted after colonizers infected native ways of thinking with European traditions. (83)
Loki steals the Apple of Immortality and The Monkey King steals the Peaches of Immortality. The Devil tricking Eve into eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil seems to be an adaption of these myths and perhaps the genesis (pun very much intended) of the Abrahamic devil being thought of as a trickster. Or was this story supposed to show him as a trickster and not the source of all evil? Did the Christian scribes who kept the religion alive in the vastly illiterate Dark Ages transform the ID of a trickster from troublemaker who does both good and evil to a being who does only evil? (103)
Chapter 5 General Thought: Divination/fortune telling is brought-to-me-by Tricksters like The Yoruba’s Eshu. Because fate is set but by calling on the Trickster by throwing palm nuts (or yarrow stalks like in the I Ching), he can give you insights needed to change your fate.
Hermes of the Marketplace: An altar, furnished with lamps, was placed before the statue; the inquirer, after lighting the lamps and offering incense, placed a coin in the right hand of the god; he then whispered his question into the ear of the statue, and, stopping his own ears, left the market place. The first sound which he heard outside was an omen. (concept from p. 135, I have to search for the prophecy because I returned the book before I could copy the text down)
Chapter 6 thoughts:
Modern artists, painters, composers, etc are tricksters because they leave a lot of their work up to chance.
The author spent a lot of time on composer John Cage, who didn’t think or plan is work, he flips a coin or uses the I Ching. There were only cursory mentions to tricksters of lore in the chapter. This was the beginning of my waning interest. I see the dude’s point, that trickster spirit lives on through these peeps who rely on luck, but it got too far away from the actual figures for my liking. “Rudderless Intelligence� (from an NYT article published on 7-7-87) is a trait shared by psychopaths and tricksters. The difference is that trickers can do good, too; like when Coyote gave fire.
Chapter 7 thought: The distance from Trickers grows ever more. While I requested Maxine Kingston Hong’s Trapmaster Monkey to my reading list, I really started to not like the book. It veered too far into traits of recent cultures, like Shame Culture. Again, I appreciate the points but it was not what I was looking for. I started skimming at this chapter.
Chapter 8 thought: After a brief enjoyment of the discussion of how what is considered dirty around the world, I lost interest again.
Chapter 9 thought: Some interesting stuff but it was too late. I enjoyed his getting back to the Hermes myth, but it was the same origin myth as earlier in the book.
I was back in because I liked how he claimed Frederick Douglass was a Trickster.
Yeah! “Free Slave� is an oxymoron! Never thought of it that way. I’m so used to hearing it that I inferred it as “Freed Slave�. (227)
The slaves got Christmas to New Years off and if they didn’t get drunk on Christmas it was an insult to their master’s “generosity�. Douglass things this time off was the only thing keeping slaves from revolting, it acted as a pressure release valve. (233) It was the old trickster’s battle against appetite, for applejack, for revelry, as well as the filth so often equated with tricksters; Douglass would wake up hung over in the pig’s sty.
Douglass was neither black nor white, or so the author claims. He made the “sin� of being literate; something no black man was allowed to be and at the same time speaking too eloquently he raised the distrust of his white supports who wanted the country drawl of an uneducated black man. Y’know to be authentic with his message of abolition. (247)
It’s possible Douglass had a white father, black mother, and ancestors in one of their lines that were Native American. I can see how the author felt justified in making the trickster connection, he was travelling between so many worlds. (251) ...more
Unlike the European mythic traditions, the Native American myths were part of an oral tradition. In fact, it wasn’t until we colonizers wanted to presUnlike the European mythic traditions, the Native American myths were part of an oral tradition. In fact, it wasn’t until we colonizers wanted to preserve the displaced and destroyed cultures� traditions that they were written down at all. I’m not sure if this is a good thing. Writing them down demanded a translation. Something is always lost in translation. I believe that’s doubly so for a translation from a spoken language tradition to a written language one.
Mr. Bright isn't just some dude, he spent time with the Karuk tribe and learned their language. Additionally, most of the tales here are gathered from Native Americans or from similar academic scholars as himself. I think this is a great starting point to learn more on the myths but am looking for a newer (this one is from 1993) and one from a Native American, not a colonizer. Still lots of good stuff here.
(page XI) Coyote is a member of the First People �..a race of mythic prototypes that lived before humans existed. They had tremendous powers; they created the World as we know it; they instituted human life and culture- but they were also capable of being brave or cowardly, conservative or innovative, wise or stupid. They had names we now associate with animals, and they sometimes had features, physical or psychological, that we now associate with those animals. When humans came into existence, the First People were transformed into the species of animals that still bear their names.�
(18) “[Coyote] is a mythic trickster, responsible for the world as we know it, yet a persistent bungler and dupe; and he is now, for many whites as well as Indians, a powerful symbol of a viewpoint that looks beyond abstractions and beyond technology to the ultimate value of survival.�
(86) He steals fire, not for human’s good, but because he likes to steal.
(86) What Stinks They were after the picnic food That the special dancers left Down below the cliff And Toe’osh [Coyote] and his cousins hung themselves Down over the cliff Holding each other’s tail in their mouth making a coyote Chain Until someone in the middle farted And the guy behind him opened his Mouth to say “What stinks?� and they All went tumbling down, like that.
(116) When Coyote invented death no one cried when someone died until his own son died. He was the first being to cry at the death of a loved one. A great example of how he gets what he wants but it also backfires.
(124) Coyote and Badger tells the tale of how Badger hunts: he farts and kills his prey. Coyote is jealous, so he nags Badger until Badger trades assholes with him. It didn’t help Coyote hunt because he keeps farting with every step, tele-smelling his presence to his prey. ...more
I took a mythology class in high school. We spent a super-majority of the time on the Greek and Roman myths and since the Roman gods were just the GreI took a mythology class in high school. We spent a super-majority of the time on the Greek and Roman myths and since the Roman gods were just the Greek gods renamed (for the most part) that meant the Greek myths were just about all we studied. Save for a sliver of pages at the end. That was my intro to Norse mythology. So even back then I knew that the Thor in Marvel Comics was not the same as the Mythological Thor. That said, this book filled in some of the gaps in my knowledge.
I say "some" because there's no such thing as "all" when it comes to Norse mythology. Mr. Gaiman's revelation that so much of the myths are lost to the mists of history was startlingly. I just assumed that my lack of knowledge could be remedied by reading. I must admit, I've been fascinated by the fact that some things can remain unknowable in the Google Age. But a book review on what I didn't learn is sorta pointless. So here are some things I learned from Mr. Gaiman.
The first humans in Norse Mythology were named Ask and Emlba. I don't think it's any coincidence that they begin with the same letters as Adam and Eve. But that's not the only tie to other beliefs I came across. Remember how I mentioned Greek Mythology above? Well, Hermes is the messenger of the gods in Greek Mythology and a fellow called Hermod is the messenger of the gods in Norse Mythology. I don't know if it's due to Christian scribes being the only literate people during the dark ages and therefore changing names to create those ties or if it's due to those scribes or someone else taking bits of older myths and adapting them to meet their own needs. But it's fascinating to mull over.
Another point of fascination for me was the fact that there was a creation story for mjolnir, Thor's hammer. I just assumed that the hammer came with the god. Another time I made an ass out of u and me (get it?) was when I believed there would be human heroes in the myths, again like the Greek Myths I'm so familiar with. But most of the stories are relate to the Gods going on adventures.
I'll end with one last pair of observations. But if anything can act as a spoiler to this loosely linear strong of myths it's these two. So Imma hide them for those of you that would like to learn about some of the details of Ragnarok from the book. (view spoiler)[First, there are Loki's children: Hel (there's another non-coincidence) the Queen of the dead, Fennir will eat the sun and the Moon and kill Odin, and Jormungandr, the serpent that will eat the world and kill and be killed by Thor. I had no idea that Loki would have such a big roll in the end of the world. But with that knowledge, it was no surprise that he fought against the gods. Now we come to the last tie-in to world religions. After Ragnarok, Balder finds chess pieces of the gods on the field where his fellow gods died. He picks one up and begins the game again. Hence, like Buddhism and Hinduism, the Norse saw time as cyclical not linear. (hide spoiler)]
If you like Mr. Gaiman, then this is a must. If you're curious about a lesser known mythology, this book is a must....more
When I first read this book I couldn’t get passed the importance put on dreams. It’s one of the few unreasonable demands I make of booI was mistaken.
When I first read this book I couldn’t get passed the importance put on dreams. It’s one of the few unreasonable demands I make of books; no dream sequences. Save for The Dream World of The Wheel of Time, where it’s a realm rather than messages from the subconscious, whenever I come upon a dream sequence in a book, I skim it with a mighty groan of frustration. So when I put the book down all those years ago with a self-righteous indignation, it was because I was not ready for it. And it turned out that the bits about dreams weren’t emphasized much after the second chapter or so.
The book shows how the various myths of the ancients connect us. The hero’s journey is repeated again and again throughout history. The changes, the differences, are but societal trappings. They’re not important, they just dress the heroes, both immortal and mortal, in clothes their society will understand. While I found not a few of the myths to be uncomfortable, confusing, occasionally repulsive, or far too obsessed with numbers, that didn’t stop me from seeing the thread being pulled through the tapestry of history.
The entire purpose of the book is to prove what I’ve heard the Dali Lama say; all religions are different versions of the same truth. I’ll end with a pair of long-winded quotes. But one caveat before I do; please excuse the anachronistic patriarchal binary language. If you can forgive him his ignorant word choices, the message undergirding it is beautiful.
“In his life-form the individual is necessarily only a faction and distortion of the total image of man. He is limited either as male or as female; at any given period of his life he again limited as child, youth, mature adult, or ancient; furthermore, in his life-role he is necessarily specialized as a craftsman, tradesman, servant or thief, priest leader, wife, nun or harlot; he cannot be all. Hence the totality - the fullness of man - is not in the separate member, but in the body of the society as a whole; the individual can be only an organ.� (330)
“The community today is the planet, not the bounded nation; hence the patterns of projected aggression which formerly served to co-ordinate the in-group now can only break it into factions. The national idea, with flag as totem, is today an aggrandizer of the nursery ego, not the annihilator of an infantile situation.� (335)
And to end the book, is the Earthrise over the moon. A beautiful picture to show what he was just talking about. That’s our community. Not our family, not our friends, not our country. Everyone on Earth.
My original review: This book joins Atlas Shrugged as the only books I've ever had to put down.
I love mythology. The myths are not only grand examples of storytelling, but they also shed light on their civilizations' way of thinking. From the doomed-to-die Norse Gods to the plagiarist Romans simply renaming Greek Gods, the mythologies across the globe are fascinating on many levels. So a book that traces the similarities between all mythological cannons sounds like a stroke of genius. Too bad Freud's psychoanalytical theories proved to be the thread that wove the tapestry of the story together.
The first chapter begins by presenting dreams as the ultimate source of truth. Ok, fine, I can deal the fact that there's far more going on in dreams than I care to admit. I've never liked dreams, I groan when a character has a dream in a book I'm reading. I shake my head when a movie includes a psychedelic dream sequence. I'm sure the fact that I hardly ever remember my dreams plays a role in my animosity. But that's not the point. The point is, I picked up a book on mythologies and found it was about dreams. So now I've put it down....more
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