An Introduction to Viking Mythology

by John Grant

This book takes a fresh look at the best-loved and most exciting stories that make up the rich body of Viking mythology. It begins by introducing each of the characters that feature in the the goddesses Freya, Frigga, Iduna, Hela, the gods Odin, Thor, Loki, Balder, Frey and countless other giants, elves, dwarves, Norns and Valkyries, heroes and heroines of the mythical Viking world. It then covers the creation, the tales of the gods and goddesses (which naturally form the major part of the book), ending with the death of the gods and goddesses.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, History, Folklore, Reference

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

John Grant is author of over eighty books, of which about twenty-five are fiction, including novels like The World, The Hundredfold Problem, The Far-Enough Window and most recently The Dragons of Manhattan and Leaving Fortusa. His “book-length fiction” Dragonhenge, illustrated by Bob Eggleton, was shortlisted for a Hugo Award in 2003; its successor was The Stardragons. His first story collection, Take No Prisoners, appeared in 2004. He is editor of the anthology New Writings in the Fantastic, which was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award. His novellas The City in These Pages and The Lonely Hunter have appeared from PS Publishing.

His latest fiction book is Tell No Lies , his second story collection; it's published by Alchemy Press. His most recent nonfiction is A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir . Earlier, he coedited with John Clute The Encyclopedia of Fantasy and wrote in their entirety all three editions of The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney’s Animated Characters; both encyclopedias are standard reference works in their field. Among other recent nonfictions have been Discarded Science, Corrupted Science (a USA Today Book of the Year), Bogus Science and Denying Science.

As John Grant he has to date received two Hugo Awards, the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, and a number of other international literary awards. He has written books under other names, even including his real one: as Paul Barnett, he has written a few books (like the space operas Strider’s Galaxy and Strider’s Universe) and for a number of years ran the world-famous fantasy-artbook imprint Paper Tiger, for this work earning a Chesley Award and a nomination for the World Fantasy Award.

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this book offers a decent overview of Norse Mythology, it has a few notable faults. Firstly, I found it to be more judgemental than informative in several places. I feel it is important when discussing mythology to not do so through the lens of our own societal values, but rather to simply present the information. Secondly, there were several inconsistencies within the book; ie, parentage of several gods and upon which side Hel will fight during Ragnarok.

[Beorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thorough, relatively in depth if somewhat occasionally pretentious coverage of the pantheon of Norse mythology which is far more vast, interwoven and murky than most people realise.
A great place to start for those interested, though probably doesn't add much for those who have already began looking into the subject.

[Laia San José Beltrán The Valkyrie’s Vigil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un libro tremendamente sencillo, pero para comenzar a tener una idea sobre el tema o para público infantil cumple su función totalmente.

[Ginger Heskett]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14360560

[170182 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author had spent a lot of time writing the book and it is very easy to tell. I am not too sure that each part is accurate but most of the things he writes about are very brief and he doesn't really go that much into detail about the Viking Mythology. He does in detail about some parts of the Viking Mythology and overall I feel that I have learnt quite a bit about the Viking Mythology. I never knew that it really existed. All I have really heard of from Viking Mythology was about the 2 gods; Thor and Odin and other than that, all I knew was that Odin was Thor's father. This book helped me get a much better understanding of the Viking's religion. When I thought of the Vikings I never thought that they really had a religion only because of the fact that the Vikings were so violent in those days. I never really knew that much about religions telling you to fight for your religion and beliefs other than the Greek and Roman religion. Although he gave a slightly brief explanation for each god, he retold many of the stories really well and I was very interested in the book. Half of the book looks like a list of names with brief descriptions whilst the other half has a few names of stories or gods and has a detailed story about it.

[Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to Norse myth. It is very easy to read and gives a good grounding in the myths and something of the attitudes to the gods beyond the stories about them. It covers the stories of legendary heroes.

This book is very attractively laid out. There are lots of full colour illustrations and photographs: from archeological artefacts to illustrated manuscripts and nineteenth century romantic images (including a couple of Arthur Rackhams).

It starts with an encylopedia of names - listing gods, goddesses, giants and dwarfs, valkyries and every other type of legendary figure. After this are more detailed looks at the stories of creation, of the different gods, of the heroes and, finally, the story of Ragnarok, the end of the world.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

The primary value of this book is the illustrations, and the snarky tone Grant takes in describing the myths. I enjoyed it a lot, but I'm glad I'd already read some other works on the Norse myths, because this is definitely an "introduction"--the space limitations of the work caused everything to be reduced to the bare essentials.

However, this is an extremely valuable resource for the fact that it's the only work I've read that includes lesser-known details from the myths: Thor and Sif's daughter, the worship of Loki by the peasant classes, and so on. That was a huge appeal for me, and I recommend it on those grounds. Just, like I said, you should have a baseline for the myths beforehand: the prose edda, the D'Aulaires' work, or some other more in-depth collection.

[Ninon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that the only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars, is because there's a lot of "whoops" in the beginning with the introductions of the gods, jotuns and dwarfs... in one paragraf the god has this father, in another it's a different father all of a sudden... and some of the people have the wrong sex (in more than one occation the gender of a couple has been switched)... it's a little confusing! It might be a glitch in the translation.. dunno!

Other than that I found it to be a great book!! Nicely written, pleasant to read and with a lot of information!! There was quite a few things in there I didn't know about/ never heard of before!!
It's a good book for "introduction to Viking Mythology"! :)

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book has a good background on norse myths and is very easy to understand, but since it has some flaws, I would recommend to look for other book if you are interested about norse mythology. It gives a little background information about each character, then tells one or more of the characters adventures. It also tells a little about the end of the world or ragnarok.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book covered much of the mythology, but was very dry reading and the author seems uncomfortable when describing the more undesirable aspects of Viking life. This book might be a good introduction for minors, and I may keep it as a reference book until I come across something more complete. It was not enjoyable to read.

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Grant has taken on the seemingly impossible task of bringing Viking mythology to light. He did a great job of retelling stories that were only passed down via word-of-mouth over hundreds of years because of the illiteracy in the

[Elena]

Como introducción está muy muy bien. Ahora quiero más.
(el sarcasmo es lo mejor: ...Thor, como de costumbre, empezó a demostrar su capacidad para un debate racional. Lo primero que se le ocurrió fue darle un fuerte martillazo en la frente a Skrymir..., etc)