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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
Beautiful language that wraps the ancient stories around the modern reader in the context of WW2.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I wanted to like this. Perhaps it wasn't the right time to read it. I found it heavy. Bogged me down and made me sleepy. It is great writing.. but it's too much. And no discernible story line for a while after starting.
When I saw this at the book store, I immediately bought myself a copy, even though I knew nothing about Ragnarok (the Norse Armageddon) and very little about Norse mythology in general. Why? Well, firstly, it's part of a series of books on mythology, of which I've read the first introductory book; The Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong. Secondly, well, it's written by A.S. Byatt, who has grown to be one of my favourite authors, and not without reason. Byatt is a brilliant writer, a wordsmith. Her prose is rather poetic; a combination of apt imagery and beautiful sounds, which together with the strong emotions that her stories invoke in you, leaves you enraptured.
If you're a mythology fanatic or an expert, you might find this book a little too basic, as some of the Goodreads reviews seem to suggest. But if all you want is a general glimpse into the Norse myths, without having to struggle through a reference journal, the book is perfect. It is far from scholarly, and that, somehow is the magic of it. Throughout the book, Byatt maintains these careful inconsistencies, even with the names; because, she says, myths are always changing, there is no right or wrong, no accurate version. Where you'd have footnotes and in depth analyses of the different allegories, you have a thin young girl, who has had to move to the English countryside with a war raging around them, reading and shaping her world according to a book she loves called "Asgard and the Gods". It draws parallels to our world, at every step, through the mind of that little girl, who likens her father being away bombing the enemy's planes to Odin's Wild Hunt.
At the same time, it's just a story, of how the world was fashioned by the gods from the Giant Ymir's corpse, of the creation of Ask and Embla, the stories of Odin or Wodun, Thor and Baldur the beautiful God, who was killed by his blind brother. We also read about Loki or Loptr, the playful shape-shifting fire God and his spawn; Jormungandr, the giant sea serpent, Hel, ruler of Niflheim, where the dead go and Fenris, the monstrous wolf. We experience, finally, the eponymous end of the gods, the terrible Ragnarok. With her writing, Byatt brings the myths alive, to the point where we don't only find Loki interesting, but want to read further to find out what happened of him. It's not informative, as an academic book about myths would be, instead, it's engaging.
All of Byatt's writing is heavily influenced by mythology, I've read enough of her books to recognize its hold on her. The thin child is based, after all, on Byatt herself, as a young girl, first finding her way to these myths. In her Booker Prize winning novel, Possession, one of the main characters is a poet called Randolph Henry Ash. These lines are from the epic he writes about Ragnarok.
And these three Ases were the sons of Bor
Who slew the Giant Ymir in his rage
And made of him the elements of earth,
Body and sweat and bones and curly hair,
Made soil and sea and hills and waving trees,
And his grey brains wandered the heavens as clouds.
These three were Odin, Father of the Gods,
Honir, his brother, also called the Bright,
The Wise and Thoughtful, and that third, the hot
Loki, the hearth-god, whose consuming fire
First warmed the world, then grown beyond the bounds
Of home and hearth-stone, flamed in boundless greed
To turn the world, and Heav'n, to sifting ash.
If you're a mythology fanatic or an expert, you might find this book a little too basic, as some of the Goodreads reviews seem to suggest. But if all you want is a general glimpse into the Norse myths, without having to struggle through a reference journal, the book is perfect. It is far from scholarly, and that, somehow is the magic of it. Throughout the book, Byatt maintains these careful inconsistencies, even with the names; because, she says, myths are always changing, there is no right or wrong, no accurate version. Where you'd have footnotes and in depth analyses of the different allegories, you have a thin young girl, who has had to move to the English countryside with a war raging around them, reading and shaping her world according to a book she loves called "Asgard and the Gods". It draws parallels to our world, at every step, through the mind of that little girl, who likens her father being away bombing the enemy's planes to Odin's Wild Hunt.
At the same time, it's just a story, of how the world was fashioned by the gods from the Giant Ymir's corpse, of the creation of Ask and Embla, the stories of Odin or Wodun, Thor and Baldur the beautiful God, who was killed by his blind brother. We also read about Loki or Loptr, the playful shape-shifting fire God and his spawn; Jormungandr, the giant sea serpent, Hel, ruler of Niflheim, where the dead go and Fenris, the monstrous wolf. We experience, finally, the eponymous end of the gods, the terrible Ragnarok. With her writing, Byatt brings the myths alive, to the point where we don't only find Loki interesting, but want to read further to find out what happened of him. It's not informative, as an academic book about myths would be, instead, it's engaging.
All of Byatt's writing is heavily influenced by mythology, I've read enough of her books to recognize its hold on her. The thin child is based, after all, on Byatt herself, as a young girl, first finding her way to these myths. In her Booker Prize winning novel, Possession, one of the main characters is a poet called Randolph Henry Ash. These lines are from the epic he writes about Ragnarok.
And these three Ases were the sons of Bor
Who slew the Giant Ymir in his rage
And made of him the elements of earth,
Body and sweat and bones and curly hair,
Made soil and sea and hills and waving trees,
And his grey brains wandered the heavens as clouds.
These three were Odin, Father of the Gods,
Honir, his brother, also called the Bright,
The Wise and Thoughtful, and that third, the hot
Loki, the hearth-god, whose consuming fire
First warmed the world, then grown beyond the bounds
Of home and hearth-stone, flamed in boundless greed
To turn the world, and Heav'n, to sifting ash.
Fantastic book. A wonderful telling of Ragnarok. The book cover the start, middle and the end of the myth and is beautifully told through the eyes of young girl during the second (?) world war. It is a great introduction to the Norse myths and legends. This is the second book of the Myth series from Cannongate that I have read and I will be reading more.
the first book I've read in months and I have to say it was interesting.
I was quite disapointed in "Ragnarok." Norse mythology is my favorite, and I've read a number of other books in the "Myths" collection and enjoyed them greatly, but not "Ragnarok." I think the problem I had with it was that while the others used the myth as a jumping off point, Byatt stuck too closely to the originals, and in doing so, added nothing to it. Almost everything in "Ragnarok" can be found in either "Edda" or "The Poetic Edda." Maybe for those who are new to Norse Mythology this would be a good book, but for readers versed in the myths, while technically well done, this book is a dud.
This skinny book is really a novella, closed with a brief essay. And in that way Byatt does so well, this small book on Norse mythology also tells a story of marriage and motherhood, war, loss, escapism, violence. Insidious, along the edges of the larger story, what seems to be a straight-forward retelling of some aspects of Norse mythology actually tells us a story of World War II, Byatt-as-a-child, and the way a good story can help us escape our reality.
Unlike some of the other Canongate Myth pieces, Byatt doesn't twist or warp or reinvent the myth she's chosen. Norse mythology has never been a big passion of mine so I didn't have that immediate connection with the story that I've had with other books but Byatt's (possibly?) autobiographical 'thin girl' and the World War II setting pulled me in. I might not have connected with the story of Ragnarok, but I immediately understood the magic of reading, the absorption of a compelling, alternative world on a lonely imagination.
Byatt's thin girl reads a volume of Norse mythology, an English edition that extols rather warmly the impact of Old German on the myth cycle. The play of the 'good Germans' from the book and the 'bad Germans' of WWII was interesting ("Who were these old Germans, as opposed to the ones overhead, now dealing death out of the night sky", p17) and poignant: enemies and friends are so easily made and unmade.
Unsurprisingly, the language is gorgeous but simple, poetical and lyrical and moving. ("Baldur went, but he did not come back. The thin child sorted in her new mind things that went and came back, and things that went and did not come back. Her father with his flaming hair was flying under the hot sun in Africa, and she knew in her soul that he would not come back.", p86) Byatt's narrative reads like a collection of myths, myth-of-the-thin-girl and myth of Ragnarok, and every page invites rereading.
Byatt's closing essay was interesting -- about why she chose to tell the story as she did, what she had hoped to do, what she didn't do -- but I wish it hadn't been included. I made the mistake of reading it immediately upon finishing, and it took some of the warmth away from the story as I chewed over her analysis rather than the feelings she provoked in me.
Unlike some of the other Canongate Myth pieces, Byatt doesn't twist or warp or reinvent the myth she's chosen. Norse mythology has never been a big passion of mine so I didn't have that immediate connection with the story that I've had with other books but Byatt's (possibly?) autobiographical 'thin girl' and the World War II setting pulled me in. I might not have connected with the story of Ragnarok, but I immediately understood the magic of reading, the absorption of a compelling, alternative world on a lonely imagination.
Byatt's thin girl reads a volume of Norse mythology, an English edition that extols rather warmly the impact of Old German on the myth cycle. The play of the 'good Germans' from the book and the 'bad Germans' of WWII was interesting ("Who were these old Germans, as opposed to the ones overhead, now dealing death out of the night sky", p17) and poignant: enemies and friends are so easily made and unmade.
Unsurprisingly, the language is gorgeous but simple, poetical and lyrical and moving. ("Baldur went, but he did not come back. The thin child sorted in her new mind things that went and came back, and things that went and did not come back. Her father with his flaming hair was flying under the hot sun in Africa, and she knew in her soul that he would not come back.", p86) Byatt's narrative reads like a collection of myths, myth-of-the-thin-girl and myth of Ragnarok, and every page invites rereading.
Byatt's closing essay was interesting -- about why she chose to tell the story as she did, what she had hoped to do, what she didn't do -- but I wish it hadn't been included. I made the mistake of reading it immediately upon finishing, and it took some of the warmth away from the story as I chewed over her analysis rather than the feelings she provoked in me.
I spaced on adding this book, but it is a very good read. I don't know if I'd call it a retelling of the Norse Myths, more than a personal reflection on Norse Mythology. It is always a joy to read the writing of A. S. Byatt, but I do look forward to her next fully original work...not to say this wasn't original but I'm sure you understand.