Mannhardt, Wilhelm (1831-1880)
CRIA NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST
Wilhelm Mannhardt (1831-1880), a German mythologist and folklorist, was a disciple of Jacob Grimm who “converted” to evolutionism in the 1870s. He is also an ethnographer and the author of an ambitious questionnaire on peasant traditions linked to the harvest. His interpretation of these as pre-Christian survivals and his theses on the European cult of the spirits of vegetation (from trees to cereals), developed especially in Wald- und Feldkulte (1875-1877), had a decisive influence on James Frazer. Little recognized during his lifetime, Mannhardt’s work remains enigmatic and seldom approached by historians of anthropology.
Keywords: Evolutionism | Comparative mythology | Ethnography | Germany | European folklore | Germanic mythology | Dying God | Vegetation cults | Classical and oriental antiquity | Jacob Grimm | Edward Tylor
Secondary sources
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“The Mannhardtian Theories about the Last Sheaf and the Fertility Demons from a Modern Critical Point of View”
Carl W. von Sydow, 1934
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“Mannhardt, Wilhelm (1831-1880)”
Eric J. Sharpe, 1987
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“Debatten om Wilhelm Mannhardts Fruktbarhetsteorier”
Nils‑Arvid Bringéus, 1991
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“Wilhelm Mannhardt : A Pioneer in the Study of Rituals”
Tove Tybjerg, 1993
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“Mannhardt, Wilhelm (1831-1880)”
Mark Jantzen, 2011
Primary sources
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Germanische Mythen, Forschungen
Wilhelm Mannhardt, 1858
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Die Götterwelt der deutschen und nordischen Völker
Wilhelm Mannhardt, 1860
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Roggenwolf und Roggenhund
Wilhelm Mannhardt, 1865
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Die Korndämonen
Wilhelm Mannhardt, 1868
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Wald- und Feldkulte
Wilhelm Mannhardt, 1875-1877
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Wald- und Feldkulte (Review)
Wilhelm Scherer, 1877
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Mythologische Forschungen
Wilhelm Mannhardt, 1884
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« La Mythologie végétale d’après les travaux de Guillaume Mannhardt »
Joseph Van den Gheyn, 1885
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