Year: 2024
Publisher: Arcana Europa
Available in: English, Finnish

This review is an addendum to the review of the original Finnish version of this book from 2021, which you can find here. At the time, an English version had been hinted at, but no concrete plans had been made public. It would take three years for this translation to finally see the light of day.

Reading through my original review, I think it is still very valid. I see really no reason to revise the text. However, I think a word or two about the English translation are in order.

Revisiting Holy Europe, it’s still impressive in English, but not quite to the extent the original was. Of course, this is only to be expected: you can make a first impression only once. But language also plays a role; something is always lost in translation, and a text written in one’s own native tongue usually has more gravitas. But these notwithstanding, even in English this text is one everyone should read.

And speaking of the translations, it’s very well done. Author Aki Cederberg took this task upon himself, and the result can be lauded. The text is vivid and organic, has a good flow, and feels quite natural for the most part. There is the occasional sentence here and there which betrays the translation is not by a native English speaker, but they’re absolutely negligible in the whole.

I did not perform a side-by-side reading of the Finnish and the English editions, so I won’t comment on how rigidly Cederberg sticks to the Finnish original in his formulations. Suffice to say, the English text feels familiar to one who’s read the original. There’s no actual new content as far as I can see, save for a new preface.

So the text itself is still potent and relevant – as a text aiming for the Eternal should be – and the translation is well done. So far so good… but. Well, there’s a slight but. I can’t help but be a bit disappointed with the artifact itself, you see.

The book would have deserved a hard cover edition in English, but I can understand financial realities making that impossible. But the soft, flimsy material of the covers, prone to staining and denting, is not very becoming. My copy of the book had been visibly dented already in transit.

Additionally, all of the numerous photos in this edition are in black and white. In the original Finnish editions, the beautiful photos were in gorgeous full colour, truly enhancing the reading experience. Their presentation was otherwise too vastly superior, with plenty of full-page images. Here, they are smaller and as such, don’t serve as focal points as effectively.

In this sense, I admit to being somewhat disappointed by this edition.

But the fact remains: even in this “budget version” Holy Europe is a significant work. It’s a work of true weight and gravitas, seeking to unearth and spark a revitalization of our European traditions; it’s a work that finds the beauty in local tradition and the eternal wisdom embedded in our myths and beliefs; and at the same time, it’s an unflinchingly scathing look at our modern world.

Sometimes Cederberg’s contempt of modernity is worded in ways that may seem distasteful or disagreeable to some, but even so, the importance of the core message cannot be ignored: that we need to forge a connection with our heritage and our roots, make our past a living part of us, in order to have a future.

Cederberg frames his message for Europe, but in this dark age of global Kali Yuga, his is one of equally global significance.

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