Norse Mythology

“Had Ragnarok happened yet? Was it still to happen?I did not know then.I am not certain now.”

Disclaimer–Offensive comments regarding which country has the “best and most diverse mythology in the world” (yes, there were people actually writing about and fighting over that (!) or comments regarding religion in general will be immediately deleted and flagged. There's YouTube and Facebook if some want to engage in such nonsense as fighting over thin air....

Norse myths (aka Odin,Loki,Thor,Freya,the giants,the dwarves, etc.) + Neil Gaiman equals instant,certain, glorious success.This review will be short because what can I say that hasn't been said? And consider yourselves warned because I am going to sound like a major fangirl and I regret nothing:)

World mythologies can be tricky,in my opinion.They're alive,well-known,interesting by themselves.Choosing to use them as a retelling can become a boomerang in the hands of an incompetent author.Naturally,this isn't the case here.Neil Gaiman takes the Norse legends and transforms them into a sequence of tales that may be episodic but are linked to each other in a coherent way, written in a beautiful language that is contemporary and poetic.And most importantly, he approached his material with the utmost respect and wasn't influenced by recent popular teenage notions and Marvel abominations....(I hate those things,sorry....)

His introduction is a wonderful text in which Gaiman explains his deep fascination with the myths of the lands of the North.Let us not forget that in Mr.Wednesday,Gaiman has created a version of Odin that would have satisfied even Grimnir himself.Had he existed,of course.The journey starts with the tale of the creation of the world by Odin,Vili and Ve after the killing of the giant Ymir.Then,we come to know the importance of Yggdrasil,the sacred tree, and the way the Norns hover over the past,the present and the future.All the beloved myths are here.Loki's cute children, the building of the Wall, the marriage of the false Freya,Idunn's apples,the trials of Loki and Thor in the Hall of the Giant king,Frey's search for happiness and the tragic tale of Baldr and many other legends are given new life in Gaiman's masterful hands.And of course,the shadow of impending doom,the Ragnarok, is always present, every time Loki speaks,every time he works on his tricks.The chapter that talks about the Twilight of the Gods is the most chilling description of Ragnarok you will ever read....

The narration is smoothly divided between the major deities,even though the Big Three are the focus.Gaiman is the omniscient narrator and allows the reader to sit back, enjoy the tales and contemplate on their epicness.It is not dry or disengaged. It is storytelling in the good, old-fashioned way. Although I was very familiar with the vast majority of the myths, I felt as if I was reading them for the first time.The dialogues are beautiful,without being modernized and each God and goddess have their own distinctive voice.The spirituality that inevitably escorts every mythology of the world is present and the deities are portrayed as complex characters,unlike other recent attempts that tried to portray them as sarcastic,stupid archetypes.Gods are anything but archetypes. People's minds created them to invoke and communicate all the traits of mankind, the good and the bad, and I don't think mankind is supported on archetypes.We just have to look closely.After having read The Gospel of Loki, which was a major disappointment,Norse Mythology is more than fresh air.It is Mythology at its best.It is a creation as beautiful as its cover on which Thor's Mjøllnir invites us to enter a realm of beauty,strength and deceit.

“That's the joy of myths.The fun comes in telling them yourself something I warmly encourage you to do,you person reading this.Read the stories in this book,then make them your own, and in some dark and icy winter's evening, or on a summer night when the sun will not set,tell your friends what happened when Thor's hammer was stolen, or how Odin obtained the Mead of poetry for the gods....”
Neil Gaiman