Tales of Valhalla: Norse Myths and Legends

by Martyn Whittock, Hannah Whittock

A vivid retelling of Norse mythology that explores these legendary stories and their significance and influence on the Viking world.



Valhalla and its pantheon of gods and heroes have always fascinated readers, whether it is how these tales illuminate the Viking world or influence cultural touchstones like J. R. R. Tolkien, whose Middle Earth is heavily indebted to Germanic and Norse mythology, as well as Hollywood and comics culture.In Tales of Valhalla, the Whittocks have dramatically retold these rich stories and set them in context within the wider Viking world. Including both myths—stories, usually religious, which explain origins, why things are as they are, the nature of the spiritual—and legends—stories which attempt to explain historical events and may involve historical characters but are told in a non-historical way and often include supernatural events—Tales of Valhalla is an accessible and lively volume that brings these hallmarks of world literature to a new generation.

Genres: Mythology, History, Nonfiction, Classics, Folklore

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 4, 2018

About the author

I graduated in Politics from Bristol University in 1980, where my degree special studies were in radical Christian politics and theology of the seventeenth century & also the development of the Soviet State.
I taught history for thirty-five years (as Head of History & Director of Humanities Faculty at a number of secondary schools in the UK). Latterly I was curriculum leader for Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural education at a secondary comprehensive school in the UK. During this time I developed an interest in early medieval history (especially Anglo-Saxons and Vikings), as well as continuing my interests in radical Christian millenarianism and also Soviet history.
I have acted as an historical consultant to the National Trust, the BBC and English Heritage. I am a Licensed Lay Minister, in the Church of England, with an active interest in theology.
I retired from teaching in 2016 to devote more time to writing, historical & political commenting & guest blogging.
I am the author or co-author of fifty-three books. These include school history textbooks and adult history books. The latter are written with the aim of making historical themes both engaging and accessible to adult readers.

Reviews

[pennyg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a comprehensive study or interpretation of Norse myth and legend. I found the title and description a bit misleading, even though I found the book thorough and interesting. It is a short book, brief but dense with short histories of who the Norse and Vikings were, an explanation of the characters in the myths, and their beliefs, as much as can be determined from poetry and prose written long after the days of the Viking. I started it and put it away for a while and picked it back up recently. You can certainly see the influence of the myths and legends even today in literature. I think it would be valuable to read before reading a retelling of the Sagas or simply interested in Norse history and literature even though the main source of information was written by a Christian in Iceland in the thirteenth century.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Norse myths have been my favorite for a long time so I'm pretty familiar with most of the stories that end up in books like this. I was not familiar with all of the legends though so it was interesting to read about those, some for the first time. I appreciated the material that described where the stories came from and also gave a bit of context for the cultural changes that were happening while or just before most of these stories were being written down. However, for those looking for a more entertaining look at Norse mythology, I would recommend Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology (particularly the audiobook if you're interested in finally learning how some of the names are supposed to be pronounced!) or Kevin Crossley-Holland's The Norse Myths.

[Jeremiah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun introduction to some of the Norse myths and legends, along with some comments and information from the translators of this version. Probably for those with a more casual interest in Norse mythology, but not a bad starting point regardless.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

The source to use if you want to know the background of these characters and develop your own telling.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

The occasional bit of extra insight or context gathered from this book can't quite make up for the repetitive, oddly flat delivery of these timeless stories.

[Emelio · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, and not of a genre I normally pick up. This is about as close to nonfiction as I get – stories that real people believed in and wrote down, and people in stories that are based on actual historical events.

I already knew all the myths in this book, although it was exciting to view them with the extra historical and linguistic context provided by the authors. The legends part was less enjoyable, however it certainly wasn't dull. Somehow stories about semi-real people were crazier than those involving gods and giants. It was pretty funny to read, especially with the matter-of-fact tone used to describe the most intense and ridiculous things that could possibly happen to someone.

This book was definitely outside my reading comfort zone, but I'm glad I gave it a chance and ended up finishing it.

[Eden Hazardelirium · Rating 4 out of 5]

The greatness of this book is not the retelling of the Scandinavian myths because those have been told and retold elsewhere.

I bought this book hoping it would reveal to me what ancient Scandinavian spiritual and social beliefs were. It doesn't, but I don't fault the authors for that since so much of what was undoubtedly a rich tradition was lost when Scandinavia converted to Christianity.

What I found valuable instead was the translation of stories in the back of the book that were based on real people and events. These are stories such as the migration history of the Swedes and the Scandinavian exploration of what is now the Americas. I haven't seen these stories elsewhere. I do wish there could be a bit more social context given but again, I'm not sure that's the authors' faults.

[Leo Medrano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some representative quotes about Norse mythology:

"Thor, though, was not in that number since he was in the eastern regions killing trolls"

"Thor was traveling from the east. He was often in the east because that was where trolls were found and Thor was often engaged in battling them "

Also Loki at some point reads the entire Norse pantheon for filth so hard they chain him to a rock and drip snake poison on him forever.

Overall a good intro to the Norse mythos.

[Penny Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I don't think this is a bad book, I think it could have been better. I really appreciated the authors' strategy of providing context to the Norse myths, which is very helpful for beginners. However, my main issue with this collection of the myths is that it's extremely repetitive and lacks real flow.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting in parts but the prefacing of small pieces of myth with long chunks of explanatory text leaves this book in a strange limbo between too dry for casual mythology fans and insufficiently rigorous for those interested in serious study.

[Ramanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read.

I would have liked it better if it was provided as a comprehensive compilation of the Norse Myths instead of random translations of bits and pieces of Poetic Edda and Prose Edda and other Norse epics.

[SA · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good reference work, but a little too dry to really be entertaining.

[The Happy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is funny and hilarious

[Usagi Shin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The collection of stories is very nice, but the book is not an easy read. The stories are not long but it takes some time to go through.

[James Sproston]

‘Freyia was having none of it’

[Ben · Rating 1 out of 5]

The flow renders this very difficult to parse and retain the information being shared.

[dreamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

genuinely love norse myths

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a pretty good book. Very surface level but also information heavy af. I learned things but feel like it was a good introduction.