Abstract

The present book is a reprint of the great Danish historian's fundamental study. Though the immense œuvre of Grönbech spreads over a wide variety of fields—mystics of India and Europe, Blake, Goethe, Dostoyevski, Jesus and the first Christian community, Greek religion and culture, and the philosophy of language—the two volumes of the culture and religion of the Germans belong to his most important achievements. The first part treats the great "ideas" of the early Germans: peace, honor, the soul, death, and immortality. The second part is devoted to the institutions which have normative value in all societies and especially in archaic ones: war, the temple, the feast, the sacrifice, the play, etc. Grönbech attempts a total synthesis which goes beyond the temporal and tribal differences of this culture, which spread from Byzantium to Greenland. The whole work is organized around the Icelandic saga, perhaps the greatest gift the early Germans gave the world. At the end the assiduous reader is rewarded by a long and fascinating "excursus" on the cultic drama.—M. J. V.