The Norse Myths

by Heilan Yvette Grimes

To be captured by the Northern Thing means to be taken with the Norse stories of the Gods. If that describes you, then The Norse Myths should help. It contains the most complete versions of the Norse myths available in the English language. The Norse Myths is presented as a narrative from the beginning of creation to the final great battle of Ragnarok, followed by the Rebirth. The Norse Myths is split into several parts: Part One: In the Beginning. Eight chapters that set up the Universe. Part Two: The Adventures. Twelve chapters about the adventures of Gods, Elves, Jotuns, Humans. Part Three: The Ending of All Things. Overarching in all the stories is Ragnarokr, the Doom of the Gods. Even in the humorous stories there's a sense of fatality. Part Three is eight chapters leading to the final battle (Ragnarokr) and the subsequent Rebirth into a more Utopian world. Finally, there is a complete Glossary of all the characters, places, and objects in the book. The spelling used in the book is presented with definitions of the word and alternate spellings, followed by a complete description. And there's a Genealogy chart showing the familial relationships of many of the characters. Norse mythology comes from the Nordic countries, including Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. These countries were heavily influenced by Teutonic (German) mythology. This book contains all of the legends which pertain to the Gods. Future volumes will be about family sagas like The Niebelungenlied (The Ring Saga). There is a deep foreboding, a sense of doom, that pervades Norse mythology. The Gods are not immortal. They can be injured and need to be healed. They can find themselves bent with old age. Against the right enemy they can be killed. From the beginning the Gods know they are in a violent battle of good versus evil. The Gods, mankind of Midgardr, and light elves, are doing what they can to stave off the last battle, Ragnarokr, the Doom of the Gods. They fight against evil giants, ferocious wolves, giant sea serpents, and the cunning Loki. The Nordic countries have harsh winters resulting in a mythology that is darker than most. The Norse hero wants to die a hero's death, in battle, fighting for right. The worst death is the straw death, in bed, old, infirm, and away from the fight. The hero who dies in battle goes to Valhalla or one of the other fighting halls to practice and prepare for the last great battle. Those who die straw deaths go to the torturous halls in Niflheimr. Glory does not await them. Pain, venous snakes, and starvation awaits them. Yet, there is hope . . . always hope. There is the vision of a better life filled with peace and tranquility, the Rebirth. Norse mythology has influenced many fantasy novels including The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, who taught Norse mythology at Oxford. The Norse Myths will take you to a world of legend with Thor, Odin, Loki, Gods, Goddesses, monsters, giants, and dwarves doing what they can to help or hurt each other.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction

330 pages, Paperback

Published February 24, 2010

Reviews

[Eric S. Coffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome

This book is simply Divine. From the beginning to the end, it is action packed. It us well written. I would recommend to all that even have a curiosity in the Norse Men to read this book.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can you say about a set of tales that purport to explain the formation of the multiverse, the earth, the gods, man, all manner of other beings, and the end of all things? Wow they didn't believe in half-measures in the Norse mythology.

Now, of course there is more to say about the tales - the first couple of chapters are dense with the details of the creation. I found it sort of hard to follow cooped up on an airplane and then reading in the 1/2 light of a restaurant while exhausted. It's the kind of section where a diagram or a scorecard might have been helpful. The later chapters are all specific tales about various gods, jotuns, humans and so on, so they have more of a narrative hold on your imagination. And of course, the end of all is pretty interesting!

since I have most been reading this book while traveling (I took it up again whilst winging my way across the Atlantic) I have only read it in fits and spurts. Not how I prefer to do things, but on my trip one month ago I ended up discussing it with one of the servers and now that I am done I am will be giving her my copy. I understand the the author has written at least one more follow one volume, which I will be looking for.

Now for a few negatives: this may be a "print-on-demand" book (which is curiously enough part of the industry I am currently working in.) I have nothing against the technique, philosophy, or the quality of the paper or binding. Where I do have an issue is the apparent lack of proofreading (or proofreading software.) Initially, I thought that perhaps the author meant to use different words in the description of the creation myth. As I read on I realized that they were just typos. Typos of incorrect words and spelling crop up in almost every chapter. I learned to just figure out what the correct word was and just continue, but it was a bit annoying.

That's it, since I can't read the original language I can't give you an assessment of the translation itself, but I do think that the author wrote the tales out in good, comprehensible English. As I wrote above, the first couple of chapters were pretty dense. Maybe a less accurate but more verbose approach to that part of the tale might make it sink in better. (That plus a figure or two, including family trees.)

The author appears to be in my local area and active in a number of fields - I'd certainly appreciate an opportunity to hear her speak on the topic.

[Velia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved, loved, loved this book.

When I was younger (i. e., 12-13 years old), I used to know about Norse mythology. I just recently saw that movie, Thor, about the Marvel comic book character; this movie is how I found out about Thor being a comic book character. As I watched the movie I was getting frustrated because it didn't fall in line with my memory, such as Sif is supposed to have long blonde hair and be married to Thor. I decided to pick up a book about the Norse myths and found this book on Amazon's library for borrowing. I love it so much I am going to buy a copy.

I read the chapters rather slowly. I did this because I would stop to ponder meanings and relate somehow...I like doing this with some books. The writing was done quite well. The timeline seemed to flow so it made the individual stories more understandable. The glossary at the end helped a lot so I could go back and check who is who and what is what. There is a genealogy map as well, but as an e-book I couldn’t see it.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Norse mythology. I love it and will definitely be re-reading it.

***Beyond this point is just my experience –Not really a review.***

I got corrected while reading this. I always thought Frigg and Freyja were the same. I don’t know if that is how it was originally presented to me when I first learned about them or if my memory is just bad. I always believed my last name has the same root as Friday and if Friday is to honor the goddess of love then I am related to that somehow. But my last name as a whole sounds more like Freyja’s name. I don’t know…this is just something I thought about while I read this book.

I remembered when I first read about Sif’s hair being cut off, I had nightmares. I have long hair and have usually had some length of long hair all my life and can be quite vain about my hair. I used to be afraid someone would do that to me. This fear and the nightmares returned when I was reading this book.

“You, too, could feel the rumblings of earthquakes and see the flashes of lightning that come with Thor’s lovemaking.” I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I read this. This quote is from the book and was just hilarious to me. I used to pray for that type of thunder from Thor and would joke with a guy friend about it.

[Jonathan Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

The translation seems to be generally good

I am not prepared to call this definitive, as it's basically a sanity-checked interpretation of Nordic mythology, not a translation, and interpretations are always double-edged swords. Having said that, there's nothing wrong with such a work if you're looking for a quick guide. You don't want complex, non-linear narratives that use 8th century phraseology (a literal translation), you want something that may sacrifice scholarship for readability. A secondary school project on Nordic beliefs is about as high up the academic chain I'd take this without some serious evidence of validity. You expect school books that far down to contain errors.

I'd certainly call this work readable. I would be cautious about giving it any scholarly merit, again, unless there was strong evidence that the semantics (meanings) were basically sound. Syntax doesn't matter, unless there are missing or incorrect semantics.

[Lasse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good book about the norse myths in english, it is very adequate.