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mushysdiary's review
3.0
3 stars
i got this book for my bday from a friend and i wish i could’ve enjoyed it more than i did. i’ve been wanting to get into norse mythology for a while and though this book would be a good introduction. it does contain quite a lot about the norse gods, heroes, origin stories and creatures, so it did inform me on all of the general stuff. i just don’t know if it’s the best introductory book to norse mythology. the narrative and story telling is quite dull and straightforward. i think i need to read a more ‘exciting’ telling of these myths first, to actually get me interested in them.
another thing was that there was a section at the end that compared greek and north mythology. one major flaw about it was that the author used roman names of gods/people instead of greek ones (ex. jupiter instead of zeus). this is important, because the roman ‘counterparts’ of the greek gods are not their carbon copy. the roman gods were mostly similar gods that the romans later also gave the attributes of the greek gods. some greek gods, for example hecate, don’t exist in roman mythology. this is why it’s crucial to use the *greek* names of the gods/people, especially so when it’s a comparative analysis of *greek* and norse mythology. it also just makes sense, language wise, y’know?
overall, it was a bit like a norse mythology dictionary, which isn’t necessarily bad. it’s just kind of boring. i liked the stories about loki and the elves the most! i think i’ll try another book about norse mythology and if that one doesn’t interest me much either, then maybe i’m just not cut out for norse mythology (i’ll stick to greek then <3).
i got this book for my bday from a friend and i wish i could’ve enjoyed it more than i did. i’ve been wanting to get into norse mythology for a while and though this book would be a good introduction. it does contain quite a lot about the norse gods, heroes, origin stories and creatures, so it did inform me on all of the general stuff. i just don’t know if it’s the best introductory book to norse mythology. the narrative and story telling is quite dull and straightforward. i think i need to read a more ‘exciting’ telling of these myths first, to actually get me interested in them.
another thing was that there was a section at the end that compared greek and north mythology. one major flaw about it was that the author used roman names of gods/people instead of greek ones (ex. jupiter instead of zeus). this is important, because the roman ‘counterparts’ of the greek gods are not their carbon copy. the roman gods were mostly similar gods that the romans later also gave the attributes of the greek gods. some greek gods, for example hecate, don’t exist in roman mythology. this is why it’s crucial to use the *greek* names of the gods/people, especially so when it’s a comparative analysis of *greek* and norse mythology. it also just makes sense, language wise, y’know?
overall, it was a bit like a norse mythology dictionary, which isn’t necessarily bad. it’s just kind of boring. i liked the stories about loki and the elves the most! i think i’ll try another book about norse mythology and if that one doesn’t interest me much either, then maybe i’m just not cut out for norse mythology (i’ll stick to greek then <3).
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