Chapter I - THE BEAUTY AND THE HAG
Rock art of Scandinavia - hunters’ art in the North - farmers’ art in the South - emphasis on male potency - few women - woman exposing her pudenda - pose found in many lands - Italy - Babylon - Balkans -Anatolia - medieval Italy - Sheela-na-gig of Ireland - Nepal - Egypt -counterpart in literature and myth - apotropaic effect - Baubo - Hathor -Amaterasu - Ishtar - Freydis - counter magic - ritual exposure - Bubastis festival - exposure to avenge Insult - magic of female form substantiated for Germanic landscape.
Chapter II - FEMALE FIGURES OF EDDIC POETRY AND PROSE
Women powerful in heroic poetry - Brynhildr-Sigrdrifa - shieldmaid -human and superhuman - failed puberty experience - heroic virtues -Guðrún - importance of family - marriages - motherhood - sexual fulfill-ment - counterpart in sagas - Sigrün-Sväva - human and superhuman -shieldmaid - protective - superhuman guide - union in death - wailing woman - role in inciting vengeance - the wise woman - three kinds of heroines in poetry - goddesses of myth impotent and insignificant - löunn tricked - goddesses not consulted - goddesses effective in relation to humans - goddesses lustful and fickle - vestiges of power - important female forces outside of pantheon - the poets’ influence on Germanic myth - address warklike audience - women seen through eyes of pro-fessional warriors - heroic poetry has often female protagonists - deals with women’s functions and experiences - developed in feminine en-vironment.
hapter III - THE LADY IN THE ROCK
Cave adventure of the Saga hero - meets woman - giantess - enchanted princess - lover - helper - adversary - tests performed - gifts received -initiatory sequence - giantesses and their environment - talents and functions of the giantess - helpful and destructive form - related to figures of belief - Rulers and Guardians of Nature - disir -fylgjur - hamingjur - Norns - Valkyries - giantesses äs figures of belief - Mörn - Porgerðr -Gói - giantesses of Eddie myth - Skaði - Gerðr - Gunnlöð - Hyrrokkin - the locality of the cave adventure - literary compositions and figures of belief
Chapter IV - THE GODDESS FREYJA
Most important of the goddesses - family relations - myths - Freyja’s riches - relation to war - animals of association - worship - magic skills - relation to love - mother, wife, and harlot - Freyja’s Status among gods and men - character - goddess of sexuality and war - Middle Eastern analogies - iconographic parallels - the written texts - Anat and B aal - sorrowing and violent - Ishtar and her lovers - explosive and vengeful - warlike - jewels - the harlot goddess - Freyja and the eastern goddesses - Freyja and northern forms.
Chapter V - THE GERMANIC GODDESSES OF WOMEN’S LIVES
Women’s goddesses in archaic Society - protectors in childbirth, menstruation, and child-rearing - the Akkas of the Lapps - shape soul - help in parturition - their names - women’s goddesses in many Eurasian cultures - women’s goddesses äs divinities of fate - Meshkenet - Moirae - Laima - the nursing godheads of the Greeks - women’s festivals - north-Germanic tradition - Norns and disir - the three maidens of folk tradition - west-Germanic tradition - the Great Lady of the countryside - Percht and Holda - religious stature - association with women’s occupa- tions - association with women’s festivals - association with children - resemblance to north-Germanic spirits.
poetry has often female protagonists - deals with women’s functions and experiences - developed in feminine en-vironment.
Chapter III - THE LADY IN THE ROCK
Cave adventure of the Saga hero - meets woman - giantess - enchanted princess - lover - helper - adversary - tests performed - gifts received -initiatory sequence - giantesses and their environment - talents and functions of the giantess - helpful and destructive form - related to figures of belief - Rulers and Guardians of Nature - disir -fylgjur - hamingjur - Norns - Valkyries - giantesses as figures of belief - Mörn - Porgerðr -Gói - giantesses of Eddie myth - Skaði - Gerðr - Gunnlöð - Hyrrokkin - the locality of the cave adventure - literary compositions and figures of belief
Chapter IV - THE GODDESS FREYJA
Most important of the goddesses - family relations - myths - Freyja’s riches - relation to war - animals of association - worship - magic skills - relation to love - mother, wife, and harlot - Freyja’s Status among gods and men - character - goddess of sexuality and war - Middle Eastern analogies - iconographic parallels - the written texts - Anat and B aal - sorrowing and violent - Ishtar and her lovers - explosive and vengeful - warlike - | 
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