Folklore & Mythology Tradition
Documented in Fuller’s letters, books, journals, memoirs
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
“Margaret was reading, in these weeks, the Four Books of Confucius, the Desatir, some of Taylor's translations from the Greek, a work on Scandinavian Mythology, Moehler's Symbolism, Fourier's Noveau Monde Industriel, and Landor's Pentameron”
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.
“Nothern myth 68 / 70 / Choosing by the feet 98, / A tree is in antique sagas the favorite symbol of organic life, / Freyja (The Scandinavian Isis) weeps for the absence of Osiris) golden tears / The Giants had experience knew the before time & made Runes, - They were most eager after fair [winner?] 'wishing to get out of their gravel pits, & mix with these gooddesses as Byron says / What Odin drank in the centre of things was the gold mead!”
Fuller, Margaret. "Journal 1840." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (85); Box 5 (85).
Inferred The parenthetical reference to 'Byron' about giants wishing to mix with goddesses may allude to Byron's Heaven and Earth (1821).
“studied much in evenings, Taylor's translations of the old Greek writers, the Confucious, the Desater, and Alkuna, a Scandinavian mythology, have been my best books.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. III. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.
Inferred Fuller names "Taylor's translations of the old Greek writers" among her "best books" during her seven weeks at Fishkill Landing, and Hudspeth identified Classical Tracts (London, 1831) or The Mystical Initiations; or, Hymns of Orpheus (1787) as likely candidates, with the former being more probable.
“Mead was the chosen drink of the northern gods.”
Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860.
Inferred Fuller's familiarity with this material is probable given her extensive reading in German literature and mythology; however, a specific source is not named.
“The giants," said the Scandinavian Saga, "had induced Loke...”
Inferred Identification rationale not yet recorded.
The Iduna-Loke-Odur story cited as from 'the Scandinavian Saga'; Brunhilda and Walkyrie also cited with footnote 'See the Nibelungen Lays.'. Footnote at line 12130: 'See the Nibelungen Lays' for Brunhilda.
“As the Scandinavian represented Frigga the Earth, or World mother, knowing all things, yet never herself revealing them, though ready to be called to counsel by the gods.”
Inferred Identification rationale not yet recorded.
Fuller, Margaret. Woman in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Greeley & McElrath, 1845.