By now, many of the main elements and characters found in Norse mythology will be familiar to a lot of people, thanks to Marvel’s Avengers: Thor, the son of Odin and god of Thunder, features prominently; Loki, the troublemaker; Mjollnir, Thor’s legendary hammer; the Bifrost, the prismatic bridge between realms; Asgard, the realm of the gods; and so forth.
Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology recounts many classic norse tales and shapes them into a coherent narrative, beginning with the creation of the world and ending in Rangnarok, the apocalyptic battle of the gods.
I found all of them delightful, though I’ve always been a sucker for folktales and mythology. Ever since I cracked open a copy of Mythology by Edith Hamilton that my sister was reading for school, I knew I loved these timeless, wonderful, evolving tales seeking to explain the history, forces and phenomena around us.
Gaiman’s book is a breezy and charming little novel. It includes stories explaining the tides and why there are earthquakes, things like that. As in Greek Mythology, the Norse gods are self-serving and often duplicitous or otherwise flawed, though the Norse gods seem to drink a lot more beer than the Greeks. He injects some humor into his stories, too, but sticks closely to the source material. In interviews, he mentions that he left out stories that were too similar or “too rapey” and things like that.
Thor fans will probably get a lot out of finding out more about the source material, for example Odin’s one eye has a mythological origin, and isn’t just something Marvel added in for flavor. It’s a quick read, something you could start and finish in an afternoon. I would easily recommend it to anyone who enjoys classic stories and of course mythology.
Read Norse myths about a gazillion years ago in junior high, and loved them. I was in Oslo recently and chatting with the women working in a bookstore, who highly recommended this retelling. It’s on my to-read pile, and happy to see your review nudging me on to move it higher up the list. Thanks!
I really loved it too! It’s difficult making new versions of something so well-known (at least to me as I’m norwegian), but if someone was going to do it well it would be Gaiman :)
definitely! Good Omens is probably the book I most frequently recommend to other people :)
This book has just been sitting on my shelf for a while. I should get to it ASAP!
Hope you like it! It goes by quickly if that helps…
Mythology is always fun to read and strangely insightful.
Oh, I totally agree! Thanks for dropping by!
Mind you,the Greeks had Dionysus and loads and loads of wine….
Haha, this is very true! As a wine lover myself, I think I’m probably still partial to Greek Myths for precisely that reason :)
I read this last year and loved it. Very easy to follow and immerse yourself in it.
I totally agree — such a charming little book!
I’m reading a trilogy now – the first book is called Starling – and it is all about Norse mythology! I’m loving it! And Neil Gaiman has been a favorite of mine for a while. I even did a report on him for my Children’s Literature class. Maybe I’ll give this book a try!
Hey, sorry for being a bit late to respond to this, but thank you for leaving your thoughts! And yes, I really hope you like it — great to connect with other Neil Gaiman fans!