Mistletoe
Mistletoe is the symbol which affords the book its title. The symbolism derives from Norse mythology in which Balder was invincible to everything but a bough of mistletoe. The connection the author makes is that Balder becomes intermingled with the sacred mistletoe itself. The golden bough is the symbol connecting the Roman ritual with those established to the European north.
Scapegoat
Another central symbol in the text is the scapegoat. Literally a goat offered as a sacrifice to honor or appease pagan gods, the author takes this literal component beyond its established metaphorical symbolism to form it into a representation of the ability to kill a king and still retain expectations of the transference of divine right of supremacy despite the illegitimacy of the usurpation of the throne.
The Mighty Oak
The author notes that the oak was perhaps the most highly regarded and sacred tree among the Aryan civilizations of Europe. The strength and plentitude of the species made it an obvious choice to represent the gods, great power, protection and even devastating threats of danger (in the form of mighty oaks not being resistant to the power of surrounding nature).
Male Australian Tribesman Teeth
The author relates the strange custom of Australian tribes which mandated the removal of every boy’s front tooth (one or more) as a rite of passage into adulthood. The teeth, once removed physically from the body retained, however, an essential connection to the man into which the boy had grown. This story introduces the concept of Contagious Magic and is symbolic of all totemic items removed from the possession of a person which still is believed to hold power or say over them. Other examples range from personal items used in voodoo magic to the collection of souvenirs of victims by serial killers.
“Rude Peoples”
Unfortunately, for all the valuable insight provided in the text by the author, that very same person—James George Frazer—also persistently displays a Eurocentric prejudice toward other cultures and a systemic bias toward those cultures represented by populations that are—let’s say less pale—than his fellow Britons. He uses the term “rude peoples” suggestively in a profoundly negative symbolic connotation. Chapter VII commences:
“The instances which in the preceding chapters I have drawn from the beliefs and practices of rude peoples all over the world”
He gets must more specific in Chapter IX when he narrows down the focus of the particular topic at hand to that dealing with "rude peoples of Asia.”
