[Main Blog Post] [Book] Thoughts on Comparative Mythology

[jprussell]

I at last got around to reading and writing up my thoughts on Jaan Puhvel's Comparative Mythology, a book that I'm ashamed to admit I didn't know about a few months ago. If you're interested in the myths of folks who speak/spoke Indo-European languages, and most of all if you're interested in what we might be able to work out about the ancestral myths told by those who spoke the Proto-Indo-European mother tongue, you'll find lots to like here.

Comments

[k_a_nitz]

FWIW in German the word for Indo-European is still indogermanisch (Indo-Germanic).

[jprussell]

I'm trying to remember if I knew that or not. Either way, it helps explain an inter-language pun I hadn't gotten before: Kris Kershaw's great book on Odin is called The One-Eyed God: Odin and the (Indo-) Germanic Männerbünde. The reason I assume some punning was intended is that the ostensible object of study is the historically-attested Germanic Männerbünde, but uses a rather wide range of Indo-European sources, but especially Indian, to give evidence of the likely Proto-Indo-European antecedents. So, the main thesis is primarily Indian (looking at Rudra and His companions to get insight into Odin, and especially why He is "one-eyed") and Germanic (obviously), but to get there runs the gamut of indogermanisch comparison.