A Review of Neil Gaiman's "Norse Mythology"

Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology¹ has made a splash in the community of mythology enthusiasts, and for good reason. Gaiman is a wonderful author with a solid reputation for breathing an air of modern life into characters often relegated to the ancient past. In this review I’ll be providing my thoughts as a person who studies Norse mythology a bit more seriously than the average Joe, but here’s a sneak peek right up front: I enjoyed reading Gaiman’s book and I think you will too, but it shouldn’t be your primary resource if you are serious about learning the ins and outs of real Norse mythology.

Overall Impressions

There are a lot of good things to say about Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, although, to get right to it, I could also make a very long list of material he included that isn’t exactly in-line with the source texts or with common expert opinion. But I don’t think making that list would be entirely fair or even very useful to most of you.

Neil Gaiman is a storyteller, and Norse Mythology is a book of stories. The truth is, the source texts that contain the original Norse myths were not written with modern story-telling standards in mind. In the sources, fragments of tales are spread out over various works, sometimes the material is contradictory, stories end without resolving, and we are often missing crucial pieces of context that would help us interpret things the “right” (i.e., historically accurate) way.

What makes Gaiman’s book fun to read is that he “fixes” most of these problems so you don’t have to worry about them, for instance by adding a layer of personality to some otherwise flat, forgettable characters. In fact, his development of certain personalities (such as Freyja’s) through dialogue is really one of the best features of the book. Gaiman provides scenes, reactions, thoughts, feelings, and lots of conversations that result in interesting and entertaining character dynamics. The unfortunate reality, of course, is that he has to invent a lot of information in order to modernize the stories and he has to modernize the stories in order to sell the book.

What I appreciate quite a bit is that Gaiman is upfront with the fact that his book may contain mistakes and absolutely contains his own inventions. Here’s a quote about that from the introduction:

“All mistakes, conclusions jumped to, and odd opinions in this volume are mine and mine alone, and I would not wish anyone else blamed for them. I hope I’ve retold these stories honestly, but there was still joy and creation in the telling.”

This is the most important point I’d like to get across in this review: that “there was […] creation in the telling”.

But, so what? Is embellishing a story really that bad? If most people need a gentle, organized introduction to the material, isn’t this a good place to start?

The answer to these questions depends on your ultimate goal. If Gaiman’s book becomes your only source for Norse mythological information, you will end up familiar with the myths in a general sense, but you will also be harboring incorrect ideas about them (e.g., Kvasir does not actually preside over the binding of Loki, the Æsir-Vanir War does not end because the Æsir and Vanir realize they need each other’s opposing skillsets in order to thrive, etc). For most readers that’s completely fine, in theory. We’re not all trying to be scholars after all. But it’s worth noting that Gaiman’s embellishments are also cited online far too frequently as if his book was an English rendering of ancient source texts, which it isn’t. That’s not Gaiman’s fault exactly, but it’s a hurdle for serious learners nonetheless.

Critiques

With the caveat that I found this book quite fun to read, I also noticed quite a few moments wherein Gaiman contradicts his own information and has particular trouble keeping certain character traits consistent from story to story. A great example is his treatment of Thor’s intelligence which flip-flops on an almost story-by-story basis from relatively high to absurdly low. (Serious learners should be aware that the trope of Thor being an all-brawn-and-no-brains character is a modern cliché that is directly contradicted² by source material.) Another example is his treatment of Odin’s vision. We are told that the water from Mimir’s well provides Odin with better vision in his one eye than he ever had with two, but later we are told that his aim with a spear is compromised because he only has one eye. The book is rife with such things. Most of Gaiman’s embellishments tend to offer a layer of interest in the moment but are quickly forgotten at the point of chapter transition and only sporadically add to any sense of continuity in the overall narrative.

It was also admittedly a little frustrating to see Gaiman make the deliberate choice to consistently treat jǫtnar (often poorly translated as “giants”) as though they are physically gigantic creatures with “tongue[s] bigger than a human pillow” or as “fifty feet tall”. This is not the norm we find in the source material and I am certain that Gaiman is aware of this.

In terms of content, I was surprised to discover how many myths were actually left out of the book. We are missing any story that isn't included in the Eddas (for example, “Lókka Táttur”), we are missing any story featuring a hero instead of a god as protagonist (for example, “Vǫlundarkviða”), and we are missing any story whose main body is a conversation between characters (for example “Vafþrúðnismál”). One inexplicable omission is the story of Thor's visit to the home of Geirrǫðr, given that it is related in full narrative form in the Prose Edda and is the only story that actually describes Thor using his famous iron gloves.

Should you read it?

If what you want is a high-level, modern narrative based on Norse mythology then sure! It’s engaging, entertaining, and organizes the material in a highly accessible way.

If you are looking for learning resources then you should be cautious. You will absolutely need to supplement it with other material and there will be a lot of “forgetting about Gaiman lore” that you will ultimately have to do. It may be useful as an introductory storybook (in fact my own first introductory book, Rosalind Kervin’s Viking Myths and Sagas, was similar in this regard) but it’s not a citable source and there are a lot of inaccuracies and inventions in it. So my advice would be to read the source texts (specifically the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda) as soon as possible after whatever introductory material you choose.

1. Available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Norse-Mythology-Neil-Gaiman/dp/039360909X

2. See, for example, the poem “Alvíssmál” wherein a dwarf named Alvíss (All-Wise) claims to have received permission from the other gods to marry Thor’s daughter. Thor objects to this, but rather than simply smashing the dwarf with his hammer, Thor proceeds to manipulate Alvíss into showing off his great knowledge until the sun rises at which point the sunlight turns Alvíss into stone and the all-wise dwarf has been defeated by Thor’s cunning.