The book comprises of fifteen short stories drawn from the 13 th century Icelandic Prose and Poetic Edda sagas, originally written by Snorri Sturluson. After recently reading all 736 pages of American Gods – which, if you haven’t read yet, is disturbingly gritty and weirdly good – I was intrigued and more than a little excited as to how he would approach these classic and much-loved Norse tales. It was from his love of comic books and reading other stories like Myths of the Norsemen by Roger Lancelyn Green that sparked Neil’s interest in mythology and would inspire many of his later works of fiction including, The Sandman and American Gods, the latter of which was recently adapted into a TV series. My first encounter with Asgard and its inhabitants was as a small boy, no more than seven, reading the adventures of the Mighty Thor as depicted by American comic artist Jack Kirby, in stories plotted by Kirby and Stan Lee and dialogued by Stan Lee’s brother, Larry Lieber. Once I’d stopped lovingly (and enviously) stroking the stunning cover, I dived straight into the introduction which opens with Neil recalling where his lifelong fascination with the Norse Gods began:

I’m a huge fan of Neil Gaiman’s work, so when I heard he was bringing out a modern retelling of the Norse myths I couldn’t wait to get my eager little paws on a copy. Galvanised by Gaiman’s prose, Thor, Loki, Odin and Freya are irresistible forces for modern readers and the crackling, brilliant writing demands to be read aloud around an open fire on a freezing, starlit night. Gaiman’s gods are thoroughly alive on the page – irascible, visceral, playful, passionate – and the tales carry us from the beginning of everything to Ragnarok and the twilight of the gods. Now he reaches back through time to the original source stories in a thrilling and vivid rendition of the great Norse tales. They are also an inspiration for Neil Gaiman’s own award-bedecked, bestselling fiction. About the Bookįrom the Amazon Product Page: The great Norse myths are woven into the fabric of our storytelling – from Tolkien, Alan Garner and Rosemary Sutcliff to Game of Thrones and Marvel Comics. Before the beginning there was nothing – no earth, no heavens, no stars, no sky: only the mist world, formless and shapeless, and the fire world, always burning.įrom the dawn of the world to the twilight of the gods, this is a dazzling retelling of the great Norse myths from the award-winning, bestselling Neil Gaiman.

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