Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

 

        Norse Mythology is a retelling of Norse myths written by Neil Gaiman. In this novel, we get to hear all about the stories of Odin the wise, Thor the brave, and Loki the mischievous. It’s a fun, easy book for anyone who wants to learn more about Norse mythology. The myths are all well written and they’re put in a somewhat chronological order to make them even easier to follow. I appreciate how in the beginning Neil Gaiman wrote about how we have lost so much of the Norse myths due to Christianity taking over and because these myths were not typically written down until much later. Reading these myths makes me feel connected to history in a way that’s hard to describe, we are reading myths that were orally passed down for generations and we now are able to read them in ways the Vikings may have never even dreamed of.

        As interesting as the myths are, I found myself having to push through the novel a little bit. If this were the first book on Norse mythology that I read, I would have absolutely devoured it, but instead it just felt like another book on Norse myths. I was also hoping for a little more of Neil Gaiman’s voice in this novel rather than Gaiman trying to write these myths as if they were written by the Vikings, which is an interesting concept, just not what I wanted. When I originally bought the book, I was under the impression that it would be one cohesive storyline rather than a collection of myths.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is interested in getting into Norse mythology, but just be prepared for Neil Gaiman to use a different tone than we are typically used to. Overall, I’d personally rate this a 3/5, full of good information, but could use a little more oomph.

Norse Mythology

• Page 14
• We have lost so much.
• Page 24
• It is a pity, then, that there is so much darkness inside him: so much anger, so much envy, so much lust.
• Page 52
• "Because," said Thor, "when something goes wrong, the first thing I always think is, it is Loki's fault. It saves a lot of time."
• "It was funny. I was drunk."