Barbarian Rites by Hans-Peter Hasenfratz - 9781594774218

Barbarian RitesThe Spiritual World of the Vikings and the Germanic Tribes\nAuthor(s): Hans-Peter Hasenfratz\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Inner Traditions Bear and Company, United States\nImprint: Inner Traditions Bear and Company\nISBN-13: 9781594774218, 978-1594774218\nSynopsis\nBefore the conversion of Europe to Christianity in the Middle Ages, Germanic tribes roamed the continent, plundering villages and waging battles to seek the favor of Odin, their god of war, ecstasy, and magic. Centuries later, predatory Viking raiders from Scandinavia carried on similar traditions. These wild barbarians had a system of social classes and familial clans with complex spiritual customs, from rites of passage for birth, death, and adulthood to black magic practices and shamanic ecstatic states, such as the infamous berserkers rage. Chronicling the original pagan tradition of free and wild Europe--and the use and abuse of its myths and magic by the Nazis--Hans-Peter Hasenfratz offers a concise .