Amanda Hill 2008-09-17

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

This book is in my stack of books on their way to the used bookstore. I found it a very difficult and confusing read. The author will take a verse from the Voluspa, and then go off on these tangets about her own personal interpretation of what they mean, mixed with some scholarly interpretations of the poem with footnotes (which for some reason end up right smack in the middle of the page most of the time). I found it very hard to follow. I have no problem with mysticism OR scholarship, but this book needs some serious editing to make it more readable. It seems more like notes or brainstorming on Voluspa rather than a finished book made to communicate her ideas to others.

I was hoping a book like this would shed some light on some of the deeper meanings to be found in the Lore, but I found that Desmond's ramblings muddied things up even further instead. Maybe the people who gave it positive reviews somehow "got it" and I didn't, but think twice before buying this book, because if you're unlucky like me you might end up with a headache instead of enhanced spiritual knowledge.

Sweet Swede 2008-03-06

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

I found the book definitely not scholarly, the grammar was horrible and totally drowned any sense of direction of the work. The tangents taken completely destroyed the thought they started from. There was use of terms totally unfamiliar with no explanation of where they came from, plus a few she admitted making up to fit her understanding of something. I give her kudos for attempting this work. However, alot of what she "interprets" as the meaning of the Voluspa is Theosophic/Neo-Pagan in origin. To truly understand the meaning of such old works as Voluspa one would have to live in the time it was conceived and have that world-view and the life experience of those people. Would I recommend this book to anyone interested in Norse lore or practices? Absolutely not.

Shawnna Otten 2008-02-08

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

This book has opened up a whole new understanding, a whole new world to me personally!

I truly believe, had I not taken the time to read the lore, I would not have had the understanding of what this most unique woman has put in writing (truly amazing). Since, I have spent countless hours reading and learning the lore this book was more than amazing; it was one I could not put down! I understood and I learned much! I can't wait to get hold of her other writings and work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shawnna

Thorstein Olafson 2007-12-10

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

I was disappointed by this book. I wish Yngona had just stuck to translating the Voluspa rather than injecting her bizarre interpretations into it. Although the translation seems nicely poetic, the original norse is not included and cannot be checked for accuracy. Apparently, she spends more time "actively monitoring ley lines", "assisting local Guardians with energy clean-up" and "reconnecting in a non-invasive manner with primal and ancestral energies" while communing with her "folk-soul" than she does performing scholarly research. This is definitely not a scholarly work as the first reviewer states, but is a new-agey, somewhat racist, poorly referenced work that left me wondering how anyone could possibly have mistaken this as a work of significant scholarship.

W. J. M. Cuijpers 2007-11-05

2 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

It has been a while since I read this book, and this is the second time I'm reading it, and I have to agree with what the other reviewer said about the editing, it's worthless. Point is, this book appears to be self-published and she probably didn't have an editor. Though the book has isbn there is nowhere, not on the back nor on the title page, a publisher mentioned. This could be the reason why the editing is lousy (no beatiful title pages nor a helpful index etc.).

What I also feel the book misses is a thourough introduction into the subject of seidr with a mytholigical exploration of the phenomona as her own personal interpretation. When I first bought it, i was looking for a thourough introduction into seidr - and I definitely didn't find it here. Though the title claims to discuss "seidr as wyrd consciousness" it does not, it only refers to the interpretation she gives of the book Völuspá of the Poetic Edda. Though I feel this interpretation to be exactly the purpose of Seidr, völuspá itself hasn't that much to do with Seidr. Well, of course there are some passages which refer to the nature of Seidr, such as the part about Gulveig-Heid, but she fails to fully explore the entire nature of the subject, at least to my opinion. The book is a rather broad inquiry into the lore of voluspa and although the author attaches a lot of these things to Seidr the book itself, the core, is entirely about heathenry and heathen symbolism, not seidr.

Besides the small remarks made above the book is really great. It goes into all the symbolism of each line elabortately and discusses everything there is to be known about the concepts mentioned. Above i said that she predominantly explores heathen lore, she also mentionens practical sides and concepts of Seidr too, even though these sometimes have nothing to do with the text.

Also, the book is really well written. What I really like about her writing is that she keeps exactly clear what she is talking about, and only talks about that. No stupid remarks or whatever, no fancy examples of her own "mystical visions", just hardcore scholarship and mysticism. You might say the two don't really match, and i didn't believe they could untill i read this book. Ms. Desmond really, really provides a work here that seems have been written from a scholar's view who mentions here own interpretations and gives advice to the practitioner, and best of all, she keeps clear what is scholarship and what is mysticism.

Really, I think this book, besides its flaws, is something the serious heathen should read as it explores everything in the Prophecy of the Volva which gives you a great reservoir of knowledge of the ancient heathens. It is (finally) a scholary though distinctly heathen book about the source everyone is using to reconstruct the cosmology of the heathens. Many insights are gained by every turning of a page in this book.