Herman Wirth
Wirth’s major work, The Ascent of Man, is based on a desire to recognize the divine in the world and to go beyond Christian authority, through the revelation of a God external to man. Archaeological work has enabled Europeans to plunge into their past, going back a long way in time to the hypothetical beginnings of history. Yet in the eyes of classical archaeologists, much of the incredibly complex iconography from Nordic prehistory was no more than “playful doodles”. Wirth rejects the interpretation of these signs as purely symbolic in origin, and only much later becoming phonetic signs, proposing instead that such iconographic systems represent a complete written language. Following the linguistic evolution of this alphabet, Wirth traces the origins and development of the Nordic people, their culture, and beliefs. A complete explanation of Wirth’s system is included in the preface to this edition. This book is a work in progress.