others at younger readers, many of which evince his continued interest in mythology. In his novelAmerican Gods (2001), incarnations of the Norse gods Odin and Loki engage in a struggle with the godlike avatars of modern technological forces in contemporary America. In an article for the Telegraph, published online on January 28, 2017, Gaiman wrote that interest in Norse mythology stems from his childhood interest in Marvel Comics’ Mighty Thor, a superhero drawn by the legendary Jack Kirby and scripted by Kirby, Stan Lee, and Larry Lieber. These classic comics, featuring an extravagant science-fictional background for Thor and his fellow Norse gods, stimulated Gaiman to seek out more information on their mythological underpinnings.

He found what he wanted in Roger Lancelyn Green’s Myths of the Norsemen (1960), which introduced him to the ancient world of the Norse gods—one very different from the Marvel Universe, in which Thor’s home of Asgard was a snowbound Viking feasting hall and, instead of aliens and supervillains, the hammer-wielding hero battled frost giants. Especially compelling to the young Gaiman was the tragic fate awaiting the denizens of Asgard: Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods, when they and their enemies the frost giants would perish in a confrontation that would end the world. The indeterminate doom of the Norse gods—was Ragnarok in the past or still to come?—gave their stories an enduring immediacy. For Gaiman, they could not be so easily dismissed as the myths of the Greeks and Romans. For all their obscure roots in the forgotten mists of ancient Germany and Scandinavia, these tales of gods defying an inexorable fate possessed, for him, a fascinating timelessness. As Gaiman matured into a writer, the influence of these stories never left him. His experiment in producing his own version of the Norse myths is very much a labor of love.

Gaiman acknowledges that only a fraction of the stories that the Norse told themselves about their gods and goddesses survive. Those that remain were written down after Christianity had supplanted paganism in Scandinavia. In writing his book, Gaiman worked with English translations of two extant sources. The first is the Prose Edda, composed by the thirteenth-century Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson, who intended his work to serve as a guide to help his Christian readers understand the content and metrical style of ancient Norse poetry. The second is the Poetic Edda, an anonymous collection of Norse poems recounting the deeds of gods and heroes. Between them, these two works preserve most of what is known about Norse mythology. Gaiman’s versions of the stories of the Norse gods move freely between both Eddas, taking details and narrative elements from each and recombining them to enhance the dramatic force of the myths.

This does not mean that he gives himself license to fully revise his source material. Gaiman does not invent new stories, or imaginatively speculate on elements of the original myths that the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda left unexplored or unanswered. Though he makes no claims to serious scholarship, Gaiman strives to provide an authentic rendering of his sources, true to the intentions of the people who originally told these stories, with no attempt to change or modernize them to appease contemporary sensibilities. The protagonists of the Norse myths adhere to mores widely at variance with twenty-first-century norms, often committing acts that today would be considered appalling. Gaiman accepts this; he is interested in recapturing and understanding the vision of a past world, not in transforming that vision into something more currently acceptable. In doing so, he preserves the intriguing and sometimes necessarily unsettling otherness of Norse mythology. Herein lies the book’s power: those willing to make the journey are transported into the mental universe of a culture that saw life differently than people do today.

In the only real concession to make the stories appeal to a contemporary public, Gaiman retells them in lively, colloquial language that renders even the alien perspectives of the Norse gods more relatable. His prose is anything but stuffy or pretentious. In his pages, Odin, Thor, Loki, and the other gods, goddesses, and giants of myth speak in accessible, ordinary conversational English. Their behavior may be distinctly old-fashioned, but the language used to describe this behavior is not. Gaiman’s tone gives the stories a freshness and approachability that would be lost with a more mannered style. The result is an anthology that pleases the modern ear while maintaining the integrity of the ancient stories.

Gaiman also helps his readers by providing a larger shape and structure to the body of legends with which he works. He begins with stories about the creation of the world and finishes with the climactic battle of Ragnarok, which brings with it the end of the Norse gods, though it sows the seeds of another cycle of life. Within this framework, Gaiman weaves together a series of stories that trace high points in the careers of Thor and other key figures, giving the book the feel and trajectory of a novel. In doing so, he does not iron out the complexities of his material. In the old stories, the characterizations of the gods could be quite inconsistent, and Gaiman’s narrative subtly reflects this mythological reality. Nevertheless, this recounting of ancient legends provides readers with a satisfying sense of completeness. Gaiman’s skill as a storyteller triumphs over the difficulties inherent in his sources.

The result of Gaiman’s literary abilities and his manifest affection for his subject matter is a concise but compelling collection of stories. Gaiman writes with the exuberant energy of an enthusiast daring the reader not to share in his joy. It is difficult to resist his gusto as he moves smoothly from one story to another, combining the charms of a fairy tale with his disarmingly modern narration. Gods, goddesses, giants, and monsters of all sorts, from dragons to giant serpents, meet, mingle, and battle each other in this loving tribute to the imagination of the ancient Norse.

Typical of the tales in Norse Mythology is “The Master Builder,” the fifth story in the collection (not including a summary of the main characters). With Thor away hunting trolls, marauding frost giants are a very real threat, and the inhabitants of Asgard feel vulnerable. What they need, Odin decides, is a high, stout wall around their home. One day a stranger arrives with his stallion, Svadilfari, and offers to build a wall around Asgard in three seasons if the gods give him the sun, the moon, and the hand of the lovely goddess Freya in marriage. At Loki’s urging, the gods accept the stranger’s offer on the condition that he complete the wall in one season. They assume that this will make his task impossible, but that his efforts will give them the foundation of a wall that they can then finish themselves at their leisure. Much to their dismay, the stranger and Svadilfari are able to drag immense loads of stone to Asgard, and the wall rapidly nears completion. As it becomes apparent that they might have to pay the stranger’s price, the gods angrily turn on Loki, threatening him with the direst consequences if he does not foil the industrious stranger. By this point, the stranger only needs one more load of stone to be done with the wall. As he whistles for Svadilfari to help him drag the stone to Asgard, the stallion is distracted by the appearance of a beautiful chestnut mare. The mare leads the stallion away, preventing the stranger from winning his wager. He angrily denounces the gods as cheats and ominously begins to grow in size, revealing that he is in fact a mountain giant in disguise. Fortunately for the gods, Thor returns at this moment with his deadly hammer and kills the threatening giant. Much to the gods’ amusement, Loki later shows up with a magical foal that affectionately treats him as its mother. “The Master Builder” exemplifies the heady mixture of fantasy, violence, and sometimes ribald humor that pervades the adventures of the Norse gods.

Gaiman’s Norse Mythology is a book that will delight a wide range of readers. It should appeal to connoisseurs of fine writing as well as aficionados of good stories. Simply and elegantly written, it would also serve brilliantly as a mythology textbook for high school and university students. In a review for the Library Journal, Stephanie Klose deemed the book “a spectacularly entertaining and elucidating collection of stories with wide crossover appeal” that is “essential for all collections,” while Booklist reviewer Ray Olson concluded that “Gaiman’s retelling of these ever-striking and strange stories should be every reader’s first book of Norse mythology.” As the tale of “The Master Builder” indicates, there are occasionally earthy passages that might be unsuitable for younger children. Still, if judiciously edited for bedtime readings, there are wonderful things in this volume for grade schoolers as well. Gaiman’s work has the makings of a popular classic. It seems destined to become a standard introduction to the Norse myths for a generation.

Review Sources

• Klose, Stephanie. Review of Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman. Library Journal, 15 Feb. 2017, p. 92. Academic Search Complete, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=121212855&site=ehost-live. Accessed 6 Feb. 2018.
• Review of Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman. Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2016, pp. 84–85. Academic Search Complete, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=122748286&site=ehost-live. Accessed 6 Feb. 2018.
• Review of Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman. Publishers Weekly, 12 Dec. 2016, p. 119. Academic Search Complete, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=120250453&site=ehost-live. Accessed 6 Feb. 2018.
• Olson, Ray. Review of Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman. Booklist, 15 Dec. 2016, p. 6. Academic Search Complete, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=120218928&site=ehost-live. Accessed 6 Feb. 2018.
• Shippey, Tom. “Neil Gaiman on the Old Norse Myths.” Review of Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman. The Wall Street Journal, 3 Feb. 2017, www.wsj.com/articles/neil-gaiman-on-the-old-norse-myths-1486150476. Accessed 6 Feb. 2018.
• Yuknavitch, Lidia. “The Story of Thor, in the Voice of Neil Gaiman.” Review of Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman, read by Gaiman. The New York Times, 15 May 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/books/review/norse-mythology-neil-gaiman-audio.html. Accessed 6 Feb. 2018.