I recently finished another book off the old [norse-mythology.org reading list](https://norse-mythology.org/the-10-best-norse-mythology-books/) and am going to continue the tradition of doing a write-up here. This book attempts to explain the general worldview of northern European peoples. This is not an easy task because very little was written down by the pagans. What is known about their myths and ways is mostly related to us through Christian sources sometimes centuries after their conversion. From that we get some of the myths, but little direct information about the traditions that surrounded them. However, Davidson is very, very resourceful in decoding the information we do have. Besides the various texts that include accounts of the norse pagans, she looks at evidence from artifacts, architecture, art, placenames, and similar themes and stories that emerge in other heathen religions which may have influenced each other or derived from a common Indo-European myth. Her ability to weave all these scattered sources into a cohesive explanation of northern paganism is brilliant. In spite of covering a lot of ground, and including speculation in her analyses, Davidson is very careful to qualify her explanations of the theories so you know the relative degree of certainty she believes in what she's saying. She finishes it with a conclusion that's a little more personal, discussing what she likes about the northern beliefs. However, in the same conclusion she explain a bit oddly why she thinks the pagan traditions may have been supplanted by Christianity. In her view, the Christian god may have been more appealing to the pagans than their complex and sometimes evil gods, but familiar enough in certain instances that he was easy for them to embrace. In addition, while Christianity was intolerant to worship of other gods, the pagans had no conception of worshipping an outside god as a sin, so YHWH gradually replaced the old gods through the people's choice. I suspect this whitewashes the conversion quite a bit, though I don't know enough of the history to be certain. In any case, she at least kept these opinions to herself through the meat of the book. All in All, this was a great book. Well written and thorough. I borrowed it from the library, but will probably buy a copy to keep for myself to reread and mine for more source material if nothing else. Tangentially related remarks: It's a little sad to realize how much was lost after reading this book. I think even more than before that attempts to reconstruct these norse pagan worldviews into a religion in the modern day are just that (attempts). But then some things are indestructible, like the influence the memory of our ancestors has on us. The power of nature and the elements and their interaction with our psyche. The seasons and the various festivals we have to acknowledge their passing. And the norse pagan traditions, it seems from this book anyway, were highly individualistic and constantly changing. So maybe it shouldn't matter much to modern heathens.