Norse Mythology
Neil Gaiman has long been inspired by ancient mythology in creating the fantastical realms of his fiction. Now he turns his attention back to the source, presenting a bravura rendition of the great northern tales. In Norse Mythology, Gaiman stays true to the myths in envisioning the major Norse pantheon: Odin, the highest of the high, wise, daring, and cunning; Thor, Odin’s son, incredibly strong yet not the wisest of gods; and Loki―son of a giant―blood brother to Odin and a trickster and unsurpassable manipulator. Gaiman fashions these primeval stories into a novelistic arc that begins with the genesis of the legendary nine worlds and delves into the exploits of deities, dwarfs, and giants. Once, when Thor’s hammer is stolen, Thor must disguise himself as a woman―difficult with his beard and huge appetite―to steal it back. More poignant is the tale in which the blood of Kvasir―the most sagacious of gods―is turned into a mead that infuses drinkers with poetry. The work culminates in Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods and rebirth of a new time and people. Through Gaiman’s deft and witty prose emerge these gods with their fiercely competitive natures, their susceptibility to being duped and to duping others, and their tendency to let passion ignite their actions, making these long-ago myths breathe pungent life again.
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8recommend
15mentions
15people
2017–2025years
53% recommend40% neutral7% critical
Mentions per year
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- Any good modern English translations of the Sagas that you would recommend? On a related note Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology is a great introduction to that topic.
- The gold standard of Icelanders Sagas is: https://sagas.is/vara.php (love for the little old website). It's complete, as it contains all the sagas and tales.
This is a good selection from above: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/53454/the-sagas-of-the-icela... (notably missing: Njal's Saga, but that's also available separately).
There are more sagas, though. Just not of the Icelanders.
For example the saga of the Volsungs.
If you are interested in general norse mythology then yes, Gaiman's book is really nice. The Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda are primary sources and not a difficult read.
Everything I mentioned (except Gaiman's) is published by Penguin and is a good translation.
- In general people don't want to hear that they have a problem from anyone but themselves. I've had so many I Told You So moments with certain individuals that at some point you just assume everything they ask for has been rendered incomprehensible in a game of Telephone, either with other people or with themselves. In public policy they call it, "Something must be done, this is 'something', so we must do it."
Neal Gaiman did a compendium of Norse Mythology, and in it he claims that Thor says, "When something weird happens I always assume Loki is involved. It saves time." That's the line that stuck with me the most out of that entire book.
The people who fall into this category will tune you out while you say over and over "this is going to hurt us next year" and come in with a Pikachu face a year from now when they find out that it's been a year and the chickens have come home to roost.
People, as it turns out, are much more accepting of a team delivering consistently 10% slower than expected versus a team that delivers to expectations one year and suddenly drops by 50% a year later. They can't understand that. They can't predict it. It just looks to them like you've stopped doing what you are paid to do, rather than the truth which is you stopped doing what you were paid to do 2 years ago and you didn't jump ship before the consequences showed up.
- Kurt Vonnegut is really great, my personal favorite is Sirens of Titan which is his most "sci-fi" of the bunch but I wouldn't really call it sci-fi. Other great starting points are Cat's Cradle, Mothernight, and of course Slaughterhouse Five.
I've only read one Toni Morrison book, Song of Solomon, but that was one of my favorite reads of this year.
If you haven't read Frankenstein or Dracula then I would highly recommend them. I personally enjoyed Frankenstein much more than I thought I would.
Norse Mythology and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman are also fun reads.
If you want some non-fiction, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is a very engaging read.
- Norse Mythology by Neil Giaman is very good if you like such things. The audio book is especially good as it is narrated by the author.
https://www.audible.com/pd/Norse-Mythology-Audiobook/B01LWUJ...
- I've read a lot of books this year (47 so far[1]) and they cover a wide range of genres, topics, etc. So it's hard to say that one is "the best" overall, so I'll break it into some categories:
1. Most interesting, overall: Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
2. Best in Hard Sci-fi: Foundation's Edge by Asimov
3. Best in Business: Customer-Centric Selling by Michael T. Bosworth, John R. Holland, Frank Visgatis
4. Best in Technology: An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems by Michael J. Wooldridge
5. Best in Mythology: Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
6. Best in "Deserves a mention regardless of category": On Writing by Stephen King
7. Best in Mathematics: A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science by Barbara Oakley
8. Best in Biography: The Man Who Tamed Lightning by Floyd Miller (biography of Charles Proteus Steinmetz)
