Friday, February 23, 2018

REVIEW Pagan Portals - Odin: Meeting the Norse Allfather by Morgan Daimler

Pagan Portals - Odin: Meeting the Norse Allfather by Morgan Daimler
Published by Moon Books
Non-fiction / Spirituality and Religion
Release Date: March 30, 2018



Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an e-reader copy of this book for me to review!

This is a good beginner's guide to understanding the basics of Odin worship.  Anyone, Pagan, Heathen, scholar, or not, would find something useful in this book about the All-Father.  It's brief but still informative if you're looking for a quick know-all prior to more detailed research and practice.  The style was clear and easy to understand aside from a handful of sentences that were confusing.

The last quarter of the book was about current practice for Odin worship, based on the author's research and experiences with the deity herself.  This includes poetry, ideas for offerings, and modern rune practices.  This was, to me, the best part of the book.  She gave an incredible insight into modern Pagan worship and the relationships we form with our deities.

On some more detailed notes, some of the wording throughout the book was repetitive, particularly with the word "complex".  Understandably, this deity (and general Norse mythology) has many branches, family members, and interpretations.  It only slightly threw me off of what I was reading, constantly wondering how it was complex, and of course, never finding out how complex it actually was because the book can only be so long.

Additionally, there were several instances where I questioned, the credibility of the author to write this book.  While no one expects the writer of a beginner's guide to be a wholesome expert, I would imagine the author would have done enough research so that they don't have to write such sentences as "I've also heard X, but I can't remember the source at the moment" or "I'm not an expert in X, so you're going to need to do further research to learn more".  Such sentences could have been omitted, or been thoroughly more researched to provide a reliable source, or even replaced with a statement like "This resource says X, but in contrast, this source says X".  While I don't doubt the research and experiences the author has had and done were extensive, I expected something done with a little more professional finesse.

That aside, the information that was more researched was in-depth and interesting to read about.  Daimler put in all of the information that was essential to know about Odin, and didn't make it seem boring.


Overall, I give this book:

⭐⭐⭐

I would recommend it to a friend who was merely interested in learning menial Odin worship, but wouldn't recommend it for much else.

Thanks for reading!

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