HeroPress: Book Of The Month: Norse Mythology

HeroPress A daily slice of super-powered geek life with a heavy emphasis on comics, old school tabletop games, general pulpy science-fiction, giant monsters, zombies etc

Book Of The Month: Norse Mythology Nov 7th 2017, 18:00, by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Knight) Whether it's because of my stroke or my failing eyesight (perhaps the two are linked?), as I get older I find its increasingly difficult to concentrate on reading a novel. Thankfully, we live in a technological age with an ever-expanding library of unabridged audiobooks and there are few better suited to this format than Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology. From the introduction, Gaiman - who reads the book himself - sets out his stall: this is a conversational retelling of major legends from the Norse cycle in the style of a campfire tale. So wrap yourself in an Ikea fur rug, fill your drinking horn with mead, crank up the ambient soundscape of a crackling firepit, turn out the lights, press play on your iPod, and let Neil Gaiman transport you back to the time of the Vikings for six-and-a-half hours. Norse Mythology collects 15 stories, of varying length, from the creation of the universe right through to Ragnarok (the fall of the gods)... and what came next. It should come as no surprise to fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which, admittedly, takes great liberties with genuine Norse mythology), that the main players are Thor, god of Thunder, the anarchic sociopath Loki, and Odin, the All-Father. Everything the gods come up against is enormous - from multiple giants and trolls, to Jormungundr the Midgard serpent, and Fenris Wolf - and their adventures are full of deceit and betrayal. The stories are lyrical, often nonsensical, nearly always violent and increasingly doom-laden as they build towards the gods' inevitable fate. This is old school world-building, a tapestry of mythology rather than a catalogue of dry facts, and it's easy to see how it has influenced the likes of Tolkien and CS Lewis in their own fantasy creations. However, don't expect the depth of A Song Of Ice And Fire, this is the pub chat, Cliffs Notes, version of the Norse epics, delivered with Gaiman's evocative mastery of the English language. A delightful, dark fairy story full of magic and dream-logic, Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology is a beautiful introduction to the brutal psyche of the Nordic peoples of old, a retelling that you can imagine captures the spirit of this lost time and keeps the stories alive for a new generation.

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