Norse Myths

By Flame Tree Publishing

Myths & Legends. The Vikings and their norse gods fought a constant battle with nature. Their landscape, with its stark mountains and long nights created a particularly rough mythology, with profound contrasts and unforgettable heroes: Odin, Thor and Loki are just some of the familiar characters that maintain an influence over us today through movies, TV series and comics, to great fiction and epic poetry. This fabulous new book offers all the main tales with an introduction to the characters and the land that inspired them.

FLAME TREE 451: From mystery to crime, supernatural to horror and myth, fantasy and science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and mechanical men, blood-lusty vampires, dastardly villains, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Flame Tree Publishing
• Release date: Dec 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781787556331

Book preview

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Publisher & Creative Director: Nick Wells

Contributors, authors, editors and sources for this series include:

Loren Auerbach, Norman Bancroft-Hunt, E.M. Berens, Katharine Berry Judson, Laura Bulbeck, Jeremiah Curtin, O.B. Duane, Dr Ray Dunning, W.W. Gibbings, H. A. Guerber, Jake Jackson, Joseph Jacobs, Judith John, J.W. Mackail (translator of Virgil’s Aeneid) Chris McNab, Professor James Riordan, Rachel Storm, K.E. Sullivan.

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First published 2014

Copyright © 2014 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd

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PRINT ISBN: 78-0-85775-820-0

EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-78755-633-1

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Contents

Series Foreword

Introduction to Norse Myths

Mythology of the North

Creation

Cosmology – the Structure of the Universe

Odin

Thor the Thunder God

Loki the Trickster

The Fertility Deities

Ragnarok – the End of the World

The Creation Myths

The Creation of the Universe

The Creation of the Earth

Night and Day

The First Humans

Asgard

Yggdrasill

Legends of Odin and Frigga

Odin and Frigga in Asgard

Mimir’s Well

The Origin of Poetry

Bragi

Geirrod and Agnar

The Valkyrs

Völund and the Valkyrs

Frigga’s Attendants

The Discovery of Flax

Idunn and the Apples

Legends of Loki

Loki’s Character

Loki and the Necklace

Skrymsli and the Peasant’s Child

The Giant Architect

Loki’s Last Crime

Hel

Legends of Thor

How Thor Got His Hammer

Thor Goes Fishing

Thor in the Hall of the Giants

The Stealing of Thor’s Hammer

Thor and Hrungnir

Thor and Geirrod

Freyia and Other Gods

Freyia and Odur

Ottar and Angantyr

Frey

Niord

Heimdall in Midgard

Tyr’s Sword

How Tyr Lost His Hand

The Norns’ Web

The Story of Nornagesta

Hermod

Vidar

Vali

Forseti

Uller

Giants, Dwarfs and Elves

The Giants

The Dwarfs

The Elves

The Sigurd Saga

The Sword in the Branstock

Siggeir’s Treachery

The Story of Sinfiotli

The Birth of Sigurd

The Treasure of the Dwarf King

The Fight with the Dragon

The Sleeping Warrior Maiden

The Niblungs

The Death of Sigurd

Atli, King of the Huns

Interpretation of the Saga

The Story of Frithiof

The Birth of Viking

Frithiof’s Love for Ingeborg

Sigurd Ring, a Suitor

Frithiof Banished

Frithiof’s Homecoming

At the Court of Sigurd Ring

Betrothal of Frithiof and Ingeborg

The End of the World

The Death of Balder

The Revenge of the Gods

Ragnarok

The End of the World

Greek and Northern Mythologies

Comparative Mythology

Jupiter and Odin

Norns and Fates

Myths of the Seasons

Frigga and Juno

Musical Myths

Thor, Tyr and Bragi

Idunn and Eurydice

Skadi and Diana

Frey and Apollo

Freyia and Venus

Odur and Adonis

Rinda and Danae

Myths of the Sea and the Dead

Balder and Apollo

Giants and Titans

The Volsung Saga

Brunhild

Sun Myths

Series Foreword

Stretching back to the oral traditions of thousands of years ago, tales of heroes and disaster, creation and conquest have been told by many different civilizations in many different ways. Their impact sits deep within our culture even though the detail in the tales themselves are a loose mix of historical record, transformed narrative and the distortions of hundreds of storytellers.

Today the language of mythology lives with us: our mood is jovial, our countenance is saturnine, we are narcissistic and our modern life is hermetically sealed from others. The nuances of myths and legends form part of our daily routines and help us navigate the world around us, with its half truths and biased reported facts.

The nature of a myth is that its story is already known by most of those who hear it, or read it. Every generation brings a new emphasis, but the fundamentals remain the same: a desire to understand and describe the events and relationships of the world. Many of the great stories are archetypes that help us find our own place, equipping us with tools for self-understanding, both individually and as part of a broader culture.

For Western societies it is Greek mythology that speaks to us most clearly. It greatly influenced the mythological heritage of the ancient Roman civilization and is the lens through which we still see the Celts, the Norse and many of the other great peoples and religions. The Greeks themselves learned much from their neighbours, the Egyptians, an older culture that became weak with age and incestuous leadership.

It is important to understand that what we perceive now as mythology had its own origins in perceptions of the divine and the rituals of the sacred. The earliest civilizations, in the crucible of the Middle East, in the Sumer of the third millennium

bc

, are the source to which many of the mythic archetypes can be traced. As humankind collected together in cities for the first time, developed writing and industrial scale agriculture, started to irrigate the rivers and attempted to control rather than be at the mercy of its environment, humanity began to write down its tentative explanations of natural events, of floods and plagues, of disease.

Early stories tell of Gods (or god-like animals in the case of tribal societies such as African, Native American or Aboriginal cultures) who are crafty and use their wits to survive, and it is reasonable to suggest that these were the first rulers of the gathering peoples of the earth, later elevated to god-like status with the distance of time. Such tales became more political as cities vied with each other for supremacy, creating new Gods, new hierarchies for their pantheons. The older Gods took on primordial roles and became the preserve of creation and destruction, leaving the new gods to deal with more current, everyday affairs. Empires rose and fell, with Babylon assuming the mantle from Sumeria in the 1800s

bc

, then in turn to be swept away by the Assyrians of the 1200s

bc

; then the Assyrians and the Egyptians were subjugated by the Greeks, the Greeks by the Romans and so on, leading to the spread and assimilation of common themes, ideas and stories throughout the world.

The survival of history is dependent on the telling of good tales, but each one must have the ‘feeling’ of truth, otherwise it will be ignored. Around the firesides, or embedded in a book or a computer, the myths and legends of the past are still the living materials of retold myth, not restricted to an exploration of origins. Now we have devices and global communications that give us unparalleled access to a diversity of traditions. We can find out about Native American, Indian, Chinese and tribal African mythology in a way that was denied to our ancestors, we can find connections, match the archaeology, religion and the mythologies of the world to build a comprehensive image of the human experience that is endlessly fascinating.

The stories in this book provide an introduction to the themes and concerns of the myths and legends of their respective cultures, with a short introduction to provide a linguistic, geographic and political context. This is where the myths have arrived today, but undoubtedly over the next millennia, they will transform again whilst retaining their essential truths and signs.

Jake Jackson

General Editor

Introduction to Norse Myths

Evidence for the mythology of Northern Europe is fragmentary, relying heavily on a few sources, but there is no doubt that to the ancient peoples of the North, gods and myths were hugely important. What we do know reveals a colourful and lively mythology, and a pantheon of fascinating characters.

After the decline of the Roman Empire by the fifth century

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, Germanic tribes settled in Northern Europe in territories formerly claimed by the Romans. They brought with them their languages – the predecessors of English, German, Dutch, Flemish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic – as well as their religion and mythology.

In mainland Europe and England, early conversion to Christianity means that little evidence for the ancient beliefs has survived, so we have to turn to Scandinavia and Iceland, where Christianity took hold much later, to discover the details. Nevertheless, the importance of their gods to the Northern peoples, and the far-reaching influence of this mythology as part of a European heritage, is witnessed by the fact that in English, and other languages descended from Germanic, we still recall the Northern deities in the days of the week: Tuesday is Tyr’s day; Wednesday is Odin/Woden’s day; Thursday is Thor’s day and Friday is Frigga’s day.

Mythology of the North

The Vikings (vikingar) were men of the north, the inhabitants of Scandinavia who were best known in Europe for their raids throughout the ninth and eleventh centuries. Across history, Vikings have been portrayed as blood-thirsty, passionate and violent savages who looted and plundered England and the coasts of Europe for their own gain. Indeed, the English monk Alcuin wrote, ‘Never before has such a terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race.’ The Vikings were a fierce people, and as well as having an intense desire for wealth, power and adventure, they were encouraged by King Harold I to look for foreign conquests. As ‘Norsemen’ their impact was particularly profound in Northern France, where they began to sail up French rivers, looting and burning the cities of Rouen and Paris, among others, destroying what navigation and commerce they could find. Their ships were spectacular, the finest ever built, and they were able to travel great distances – in the end their quest for adventure and the overpopulation and internal problems in Scandinavia drove them as far as North America and Greenland, where they raided and then settled, showing little regard for existing cultures and religions.

It was these activities which gave the Vikings their reputation, one which has shifted little since the tenth century. Even in 1911, G.K. Chesterton, wrote:

Their souls were drifting as the sea,

And all good towns and lands

They only saw with heavy eyes,

And broke with heavy hands.

Their gods were sadder than the sea

Gods of a wandering will,

Who cried for blood like beasts at night,

Sadly from hill to hill.

These heavy-handed, great men spoke a strange language and their brutality and lack of regard for Christianity in Europe gave them a reputation as being men of little culture, and certainly men of no religion. Very few Vikings were able to write, and most religious, spiritual and cultural documents were transmitted by word of mouth, or through their art. Because they carried with them little that explained their origins and their beliefs, and because they did not have an obvious pantheon and system of belief and scripture, it was many years before their new countries developed any real understanding of the Viking religions and mythology.

The myths and legends of the Vikings have come down to us from three major sources, although what we have is incomplete, and bare of theology, which must have existed in partnership with their mythological beliefs. Jones writes, ‘ ... [the religion] accounted for the creation of the world, and charted the doom to come. It provided mysteries as transcendent as Odin hanging nine nights on a windswept tree as a sacrifice to himself, and objects of veneration as crude as the embalmed penis of a horse. Like other religions it rejoiced the devout with hidden truth, and contented mere conformers with its sacral and convivial occasions. There was a god for those who lived by wisdom and statecraft, war and plunder, trade and seafaring, or the land’s increase. Poet, rune-maker, blacksmith, leech, rye-grower, cattle-breeder, king, brewer, each had a god with whom he felt secure; warlocks, men on skis, barren women, brides, all had a deity to turn to. Best of all the powers, attributes, and functions of the gods overlapped so generously that Odin’s man, Thor’s man, Frey’s man and the like could expect to be looked after in every aspect of life and death.’

The first main source of Viking myths and legends is the Poetic Edda, a work in old Icelandic that constitutes the most valuable collection in old Norse literature. Also called the ‘Elder’ Edda, it is made up of thirty-four mythological and heroic lays, of various lengths. It was written in the second half of the thirteenth century, after the Vikings had accepted Christianity, and therefore the mythology may be influenced by other cultures and beliefs. Although the Poetic Edda was written after Christianity, it is not as easy to ascertain when the poems that make it up were actually composed. Some are clearly pre-Viking, and others relate to the period after Scandinavian civilization moved into the Middle Ages.

As the name suggests, the works are all poetic, stanzaic in nature, but other than that there is very little linking the various works that comprise it, and many of the poems included in it are obscure. Guerber writes, ‘The religious beliefs of the north are not mirrored with any exactitude in the Elder Edda. Indeed, only a travesty of the faith of our ancestors has been preserved in Norse literature. The early poet loved allegory and his imagination rioted among the conceptions of his fertile muse ... We are told nothing as to sacrificial and religious rites, and all else is omitted which does not pride material for artistic treatment ... regarded as a precious relic of the beginning of Northern poetry rather than a representation of the religious beliefs of the Scandinavians, and these literary fragments bear many signs of the transitions stage wherein the confusion of the old and new faiths is easily apparent.’

Many of the poems are narrative, many taking the form of a parable or proverb. There are also works surrounding rite, mysticism and magic, describing chants and spells and healers.

The second great collection of mythological material is the Prose Edda, probably written around 1222 by Snorri Sturluson, who was a wealthy farmer in the service of the Norwegian king Hakon Hakonarson. He was also a poet, and a widely educated man, and the Prose Edda forms a treatise on the art of Icelandic poetry and a compendium of Viking mythology. There are four main sections to the book, but it is the last, the ‘Hattatal, or ‘List of Verse Forms’ which has provided such a wealth of information on the mythology, for it explains the mythological allusion common in traditional verse, to help poets who wish to recreate it get the facts straight.

R.I. Page, in Norse Myths, writes: ‘ ... Snorri too was a Christian, and could hardly tell such tales as though they were truth, particularly tales that related adventures of the pagan gods. So he distanced himself from the subject in a number of ways. He composed a prologue full of early anthropological observation: how in primitive times men realized there was order in the universe, and deduced it must have a rule; how the most splendid of early communities was Troy in Turkey, with twelve kingdoms each with a prince of superhuman qualities, and one high king above all ...’

Snorri often quotes from the Poetic Edda, and in many cases expands ideas and philosophies introduced but never carried to term in the first book. The major failing of the work is the fact that Snorri never manages to place the mythology of the Vikings in any kind of real religious context, by explaining theology or worship. His accounts are very much tainted by his Christianity, and he often takes an orthodox Christian position, identifying the pagan gods and heroes deified by their pagan and therefore ignorant followers.

But the work is lively, witty and full of splendid details; much of the information takes the form of an inventive narrative, in which a chieftain called Odin leads a conquering army into Sweden, where he is welcomed by a king called Gylfi. Gylfi has a series of questions for the Aesir, as the conquerors were called, and these questions and answers are recounted in the Prose Edda, in the form of a fascinating account of lore, folktale and legend.

The third major source for Viking mythology is the work of the court poets or ‘skalds’. Skaldic verse comprise a confusion of contemporary events interspersed with works from the Viking ages into the Middle Ages and the advent of Christianity. Again, because these works were written after the conversion to Christianity, there have undoubtedly been alterations to the fabric of the myths and it is unlikely that the transmission of the oral tradition has been entirely accurate. But there are many mythological tales which form the subject of the skalds’ verse, and there are several notable writers; however, the poetry was normally very elaborate and often technically pretentious, making it difficult to follow in parts.

The best-known of the Northern European deities were Odin, Thor, Loki, Balder, Niord, Frey and Freyia. These had the most distinct and vivid personalities, though there were other, more shadowy figures such as Tyr, fearless god of war. Niord, Frey and Freyia belonged to a sub-group of fertility gods known as the Vanir, while the others belonged to the main group of gods known as the Aesir.

The myths deal in conflict between the gods and giants, representing the constant struggle between chaos and order. An intense sense of fate also permeates Northern mythology: Odin chose those who would die in battle; and Ragnarok, the final great battle between the gods and the giants, was unavoidable. The people believed that their destiny was not within their own control and their myths helped them accept this, following the example of their gods. Mirroring the strong family ties of Northern society, the gods were a close-knit group that helped and supported each other, with very clear loyalties to their own kind.

Northern mythology takes us from the formation of life from the fusion of extremes – ice and fire – to the end of the world, when fire and water will again claim the life they have engendered.

Yet existence does not finish there completely: the earth will reappear after Ragnarok has passed, washed clean and renewed, when the sonsof the gods will pick up where their fathers left off and life will begin again.

Worship of Northern gods was conducted in many different ways, ranging from huge statues of Thor, Odin and Frey in the magnificent temple at Uppsala in Sweden, where sacrifices included humans, to the simple sacrifices of foodstuffs brought to groves, rocks and stones in which patron gods were thought to reside. Altars of piled stones were also created in the open air for such sacrifices.

Natural features of the landscape might also be chosen for worship or veneration. An example is Helgafell (Holy mountain) in western Iceland. Thorolf Mostur-Beard, a devoted follower of Thor, held this mountain to be so sacred that no one could look at it unwashed, and no living creature could be harmed there. He was an early settler in Iceland whose story is related in the first chapters of the Icelandic saga Erbyggja saga. He lived in the late ninth century, the time of settlement of the newly discovered Iceland, and died in

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918. The sagas are important sources of evidence of the practices involved in worship and this one is particularly rich in evidence for the worship of Thor. However, the fact that the sagas were written down in the Middle Ages (twelfth or thirteenth centuries) – Erbyggja saga is thought to have been written in the mid-thirteenth century – and contain what was then still known, understood or had been passed down of religious practices three or more centuries earlier, shows how our picture of early Scandinavian worship is a delicate web constructed from piecing together disparate and fragmented clues.

Creation

In answer to the question every culture asks – how did everything we see and experience come to be? Northern creation myths are complex and evocative. They cover the construction of the cosmos, the engendering of life, the establishment of the heavenly bodies and the population of the world.

In the beginning there was a gaping void: Ginnungagap. To its south was flaming Muspell; to the north lay freezing Nifl-heim, where a spring, Hvergelmir, gave rise to the eleven rivers of Elivagar. As the rivers flowed along, poisonous substances accompanying them hardened and turned to ice. Vapour from the poison froze into rime, and layer upon layer of rime increased until it had spread right across Ginnungagap. When the rime met hot gusts emanating from Muspell it began to melt and drip and there was a quickening from the drops – the first signs of life.

The drops formed the shape of a giant, Ymir. While Ymir slept he sweated, and from the sweat in his left armpit two beings were formed, a male and a female. Ymir’s two legs mated with each other, producing a monstrous son. These beings began the race of frost-giants.

Next, a cow called Audhumla came into being from the dripping rime, who nourished Ymir with four rivers of milk from her udder. For her own sustenance Audhumla licked the salty rime stones. As she licked, by the evening of the first day, a man’s hair was visible, on the second day a man’s head, and by the end of the third day a complete man had emerged. This man was called Buri. He begot a son, Bor, who married Bestla, daughter of a giant called Bolthorn. They produced three sons: the gods Odin, Vili and Ve, who killed the huge primeval giant Ymir. When he fell, the whole race of frost-giants was drowned in his blood (except one, Bergelmir, who became the progenitor of a new race of giants).

Odin and his brothers then used Ymir to create the world. Carrying his enormous body out into Ginnungagap they formed the earth from his flesh and rocks from his bones. They made stones and gravel from his teeth and any bones that had been broken. They made his blood into the lakes and sea. Ymir’s skull they formed into the sky and set it up over the earth, placing one of four dwarfs, Nordri, Sudri, Austri and Vestri (North, South, East and West), at each corner to hold it up. They created plants and trees from Ymir’s hair and threw his brains up into the sky to form the clouds.

The earth was circular, and the gods arranged the sea around it. Along the shore they gave land to the giants, while inland they made a fortification from Ymir’s eyelashes within which they placed Midgard, the realm of men.

Then the gods created people to inhabit the world. They took two tree trunks and created a man and a woman. Odin gave the new beings breath and life, Vili gave consciousness and movement and Ve gave them faces, speech, hearing and sight. The man was called Ask (ash tree – a fitting name for a person made from a tree trunk) and the woman Embla (of more obscure meaning, possibly elm, vine or creeper). From these two the human race descended.

Cosmology – the Structure of the Universe

The dramas of Northern myths were played out against the background of a complicated cosmology, peopled with diverse races of beings. In the course of the mythological narratives, the gods would travel from land to land over differing terrains and vast distances, and a rich and varied picture of the world emerges.

The Northern cosmic structure consisted of three different levels, one above the other like a series of plates. On the top level was Asgard, the stronghold of the gods, where the Aesir lived in their magnificent halls, as well as Vanaheim, home to the Vanir, and Alf-heim, land of the elves.

On the level below lay Midgard, the world of men, and Jotunheim, mountainous realm of the giants. Svartalf-heim, where dark elves lived, and Nidavellir, home of the dwarfs, were also here. Asgard and Midgard were connected by a flaming bridge, Bifrost, which was very strong and built with more skill than any other structure. Humans knew Bifrost as the rainbow.

The lowest level was cold Nifl-heim, which included Hel, the dwelling place of those who died of sickness, old age or accident. Warriors who died in battle were received into Odin’s hall, Valhalla, or Freyia’s hall, Sessrumnir, on the top level in Asgard, where they became part of Odin’s personal army. Those dying at sea went to another place again: the hall of the sea gods Aegir and Ran, at the bottom of the sea.

The axis and supporting pillar of the universe was an enormous ash tree, Yggdrasill, also known as the World Tree. This gigantic tree formed a central column linking the worlds of gods, men, giants and the dead, and also protected and sheltered the world. Yggdrasill’s fortunes mirrored those of the universe it sheltered; it suffered alongside the world at the same

Reviews for Norse Myths

[crowyhead · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a really excellent collection. The myths are retold with humor and enthusiasm, and Crossley-Holland's notes are excellent. A lot of times it's hard to find collections of myths that are well-documented and scholarly (rather than simply being retellings that don't list the source material) but are still readable as complete stories rather than being fragmentary. This collection lands right on the money.

[nillacat · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The best tellings of any mythology I have ever read. The first stories sound like translations, but as the book gets underway Crossley-Holland finds his own voice and the characters come alive. Loki is given a development from mischievous to malignant that makes dramatic sense.

[nymith · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this book at the request of my mother, who has an avid interest in all things norse. She read it in the appropriate scholarly manner, reading the footnotes and lengthy introduction.Me, I just read the stories themselves as a simple diversion. I looked at it the way I do with all fiction -- judging plot, characters, world-building, etcetera. So of course my view of the myths is that of a complete ignoramus, and I doubt I'm the right person to go about reviewing it.However, I enjoyed it. It was a quick, easy read with an extremely original style of gods, especially when compared to the greeks...I most enjoyed the adventure stories with Loki and Thor. I often wished those had been elaborated on, and more often still I longed for some solid world-building. Did all the dwarves have to be greedy pigs? Did all the gods (except for Thor, Odin and Loki) have to have interchangeable personalities? And I didn't buy Loki's abrubt turnaround from backstabbing troublemaker to out-and-out murderer.I realise it's very easy for me to complain about this book, because I read it with a different set of expectations than most and I just kept seeing what could have been fine stories never properly thought out.But I think it's probably a good set of retellings for someone truly interested in the norse myths, as it's clear, concise (except for the trivia games the gods and giants seem to love challenging each other to) and comfortable to read, not at all lofty or grand. I'm just not the right person to review it.

[malarchy_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Penguin Book of Norse Myths re-tells a range of the myths emerging out of northern Europe and famously recorded in the sagas. With the Gods as primary characters - Loki, Odin, Thor, Freyja etc - the tales are an insight into a long expired culture that held storytelling in high esteem. Crossley-Holland prefaces his story cyle with a thorough introduction and the book concludes with useful notes to help the reader's understanding of the context.Many of the famous myths of the Norse are told in as chronological order as possible leading up to the most famous of them all - Ragnarok. Crossley-Holland takes much of his work from Snorri Sturlson who was writing in 13th century Iceland. Crossley-Holland's translation makes frequent reference to Prose Edda but also includes earlier sources. The translation itself is easy to read and several wise decisions to aid the flow have been made.I do have two issues though - the first is that the notes section comes far too late in the book. I appreciate that adding in notes after each tales would risk disrupting the flow but as a left to right reader I was not looking to scroll to the back of the book and so read the notes en masse when I reached that point. The structure would have been improved by having those notes inserted at the right place.The other issue will probably be more controversial to other reviewers and readers - the stories themselves are just not that great. The Gods change character frequently and cross over each other's jurisdictions. I'm less fussed about the chronological inconsistencies but what is left of the ancient myths is insufficient. Crossley-Holland alludes to a merger of some kind between the War Gods and Fertility Gods but by the time the sagas are written much of the context therefore the depth has been lost.Crossley-Holland decides to include a couple of poems that are merely genealogical lists. These he acknowledges as being hard going and they are not really all that interesting to a lay reader - not knowing the kinglists of ancient Germanic/Nordic domains makes the lists inaccessible.Reading in English also presents a problem as the poetry is clearly lost at points. The rhyming and intonation disappear making the quality of the wording itself decline. While I can imagine the song that the words once produced, they do not have the same effect in modern English.Having been controversial though, there is much to praise about the book. I particularly enjoyed the introduction that set the scene for the tales. The insight into the culture is fascinating, the role that the Gods play and their struggles demonstrate the values and cultural signifiers that lay over northern Europe. The reconstruction by Crossley-Holland of this legendary story cycle will be hard to surpass and for anyone interested in the subject is well worth enjoying.

[jburlinson_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Just to pick a bone with one of my fellow reviewers, I think Crossley-Holland made the right decision in putting his, rather extensive, notes in a section of their own, after his rendering of the myths themselves. Crossley-Holland's primary achievement is to structure these tales, mostly drawn from the Prose Edda, into a sequential narrative, at least as much as is practicable. To arrest the flow would undermine this accomplishment. References to page numbers where the appropriate notes can be found, as Crossley-Holland has done, seems to me a fine solution to the problem. Good show!

[5eva5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kevin Crossley-Holland's retelling of 32 Norse myths, beginning with the world's creation and ending with Ragnarök, along with notes on which source was used for which retelling. The stories are very good renderings of the myths, but they aren't very vivid and the characters are a little stiff for a retelling. They are very true to their characters, though, which is what really matters. The various theories of Norse mythology's ties with other countries' myths are interesting, but they seem a stretch, e.g. when the idea (in "Thor and Geirrod") that Gjálp is flooding the river with her menstrual blood. The Prose Edda doesn't say anything about blood and it's more likely (and widely accepted) that she is peeing. The blood part seems to have been added purely to tie it to a random Egyptian myth. In light of this, I would recommend this book as an introduction to the original texts rather than for someone looking for a thorough academic text.

[pardamustang · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book had a nice introduction to Norse cosmology as well as basics of the mythology. It provides a good grounding in the myths, along with a section at the end containing tidbits of information pertinent to each story. A wonderful book for exploring Norse myth.

[7alyssae7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have been in a mythology phase lately. I was told this book is a good introduction to norse mythology, and i really think it is. Anyone that had a curious mind about norse myth should read this book.

[scoutj_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A great introduction to the myths, obviously well-researched, but also pleasantly told. There are extensive notes on each myth, which is good, but they are in a separate section at the end of the book, which I found annoying. I can't imagine that most readers would just read straight through without the explanations, so I would have preferred the notes to follow each myth.

[elenchus_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

All parts are eminently useful: Crossley-Holland's retellings adopt a pleasing tone, his selection never neglecting the big three (Odin, Loki, Thor) but attentive to less popular characters so as to serve up a rounded portrait of the myths. The introduction is meatier than expected, the notes detailed as to sources as well as Crossley-Holland's decisions regarding what to keep, what to change, how best to adapt contradictory or mutually exclusive versions. Anglo-Saxon words, he notes, are preferred to others of Greek or Latinate origin. Crossley-Holland conveys his enthusiasm as well as his admiration for the myths here, as well as for those who told them.This was an ideal return to the stories, my appetite for the myths themselves whetted by Davidson's survey. No question but that I'll revisit these, and the edition is a fine one in both design and illustrations. Lydbury's headpieces are as detailed and varied as her larger woodcuts, incorporating Norse motifs such as wildlife and nautical knots, armour and landscape.//Vikings defined as Danes, Swedes, Norwegians living between 780-1070 AD, who in part due to overcrowding + primogeniture were compelled to adventure South, East, and West, with resulting profound cultural influences. The Norse settled Iceland, where many of these myths ultimately were written down. (Are there no other Icelanders than those descended from Vikings? Greenland?)A key characteristic of Icelandic culture (unfamiliar to me): always a republic, no tradition of kingdoms and monarchy. Yet the Danes were steeped in it, The Song of Rig emphasizes this, and the Swedes and Norwegians also have strong lines of royalty. If Iceland settled by Scandinavians organised under royalty, interesting that royalty rejected in Iceland. Political parallels with USA, have these been noted before? But of course a different scale, at least ultimately, perhaps as clear an example of modernity's influence as any.Loki's character arc interesting: here he is always the "boon companion" to Thor and Odin (and H), but in the myths told here he also evolves from trickster to evil nemesis. Does that character arc mirror a transformation found within the larger Norse chronology, or merely emerge as selected and arranged here? And assuming it is found in Loki's character generally, what does it portend: a cultural shift or religious theme, or merely reflecting a choice of audiences who wanted Loki to get more fiercely and intensely and unapologetically Loki, and not be merely a figure of fun?

[nebula21-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A collection of Norse myths translated into English. I did not like the illustrations in the book. I did not enjoy the stories. They were told in such a way that they lacked excitement.

[aethercowboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In the world of myths, Norse myths are like that cool kid that you don't really know is cool because he always keeps to himself and doesn't really talk about the same stuff as everybody else. Maybe he's a bit too much of a hipster, but after talking to him for a few minutes, you realize he's a cool guy, even if he is familiar with stuff you've never heard of. Norse Mythology is like that. Sure there are the more popular Greco Roman mythologies, or the more indie Mesoamerican mythologies, or the more fringe Judeo-Christian mythologies, and the more hip Celtic mythologies, but Norse mythology is itself pretty much worth knowing.While other books I've read on the subject barely do enough to do Norse mythology justice, this book does a fabulous job of covering all the established myths from the existing authorities on the subject, including Snorri Sturluson, all translated into English for the US/UK/AU/CA/etc. reader.In reading this book, I realized just how much Norse mythology influenced popular fantasy authors, especially Tolkien, in which just about every single Dark Elf/Dwarf has a name that appears in Tolkien's legendarium, which makes one think twice before kowtowing to a demand by the Tolkien estate to not use a term like Dwalin, Gandalf, or Mirkwook (all names originated in Norse mythology). But I digress...If you'd like a book that does a fairly good coverage of Norse myths without having to learn Scandinavian, then this is a great place to start. Crossley-Holland does an excellent job of presenting the material to the reader in a way that's easy to understand and doesn't get bogged down in the arcane (but does delve a bit into the arcane in a way that's completely enjoyable). I would highly recommend this book as as starting place for anybody interested in Norse mythology, as well as the other Pantheon books of mythology and folklore for those interested in other cultures as well.