Reviews

Sagas of the Norsemen: Viking and German Myth by Time-Life Books, Jacqueline Simpson, Loren Auerbach

miocenemama's review

3.0

This is an overview of Germanic and Nordic mythology. It was interesting, but it was somewhat disjointed. It showed the Nordic myths in an unsanitized nature that we have to some extent forgotten. The gods were capricious and quarrelsome. Only warriors who died in battle deserved the highest honor. The influences of these myths are visible today in the names of the week and in much of our contemporary fantasy.

gabrielleried's review

informative slow-paced

2.5

vertellerpaul's review

3.0

A quick and easy path into the basics of Norse myth, in this case a curious but effective combination of Viking, Germanic and English mythology. Nicely illustrated, although the editors were clearly struggling to link the pictures to the stories. Because the iconography rarely links clearly to any story, a lot of assumptions had to be made and the captions contain a lot of “might”s and “could”s.
This book should be read as an invitation to delve deeper into the rich world of Northern European mythology.