Hej,
I am glad to see that some of you have read Rydberg's work. It seems largely
forgotten.
A table of contents to more manageable link to his work in English can be
found at:
http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/ugm0.html
Click on the chapter number you wish to read, and the page will pop-up.
Viktor Rydberg (1828-1895) made some of the earliest studies in comparative
Indo-European mythology. His conclusions are much closer to the conclusions
of modern scholars today than those of his contemporaries. Parts of his work
may be of special interest to this list.
He compares the Hindu god Agni with the Germanic Heimdall
chapter 82
http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/ugm12.html#82
He compares the great winter spoken of in the Avesta, and the opening of a
garden for the preservation of life, with the myth of Lif and Lifthrasir in
"Hodd-Mimir's grove"
Chapter 54
http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/ugm9.html#54
He compares the contest of the Ribhus and Tvastar in the Rigveda to the
Contest between the Sons of Ivaldi and Brokk and Sindri in the Edda
Section 28B
http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/ugm5.html#28B
chapter 111
http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/ugm17.html#111
The second volume of his work, which was never translated into English is
almost exclusively about the various interconnections between the Rigvedic,
Avestian, and the Eddaic mythologies. Of this work, Jan de Vries said "it
won less recognition than it deserved". Perhaps its time his work was
revisited?
Wassail, William
"I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory';
but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the
other in the purposed domination of the author."
J.R.R. Tolkien