Product Description: TYR IS NAMED FOR THE GERMANIC SKY GOD, THE GUARDIAN OF TRANSCENDENT AND ETERNAL ORDER.
Published annually, TYR celebrates the traditional myths, culture, and social institutions of pre-Christian, pre-modern Europe. It includes in-depth, original articles, interviews, translations of essential works by radical traditionalist and anti-modern thinkers, as well as extensive reviews of books, films, music, and the arts.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A RADICAL TRADITIONALIST?
It means to reject the modern, materialist reign of "quantity over quality," the absence of any meaningful spiritual values, environmental devastation, the mechanization and over-specialization of urban life, and the imperialism of corporate mono-culture, with its vulgar "values" of progress and efficiency. It means to yearn for the small, homogeneous tribal societies that flourished before Christianity -- societies in which every aspect of life was integrated into a holistic system.
WHAT WE REPRESENT:
Resacralization of the world versus materialism; folk/traditional culture versus mass culture; natural social order versus an artificial hierarchy based on wealth; the tribal community versus the nation-state; stewardship of the earth versus the "maximization of resources"; a harmonious relationship between men and women versus the "war between the sexes"; handicrafts and artisanship versus Industrial mass-production.
IN THIS ISSUE:
STEPHEN EDRED FLOWERS on "Integral Culture"; JOSCELYN GODWIN on the Italian esotericist JULIUS EVOLA; French philosopher ALAIN DE BENOIST's interview with "new comparative mythologist" GEORGES DUMEZIL; NIGEL PENNICK on the "Spiritual Arts and Crafts"; STEVE POLLINGTON on the Germanic war god Woden; MICHAEL MOYNIHAN on divine traces in the Nibelungenlied; COLLIN CLEARY on the anti-modern television series The Prisoner; JOSHUA BUCKLEY'S interview with IAN READ of the English heathen music group FIRE + ICE, and much more.
Escapist cop-out The excellent music reviewed, and a couple of good essays, were not enough to counter-balance the general whining negativity set as the theme in the opening pages. This is definitely for the minority of Heathens who are not capable of coping with the modern world.
Indeed, how could this world compare to the utopian fantasy of the mythical Golden Age. Not brutal, squalid, and uncomfortable, but heroic and pure. The 19th century romantic ideal of the noble savage.
As a Heathen, I am proud of the role my ancestors played in shaping the world we have. It may not be perfect, but it could be a whole lot worse if not for the influence of the Heathen English Common Law, and good old Germanic technical know-how. Our ancestors were successful because they participated in the world, raiding, trading, keeping an eye on other tribes, and developing metal & shipbuilding technologies. They would not have survived by running away & hiding in the woods. Would they be proud of this? I can't help feeling that they would greet most of this self-indulgent romantic/semantic nonsense with disdain.
Pushing the pseudo-philosophy of "post-modernism", a field largely discredited for the past decade, arguments are made against the modern world. But even if some of us don't like reality, can we really turn our backs on it without becoming irrelevant, and eventually extinct?
Do we really need to justify our Heathenness with voodoo linguistics and quasi-racist psychology? Discernible behind the argument is the kind of Whorfian pseudo-science that claims that if one language uses one word to express an idea while another uses two, then this must imply a profound congitive difference between the speakers, so we can never really understand those from other cultures. This rather dated idea has never been substantiated by research, and is rejected by most linguists & psychologists, yet the post-modern lunatic fringe continue to cling to it as a lynch-pin of the xenophobic position they demonstrate here.
Is it really necessary to indulge in such dreary Luddite navel-gazing to be true to our heritage? I think not. I for one will continue to honour my ancestors by being successful in the real world.
Not Asatru as I know it TYR vol. 1 consists largely out of modern quasi-philosophical ramblings about the evils of monotheistic religion, science, modernism, humanism, communism and nearly every other form of -ism you can think of. The writers of TYR degrade our historic pagan faith to an antidote or anti-religion to these evils instead of a full-fledged pagan religion, fit for modern age people of Germanic descent. And with a subtitle like: Myth - Culture - Tradition I really not expected this.
Academic value of this journal is not noteworthy, because it mostly contains modern philosophical statements and anti-modern propaganda (!) and not anything noteworthy historically.
Also the writers of TYR call themselves anti-mass culture, a statement not even close to the truth about our ancestral faith and society. People back than lived also in a mass-culture. People from all Germanic countries interacted with each other, shared the same overall religion and Indo-European ancestry. And ironically TYR just became a modernist or even postmodernist perversion. The only difference in society today is, that mass-culture backed by materialistic science leaves no place for religion and in at least Northern Europe people are just not interested in religion, and if they are, it's probably a form of agnosticism. Options of returning towards the spiritual `openness' to the gods as suggested by Collin Clearly are just out of this world. Give up society, go live in the woods and kill your own food, I'm really marvelled about this genius, instead of making Asatru an addition to life and subject of technological and ideological progression, as our forefathers experienced it, we should all return to the woods from whence we came.. Or more truthfully as I see it, we should return to a more traditional collectivistic society, where you live for your family and loved-ones, were hospitality is not something to marvel about and worship again the eternal order, the eternal circle of life and live our lives in worship of the Gods, while working to fulfil our individual destinies, go write a book on that.[...]
Stunning Collection of Essays I cannot praise this volume highly enough. It is seldom that I manage to get totally immersed in reading material, especially essays on a theme. This volume had me gripped from start to finish, with only one short essay as an exception. The subject matter is varied and very interesting. After many years since watching the series, I now have some understanding of the meaning behind the cult TV series, "The Prisoner". I had been searching for "Tyr" for some time, as I had been told it is a magazine. Consequently I failed to find it in several searches. Fortunately I found it by accident on someone's Heathen list. I now also have volume 2 and will be starting it soon, hoping for the same stimulation. My only question now is.....when will TYR 3 be available ?
Tyr Collection of essays from various authors that mostly have an anti globalist/mass culture and pro folk culture and euro pagan theme. Highlights for me were Markus Wolfs essay on German "volkish" writer Hermann Lons, along with the included bit of Lons writing, Anabel Lee's "Dark Side of the Mountain" article, Michael Moynihans "Divine Traces in the Nibelungenlied", Steve Pollingtons essay on Woden called "From Lore-Giver to Law-Giver" and Nigel Pennicks "On the Spiritual Arts and Crafts" which talks about the value and spiritual side of being able to make things with your hands. Lots of great stuff in this. There's a #1 on this so I assume and hope there are more of these in the works.
Radical? Anti-Modern? Call it what it IS No I didn't think this book was radical. Maybe in the way that the same ideas are repeated over and over. I think many of the essay writers in this book need to take a writing class on how to get a CLEAR point across without saying it 10 different times in 10 different ways all in the same paragraph. "Anti Modern", what a nice way of saying we hate the government, and society. It is laughable how politically correct this "radical" book is. If this is radical, I'm ready for my pina coloada. It claims to have useful and applicable ideas, but I found none. If you are interested in getting down to semantics, then this book is for you. I have never had to stomach so many double negatives, "isms", and just plain useless information that really doesn't affect or apply to their "pagan revolution". It seems they tried to get down to the bare essentials of pagan life, but by doing that they missed their point altogether. They lost THIS reader in a flood of "post-modernism" and "the not not-self" instead of keeping it simple and clear. No I wouldn't reccomend this seemingly highly reccomended "radical" book to any pagan. Redefining modern terms is a waste of time when you claim to be working for the "pagan revolution" (whatever that is). If you want clear, applicable, RELEVANT truths with a pagan foundation, get a hold of Creed of Iron, Temple of Wotan, Deceived, Damned & Defiant, or Might is Right (David Lane, Katja Lane, Ron McVan)! You'll find it leaves this book's "radical traditonalism" in the DUST!
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
