The Library Annex

The Norse myths are the myths of a chilly place, with long, long winter nights and endless summer days, myths of a people who did not entirely trust or even like their gods, although they respected and feared them.

I love this book. With a master’s stroke, Gaiman retells tales from the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda in wildly entertaining and simplistic fashion. I imagine he focused as much on the editing process as he did on the writing process. Rather than retelling every story from the source material, he focuses on the “famous” Norse gods and their stories; Odin, Thor and Loki. Of course, popular culture has much more familiarity with these characters thanks to Marvel and their stories exhibit the soul of Norse Mythology accomplishing Gaiman’s goal. Why not introduce people to that soul with faces from Avengers movies?

In Biblical fashion, Gaiman begins the book with an account of the Norse creation story and ends it with the glorious catastrophe of Ragnarok. For these, and all stories in between, I found myself naturally striving to find commonalities and contrasts within the Judeo-Christian tradition. Assuredly, scholars dedicated to this study may provide better insights but I specifically noted a distinct lack of “good” and “evil”. The gods of Norse Mythology share commonality with God only in name. In character, they embody more humanity than deity, notwithstanding their supernatural capabilities. Seemingly governed only by a moral system of honor in oaths and balanced vengeance, they strive for wisdom, consider any means to accomplish an end and dedicate their existence to stopping their own end which, ironically, one can argue is of their own making.

And yet their end only spawns a new beginning derived from powers beyond their ken. They may create the control systems familiar to humans, but laws of balanced extremes and fate came before which they cannot control. Unlike the Judeo-Christian God, Odin suffers the same human confines of fate and mortality and does not exist before the beginning or after the end.

These myths do not seek to explain scientific phenomenon or describe a “backwards” people. Any indications of this only serve to engage audiences and differentiate the supernatural characteristics of these gods. Rather, these myths explain the nature of people, the struggles they encounter and the questions with which they wrestle. Any argument to the contrary results from an indefensible and partial reading of the stories. In all, an entertaining book rich with academic value appropriate for any age.