Review: Norse Mythology

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This review is also found on Goodreads! :)

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Reading this book has been a most magical journey. A tale of gods, warriors, creatures, and giants. Of battles and tales of trickery and gods outplaying each other.

All the tales in the book were as delightful and intriguing as the next, but my favorites are:

* Thor's Journey to the Land of the Giants : Thor, Loki, and Thialfi's journey to Utgard was one of the most fascinating stories in this book, especially Utgardaloki's challenges to his visitors. These challenges, in hindsight, proved their strength.

* Ragnarok: The Final Destiny of the Gods : The only word I can describe this last tale on the book is epic . The narrative was short as far as battles go, but it gave leeway for scholars and storytellers to give it their own unique spin--a chance Gaiman did not waste. At the end of Ragnarok came the rebirth of the world, which filled me with hope, as Mimir's head filled Odin.


And to some extent, I've also enjoyed the following stories:

*The Treasure of the Gods: Of course, it was fascinating to read the origins of Thor's Mjollnir, Odin's Gungnir, and Frey's Skidbladnir.

*The Mead of the Poets: In my humble opiniion, Odin's cunning nature was best depicted in this tale.

I won't put all praises on Gaiman since this is just his retelling of the myths passed down between the different generations of the Nordic countries, but I have to give Gaiman his due--he made the stories beyond enjoyable. All the stories in this book are based on Snorri Sturluson's The Prose Edda, and the poems on the Poetic Edda from the 13th century, a collection of stories and poems of Old Norse. Gaiman's modern retelling gave the tales a voice so clear and so definitive of Gaiman's storytelling. From the beginning to the end (Ragnarok), Gaiman weaved the tales to his sequence, depicting them so they will come in full circle.

Undoubtedly, this is one of my new favorite books. It's just so unfortunate that so many Norse tales were lost over time. Because if the surviving mythology such as those tales in Gaiman's book is this rich and fascinating, then there are probably a hundred more tales as captivating.

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