Book
Norse mythology
Record details
- ISBN: 0393356183 (pbk.) :
- ISBN: 9780393356182 (pbk.) :
-
Physical Description:
299 pages ; 21 cm
print - Publisher: New York : W.W. Norton & Company, 2018.
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Mythology, Norse |
Available copies
- 4 of 4 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Fort St. James Public Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 4 total copies.
Other Formats and Editions
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort St. James Public Library | 293.13 GAI (Text) | 35196001019764 | Adult Non-Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2016 December #2
*Starred Review* Gaiman yields to no one else writing modern-day-set dark fantasy in his use of classic mythologies, not just European but even West African Caribbean in the waggish, wonderful Anansi Boys (2005). His favorite body of myths isâand those who've read enough of him don't need him to tell them soâthe Norse batch, the matter of Odin and Thor and Loki, of Valhalla and Midgard and Hel, of giants and (J. R. R. Tolkien's favorites) elves and dwarfs. It's fairly unsurprising, then, that he'd want to tell northwestern Europe's grandest old stories in his own idiom. Nor, really, is it surprising that he does a bang-up job of it. His simple, Anglo-Saxon-canted diction, which in his original fiction sometimes gets a little pinched and dry-throated, couldn't sound better to modern ears used to the clipped, the droll, the laconic that a century of hard-boiled literary patter has made normal. All common English speakers should easily hear this prose in their own voices (though they should also hear it in Gaiman's reading of the audiobook). From nothing, the counter-biblical original condition of Norse cosmology, to the total destruction of Ragnarok and a glimpse beyond it, Gaiman's retelling of these ever-striking and strange stories should be every reader's first book of Norse mythology. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Gaiman's immense audience and all lovers of myths and the classic fantasy novels they inspire will be seeking this key volume. Copyright 2016 Booklist Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2016 December #1
Fire and ice to begin, fire and ice to end. And it's not going to end well, friends: first come the giants, then the all-ravening wolf, and thenâ¦.The ancient Norse had a cheerless view of the world: the gods are jealous, the elements fierce, the enemiesâtrolls and giants among themâmany, and if you're lucky you'll be killed in battle and gathered up to Valhalla, "and there you will drink and fight and feast and battle, with Odin as your leader." So writes Gaiman (The View from the Cheap Seats, 2016, etc.), famed for his intelligent fantasy novels but long under the spell of that great body of myth. As an English schoolboy, he reveled in Roger Lancelyn Green's Myths of the Norsemen, a somewhat stodgy but valuable collection (as he notes, as a creature of his time, he was introduced to the Norse by way of the Mighty Thor comic books); now, as an adult, he gets to retell the tales, drawing from Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, sagas in verse, and other sources. A s he notes, rightly, that body of work is incomplete and perhaps corrupted by later Christian intrusions, so that it has to be viewed with some degree of suspicion; by the same token, he writes, so many of the goddesses in particular have been "lost, or buried, or forgotten," overshadowed by the better-known likes of Thor, Odin, and Loki and all their busy kinfolk. Gaiman writes assuredly and evocatively and with a precise eye for the atmospheric detail: "Niflheim was colder than cold, and the murky mist that cloaked everything hung heavily," he intones, catching the ancient alliteration. There's plenty of mayhem and gore, and once the gods have had their fun, everything comes "crashing down and crumbling into ash and devastation." But before that happens and Ragnarok descends, we have this lively book to cheer us along. Superb. Just the thing for the literate fantasy lover and the student of comparative religion and mythology alike. Copyright Kirkus 2016 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2017 February #2
In his fiction, Gaiman (American Gods; Sandman) frequently explores the themes and tropes of mythology from around the world. Here, he operates within narrower confines, retelling the classic stories of Norse mythology but with no less humor, sense of adventure, and imagination than when he's playing in worlds of his own making. Here the adventures and misadventures of the Norse gods and goddesses function as short stories that, together, build an arc that leads the reader onward to Ragnarök, the twilight of the gods. Giants, ogres, dwarves, fantastical beasts, and the occasional human freely mingle with Thor, Odin, Loki, Freya, and other, less well-known gods and goddesses, all of whom are passionate, flawed, weird, and divinely entertaining.
Copyright 2017 Library Journal.VERDICT A spectacularly entertaining and elucidating collection of stories with wide crossover appeal. Essential for all collections.âStephanie Klose, Library Journal - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2016 September #1
Fantasy phenomenon Gaiman, who draws on the tales of the North Germanic people in his work, now combines them into a single novelistic arc. See also Carolyne Larrington's heavily illustrated The Norse Myths: A Guide to Viking and Scandinavian Gods and Heroes (Thames & Hudson. 208p. ISBN 9780500251966. $24.95), also in February.. Copyright 2016 Library Journal. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2016 December #2
Having already appropriated Odin and Loki for his novel American Gods, Gaiman turns his restless imagination to a retelling of Norse folklore (a youthful interest of his). He begins by introducing us to the three main mythological figures: Odin, the highest and oldest of the gods; his son, Thor, who makes up in brawn what he lacks in brains; and Loki, offspring of giants and a wily trickster. In a series of stories, we learn how Thor acquired his famous hammer, Mjollnir, how Odin tricked a giant into building a wall around Asgard, the home of the gods, how Loki helped Thor retrieve his hammer from the ogre that had stolen it, and how a visit to the land of the giants resulted in the humbling of Thor and Loki. In most of the stories, a consistent dynamic rules as one god tries to get something over on another god, but novelist that he is, Gaiman also provides a dramatic continuity to these stories that takes us from the birth of the gods to their blood-soaked twilight. Employing dialogue that is anachronistically current in nature, Gaiman has great fun in bringing these gods down to a human level. Like John Gardner in Grendel, a classic retelling of Beowulf, and Philip Pullman in his rewriting of Hans Christian Andersen stories, Gaiman takes a well-worn subject and makes it his own. (Feb.) Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly.
