New edition Gardner's book

DAHenkel · 23rd May 2010, 02:51 AM

A reminder to all that while a classic of the literature - this book should be taken with a fair pinch of salt. Gardner was a very interesting man but a bit of a crank with some rather dubious ideas about keris, history, magic and so forth. The book is perhaps the single most important source for many of the misconceptions, strange theories and errors which continue to plague keris knowledge - particularly in the Malay world. Buy the book but remember...it is an imperfect resource.

23rd May 2010, 02:51 AM	#8
DAHenkel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 125	A reminder to all that while a classic of the literature - this book should be taken with a fair pinch of salt. Gardner was a very interesting man but a bit of a crank with some rather dubious ideas about keris, history, magic and so forth. The book is perhaps the single most important source for many of the misconceptions, strange theories and errors which continue to plague keris knowledge - particularly in the Malay world. Buy the book but remember...it is an imperfect resource.