279 pages
English language
Published Nov. 30, 2017
Norse Mythology is a 2017 book by Neil Gaiman. The book is a retelling of several stories from Norse mythology, including the theft of Thor's hammer and the binding of Fenrir. In the introduction, Gaiman describes where his fondness for the source material comes from. The book received positive reviews from critics.
Super fun retelling of Norse mythology; made for excellent bedtime story material. The kids loved it!
Gaiman, for me at least, has always been a bit hit & miss. This one’s a miss for me, dog. It seems more stilted book report or fan wiki entry than story, & if compared with Fry’s Mythos (which I will, because I read that prior to this), it falls very flat.
This was very enjoyable to listen to as an audiobook. Neil Gaiman not only writes well but he narrates excellently. I highly recommend this book!
Quick norse mythology stories. It won't keep you excited to finish it, unless you want to learn more about the nordic gods.
A great collection of Norse Mythology. A fun read.
I loved the stories and Gaiman's narration made it even better. My only real complaint is that I wanted more.
Good, well built, and entertaining collection of northern myths and gods. I love Gaiman's writing in it. Super helpful, when you get confused by all the gods in American Gods (like me). I wish there was more of this.
This is mostly not a continuous story but single chapters of the norse sagas retold in modern language. I read the (beautiful) hardcover version which hopefully explains the lack of quotes even though there’s a lot of quotable fun in it (and I often found myself swishing across the page with my finger annoyed I couldn’t mark the passages down for later use).
Most stories feature Thor and/or Loki since those two are the most well-known gods of the Norse pantheon - probably thanks to the comics and movies.
It was a short fun read but it kind of made me wonder: nearly all the stories are about the gods (mostly Loki, but Thor and Odin aren’t much better) tricking someone into doing something or giving them something to trick someone else with. Loki especially has a talent for getting into trouble and causing more by trying to get out …
This is mostly not a continuous story but single chapters of the norse sagas retold in modern language. I read the (beautiful) hardcover version which hopefully explains the lack of quotes even though there’s a lot of quotable fun in it (and I often found myself swishing across the page with my finger annoyed I couldn’t mark the passages down for later use).
Most stories feature Thor and/or Loki since those two are the most well-known gods of the Norse pantheon - probably thanks to the comics and movies.
It was a short fun read but it kind of made me wonder: nearly all the stories are about the gods (mostly Loki, but Thor and Odin aren’t much better) tricking someone into doing something or giving them something to trick someone else with. Loki especially has a talent for getting into trouble and causing more by trying to get out of it. The stories are brutal, bloody, full of lies, deceit and death.
The language of course - that was the point - is modern, and one can see quite a few passages where half a sentence is used to express what was probably a long boring episode explaining how Thor got mad at Loki. I like how Thor’s first reaction at trouble is to suspect Loki....
For fans of Loki: highly recommended. For fans of Thor: well, he isn’t the smartest pea in this pod either but he does have a few moments of witty brilliance.
Of course, it all ends with Ragnarok but in a Shyamalan way.
No surprise that I'm a fan of Neil Gaiman. This is a wonderful way to make Norse religion both accessible and a pleasure to read, giving an insight into a series of dramatic, ridiculous, serious, humorous and tragic tales that make what we can verify of Norse myths. It was a delightful read the first time & I'm about to devour it a second time.
Knowing the Edda and Nordic Mythology in general a little, there wasn't much "new" to be learnt here. But still this was an interesting book for me, for various reasons.
One reason is the quality of the retelling: Gaiman managed to combine passages reminiscent of the tone of the "original" Edda with "modern" parts suited to present-day-readers without previous knowledge of the less omnipresent Nordic myths.
Another, of course, is the humour he put in. Not that the original myths are humourless, largely thanks to Loki - but there is also a bit of Gaiman humour in there now.
And lastly, I was glad about the revisiting of this mythological area in general, in such an accessible way, because of all the fantasy literature I read. It is very interesting to be reminded how many writers draw from the Nordic myths quite freely, not least and recently prominent George R. …
Knowing the Edda and Nordic Mythology in general a little, there wasn't much "new" to be learnt here. But still this was an interesting book for me, for various reasons.
One reason is the quality of the retelling: Gaiman managed to combine passages reminiscent of the tone of the "original" Edda with "modern" parts suited to present-day-readers without previous knowledge of the less omnipresent Nordic myths.
Another, of course, is the humour he put in. Not that the original myths are humourless, largely thanks to Loki - but there is also a bit of Gaiman humour in there now.
And lastly, I was glad about the revisiting of this mythological area in general, in such an accessible way, because of all the fantasy literature I read. It is very interesting to be reminded how many writers draw from the Nordic myths quite freely, not least and recently prominent George R. R. Martin for his Westeros.
I was very happy with this book, though readers should bear in mind that this isn't a novel, but a collection of stories of Northern Gods.
Audio book by neil gaiman highly recommended
I really liked this, but how much credit should Gaiman really get? Gaiman's retellings are almost "just" translations. So kudos for doing a good job of presenting the myths, and doing a fresh retelling from the original sources, but the blurb rubs me the wrong way when it goes "Gaiman's gods are thoroughly alive on the page". They're not Gaiman's gods, and the liveliness on the page owes as much to the original sources as to Gaiman.
Neil Gaiman's retelling of these Norse stories certainly has its charm (especially if one listens to the audiobook version and hears Gaiman's alluring voice), and his love the for material shines through, but it's ultimately an easy, breezy read.
Grāmata ir dažādu teiku un leģendu salikums, kas kopā izveido tādu kā stāstu. Pārsteidzoši, ka iekļautie stāsti, ko iepriekš jau biju dzirdējis, šķita jauni un svaigi. Visticamāk tas tā bija tāpēc,ka autors teikām ir iedevis mazliet no sevis: mūsdienu valodu, attieksmi un humoru. Kopumā var teikt, ka šī ir viegla, īsa lasāmviela, kas var tikt izbaudīta vairākās daļās mēnešu garumā vai, kā manā gadījumā, aprīta 24 stundu laikā. Domāju, ka abos gadījumos lasītājs būs apmierināts.
Pretty much exactly what I expected. The beginning got me a bit worried it would be all names and things, but the events started happening soon enough. I wish there was a bit more of it, but so it goes with all nice things. Probably better to be left wishing for more than getting too much of a good thing.
