An Index for Rudolf Simek’s “Dictionary of Northern Mythology”
Originally published in German as Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie (1984, Alfred Kröner Verlag Stuttgart) and subsequently expanded and translated into English by Angela Hall as Dictionary of Northern Mythology (1993, Boydell and Brewer), Austrian scholar Rudolf Simek’s handbook remains an indispensable tool for the study of the ancient Germanic peoples. Hall’s translation in particular is widely used by academics, heathens, and artists. A significant amount of these entries cover topics otherwise little discussed—if mentioned at all—in English language scholarship.
Unfortunately, the Dictionary of Northern Mythology lacks an index. This makes for a major problem for readers: The handbook at times points to entries that do not exist; contains entries about unpredictable topics, scholars, and objects; and sometimes uses anglicized or marked forms stemming from direct German to English translation. These issues add up to make for difficult navigation and easy-to-miss entries, a problem minimized by the production of the present index.