| John Grigsby |
Article Index for John |
Website Links For John |
Information AboutJohn Grigsby |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT JOHN GRIGSBY | |
| living people | |
|
John Grigsby (1971- ) is a British author of two books on prehistory and mythology: ''Warriors of the Wasteland'' (Watkins, 2002) and '' Beowulf And Grendel '' (Watkins, 2005). BACKGROUND John Grigsby received a degree (honors) in Prehistoric European Archeology and History. He has an M.A. in Celtic Studies. He also made contributions to ''Heaven's Mirror'' ( Graham Hancock ) and the television series based upon the book, ''Quest for the Lost Civilization.'' He is co-author of ''The Mars Mystery'' (with Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval). He is also the author of ''Warriors of the Wasteland'' and '' Beowulf And Grendel ''. {Link without Title} Grigsby is currently a lecturer with the University Of Kent at Canterbury running a course on Celtic mythology as part of the archaeology department within the Certificate in Combined Studies program. BOOKS Warriors of the Wasteland In 2002 Grigsby published ''Warriors of the Wasteland'' (the title a somewhat tongue in cheek borrowing from a Frankie Goes To Hollywood song) . In this work Grigsby examined the Medieval legends of the Grail in light of his knowledge of Indo-European, especially Celtic, myth. Taking the Lindow Man as testimony of an Iron Age human sacrifice for a starting point, Grigsby argued that this man had been killed in a fertility rite that could be reconstructed using Celtic myth, and from which the legend of the Grail grew. Grigsby proposed the existence in Iron Age Britain of a mystery religion akin to the Greek mysteries of Eleusis that was a descendant from the old farming cults of the Neolithic - which is why it found echoes in other mythologies descended from the same stock - ie those of Ancient Egypt. The crux of Grigsby's thesis concerned the 'Grail question' that was asked by the Grail Knight in order to restore fertility to the land. Grigsby demonstarted that this could be very closely linked with an Egytian ceremony called the ''Opening of the Mouth'' in which certain actions performed on the mummy of the dead Pharaoh were undertaken to bring fertility back to Egypt and pass the mantle of Kingship on to the dead man's successor. Beowulf and Grendel Grisgby's next book '' Beowulf And Grendel '' explores the same Neolithic farming cult as its starting point. Grigsby argues that there are numerous links between the Celtic and Germanic myths, especially those surrounding vessels of immortality or 'meads of inspiration' that he saw as pointing to the ritual drink of an ancient mystery cult. Grigsby suggestes that the cult of Nerthus , the Danish Goddess mentioned by Tacitus in his Germania , was a northern equivalent to the mystery rites of Demeter and Persephone in the Classical world, and that such sacrificed victims were playing a role equivalent to that of the god-man Adonis , Osiris and Attis whose deaths, symbolic of the seasonal round, were enacted symbolically in Greece and Rome. Arguing that these human sacrifices in Denmark suddenly decline around the time of the establishment of the Danish tribes and the arrival of the cult of Odin Grigsby suggested that the poem '' Beowulf '' was a dim memory of this historical process. Grigsby argues that Grendel 's attack on the feasting hall of Heorot was actually a ritual encounter that occurred at midwinter and surrounded the ritual killing of the king. And also that Grendel's Mother was the lake-goddess Nerthus to whom ancient Britons made human sacrifices. In this light the arrival of Beowulf and the killing of Grendel's Mother within her own sacred lake suggested to Grigsby that the poem was based on the subjugation of the native sacrificial fertility cult by incoming Odin worshipping Danes. The name of the eponymous hero Beowulf , Grigsby argued, had the meaning of 'Barley wolf' not 'bear' (from 'bee-wolf') as is usually suggested. The term Barley-wolf was a reference to the sacred ergot drink of the farming cults, which most Indo-European myths show as being stolen from the old farming religions and utilised by the new warrior aristocracy for martial valour - the Indic hymns to Soma being a case in point. EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|