Books like Nordic Gods and Heroes

This book is essentially an anthology of some of the best stories ever told.

It includes sagas as well as several tales, shorter anecdotes the Icelanders told. I love the Icelandic landscape, and it comes startlingly alive in the pages of this book.

One of the best is Egil’s Saga. In terms of fantastic events, it exceeds most fantasy written today. Others are realistic and give a feel for what life was like for ordinary people in early medieval Iceland. 

I love literature that is elaborate, strange, and profound. I love books that don’t give their secrets away right on the surface. This taste has been nurtured by the stories in this book. I try to understand what the Icelanders for whom these stories were written thought of them: these were the themes of their quotidian existence.

The sagas were being written at the same time as Chaucer and Dante… show more.

This book taught me the history of the Viking Age.

It was written in the thirteenth century to tell the story of the kings of Norway from the beginning till that time. It was well worth the read. I was swept into the stream of Viking history and lived vicariously the lives of the Norse kings and warriors. The descriptions of Norse battlefields, naval combats, and courtly intrigue are vivid and compelling.

By the way, Snorri was quite a controversial figure in his time, so much so that the Norwegian king had him murdered. But his writing has survived.

It’s no exaggeration to say this book changed my life. 

I quickly became immersed in Norse mythology when I read this book. The poems in this book are the source for most of what we know about Norse myths, and it also contains many lays detailing the legends of the heroes, most notably Sigurd the Volsung.

When I read this book, I saw in a fossilized form a past culture whose values were far different from those of the culture in which I lived; it was like finding I had a sibling I’d never known about, and I felt a strong connection to it. When reading the heroic lays, I encountered men and women who were motivated by compassion and bravery. The characters and their psychological needs were like those I found in Homer, Sophocles, and Shakespeare.  

The poems may seem strange and hard to grasp at first, but those… show more.

When I was a schoolboy in Oxford in the 1960s, I wrote a letter to Tolkien, and he answered.

I knew even at that time that I shared his preoccupation with the Norse myths. It is a preoccupation that has been with me ever since.

In this book, Tolkien attempts to write his own Eddaic poem. It is dramatic and intense. Those who know only Tolkien’s Middle-earth writings may have trouble adjusting to a tale deliberately told in an antique verse form.  

What I especially loved in this poem was the Valkyrie Brynhild. Tolkien has something of a reputation for being sexless. The confusion of identity, thwarted passion, and bitterness that lead to Brynhild’s suicide make the sort of story that few people associate with this author. And Christopher Tolkien’s notes are lucid and unobtrusive.

The main thing that draws me to this book, and what sets it apart from his other series, are the diverse characters. Different ethnic backgrounds, religions, LGBTQ, and disabilities are all portrayed, but they are just part of the character's story, not the main plot focus. The Norse mythology runs through the book with humour and lots of deadly action, and an interesting take on some of the gods. With an array of creatures and characters that stand either with or against the Vikings, this is a fun adventure, and it even has a cameo from the Percy Jackson series, so look out for that.

Riordan had me at Norse mythology. Love it! Written in the usual tongue-in-cheek humor I’m used to with the author’s style, I loved the way he rebranded Norse myths to fit into the young adult genre he’s so famous for writing. It begins as homeless Magnus Chase (cousin to Annabeth from The Lightning Thief) is plucked from the real world (he literally dies) and taken to Hotel Valhalla, where he’s put through the gantlet over and over again (and dies many times in the process) until he teams up with an unlikely (and likable) diverse cast of characters who embark on a journey to recover his birthright—the Sword of Summer. However, what Magnus doesn’t count on is finding out the truth about who he really is, and his place in Asgard. 

The Norse God: Vidar

Suspense, Horror, Romance, Adventure—this book has it all! Vidar’s steadfast search for the mortal woman he loved and lost, and the complications of her return as a cynical scientist at a research outpost in the modern world are both “wild and melancholy.” I love the idea of a god with such a loyal heart. This book gets bonus points for going all-in on Odin as the villain of the piece, but also features Loki in full Trickster form, and touches on many of the other gods of Asgard.

This series of short back-up strips in the 1960s Thor comic from Marvel retold and embellished on the myths in characteristically bombastic Lee/Kirby fashion. While Thor himself, in the main feature, battled costumed supervillains in contemporary New York, the supporting feature dealt with his youth, his allies and enemies in Asgard itself and the rest of the Nine Realms, and a whole host of sorcerers, witches, and grotesque monsters. Kirby in particular seemed enthused by the project and it shows in his artwork.

Just who was the Germanic God who carried many variations of the name, Wodin, Odin, Oðin, Votan, Wodan, Photan? What is the actual story behind the Germanic/Norse mythology he features in? This novel is an extremely amusing explanation that in fact he was a rather dodgy trader who, partly because of his earlier occupation as a doctor, ends up as a god in all of Germania, as do his also dodgy mates and promiscuous wife. 

A previous knowledge of the mythology helps, but is not essential. I found it very funny and it was one of the inspirations for my own tales.

This richly detailed book explores the worship of Odin and his wife, providing information from Continental sources as well as surviving Norse lore. It paints a different and more complete picture of a major goddess, and also brings to light older sides of Odin that have nothing to do with our modern images of Viking berserkers.