Hello dear readers, it is nice to meet you all. Mackenzie put out a call for a guest book review and I was ecstatic to get a chance to reach out to her fans. She is a fantastic blogger and I am happy to be here.
Today I am reviewing a book that I absolutely loved. It was a lot of fun to read, and it’s nice to read about a different kind of mythology that isn’t Greek or Roman.
Though it is still a European Mythology, I’ve always been interested in Norse myths and analyzing the comparisons between them.
So, I hope you enjoy this review, and if you would like some more, maybe I’ll see you over on my blog – On My Bookshelf.
Greek and Roman myths are shoved down our throats time after time, but Norse myth has sort of taken a step back from stories and movies, until Thor became popular in the MCU.
I would argue that Marvel is one of the biggest reasons Norse myth and stories are still alive. Scholars and academics have been fascinated with them for a long time, but a big reason we don’t get to learn these stories as much as Greek or Roman is because there isn’t much to learn.
Not a lot of the stories and poems survived the test of time, which is unfortunate to those who want to know more. There are a few documents that historians have studied, but we can only ascertain so much from them.
Gaiman, in my opinion, does a wonderful job of taking these stories, written hundreds of years ago in a language few of us can understand, and turned them into something that modern audiences can enjoy.
I had read one other book by Gaiman before Norse Mythology, but as most of us probably have heard, his reputation as an outstanding author precedes him.
Not only were the stories funny, interesting, and informative, I thought they were very thought provoking as well. The stories were told in a way that allowed me to understand how some of these stories would have come about from everyday beliefs.
Most mythology books are a bit tough to get through, at best. If they’re written well, they are written as a story that is easy to follow, and not as a historical retelling.
At worst, they’re basically a translation from ancient Greek/Latin that put you to sleep more than they entertain you.
Norse Mythology was the best myth-related book I’ve read because it was like reading a bunch of short stories that really didn’t overlap at all, other than the characters involved.
If you know any of Norse myth stories, there’s a good chance you’ll find it in this book, along with all your favourite, or least favourite characters.
Thor, Loki, Odin, Baldur, Freya, they’re all there and more. You’ll learn about some gods you’ve never heard of, and even get to read about how a baby killed a blind man, and I’m not joking.
There are two things about Norse Mythology that I found kind of funny and that are also commonplace with most stories involving a “god” of some kind.
Lit Lemon Books 