Reviews for Monomania: The Flight from Everyday Life in Literature and Art

The average rating for Monomania: The Flight from Everyday Life in Literature and Art based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-02-20 00:00:00 Marc Russell Don't let the "authenticity or forgery?" debate on this author side-track you from the fact he was picking up the last bits of primordial Druidism left in writing in Briton while every other scholar was throwing all such into the dustbin as "European Savage Rubbish" as fast as they could. Regardless his take or fake, you are going to find a lot in this guys works if you are looking for an older - possibly more attested and authentic - side to the teachings on the subject of Druidism, Celtic lore and, as it is called today, "Wicca." There's some actual valuable content here.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-10-29 00:00:00 Jhone Linas I can't honestly recommend "The Barddas" Edited in the 19th century by J. Williams Ab Ithel, it is a collection of supposedly ancient Welsh texts gathered by the 18th century Welsh poet and bardic revivalist Edward Williams, who adopted the name Iolo Morganwg. These texts, it was claimed, revealed the secret magical alphabet of the ancient druids, the religious and philosophical lore of the ancient Welsh, and a host of other traditions relating to ancient Welsh bardic culture. Scholarship has since shown that many if not most of the texts were forgeries, penned by Morganwg himself. So, it's not really something that one would read today in order to learn actual medieval welsh history or Welsh poetry. It's also not a particularly engaging read. Much of it consists of highly repetitive versified lines-- or examples of variant texts (20+ different variations from supposedly different sources on 'druidic' names for the months of the year). And the section on the alphabet and symbols is-- well, it's like reading the appendices of the Lord of the Rings that talk about the writing systems of Middle-earth. To put it plainly, it's pretty dull. But there is still something impressive about the fact that Morganwg produced a work like this. The kind of applied imagination and creative quasi-scholarly passion necessary to produce a series of consistent forgeries like this is a testament to, well, I'm not sure to what exactly.. but to something. A mythopoetic spirit, perhaps?