Вечната скандинавска митология

National Geographic Mythology

by Donna Jo Napoli

Класически легенди и удивителни илюстрации на богове, герои и чудовища оживяват в зашеметяващите скандинавски митове. Потопете се в историите за бога на гръмотевиците Тор, едноокият баща на боговете Один, богът-мошеник Локи и много още други. Приказното повествование на писателката Дона Джо Наполи ще ви накара да се влюбите във вечните приказки на древна Скандинавия.

Тази книга е третата в поредицата на National Geographic, включваща още „Вечната египетска митология” и „Вечната гръцка митология”.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, History, Audiobook, Childrens, Classics, Folklore

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 22, 2015

About the author

Donna Jo Napoli is both a linguist and a writer of children's and YA fiction. She loves to garden and bake bread, and even dreams of moving to the woods and becoming a naturalist.

At various times her house and yard have been filled with dogs, cats, birds, and rabbits. For thirteen years she had a cat named Taxi, and liked to go outside and call, "Taxi!" to make the neighbors wonder. But dear dear Taxi died in 2009.

She has five children, seven grandchildren, and currently lives outside Philadelphia. She received her BA in mathematics in 1970 and her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures in 1973, both from Harvard University, then did a postdoctoral year in Linguistics at MIT. She has since taught linguistics at Smith College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Georgetown University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and Swarthmore College. It was at UM that she earned tenure (in 1981) and became a full professor (in 1984). She has held visiting positions at the University of Queensland (Australia), the University of Geneva (Switzerland), Capital Normal University of Beijing (China), the University of Newcastle (UK), the University of Venice at Ca' Foscari (Italy), and the Siena School for the Liberal Arts (Italy) as well as lectured at the University of Sydney (Australia), Macquarie University (Australia), the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), and the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa) and held a fellowship at Trinity College Dublin. In the area of linguistics she has authored, coauthored, edited, or coedited 17 books, ranging from theoretical linguistics to practical matters in language structure and use, including matters of interest to d/Deaf people. She has held grants and fellowships from numerous sources, including the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the Sloan Foundation.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

I know I should perhaps not consider posting a review for a book that has been so disappointing that I have given up after approximately eighty odd pages or so, but honestly, and although I have ALWAYS absolutely loved Norse and Germanic mythology (and also usually push through with finishing even books I find grating and annoying) I just cannot in any manner stomach author Donna Jo Napoli's writing style, her annoying tendency to retell Norse mythology in a type of modern day, youth oriented vernacular, in a parlance that sounds strangely like 20th or even 21st century teenagers yacking amongst themselves.

For Norse mythology is considered at least to and for me as emanating from a period in the distant and deeply prehistoric past, and even though I do feel a trifle guilty at abandoning Treasury of Norse Mythology I really cannot stand, I really cannot handle the author's textual butchering and annoyingly unreadable mordernisations any further and do feel that I have indeed read more than enough for an honest, but inherently negative review (especially since I also have not found Christina Balit's accompanying illustrations all that aesthetically pleasing, but rather majorly strange and actually not all that suitable for Norse/Germanic tales of myth and legend, as the visual images sure do NOT look very much Scandinavian, do not appear all that Germanic to my eyes, but rather feeling either Southern European or akin to silly comic book renditions in scope). And while I do appreciate that the author, that Donna Jo Napoli has included a list of the works, of the books she has citied and used, this is simply not enough for me to round up my one star ranking of Treasury of Norse Mythology to two stars, as yes indeed, Donna Jo Napoli's retellings personally leave absolutely everything to be desired, have not at all been either readable or even remotely enjoyable, acceptable (and truth be told, even the bibliography seems to have some rather obvious informational gaps, some books on Norse and Germanic mythology that should be included but sadly and frustratingly have been not been).

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a rather short & simplified version, but possibly better for that. It's been a long time since I read any Norse myths & they can be confusing. Napoli does a great job of explaining that. There are a lot of versions available since these are basically the Icelandic version of the Germanic mythology. Snorri Sturluson is responsible for writing down many of these around 1200CE in the Prose Edda. Others come from various sagas, so some characters are named the same &, like any religion, this one is full of wild & weird ideas.

I really like the whole cycle thing with the gods being born, living their odd lives, & eventually succumbing to their various fates in Ragnarok when they pretty much all die, but many of their children, other creatures, & humanity go on. Other polytheistic religions do this such as the Hindus. Both have multiple worlds, too. The Norse have 9 worlds, while the Hindus have 14. Interesting that 2 such far flung cultures have so many similarities.

I met a lot of strange characters in this one. The god of poetry, Kvasir was created by the gods all spitting into a pot. He was later killed & his blood was hotly contested due to its potency. Odin, the All Father is extremely tough both on himself & everyone else. His blood bond with Loki created a lot of problems. Loki was interesting. I hadn't realized he was Sleipnir's (Odin's 8 legged horse) mother. Yep, mother, not father. He fathered some pretty nasty kids, though.

It was a lot of fun as an audio book & I highly recommend it. The print version might be better since it has some illustrations that sounded intriguing.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Note on Norse Names
Creation
The Cosmos
The Gods Clash
Odin's Quest
Loki's Monstrous Children
Wagers & Treasures
Shape-Shifters
Heimdall's Many Children
Freyja's Shame
Thor's Hammer
Thor the Greedy
Idunn's Apples
Skadi & Njord
Frey & Gerd
Death by Blunder
The Gods Take Vengeance
Kvasir's Enduring Poetry
Destruction
Afterword
Map of the Ancient Norse World
Time Lines of Norse History
Cast of Characters
Bibliography
Index

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

To my eyes, this looks to be an upstart competitor to the D'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants, which for nearly fifty years has stood as classic introduction to Norse myths for children. On first glance, the newer book seems more or less equivalent. Most of what is covered is the same, and the size of the book and the number of illustrations compare well. Closer inspection, however, shows a number of flaws. These involve both the illustrations and the text.

The illustrations are colorful and the design is appealing, with gorgeous borders and backgrounds, but the depictions of figures are simply ugly. For giants, monsters, and the like this would be fine, but even the beautiful goddesses have been drawn in a kind of pseudo-Picasso style that intentionally skews the natural proportions of the face and body. I don't see this as being appealing or edifying for children. Being that this is from National Geographic, there are also a bunch of little photos included in the sidebars, mostly nature images.

The text is also problematic. Instead of telling the myths in a straightforward manner, with respect, it takes a modern-day tone that is aloof and superior. A few examples:

"The wolf was no dummy" (p.48)
"The mason looked at Freyja googly-eyed. He was drunk on her beauty." (p.65)
"Yes, indeed, Heimdall was important. Majorly." (p.75)
"Yikes. Mjolnir had barely wounded the giant, much less killed him. The four snuck away and worried half the night." (p.97)
"Yikes and double yikes." (p.98)
"Loki, oh, Loki, Loki, Loki - he just couldn't keep himself from wicked deeds." (p.142)

I think the decision to present some stories with the gods in dialogue was handled poorly. Direct quotations that show them (apparently) speaking in modern English with contractions destroy the sense of, well, godliness, I suppose. Other books have used dialogue, but in, for example, Padraic Colum's The Children of Odin, the spoken language is *more* refined than the narration: "Thou, a Van, in love with a maid of Jotunheim! This is fun indeed! Will ye make a marriage of it?" Of course, everyone knows that nobody was using this Old English kind of speech, but it serves the purpose of setting the characters in the story above the mundane.

While the juvenile jargon ("yikes" - what editor let this go unchallenged?? Is no one over the age of 12 employed by the publisher?) seems to pander to a semi-literate audience, there are other instances where the content seems to be inappropriate for children:

"He told a bawdy story about a goat accompanying him to market and a tug-of-war that involved a lot of noise and no small amount of pain to Loki's private parts [...]" (p.119)

"He had the hammer placed on his bride's lap, near those warm thighs." (p.91) Is that necessary? I'm not disputing that the original myths may include some adult content, but this new book is not presented for adults.

The biggest offense of the text is that it comments on the stories instead of just telling them. In doing so, the author's values are imposed upon the reader:

"It was Thrym who had stolen the hammer in the first place, not his sister and not his guests. Yet all of them lay slaughtered. Humans loved Thor; they saw him as protecting them against the giants. But was he protecting anyone that night? Thor worried that dressing as a woman would shame him. No, no, no. His own taste for blood and gore - that was the real dishonor in him. Shame, shame on Thor." (p.91)

"The idea of balance - of a punishment that fit the crime - was foreign to Thor. That these two children should hereafter spend their lives in servitude never fazed him, such was his sense of self-importance. But then, he was a god - and gods were important, after all." (p.95)

It is as if the author is unwilling to let the myths stand on their own in a (relatively) pure form, to be accepted or judged on their own merits. What is more important is her 21st century opinion. Elsewhere, an afterword addresses three kinds of inconsistencies in the tales and how she handles them. I disagree that the first kind (logical inconsistency) needs to be mentioned in the body of the text, but the author says, "So I mention it at the end of the chapter as a question for the reader," and "So I question her behavior right there in the chapter." I find this intrusive and obnoxious. It assumes that all readers will react in the same way. This is (supposedly) a book for children - why not let them just enjoy it? There are appropriate places to deal with such things outside of an illustrated introductory book.

In addition to the stories, there are little tangential sidebars (mostly dispensable, but occasionally useful) and appendices (map, timeline, etc.). The "Cast of Characters" is a bit inept, however, with five database-type fields (Name, Norse name, Known for, Lineage, and Married to) included without exception - even when entirely inappropriate (oh, the Midgard serpent was married to "unknown"? Good to know.). Instead, short paragraphs would have been better. These could include all necessary information without the need to list "unknown" when that detail is missing.

The bibliography lists 34 sources, most of which are oh-so-relevant, such as "Adaptive Significance of Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination in a Fish," "Voices Out of Africa in the Twentieth-Century Spanish Caribbean Literature," "Women in the Viking Age," "Sex Change in Plants and Animals," "Monocephalus Tetrapus Dibrachius in a Calf", and "Seasonal Affective Disorder". There are a number of adult books on the myths, but what are glaringly missing are books such as the D'Aulaires' (and other classic children's introductions to the Norse myths like Abbie Farwell Brown's In the Days of Giants and Padraic Colum's The Children of Odin: The Book of Northern Myths) that would have been useful in seeing how these myths have been presented to the target audience. Or maybe it's very intentional, and this book is designed to stand in opposition to those others.

My judgment is that this book does nothing as well as the D'Aulaires' book and actually does some things much worse.

[Abigail · Rating 2 out of 5]

American author Donna Jo Napoli and British illustrator Christina Balit, who have also produced volumes on ancient Egyptian and classical Greek mythology, as well as the stories of the Bible, and the Arabian Nights, here explore the world of Norse mythology. As with the two other mythological titles, Napoli begins with the creation of the world, discusses the division of the cosmos into levels, and the role of the great tree Yggdrasil in nurturing all. The conflicts between the Aesir gods, who lived in Asgard, and the Vanir gods, who lived in Vanaheim, are covered, as are the conflicts between the gods and the frost and fire giants. The adventures of Thor, the many depredations of the trickster Loki - these and other stories are all told. The narrative concludes with the great battle of Ragnarok, which ended the cosmos as they then existed, and ushered in a new era. The final section of the book includes a historical afterword, a timeline, a list of characters, a bibliography, and an index...

After greatly enjoying this team's Treasury of Egyptian Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Monsters & Mortals , only to find their Treasury of Greek Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes & Monsters far less pleasing, due to the author's intrusive moralizing, I approached Treasury of Norse Mythology: Stories of Intrigue, Trickery, Love, and Revenge with a bit of trepidation, wondering whether it would prove a pleasure or a penance to read. Sadly, it proved to be the latter, and I ended up finding it the weakest of the three titles. In fact, my rating of Napoli & Balit's books has fallen consistently, from four stars for the Egyptian volume, to three stars for the Greek, to this, two stars for the Norse. Not only did Napoli's unfortunate habit of offering intrusive moral judgments on her characters continue here, but she also had a tendency to use a childish tone and vocabulary that felt unsuited to the stories she was telling. As I mentioned in my review of the Greek volume, it isn't necessarily the case that I disagree with Napoli's conclusions - yes, Thor was frequently self-important and unjust; yes, there is a cowardice to the Aesir slaying Loki's sons, in order to punish him - but I don't need the author to form those conclusions for me. The inclusion of this constant moralizing not only feels condescending to the reader, but it throws them out of the story, reminding them that they, like the narrator, are outsiders to the culture being depicted, standing in judgment of it. The use of slangy contemporary words - the mason being "googly-eyed" over Freyja, the fact that the thralls gave their children "yucky" names, the exclamation of "yikes, and double yikes" when Thor confronts the giant - felt completely off. The worst of these moments is the one in which the narrator informs us that "Yes, indeed, Heimdall was important. Majorly." This kind of Valley Girl-speak felt wildly incongruous to me, in a retelling of such ancient stories.

Leaving aside such textual and storytelling issues, I found that I was not, to my very great surprise, pleased with the artwork either. The entire reason I tracked down these volumes was my great love for Christian Balit's work, so this was quite a shock. Although these paintings use the same vibrant colors, gold accents and decorative borders as her others, the human figures were, atypically, quite ugly, something I found difficult to understand. As someone who admires the artist's style, this judgment is not based on a rejection of that style. I have enjoyed her work in every other one of her books that I have picked up. I think the trouble here is that Balit almost always depicts Middle Eastern and/or Mediterranean peoples in her work. Perhaps she wanted these northern European figures to look different? Whatever the case might be, the coloring and composition here was wildly off, and some of the facial features looked incongruous. While I didn't particularly enjoy the narrative in Treasury of Greek Mythology , I at least appreciated the visuals, whereas here, I didn't even have that.

In sum, this is not a collection I would recommend. Fellow Balit fans can do far better elsewhere, as can those readers seeking a children's overview of Norse mythology. I recommend the classic D'Aulaires' Norse Gods & Giants , recently republished as D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths , instead.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because I was interested in the mythology and history behind them. Totally not at all because I wanted to better understand the next Thor movie.

[J. Sebastian · Rating 3 out of 5]

We read a story aloud each day from this collection as an introduction to the mythology in a beginning Old Norse class for highschoolers. The stories are enjoyable, and the illustrations by Christina Balit, rich in colour and texture, are beautiful; they are gorgeous. The language register is too informal, and this adds moments of humour where it seems out of place with the subject matter. It is not an appropriate book for children; there is one story that tells how Freya obtains her beautiful necklace from four nasty dwarves in a cave; they will not give it away for free, but if she is willing to spend one night as the bride of each, then the necklace is hers. She actually does this. It is a good story, but not a good story for boys and girls to store away in their minds. Then there is that tale where Thor and Loki decide to go on a killing spree. The mythology of the Norse is entertaining and most interesting, but this is not for children.

[Giselle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this! I'm not knowledgeable on Norse Mythology at all so I wanted to read an easy introductory about it. This was perfect. Simple and short I got a good look into a lot of the stories and histories. I loved Donna's conversational writing style. It really lent itself to being narrated by Christina Moore who is a favorite narrator of mine. All in all I thought this was great and I laughed my way through it! (Also, can I say how shocked I was to find out how similar to Greek (and Roman) mythology Norse mythology actually is? I had no idea.)

[K.L. Bernard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Treasury of Norse Mythology is filled with stories about gods, goddesses, trolls and giants. The territory of Norway and Iceland had mountains, volcanoes and parts that were barren. The Norse people explored and exploited other worlds. Stories of Norse myths stem from around 1180 A.D. Around 1225 an Icelander named Snorri created a major work called Snorra Edda or Prose Edda. Most stories of Norse mythology are based from Snorri’s work.

Readers of all ages will enjoy reading about the frost giants, Thor, Loki Skadi and Njord. Readers will see the myths unfold and also be able to read snippets about real Norse culture. There are sections covering the gods, Odin’s Quest, Loki’s children, Thor’s hammer and Freyja’s shame. Readers will find, even with all of the caos, Kvasir’s Enduring Poetry. During this time, poetry was an important part of life which shared Norse historical facts.

This giant treasure has tales, fact boxes with historical and cultural context. There is a guide for the Norse alphabet and names, a map of Scandinavia and the sea voyages of the Vikings and other resources for readers to learn more. This treasury has beautifully illustrated images by Christina Balit which depict the battles of these engaging stories of love, war, and magic in stunning geometric shapes and brilliant colors. This tool can be shared at home, in a classroom or anywhere.

[Erik This Kid Reviews Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Synopsis- Forget the Avengers – get the real mythology of Thor and Loki here! Thor, Odin, Loki, Frey, and giants OH MY! This book sums up the most common myths about the Norse gods and giants.

What I Thought- The first thing I noticed was the stained-glass look to the illustrations. They are breath-taking and add another dimension to Ms. Napoli’s writing style. Ms. Napoli has written a wonderful collection of Norse mythology for kids. She explains in her author’s note that there are inconsistencies in the myths, but she said that she did her best to avoid the obvious ones. The stories were crafted wonderfully and if there were inconsistencies, this discerning reader did not pick up on any. This book has a great selection of myths, and serves as a great introduction to Norse Mythology for children. In addition to the stories, there are fact boxes, maps, Scandinavian history, a bibliography for further reading and a guide to the characters in the myths. The stories can be read individually and should suit a wide range of reading levels. I enjoyed every page of this book!
*NOTE* I got a free copy of this book in exchange for and honest review

[Книжни Криле · Rating 5 out of 5]

Попадали ли сте на енциклопедия, която се чете увлекателно като приказка? А на сборник с приказки, който съдържа енциклопедични познания? Ако не сте, то това е защото все още не сте имали удоволствието да разлистите луксозната поредица на „Егмонт България” и „National Geographic”, съставена от Дона Джо Наполи и илюстрирана от Кристина Балит. Вече въздишахме по „Вечните арабски приказки” и се прехласвахме по „Вечната гръцка митология”. Днес е ред да затаим дъх пред „Вечната скандинавска митология”. Прочетете ревюто на "Книжни Криле": https://knijnikrile.wordpress.com/201...

[Janice · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a collection of stories from Norse mythology. There was a lot of murder, intrigue, and gods behaving badly. Plus the artwork is gorgeous. This was probably the first example of survivor. The only problem was that it could have probably been told with more excitement. I think that kids might put this down after a story or two. I'm not saying change the stories, but they definitely could have a more dramatic element. These are the kids raised on Harry Potter, Goosebumps, etc. They need more.

[Nathan McConville · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough. I was expecting a little more detail being a National Geographic publication. Seems like it was written for children or teenagers.

[Ren Puspita · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 bintang

Tidak seperti Mitologi Yunani yang orang lebih familiar apalagi didukung dengan banyaknya retelling versi feminis etc untuk tokoh2 mitologi Yunani (mungkin untuk mengimbangi mitologi aslinya yang emang sangat patriarki), tidak terlalu banyak yang ngebahas Mitologi Norse. Orang awam hanya tahunya dari film Thor saja. Padahal kalau jeli, sebenarnya Lord of The Ring sedikitnya dipengaruhi Mitologi Norse walau cenderung dari cerita Nibelungenlied, tapi Gandalf sendiri diambil dari sosok Woden, atau Odin. American Gods karya Neil Gaiman itu core mythnya adalah Norse, sampai yang bersangkutan juga nulis buku khusus Mitologi Nordik. Gue belum sempat baca dan malah baca buku ini dulu yang sebenarnya bisa dibilang versi lebih simpelnya dengan tetap dihiasi ilustrasi unik karya Christina Balit.

Tidak seperti Mitologi Yunani (karena gue bacanya juga back to back), tidak ada penjelasan khusus tentang dewa dewi karena mungkin dewa dewi Norse ga sebanyak itu. Fokus utama narasi Napoli lebih ke kisah Odin mencari kebijakan, Loki yang iseng dan licik (Loki versi Marvel ga ada seujung kukunya Loki yg asli 🤣) dan Thor yang tamak nan bodoh (Thor versi Marvel jelas dipake yang bagus2 saja walau sempat ada momen depresi). Karena gue juga ga terlalu familiar sama mitologi Norse, baca buku ini lumayan dapat insight lebih. Seperti Heimdall yang punya 9 ibu (jangan ditanya yg hamil semua atau salah satu aja) tapi ternyata juga mirip2 Zeus, hobi tebar benih di kaum manusia, cuma jauh lebih beradab tanpa kelihatan nafsu kayak Zeus. Dari Heimdall inilah tercipta 3 kasta di masyarakat Skandinavia, thrall (budak), karl (petani) dan jarl (kepala suku/bangsawan). Istilah thrall mungkin dah banyak yang tahu, tapi kalau Jarl gue tahu dari romansa viking. Hahaha, jadi ada gunanya juga kan baca romans?

Tentunya dewa dewi lain juga diceritakan, termasuk Frey dan kembarannya Freya. Mereka mungkin kayak Apollo tapi alih2 Artemis, malah Aprodite. Plus si Freya ini punya kalung Brisingamen persis seperti sabuknya Aprodite. Disini bisa dilihat kalau mitologi memang sedikit banyak saling mempengaruhi. Ada juga kisah Baldr yg sayang ga terlalu banyak yg tahu, mungkin karena Thor lebih terkenal (gegara Marvel). Keisengan Loki pun banyak dibahas plus juga hukumannya yg terkenal itu karena perannya dalam kematian Balder. Diawali dengan penciptaan (dimana raksasa Ymir dimutilasi badannya. Gue kadang mikir pujangga jaman dulu itu nyimeng apa sih), dan diakhiri dengan Ragnarok, perang yang mengakhiri kejayaan para Dewa Aesir, Vanir dan para Raksasa.

Napoli sendiri mengambil bbrp kisah mitologi Norse dari puisi Edda yang terkenal itu. Dalam catatannya, Napoli mengatakan kalau banyak inkonsistensi dalam mitologi. Menurut gue, semua mitologi pasti gini karena penyebaran awalnya pasti dari mulut ke mulut, diceritakan oleh pujangga saat sedang berkumpul didepan api unggun. Pun tiap pujangga punya versinya masing - masing. Bahkan Napoli sendiri juga melakukan tambal sulam di buku ini. Jadi ya jangan jadikan buku ini satu2nya sumber. Bagi gue, nuansa mitologi Norse memang terasa suram dan kejam, mungkin karena musim di Skandinavia yang dingin jadi mau g mau kisah2 mereka juga seperti itu.

Pastinya kalau suka mitologi in general dan mitologi Norse in particular, buku ini bisa jadi koleksian. Walau ga ada dewa yang sehorny Zeus, tapi ceritanya tetap pretty bonkers dan outlandish. Drama ya tetap ada tapi tidak sedramatis mitologi Yunani dengan segala perselingkuhan dan backstab sana sini. Kalau Zeus itu penopang mitologi Yunani, maka mitologi Norse ditopang Loki. Karena tanpa Loki, selain tidak ada Ragnarok (karena tiga anak Loki yaitu Fenrir, Jormungand dan Hel, semua berperan penting), bisa jadi para Aesir dan Vanir kurang hiburan 🙃🤭.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly exceptional. A beautiful collection of stories of Loki's mischief, Odin's immeasurable thirst for wisdom, Thor's unending quest for more and more, Freyja's desperation to fill the empty gap in her soul, and Frigga's dulling pain in her heart for what she has lost that can never be given back.

Napoli takes her storytelling powers to a whole new level- she orders the chapters perfectly so that it is as if multiple stories are woven into one long epic of the gods' trials, triumphs, and relationships. The end was especially awesome- there is no other word for it.

I thought that Greek Mythology would be my favorite mythology for all of time, but now Norse is my favorite, because of this book.

[Mila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeous! A treasure. Beautifully told and I love the artwork.

"Thor spent most of his time journeying in his chariot, pulled by his two goats, Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjost, in search of giants to kill. Though he had strength beyond all others, he still relied on three treasures in this quest. One was his belt, Megingjord; it doubled his strength. One was his iron gloves, Jarngreip; when he wore them, he could grip his hammer properly and swing it with effect. And the third was, of course, that hammer, the one that the brother dwarfs Brokk and Sindri had crafted for him: Mjolnir."

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty cool book. I've always been interested in mythology, so I decided to try out some Norse myths.
The stories were fun and entertaining to read and easy to understand. (I especially liked reading about Thor and Loki and comparing them to their movie counterparts!)
The illustrations in this book were also pretty cool. I love the author's writing style, and I'd recommend this book to people of all ages.

[Lillian Elliott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the pictures in this book. The pictures were beautiful, and that is the sole reason this book got two stars rather than one. That in itself should say enough about the writing, but I'll go into more detail.

This book was written for children, but I would not read it even to children. I read it out loud to my mom, and the only way I managed to get through it was because reading out loud meant that I could make sarcastic comments on the writing to my mom. I read this to learn about Norse mythology, and I achieved that, but it was not worth it. For one thing, the accounts were not particularly detailed or well explained, so I basically just got an outline and I'm going to have to read another book to actually learn the details of the myths. Second, Donna Jo Napoli included far too much of her own opinion for my taste. I read this to learn about Norse mythology, not what Napoli thought of them. She adds her own moral interpretations at the end of each chapter:

[M]aybe Frey got what he deserved.

Think of Vali and Nari. We know little of them. They may have been blameless, guilty of nothing more than being Loki's sons. Guilt by association... is that what the Aesir used to justify the violent undoing of these two men? What a cowardly thing.

I think when a collection of ancient mythological tales includes second person perspective, it's usually not a good sign. I doubt anyone is reading Norse mythology to teach their children moral values. I read a Treasury of Norse Mythology to learn about the myths and the ancient culture, not to be lectured on moral values. In addition, I strongly believe in teaching people how to think rather than what to think, and so spelling out for the reader that the Norse gods were not very moral goes against my values. I think that readers should be able to figure that out themselves from reading the stories, and the fact that Napoli feels the need to say it directly makes me wonder if she thinks her readers are stupid or immoral.

In addition to the unnecessary homilies, the writing was also just bad. She used the word "yikes," far too often, and included passages such as:

No, no, no. His own taste for blood and gore---that was the real dishonor in him. Shame, shame on Thor.

I could not help but read the stories sarcastically, because I can't read a phrase like that one seriously. She also felt the need to include that she didn't understand the mythology and found it illogical (as if mythology usually follows the rules of reality). Napoli said "I don't know how it [Draupnir] came to be in Skirnir's hands at any point. Bur, perhaps, if Skirnir has Draupnir, then Loki is dead. Yet at this point in my retelling, Loki is still alive." Napoli also mentioned that she was unsure of the chronology of stories, so she put them in the order she thought had the most dramatic effect. If the timeline that she made up does not make sense, I think that's an issue with her retelling, rather than an issue with the mythology.

The illustrations were gorgeous. My congratulations to Christina Balit for making images so beautiful that I'm going to keep this book in spite of Napoli's writing.

I don't recommend this book. I am going to try to find a more comprehensive and less sermonic account of Norse mythology, because the topic is interesting but this book is not a good source to learn about it. If I ever tell kids about Norse mythology, I will show them the pictures in this book and then summarize the stories in my own words. Although the pictures are pretty, I wouldn't have bought the book if I'd known the pictures were the only good part, so I can't recommend it solely based off that.

[cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dari segi cerita dan gaya penceritaan, jauh lebih bagus dan enak dibaca versi Gaiman Mitologi Nordik. Semua mitologi yg dibeber di sini semua ada di sana, kecuali tentang legenda anak-anak Heimdall.

Tapi dari segi tampilan, ya menang buku ini. Hardcover, kertas mewah, full color, dan ditunjang ilustrasi-ilustrasi menawan double page yang menyegarkan mata. Buku ini juga menyelipkan kolom kecil yg berisi ttg fakta-fakta sejarah yg berkaitan dengan kisah mitologi yg sedang diceritakan. Di bagian akhir ada tambahan garis waktu sejarah Norse. Kisi-kisi sejarah daratan dan bangsa Skandinavia dari zaman es hingga sekitar abad 11 M. *NatGeo bingit lah*

Collectible. Harganya itu aja yg bikin dompet mengaduh.

[Tracie Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Treasury of Norse Mythology by Donna Jo Napoli
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS: (Available as Print: ©9/22/2015; PUBLISHER: National Geographic Kids; ISBN: 978-1426320981; PAGES: 192; Unabridged.)
(Available as Digital: 9/22/2015; National Geographic Kids; PAGES: 219)

*This version: Audio : ©9/22/2015; PUBLISHER: Recorded Books, Inc.; ISBN: 978-1490695228; DURATION: 03:02:11; FILE SIZE: 86988 KB; Unabridged; PARTS: 3.

Main Characters:
Balder-Odin’s son
Fenrir-Loki’s wolf son
Freyja-Njord’s daughter, Frey’s sister
Frey-Njord’s son, Freyja’s brother
Frig-Odin’s wife
Gerd-Frey’s wife
Heimdall-Odin’s son
Loki-Trickster
Njord-Lover of boats and seas
Skadi-Thjazi’s daughter, Njord’s wife
Thor-Odin’s son-wielder of the hammer, Mjolnir
Odin-The Allfather god

(Feature Film or tv: No)

Series: No

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION
After reading the Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec, I wanted to know more about Norse mythology. This book was the perfect solution. The mythology is described and then there are notes about actual history. The combination made the mythology interesting and memorable.
I liked that when a character came into a story, we were reminded if we’d heard of the character previously. Another thing I enjoyed was that at the end, the author explains choices she had to make in the telling when there seemed to be discrepancies in the stories, like someone being mentioned as present at a time when they’d not yet been born.

AUTHOR:
Donna Jo Napoli (2/28/1948). The entire Wikipedia entry is interesting, but here are the first two paragraphs:
“Donna Jo Napoli (born February 28, 1948) is an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, as well as a prominent linguist.
She has worked in syntax, phonetics, phonology, morphology, historical and comparative linguistics, Romance studies, the structure of Japanese[citation needed], structure of American Sign Language, poetics, writing for ESL students, and mathematical and linguistic analysis of folk dance. She has taught linguistics at Smith College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Georgetown University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently a professor of linguistics and social justice at Swarthmore College.[2]”

It makes sense that she has a background in phonetics (among other things). One would need that with Norse names of people, places, and things.

(Christina Balit-illustrator): An excerpt from the biography page on Christina at biography-dot-jrank-dot-org:
“British-born writer and illustrator Christina Balit grew up in the Middle East, and her experiences living in this exotic culture are especially evident in her first published writing, An Arabian Home: Leila and Mustapha's Story, as well as in her illustrations of Arabian tales. In addition, even her illustrations of Bible stories are "reminiscent of ancient Near Eastern art," in the opinion of Booklist critic Todd Morning, writing in a review of Everlasting Stories: A Family Bible Treasury. The location of the tale she is illustrating also has an affect on Balit's style; in her self-illustrated titles Atlantis: The Legend of a Lost City and Escape from Pompeii, for example, she draws on Greek and Mediterranean art styles to better place readers inside the setting of each story."

I did look briefly at the digital version and enjoyed the illustrations. It was noted that clicking on them should enlarge them.

NARRATOR:
Christina Moore. An excerpt from AudioFile:
“Christina has a special niche with children's and young adult audiobooks for which she's traveled the world through many cultures, this year with SHIVA'S FIRE by Suzanne Fisher Staples. And she shows us magnificent work portraying the nuances and melodrama of adolescents in UNBROKEN by Jesse Haas and SHADOW BABY by Alison McGee. This year Christina has taken a few flights into fantasy with THE GAMMAGE CUP by Carol Kendall and HIGH WIZARDRY by Diane Duane. With bright style, Christina is terrific with youthful dialogue but shows potential for some grown-up listening in MISS LIZZIE by Walter Satterthwait. We also see her energy inhabiting fiction titles like SAVING GRACE by Lee Smith.--2001 Narrator Yearbook”
Christina's voice was perfect in this narration.

GENRE:
Juvenile Fiction; Mythology

LOCATIONS:
Jotunheim; Asgard; Iceland; Greenland; Norse cosmos;

SUBJECTS:
Norse Mythology; Norse gods; Scandinavia

DEDICATION:
“For Barry, il mio vichingo.” DNJ
“For my very dear friend Joe Boyle . . . a Norse traveler if ever there was one.” CB

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From “The Cosmos”
“The cosmos consisted of separate worlds arranged on three levels. In the middle level many creatures made a home. Humans had Midgard. Frost giants had Jotunheim. The gods needed a home, too. Now up on the top level of the cosmos there was only one world at this point: Alfheim. That’s where the light elves lived, happy souls. So the sons of Bor chose to build a world for the gods up there, beside Alfheim. They named the world of the gods Asgard. It had spreading green meadows and splendid meeting halls.
By now the deities had multiplied and they had welcomed into their group various other creatures, friendly giants and elves. Odin was looked at as the father god; they called him Allfather. And the deities of this huge family called themselves the Aesir. They built a flaming rainbow bridge called Bifrost that spanned the distance from Midgard up to Asgard. Between Bifrost’s flames and the high rock wall that surrounded the world, others were blocked from invading Asgard. But Bifrost’s flames welcomed the Aesir; they simply shimmered in three colors under the gods’ galloping horses as they passed across into their new dwelling.
The Aesir built a hall from a single slab of gold, called Gladsheim, and it served as their court. They built a hall specifically for the goddesses, called Vingolf. They built a home with a forge and made hammers, tongs, anvils, all manner of tools, and furnished it well with goods of stone and wood and metal. The dishes they ate from were gold.
Odin built his own hall, Valaskjalf, and thatched it with sheer silver. He sat there on a high seat called Hlidskjalf, from which he could look out over all the worlds in the cosmos.
Those worlds now included one more: Vanaheim. The gods had split into two groups, the Aesir, who inhabited Asgard, and the Vanir, who lived in Vanaheim. The Aesir saw themselves as the true rulers of the cosmos. Given that attitude, it was no surprise that the feelings between the Aesir and the Vanir were less than friendly. So Odin watched Vanaheim with special care.
Odin ruled from his high seat, a helmet on his head and a raven on each shoulder. At his feet crouched two wolves, Geri and Freki, ravenous beasts who ate whatever food Odin dropped for them, which was abundant, since Odin himself lived only on wine. But these two wolves were also rumored to feed on nasty things—maybe even the corpses of men.”

RATING: 5 stars. Well done.

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
3/13/2022 – 3/28/2022

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros:

It would be easy for children to read and follow, and it has a lot of handy info such as maps and a timeline of early Scandinavia.
It actually taught me, your resident Heathen, a few things I didn't know! (Such as how badly Loki had shamed Sif by cutting her hair. In medieval Scandinavia, free women were forbidden from cutting their hair or wearing it short, and only slave women were bald.)

Cons:

It portrays Loki and his children as fully wicked from the start, full stop. Maybe I'm just too sympathetic to Loki, but I disagree pretty heavily with that interpretation, especially considering the moral greyness Napoli affords everyone else.
She also says Snorri was respectful of the pagan myths he was writing about. L O L. Sorry, but no.

Otherwise this is a good introduction to the Norse myths for kids.

[Debra Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not know much about Norse Mythology I learned a little bit by reading three stories in this book. I read Shape-Shifters, Thor the Greedy, and Destruction. Each one of these stories was unique in its own way. In Shape-Shifters a mason comes to the gods saying that he can rebuild a wall for them in exchange for the sun, the moon, and marriage to Freyja. Loki convinces that others that this mason is up to no good, so he convinces the others that the mason should have six months to rebuild the wall. The mason agrees as long as his stallion can help him, even though the mason is very strong himself. The gods agree and the mason gets started right away. All is going too well, so one night a white mare comes and steals the stallion away, losing a night of work for the mason, enraged him so much that the mason turned into what he really was-a huge rock giant! Sometime later Loki returns after being gone and has a colt with eight legs, Sleipnir, following him around. Loki had been the white mare and was now the mother to this colt. Odin became very fond of the colt, so Loki gave Sleipnir to Odin.

In Thor the Greedy, Thor and Loki are traveling looking for giants, when they come across a farm house and seek shelter for the night. The family doesn't have much to offer them, but Thor offers up his goats as long as they put the bones back on the skin. The farmer's son, Thjalfi can not seem to let good marrow go to waste, so he splits a thighbone and throws it in the bone pile. When Thor goes to use his magic hammer in the morning to recreate the goats, he notices that one is limp. Since he knows that it is someone in the family to cause this he takes Thjalfi and his sister, Roskva as servants. Well the four of them leave to go look for giants. The next night they find a hall to sleep in, until they are awoken by a loud shaking, so thinking that it is an earthquake they go to a side room and Thor stands guard, but no one really sleeps, because the rumbling keeps occurring occasionally at different times during the night. When they wake they find that they are sleeping in a giant's glove and it was a giant that was snoring that was causing the rumbling. The giant, Skrymir, joins the travelers on their journey. During that next night while Skrymir sleeps Thor takes his hammer and hit Skrymir in the head trying to kill him three times, but each time Skrymir was not fazed by the hit. The next day Skrymir tells the other four to go home because there are bigger giants them him ahead. Not heading the warning they follow Skrymir to a hall where the four squeeze through the gate rods. Once inside the Giant King challenges Loki, to eat faster then Logi, Thjalfi, to run faster then Hugi, and because Thor couldn't stand to lose he took on three challenges, a drinking challenge, a weight lifting challenge, and a wrestling challenge. Everyone lost their challenge. They discover that the Giant King is really Skrymir who used illusion on in all of the challenges. Even after Skrymir pointed out that they should not be so greedy, Thor stopped by the farm to get his goats and kept Thjalfi and Roskva as his servants too.

Destruction is how the gods came to an end. In the story there was a war that went on that took out the nine cosmos and cleansed the earth. In the end there were only two humans left, Lif and Lifthrasir. They would have children. Then their children would have children. Then their children would have children. The cosmos would start again.

Not knowing much about Norse mythology I found myself getting very involved with the stories. Reading the introductory was very helpful. This book would be good for older age readers, 11-13. The stories are longer and have much bigger plots that are difficult to follow along for a younger reader, even if read to by an adult. I love under the title is says, "Stories of intrigue, trickery, love, and revenge". I would say I found a story about trickery by reading the Shape-Shifter, intrigue by reading Destruction, but just by selecting stories based on titles, I never found love or revenge. Guess I need to read some more.

Christina Balit's cover is amazing with the hints of "gold" in the lettering and in the graphics, but once I got to looking at the pictures I was not overwhelmed by the illustrations. In looking through the book I was impressed with Skrymir, the giant, because you see Thor hitting him in the head while he asleep and he has this "Awwww what happened ?" look on his face. The god, Loki, because he looks like a schemer/mischievous.
Norse mythology, creation, destruction Recommended Ages 11-13

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my fourth WOW book review, I checked out the book Treasury of Norse Mythology by Donna Jo Napoli. This book is a collection or folklore, or mythology, from the Norse people (those who lived in the Scandanavian area). Much like Greek Mythology, Norse Mythology follows the story of creation, love, betrayal, trickery, etc. to explain the phenomenons on earth such as night and day, and many more.
I would suggest this book to be used by any 4th or 5th grade student because there are so many stories to keep up with, but the book does a great job of separating them, and providing reminders throughout the stories (on the side of the page) to help. This book also includes diagrams and images to help understand the stories being told. If I were to use this book in a classroom, I would use it to compare and contrast various stories between Greek and Norse Mythology. In our modern day culture, there are a lot of references to Greek Mythology (as well as Roman and Egyptian Mythology), but not much to Norse. Yet, as I read the stories, I came upon many similarities and differences between the two. Using this collection of tales in pair with another collection, creates a great opportunity to explicitly teach the compare and contrast strategies for reading comprehension.
The Treasure of Norse Mythology was a WOW book to me because it was the telling of stories that I had not read before. Being a huge MARVEL fan, I did not realize that they pulled direct characters and stories from Norse Mythology (the characters Thor and Loki, as well as their father, Odin). The entire line of Thor movies are based off of these stories and it was so much fun to read the origin and think of the connections as I read. It even makes me want to go back and watch the movies again! I’ve always loved reading mythological stories, growing up I was obsessed with Percy Jackson (a series by Rick Riordian), and so reading this book filled my knowledge even more with a new kind of mythology that I did not know that much about. Reading this book and doing more research on Norse Mythology, even led me to see that Rick Riordian wrote a trilogy based on Norse Mythology, which I might just have to take a look at.

[David Sutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent companion to fans of vikings, history, or the MARVEL universe! I was captivated by storytelling of Norse mythology that I had never heard before. National Geographic puts its own distinctive factual spin on the tales with comparisons to other world mythologies, historical context, or scientific facts. As I have enjoyed this book I have also enjoyed other mythology treasury books in this series. This would be an exceptional starting point for Disney to plan a National Geographic crossover to explore the real world origins that inspired MARVEL's Thor and Loki.

The audiobook is available to stream FREE from audible Premium+ and is well produced: https://www.audible.com/pd/Treasury-o... This is a short listen that can be enjoyed in a single sitting. The narration is plain and captures the imagination with the storytelling alone. The only thing that could make this audiobook better is immersive soundscapes and perhaps a heavy metal soundtrack.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third installment in the National Geographic mythology series. Once again, Donna Jo Napoli combines thorough and thoughtful research with a clear, strong narrative voice to create a cohesive introduction to an ancient mythology, accompanied by beautiful and distinct illustrations, educational materials, and cultural and comparative myth asides that help place the stories and the people who told them into a context not just of their time, but the world then and since. Though Norse paganism lasted well into the Middle Ages, in many ways it can feel more remote and confusion that older and more diminished mythologies, but Napoli not only recognizes that and adjusts her take accordingly, she willfully engages it, creating a conversational tone that is at times jarring but also useful in identifying those moments which might throw the casual reader of a less self aware translation. Definitely recommend, both for the novice and the expert.

[Esther · Rating 2 out of 5]

The illustrations for this book were gorgeous. It's what made me want to read it in the first place and why I gave it two stars. Unfortunately I disliked everything else about this book. The abundance of punctuation errors made it very difficult to read. I don't think a single comma was ever used after an introductory phrase. On top of the lack of editing, the tone of the stories was a modernized, juvenile take and it didn't seem to fit at all, even if they were trying to appeal to younger audiences. Words like "dummy", "weird", "yikes", and "googly-eyed" (among others) felt really out of place in these stories. The author also sometimes included their opinion of the moral of the story at the end which I did not appreciate. The cherry on top were the actual errors including the fact that Galileo invented the telescope (he did not).

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this because I like hearing/reading/learning all things Norse Mythology. I didn't particularly care for the author stating her opinion/morality into parts though. Like, who gives a shit whether you think Thor was selfish/self-centered. He's a god of the Aesir, of course he's cock-sure! Thor's stories are always ego centric and usually a bit silly. Remove your morals madame, that's not what we're reading these stories for. But if you're relatively new to the Norse gods and their tales, this is not a bad introduction. Neat, easy retellings from the eddas. After you finish this one, I recommend going to Neil Gaimans Norse Mythology and see how he makes some of these same stories even more entertaining though.

[ThymeOperator · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking at other reviews, I think there's been some confusion about the intended audience. I found this book when looking up Norse myths for children. It's written in the style it is for this purpose. It's censored as much as it can be, and filled with explanatory commentary and historical context that was just right for sharing with my son. The accompanying illustrations bring the stories to life and keep kids engaged. For reference, my son is 7. I had to explain some of the words, but generally, he followed it all fine. He's obsessed with all world mythology and is now rereading this book by himself.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book for children about norse mythology. I picked it up by accident (because it was on sale, and I didn't see the category), and noticed two things: 1) yes, it was dumbed-down more than I'd want, and glossed over all the nuance and moral conflict in the various gods and myths but 2) it didn't do so that much more than a lot of the "adult" summaries of norse myth. It would be a pretty good introduction for an older (8-12yo) kid, although I think it should have at least hinted at the backstory behind a lot of the myths.

[Amy Braun · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy Norse mythology, and having previously read the Greek edition of this series, my expectations were high. Thankfully, they were met and exceeded! Not only were the stories told with beautiful art and respectful writing, a lot of hard work went into the creation and design of this book. Many of the stories were familiar to me, but there were some facts and tales that I'd never heard before. I'm always looking to expand my knowledge of mythology and folklore, and this was a great edition to an exciting, tragic, and romantic pantheon.

[Granny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lavishly and beautifully illustrated volume of the basic Norse Myths. I believe this volume is targeted toward 3rd to 5th graders, but it is an interesting read all the same, so long as you remember that some of the darker chapters in the history of the Norse Gods have been omitted or toned down. Also, in a printing error, all the border which feature the runes have be turned backward. Aside from these caveats, it's a book worth reading.