Book Review: Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology
My thoughts on the famed fantasy author's rehashing of Norse myths.
Sitting on my shelf for a few years, I decided to finally read all the way through Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology. A large part of this had to do with the fact that I had just finished John Gwynne’s fantastically written, Norse-inspired fantasy, The Shadow of the Gods, and I was feeling my ancestral Viking coming out of me (I have a red beard and a love for swords so I’m assuming I have Nordic blood).
The book was enjoyable and a quick read. However, it was lacking. Gaiman’s books are usually hit or miss for me, and this landed somewhere in the middle. The biggest flaw I think with the book was that it just appeared to be straight retellings of the tales that you could pick up in any book about Norse Myths. I was hoping for good, original retellings of old Viking myths. In a way, that’s what Gaiman attempted to do, but he did not deliver very well.
Most of the stories are ones that Gaiman found in eddas and old sagas that he recolored for himself. But he could have done a lot more. There’s not a lot of detail in the way he describes things, and the characters are usually flat and not very dynamic in my opinion. Sure, you have Thor, who is angry and stupid, and Loki who is a trickster, but this is more or less a given going into the story. I would have loved to seen more dynamic characterizations of Odin, or Frigg, or Frey. I would have loved to know more about those gods, because Loki and Thor are so well known, thanks to the ostentatious Marvel films that have permeated Hollywood for the past 15-plus years.
Granted, I’m not as knowledgeable about the Norse myths as I am about Greek ones, but Gaiman had the opportunity to do something fantastic here, and he settled for reboxing Norse mythological stories in a very unsatisfying way. It was kind of like getting a birthday present from your grandma and finding out it’s the same exact thing that she gave you for Christmas. It can be disappointing.
Gaiman did have some amusing dry humor in the book that I appreciated, and I thought the tales were wonderful. But as talented as an author as Gaiman is reputed to be, I just expected more. I liked the read, but I know I could have enjoyed it a lot more.
This article was originally published in The People-Sentinel.