Norse Myths and Legends: Tales and Sagas of the Gods and Heroes

by Emilie Kip Baker

Genres: Mythology, Fiction, Fantasy

256 pages, Hardcover

Published November 26, 2024

About the author

Emilie Kip Baker was married to Franklin T. Baker, founder of the Department of the Teaching of English at Columbia Teachers College.

Reviews

[Shane Findlay]

I’ve read these ancient stories at least a dozen times. I’ll read them a dozen more. 3.75⭐️

[Keelia Brynn]

Most of this was stuff I’ve already read before, but this edition is so pretty.

[Leanne Cunningham]

3.5. Beautiful book. More suited to younger audience as quite simply written but great stories and good way to learn about the norse gods and goddesses and their relation to each other (Marvel is v incorrect!)

[Notreallyme]

4.3 Stars

Loved this! This was my first dive into norse mythology after reading tons of stuff about greek myths and it was absolutely amazing. This book tells a lot of different stories in a short and fun way and even though I often wished it to be longer and more detailed, it's a good place to start. It was very easy to understand and not confusing at all. It had a nice build up with the stories being (as far as I could tell) in chronological order. About halway through the book it switches from myths about gods to the tale of Siegfried, which confused me a little at first as it felt a bit abrupt, but I enjoyed it nontheless and the ending was really round and satisfying.

I will definetely be taking a closer look at some of the stories I read and try some more books that have more depth, so if you have any suggestions or recommendations, please tell me in the comments!

[Amy Layton]

I love all things Viking and when I saw this, it was an impulse buy as I knew I had to have it and I LOVED it.

I really enjoyed the short stories particularly because it scratches that itch of when I want to read but I don’t have much time. Around 6-8 pages each, it was ideal.

It was amazing to see how modernised retellings have skewered the original myths - spoiler: Loki and Thor are not brothers - and so there is definitely much to be learned from this book in such an accessible and quickly absorbed format.

There is a whole series of these Myths & Legends books - I’ve just purchased the Egyptian Myths & Legends and look forward to making my way through the rest of the series which includes Japanese, Irish and Greek.

[Milly]

Not the most thorough or accurate anthology of Norse myths but it made an easy and digestible read to gain some increased familiarity before returning to the Poetic Edda. Aided my ability to recognise stories when the Germanic names were given e.g., I recognised Hagen was Hogni etc.

[Rune Fey]

Beautiful edition that looks great on the shelf. Not my favorite translation though.

[Maren Langås]

Helt grei. Historiene er bedre på norsk