Some more interesting factual tidbits abour Viktor Rydberg:

See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikt...te_note-20

It is said that Rydberg is the "last —and poetically most gifted —of the mythological school founded by Jacob Grimm and represented by such men as Adalbert Kuhn" which is "strongly synthetic" in its understanding of myth.[16] Of this work, noted Dutch scholar Jan de Vries, said: “At a time, when one was firmly convinced that the Old Norse myths were a late product, Rydberg’s voice resounds. At that time, he swam against the stream, but he clearly expressed that which has become an ever stronger certainty today: a large part of the myths of the Germanic tradition —and that is to say basically the Old Norse tradition—must be set back in a time when the undivided Proto-Indo-European people themselves created the vessel of their worldview in myths.”[17] Today, Rydberg's theory of a vast world-mill which rotates the heavens, as an intregal part of Old Norse mythic cosmology, is perhaps his most widely accepted theory.[18] The book Hamlet's Mill by Georgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, (1969), which expands on this theory, received unusually negative reviews from scholars. It was described by H. R. Ellis Davidson as “amateurish in the worst sense, jumping to wild conclusions without any knowledge of the historical value of the sources or of previous work done. On the Scandinavian side there is heavy dependence on the fantasies of Rydberg, writing in the last century, and apparent ignorance of progress made since his time.”[19] Writing in the New York Review of Books, Edmund Leach called Hamlet’s Mill “pure fantasy . . . no more than an intellectual game.”[20]

During the 1880s, Rydberg also published two studies of runic inscriptions. His acceptance speech into the Swedish Academy, titled Om Hjeltesagan å Rökstenen (Concerning the Heroic-Saga on the Rökstone) was published in English translation, with an introduction by Swedish Scholar Ola Östin, in its entirety in a publication of the Asatru Folk Assembly, The Runestone Journal 1, 2007.

Scholars on Rydberg's Mythology
Rydberg's studies in Norse mythology were described as "fantasies" by H. R. Ellis Davidson.[21]
Britt-Mari Näsström notes that Rydberg's mythological investigations drew on "subjective interpretations of the episodes, based more on his imagination and poetical skills than on facts."[22]
Anatoly Lieberman has pointed out that “[m]erging Eddic characters and looking for hypostases is an unprofitable occupation. It allows any god (giant, dwarf) to become anybody else, as happened under Rydberg’s pen.”[23]
Rydberg, in the opinion of Judith Moffet, was "a historian who cared more for atmospheres and half-truths than for historical facts."[24]
According to Jenny Blain, "[d]iscussions of Rydberg's highly systematized versions of the mythology periodically surface on Ásatrú mailing lists and other public fora for debate. They have a few adherents within the community; however, on the whole the community rejects them, as do academics today, as being attempts to create an artificial order based on flawed methodological principles and nineteenth century definitions of deity."[25]

Rig

Thanks all for your posts.
I'd like to comment on Dumezil. I hold a degree in Anthropology- a social science that wants and is by degree- a hard science. Scholars in anthropology had to invent means to study- and discuss intelligently- human culture. They were and are imperfect. Dumezil was a primary investigator who lent scientific method to his studies of culture. His conclusions are theories and so we should vigorously test them. Critical thinking here is most welcome: to the whole field. Tri-partite social organization is only true on the larger scales and then only if one has intellectual patience i.e. over look the counter examples and see where one gets...

Frith
Bill