diffengine 's review for:

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

4.0

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Gaiman's interpretation of Norse gods and their fickle and sometimes questionable decisions is at once endearing and otherworldly - as it should be. We cannot hope to understand why these gods do what they do much of the time so Gaiman doesn't spend any time delving into that. They are inscrutable and at once above mankind and also very much fallible to the basest human emotions. He does a great job conveying this in a mostly informal writing style that suits itself to bed time tales much like fables or Grimm's fairy tales. The characterization of the gods here is the real reason to read this book. Gaiman has always been great at taking unusual characters and making them very human if incredibly flawed and the same applies here in his latest offering. From his forward we see how much tales of Norse gods influenced him as a child imagining the often frankly bizarre scenarios they engaged in. Everything is lovingly rendered here - Thor is cast a thoughtless, angry, emotion-prone actor in the gods schemes whether willingly or unwillingly; Loki is mischievous with a definite slant towards feeling perpetually scorned, outcast, resentful, and dangerously conniving; Odin is the all-father both wise and a man of few words and yet there is a scene where he, polymorphed as a falcon, tricks a troll in the form of an eagle to follow him into a trap effectively farting some mead of wisdom into his face causing the troll to crash into a burning pile of logs. There is a sense of whimsy to all these tales and yet from the outset we're informed of the dark tidings that will inevitably prevail - Ragnarok, the end times. Norse Mythology is a great, quick read if you're unfamiliar with the tales and even if you are Gaiman's obviously loving interpretation of them is still very much worth a look.

Thumbs up.