Norse Mythology

This is a post about a wonderful book Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. Before I bought the book, I knew only a little about nordic mythology - heard some bits about Odin and Thor, final battle Ragnarök, or perhaps of beautiful goddess Freya. I did not have much of expectation, but more I read through its tales, the more I was interested in this.

The Contents

• Introduction
• The Players
• Before the Beginning, and After
• Yggdrasil and the Nine Worlds
• Mimir’s head and Odin’s eye
• The Treasures of the Gods
• The Master Builder
• The Children of Loki
• Freya’s Unusual Wedding
• The Mead of Poets
• Thor’s Journey to the Land of Giants
• The Apples of Immortality
• The Story of Gerd and Frey
• Hymir and Thor’s Fishing Expedition
• The Death of Balder
• The Last Days of Loki
• Ragnarök: The Final Destiny of the Gods

The book is built from short chapters written in plain simple language, but it has nice flair. It is hard for me to describe the style, so let’s give a small example:

Thor, god of thunder, mightiest of all the Aesir, the strongest, the bravest, the most valiant in battle, was not entirely awake yet, but he had the feeling that something was wrong. He reached out a hand for his hammer, which he always kept within reach while he slept.

He fumbled around with his eyes closed. He groped about, reaching for the comfortable and familiar shaft of his hammer.

No hammer.

Thor opened his eyes. He sat up. He stood up. He walked around the room.

There was no hammer anywhere.

Over the stories, we get to know most of the gods of Asgard, wise Odin, mighty Thor, cunning Loki, beautiful Freya, watchman Heimdall, Balder, Kvasir and many others. The stories are short and usually ends with nice point or twist. I am pretty sure they were not part of original materials, but they fit in nicely in my opinion. The dialogs and quarrels between characters are funny as it is to their tendency to make stakes and try to outsmart each other.

I enjoyed the reading greatly and then spent good part of summer telling those stories to my kids during our trips. They got some interest in it, and started reading the book themselves. What could I wish more?