Norse Myths

The World's Greatest Myths and Legends

by Jake Jackson (Editor)

The Vikings and their Norse gods fought a constant battle with nature. Their landscape, with its stark mountains and long nights created a particularly rough mythology, with profound contrasts and unforgettable heroes: Odin, Thor, and Loki are just some of the familiar characters that maintain an influence over us today through movies, TV series and comics, as well as fantastic fiction and epic poetry. An intense sense of fate also permeates the stories, offering a view of the beginning, end and rebirth of the world. This fabulous new book offers all the main tales with an introduction to the characters and the land that inspired them.

Part of a new series on The World's Greatest Myths and Legends, these books capture the mystery and drama of ancient legends through all the key stories and folktales featuring gods, heroes, monsters and animals, as well as common themes such as creatures, love, death and courage. Each book features an introduction to the history, landscape, characters and culture of the mythology.

Genres: Mythology, Classics, Nonfiction, Folklore, Religion, History, Collections

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2014

About the author

SF and dark fantasy author but also a writer/creator of practical music books - Beginner's Guide to Reading Music, Guitar Chords, Piano Chords, Songwriter’s Rhyming Dictionary and How to Play Guitar. Other publications include Advanced Guitar Chords, Advanced Piano Chords, Chords for Kids, How to Play the Electric Guitar, Piano & Keyboard Chords, Scales and Modes and Play Flamenco. Also editor of Mythology books 

Released EP Jakesongs on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, LastFM, etc and on CDBaby. Lifelong passion for fantastic worlds of any kind, from movies to fiction, art to music, posters, album and paperback book covers.

Jake Jackson is the artist name for Nick Wells, Publisher of Flame Tree Press / Flame Tree Publishing.

Reviews

[Tony Calder · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is part of a series from Flame Tree Publishing that looks at the mythology of other (non Judeo-Christian) people. This is not a large book, so it can't go into a huge amount of detail, but it does cover the important areas. There are sections on the major gods - Odin, Frigga, Thor, Loki - each have their own chapters, as do the lesser gods, and the dwarves, elves and giants. There are a couple of sections on the Eddas, including the best known - the Sigurd Saga (the basis for Wagner's ring cycle of operas).

The book ends with a discussion of the similarities between Norse and Greek mythologies, and this section caused me to take a star off my review - not because the author does a bad job of showing the similarities, but because in many, many cases, he uses the Roman names for the Greek gods - referring to Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto and Mercury instead of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades and Hermes. I realise there is a near exact equivalence between them, but if one is discussing Greek myths, one should use the Greek names for the gods. A pet peeve of mine :)

[Alexmariee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took me two attempts to finish this book. Though it supplies many of the Norse mythological stories, each one is very hard to get into, and they then go on to repeat themselves more often than not. The comparative segment at the end also made a huge assumption that you already were familiar with Greek mythology therefore would not be good for some one looking to learn about mythology for the first time.

[Bri Lamb · Rating 2 out of 5]

The telling of these myths felt very dry and not very entertaining, compared to other accounts of the myths I have read. The myths also tended to jumble together and at times got very repetitive. Also, towards the end of the book, it felt like information was just thrown in without first explaining the context. If you don't have a background in Norse mythology, you would be lost a those parts. For example, they mentioned Ratatosk at the very end (was not mentioned anywhere else in the book) and expected the reader to know the background already while telling a completely different story. They also substituted the Greek god/goddess names for the Roman names at the end, and tended to interchange Norse spellings of names. Overall, there are better books out there for Norse myth info and history

[Triston Hansford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came here to read some reviews after beginning to read this book because I wanted to see what others were feeling, and felt the need to add. I hate to “kick a man while he’s down” but while reading this, I noticed quite a bit of grammatical errors. Usually this isn’t something to dwell on, but a lot of it I feel would have been caught on an initial read through. This made me question the actual content of the book, but I hesitate to do so because I have little to no prior knowledge of Norse mythology (the reason I’m reading this to begin with). No one is immune to errors, I’m sure I have some in this review. However when combined with the dry and repetitive nature in this book, it’s become hard to read. I really wanted an in-depth discussion of the myths, including the controversy surrounding the fragmented information used to compile these myths but I feel like I’ve only been given one side of the myths I’ve read through so far. To elaborate, I feel as though I’m being told this author’s opinion on the lore surrounding these myths, and I’m not being given any information on any other possibilities. For example in the small amount of independent research I did (googling) I seem to remember some controversy surrounding Frigga, Frey and/or Freyia, and Heather or not they were or would have actually been the same person. I’ve gotten no information regarding that controversy in the book (so far anyways).
Sorry this was lengthy, but I’ll try and update as I continue.

[Daniel Frederickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intent on introducing readers to ancient/classical myths and folk tales "Norse Myths" is one in a series. Naturally, it can only skim the surface material and gives the subject a broad overview including creation, various origins, common folk stories, semi-historical Icelandic accounts, and the end of the world-Ragnarok.

While it tells several stories very well, ultimately, this work suffers from attempting too much. The writer gives commentary on folk origins, comparative religions, and variant interpretations all while trying to narrate in a compelling manner. Some stories that deserve more space were shortened, while other stories too complex for an introductory anthology should have been left out entirely.

The result is a muddled compendium of stories that fail to grab the reader's full attention. I do not recommend this take on Norse mythology, especially since there are so many other books available on the subject.

[Jonathan Hatch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Norse Myths is a novel that summarizes all of Norse Myths; everything from the beginning of time to the end of the world. I gave the book a three out of five because it didn't enthrall me, unlike other titles I have read. The books' stories are in the third person, and they do an excellent job of describing the scenery in which the stories unfold. It made me feel like I was in the world, but it didn't make me feel like I knew the characters. I didn't know why the gods did what they did or how they felt while doing it. I felt the book left me unsatisfied, but I could see a particular type of person(a person who values plot over characters) liking the book. The reasons above are why I gave the book a three out of five.

[Indre Staponkute · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nuo ko pradėti? Šita knyga turi labai, labai daug trūkumų. Pirmiausia, nors ir autorius pamini, iš kur paimti mitai, tačiau tų autorių, nėra išnašose. Taip pat, prieš perpasakojant mitus, yra stulpeliai iš edų. Kodėl nėra išnašose nėra minima, iš kurios, edos paimtas stulpelis? Antra, citatos. Cituoja kažką, o iš kur citatos, neaišku. Taip pat trūksta išnašų. Ar yra sunku autoriui juos pamimėti? Trečia, palyginimas su graikais. Paskutiniame skyriuje kalbama apie Skandinavusi ir Graikus, tačiau naudojami ne graikiški dievų vardai, bet romėniški. Taip yra klaidinami skaitytojai. Šita "knyga" net nėra verta vienos žvaigždutės ir knygos vardo

[Paul Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a pretty rundown of the North mythological stories. In the last chapter, the author gave a comparative segment in which he talks about the similarities of the stories and characters of the Norse myths to the Greeks and Romans. And also, the author assumed that the readers are already familiar with the Greek and Roman mythological stories—Just wished that the author wrote the last chapter as if the reader doesn't know anything about it. In that way, it would be good for someone looking to learn about mythology for the first time.

[Minaeliza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why three stars? This is an edited collection of translations and therefore you would expect it would be edited well. It is not. There are so many errors and repetition. One story had a random paragraph from a different story at the end of it. Multiple times a character’s name was mixed up with another. Some stories are told in a confusing manner where they just don’t make sense as a flow of events. Many times, parts of stories are repeated in others. I enjoyed the content, it was just poorly presented.

[Ren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing made this book a little uninteresting at times and it was a bit repetitive for like the first quarter of the book, but overall I enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed the sections about the Sigurd Saga and the Story of Frithiof, as I had never read those before and they were really entertaining. I also didn't understand why at the end when they were comparing Norse gods to Greek gods while using the Roman names of the roman equivalents of the Greek gods??

[Madison W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I dunno why I read these tbh they’re suuuuch a drag. This is probably my last one. At least this one I could understand but I wish he would pick one name for a god and stick with it it’s less confusing. Like call him Loki OR the name he had in the beginning stop changing it up.

Only got through it in the end because I was just waiting around trying to get a wandering trader to spawn in minecraft and was like “might as well” there are probably way better mythology books out there

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This gets 2 stars because the end section is a comparision of the Greek and Norse myths. Except that all of the Greek gods are called by their Roman equivalent names. If you want to make a good book, make sure you know which effing gods you're talking about.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This text would have been made much more useful as a reference book by an index. Also, I'd personally prefer a more Jungian approach to interpreting these myths rather than an interpretation of every story as a way to explain the physical landscape and the seasons.

[dinoscongeladoss · Rating 1 out of 5]

Muy repetitivo, no soy fan de la redacción y no pude concentrarme por más que intentaba! 😫
Hay varias cosas erróneas o incompletas y en la sección de "Mitología comparativa" debían comparar la mitología griega con la nórdica pero todos los nombres son romanos.

[Conrad · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's probably my favorite from the series so far. My only knowledge of Norse mythology comes from Marvel, so reading that Loki was a brother of Odin and Hela was Loki's daughter, rather than sister, was not expected. I also enjoyed the comparison of Norse and Greek mythology at the end.

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

More to be used as a reference to look up myths and stories- doesn’t read well through. I found it to be rather dull and impossible to just sit and read. Fine I’m smaller snippets for legends etc.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for an overview and this fit the bill. Interesting stuff.

[Linda Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

A scholarly text the tells the stories of Norse mythology. Not light reading but fascinating. Would have liked more analysis.

[Ezra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this after reading Rick Riordans Magnus Chase. After reading that, this book was easier to follow.

[Eduarda Fiúza · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Laura Decroos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice stories, liked a bit more of a complete story though

[James Llanos · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh! just a bunch of badly written and not edited properly, nonetheless it is interesting at some point where it compares the greek and the north.

[airy xie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not complete, but for novice, it's easily understand and smoothly sliding you mesmerizing Nordic myths.

[Amanda Warwick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not worth reading. It is terribly written

[Ein Barney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does a fine job, though repeats itself often.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I immediately forgot what I read the second I turned a page.......... but it was fun to read up stuff even if my eyes and brain glazed over names and I was confused like 50% of the time

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting stories. Moves from story to story relatively quickly which makes this easy to put down.

[nel · Rating 3 out of 5]

good book but hard to keep focus because of writing style and organization

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read with finding out more involved legendary stories.

[Katy Sites · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to Norse mythology but ultimately a book of summaries of the myths and the Supreme beings.