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Vilhelm Grønbech’s Followers (3)
Vilhelm Grønbech
Born
in Allinge, Denmark
June 14, 1873
Died
April 21, 1948
Genre
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The Culture of the Teutons: Volumes 1 and 2
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published
1909
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16 editions
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Miti e leggende del Nord
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published
1926
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7 editions
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Primitiv Religion
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published
1915
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Dostojefski og hans Rusland
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published
1948
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2 editions
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The Culture of the Teutons: Volume One
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Indisk Mystik
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published
1957
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Hvem er min næste? (Hasselbalchs Kulturbibliotek, #134)
by
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published
1946
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Jesus Människosonen
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Hellenismen: Livsstemning - Verdensmagt
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Preliminary studies in Turkic historical phonology (Uralic and Altaic series)
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published
1979
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2 editions
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“Luck sets its stamp upon a man outwardly. Whence had the Northmen their
keenness of vision, which enabled them to apprize a man at a glance? At the
first meeting they would say either: he is a man promising luck and
honour (sæmligir and hamingjusamligr), one luck is to be expected
of(giptuvænligr), or: he bears the mark of unluck (úgiptubragð). Partly on the
strength of intuition, as we say — or, as the ancients put it, because the mind of
the beholder told him what to think of the stranger, — but partly on external
criteria; luck manifested itself openly in the newcomer's mien, gait, behaviour,
bearing, and not least in his well-nourished appearance, his health, his dress,
and his weapons. Only a family of wealth and speed is able to send its
youngling out in many-coloured clothes and with a splendid axe, an “heirloom”
of a weapon.”
― The Culture of the Teutons: Volumes 1 and 2
keenness of vision, which enabled them to apprize a man at a glance? At the
first meeting they would say either: he is a man promising luck and
honour (sæmligir and hamingjusamligr), one luck is to be expected
of(giptuvænligr), or: he bears the mark of unluck (úgiptubragð). Partly on the
strength of intuition, as we say — or, as the ancients put it, because the mind of
the beholder told him what to think of the stranger, — but partly on external
criteria; luck manifested itself openly in the newcomer's mien, gait, behaviour,
bearing, and not least in his well-nourished appearance, his health, his dress,
and his weapons. Only a family of wealth and speed is able to send its
youngling out in many-coloured clothes and with a splendid axe, an “heirloom”
of a weapon.”
― The Culture of the Teutons: Volumes 1 and 2
“In order to understand the thoughts of foreign peoples, we must necessarily convert their self-revelation into our own terms, but our words are apt to carry such a weight of preconceived idea as to crush the fragile myth or philosophy in the very act of explanation. If we want to open up a real communication with our
fellow-man, we must take care to revalue our words before clapping them on his experience. As far as possible we must hold back our set formulæ until we have walked round the object he is confronted with and looked at it from every side. But analysis will not carry us all the way to intimacy. Culture is not a mass of beliefs and ideas, but a balanced harmony, and our comprehension depends on our ability to place every idea in its proper surroundings and to determine its bearings upon all the other ideas.”
― The Culture of the Teutons: Volumes 1 and 2
fellow-man, we must take care to revalue our words before clapping them on his experience. As far as possible we must hold back our set formulæ until we have walked round the object he is confronted with and looked at it from every side. But analysis will not carry us all the way to intimacy. Culture is not a mass of beliefs and ideas, but a balanced harmony, and our comprehension depends on our ability to place every idea in its proper surroundings and to determine its bearings upon all the other ideas.”
― The Culture of the Teutons: Volumes 1 and 2
“Honour is identical with humanity. Without honour, one cannot be a living being;
losing honour, one loses the vital element that makes man a thinking and
feeling creature. The niding is empty, and haunted for ever by the all-embracing
dread that springs from emptiness. The despairing words of Cain have a
bitterness of their own in the Anglo-Saxon, steeped as they are in the Teuton's
horror of loneliness: “I dare not look for honour in the world, seeing I have
forfeited thy favour, thy love, thy peace.” He goes full of sorrow from his country,
and from now onward there is no happiness for him, being without honour and
goodwill (árleas). His emptiness means, in a modern phrase, that he has
nothing to live for. The pains he is to suffer will cut deeper than before, seeing
they are now all heaped up-in himself alone, and they will produce more
dangerous wounds,. since there is no medicine to be found against them. Thus
it is literally true, that no one can be a human being without being a kinsman, or
that kinsman means the same as human being; there is not a grain of metaphor
in the words. Frith and honour together constitute the soul. Of these two
constituents frith seems to lie deeper. Frith is the base of the soul, honour is all
the restless matter above it. But there is no separation between them. The force
of honour is the feeling of kinship, and the contents of frith is honour. So it is
natural that a wound to honour is felt on one hand as an inner decline, and on
the other as a paralysis of love. By the import of honour we learn to know the
character of the gladness which kinsmen felt when they sat together by the fire
warming themselves in frith.”
― The Culture of the Teutons: Volumes 1 and 2
losing honour, one loses the vital element that makes man a thinking and
feeling creature. The niding is empty, and haunted for ever by the all-embracing
dread that springs from emptiness. The despairing words of Cain have a
bitterness of their own in the Anglo-Saxon, steeped as they are in the Teuton's
horror of loneliness: “I dare not look for honour in the world, seeing I have
forfeited thy favour, thy love, thy peace.” He goes full of sorrow from his country,
and from now onward there is no happiness for him, being without honour and
goodwill (árleas). His emptiness means, in a modern phrase, that he has
nothing to live for. The pains he is to suffer will cut deeper than before, seeing
they are now all heaped up-in himself alone, and they will produce more
dangerous wounds,. since there is no medicine to be found against them. Thus
it is literally true, that no one can be a human being without being a kinsman, or
that kinsman means the same as human being; there is not a grain of metaphor
in the words. Frith and honour together constitute the soul. Of these two
constituents frith seems to lie deeper. Frith is the base of the soul, honour is all
the restless matter above it. But there is no separation between them. The force
of honour is the feeling of kinship, and the contents of frith is honour. So it is
natural that a wound to honour is felt on one hand as an inner decline, and on
the other as a paralysis of love. By the import of honour we learn to know the
character of the gladness which kinsmen felt when they sat together by the fire
warming themselves in frith.”
― The Culture of the Teutons: Volumes 1 and 2
