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A review by llmacrae
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
4.0
Another brilliant narration from Neil Gaiman, although I didn’t enjoy this read nearly as much as Neverwhere.
It reminded me of reading Aesop’s Fables - a collection of short stories depicting the adventures (and mostly hubris) of the Norse Gods and their various quarrels and vengeances, promises and oaths. Mostly falling in love immediately on sight/wanting to marry various other gods/mortals/giants, and the havoc they and their kin wreak.
I have a passing familiarity with the Norse Gods and it was very interesting to read about some of their family trees/who disliked who etc.
There is a degree of absurdism that reminded me of children’s fairytales (a giant with 900 heads, everything is the biggest/strongest/fastest/most beautiful etc. thing that had ever been or ever would be, that sort of thing), which brought an element of humour to the tales.
To be honest, I was quite glad it was such a short read because I did find my mind wandering quite a bit. I wonder if I would have preferred a single novel of one of the stories, with more fleshing out? But tbh, these remind me of the “lessons” in children’s stories, so it probably would work in that format.
It’s very clear a huge amount of research and passion went into the creation of this, which is absolutely commendable! A few moments did make me laugh out loud :D
Still very curious to read more of Gaiman’s words!
It reminded me of reading Aesop’s Fables - a collection of short stories depicting the adventures (and mostly hubris) of the Norse Gods and their various quarrels and vengeances, promises and oaths. Mostly falling in love immediately on sight/wanting to marry various other gods/mortals/giants, and the havoc they and their kin wreak.
I have a passing familiarity with the Norse Gods and it was very interesting to read about some of their family trees/who disliked who etc.
There is a degree of absurdism that reminded me of children’s fairytales (a giant with 900 heads, everything is the biggest/strongest/fastest/most beautiful etc. thing that had ever been or ever would be, that sort of thing), which brought an element of humour to the tales.
To be honest, I was quite glad it was such a short read because I did find my mind wandering quite a bit. I wonder if I would have preferred a single novel of one of the stories, with more fleshing out? But tbh, these remind me of the “lessons” in children’s stories, so it probably would work in that format.
It’s very clear a huge amount of research and passion went into the creation of this, which is absolutely commendable! A few moments did make me laugh out loud :D
Still very curious to read more of Gaiman’s words!