Sagas of the Norsemen: Viking and German Myth (Myth & Mankind , Vol 5, No 20) by Auerbach, Loren, Simpson, Jacqueline (1998) Hardcover

Myth and Mankind

by Loren Auerbach

Excellent Book

Genres: Nonfiction, Mythology, History, Reference, Folklore, Religion, German Literature

Hardcover

First published September 1, 1998

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew virtually nothing about these Norse myths before reading this, so it was a real eye-opener and a great way to get an overview.

The Norse mythological world had three levels. The Asgard was where the Aesir, or gods lived, like their Mount Olympus. The Midgard was the world of humans. And the Nifheim was the underworld of the dead. They were all linked by this big Ash Tree called Yggdrasill, or the World Tree.



The story of Yggdrasill was one of my favorites. It provided protection and nourishment, and it suffered along with all the creatures. Even in later times, trees were venerated and thought of as guardians in Norse and German cultures.

There were lots of battle stories, as you’d expect. This volume had wonderful pictures of Viking symbols and why they were important (lots of helmets and hammers and horses), and beautiful carvings of ships and trees and a gorgeous wheel of life that represents the sun moving across the sky.

But what was most interesting was the end of the world story.

“The concept of an inescapable fate was deeply embedded in the whole of Norse mythology, for the myths told of a future catastrophe, Ragnarok, in which gods and mankind would be entirely destroyed.”

I love how this mirrors our own lives, which we know will have an end.

“Norse people imagined the creation of the world, its cosmology and its inevitable final destruction, as a single unit in a continuing cycle of creations, each of which ended in an apocalypse before the world was renewed. Humans fitted into this cosmic scheme as one of several types of beings, each group contributing to the lives of the others.”

Ragnarok was the apocalypse, consisting of three years of battles caused by greed, then three terrible winters with no summer in between, then a wolf would swallow the sun and the moon, then there’d be a huge earthquake, then the ocean would surge onto the land, and ultimately the gods would kind of fight it out. The ones that prevailed would preside over a new creation, populated by two people hidden throughout all of this in the ash tree Yggdrasill.

A cycle, of course. In the end, a beginning.

[Krystal Leonardo von Seyfried · Rating 5 out of 5]

left at my house by two people who mean a lot to me, on one of the most painful nights of my life. opened it up the next morning and read it cover to cover cause i just needed to connect with these stories... helped me greatly.

nice, quick little introduction to norse and germanic myth in general. i'm familiar with the norse material and very familiar with the dragon slayer siegfried, but honestly i didn't learn a ton of new stuff, except for maybe the later myths based on historical figures, like dietrich of bern, gudrun, and tannhäuser. the pictures are nice but it's clear that archaeological research on this material is very lacking compared to other cultures and civilizations. it is depressing.

this is a great overview. i like how the author retold things simply in big, pretty format. i think the art included was as good as an author liek this could get for a book on heathenism published in the late 90s. really like how they included that people still worship and believe in these beings, as i consider myself one of them.

i love how they put siegfried on the cover. he doesn't get enough attention in the myths, and they usually put odin or thor on the cover. i read a lot of different material on the old european myths, and this is a nice book to have. easy on the eyes and easy for anyone to understand. thank you trevor and nathan!

[Paul Groos · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick and easy path into the basics of Norse myth, in this case a curious but effective combination of Viking, Germanic and English mythology. Nicely illustrated, although the editors were clearly struggling to link the pictures to the stories. Because the iconography rarely links clearly to any story, a lot of assumptions had to be made and the captions contain a lot of “might”s and “could”s.
This book should be read as an invitation to delve deeper into the rich world of Northern European mythology.

[Jsrott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather enjoyable and well researched foray into Norse/Germanic culture. I enjoyed particularly how it didn't focus solely on the myths but also discussed the stories of the heroes such as Beowuld, Sigfried, Sigurd, and others I had not heard of before. It also talked about the stories in their larger context as insights into the ancient cultures and the influence Christianity had on the way those myths were shaped in later years. I'd like to check out the rest of these books.

[Naomi Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a 3.5 than a 3, but not quite a 4. A good basic overview and way more respectfully done than the National Geographic one by Donna Jo Napoli. At the end the author actually mentioned modern day Heathenism and Asatru and was aware that people still believe in these gods, which was surprising coming from a book printed in the 90's when the one printed a few years ago was very much not like that. Goof for Loren Auerbach. Also included some great pictures of artifacts and medieval paintings.

[Colleen Villasenor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an overview of Germanic and Nordic mythology. It was interesting, but it was somewhat disjointed. It showed the Nordic myths in an unsanitized nature that we have to some extent forgotten. The gods were capricious and quarrelsome. Only warriors who died in battle deserved the highest honor. The influences of these myths are visible today in the names of the week and in much of our contemporary fantasy.

[Coleen Dailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short overview of Viking and German myths. I particularly liked the photos that the put with the myths. I love the archaeological artifacts that they use to illustrate the stories. If you like Norse mythology but don't want to spend a lot of time reading the sagas, this is a great book.

[Galaxy Fink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another easy little book. A decent mix of history and mythology, but it lacks the charm that mythology needs.

[Marilyn Fontane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sagas of the Norsemen: Viking and German Myth by Loren Auerbach is certainly the best of the Time-Life Myth and Mankind series that I have read so far. In fact very recently I read Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, and this book, while perhaps not as "literate," is far better as a source both for the myths themselves and certainly the background of the myths. It does combine myths from all Germanic speaking peoples, with some slight division of the North Germanic (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic) and West Germanic (Dutch, Flemish, and English) subgroups. During the Migration Age (AD 400-800) it even covers stories the Lombards brought to Northern Italy. Not only does it provide for a large selection of the myths themselves (and in as detailed, but much clearer accounts, than Gaiman) but sets the historical stage and explains the rituals (as far as we know them) that make them understandable. The illustrations of artifacts and the natural setting make the study even more pleasurable. I found this to be an excellent introduction to help me not only understand who the main gods (and few goddesses) were, but to understand the relationship of dwarves, elves, giants, and selected monsters to the stories. Well worth the fairly short read!
Reread this three years, and many other semi-related books, later, and I still find it a worthwhile source to review and and refresh one's knowledge of the Germanic Myths.

[Fawn Hexe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Getting the 'basics' here...and I like looking at all the pictures of artifacts. ;)

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading "American Gods," I felt like a refresher on Norse myth. The book/series is just that - a good, simple, basic refresher on Germanic myth and folklore. Nice pictures, too.