The Content Reader

Three nonfiction books that I have read lately, all of them outside Nonfiction November.   Tree of Salvation, Yggdrasil and the Cross inte the North by G. Ronald Murphy, S.J., The Edge of the World, How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are by Michael Pye, and Evolutionen och jag (Evolution and I) by Johan Frostegård. Two of them are histories of Northern Europe and one is a history of the world, showing the evolution of man and the various theories attached to it.  Tree of Salvation, Yggdrasil and the Cross inte the North by G. Ronald Murphy, S.J. "At the heart of the mythology of the Anglo-Scandinavian-Germanic North is the evergreen Yggdrasil, the tree of life that holds up the skies and unites and separates three worlds: Asgard, high in the tree, where the gods dwell in their great halls; Middlegard, where human beings live; and the dark underground world of Hel, home to the monstrous goddess of death. With the advent of Christianity in the North in the early Middle Ages,...

This week my book beginning and page 56 come from The Edge of the World, How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are by Michael Pye. From the blurb: "This is a story of saints and spies, fishermen and pirates, traders and marunders - and of how their wild and daring journeys across the North Sea built the world we know." Seems suitable for someone from Scandinavia. A thorough history and background to developments in this area. Will be interesting to read. Book beginning hosted by Rose City Reader "Cecil Warburton went to the seaside in the summer of 1700: two weeks at Scarborough on the east coast of England, north of Hull and south of Newcastle. He was not at all impressed." The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice "The whole Christian year was shaped by the date of Easter; but the Church's own rules for fixing it meant Easter fell on a different Sunday each year, a floating feast."