{"id":5675,"date":"2017-04-12T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T16:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=5675"},"modified":"2017-04-11T16:23:26","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T00:23:26","slug":"review-norse-mythology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/review-norse-mythology\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: \u201cNorse Mythology\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Ashton Newton\r\nEntertainment Editor<\/pre>\n
Fans of comics and superhero movies are well aware of the lives of Thor, Loki and Odin. This is exactly what pulled author Neil Gaiman into the world of Norse mythology and began his inspiration for his narrative collection of Norse myths.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorse Mythology\u201d is Neil Gaiman bringing his narrative style to ancient Norse myths and, for the most part, it makes for an incredible experience.<\/p>\n
Initially, I was very put off by the book. The first few chapters are a very dense, mundane read that feel more like a textbook than a collection of stories. The chapters are short, but are packed full with names, attributes and brief histories of many different gods.
\nIt\u2019s not the best way to start, but it\u2019s necessary to understand the characters in the stories that follow.<\/p>\n
The stories themselves are great. Gaiman makes Norse mythology accessible and fun for newcomers and his focus on Thor, Loki and Odin give fans of those characters a deeper look at their origins and roots.<\/p>\n
Gaiman uses his knowledge of mythology from \u201cAmerican Gods\u201d and \u201cAnansi Boys\u201d to breathe new life into these old tales. The characters seem very alive; their feelings and emotions jump off the page.<\/p>\n
The book begins with the creation of the world, then moves into stories about the gods and their adventures and origins and ends with Ragnarok, the end of everything.<\/p>\n
Some of the stories end up feeling weak, however. \u201cThe Master Builder,\u201d for example, finds the gods dealing with a man who is wagering Freya the sun and the moon on whether or not he can build them a wall in one season. This story feels long and drawn out, the tension of whether the gods will prevail disappears and is replaced by hope that the story will end soon.<\/p>\n
Other stories are entertaining throughout. \u201cThe Death of Baldur\u201d is easily the most heartfelt and compelling story in the book. The side characters feel as alive as the main characters and I found myself not wanting the story to end.<\/p>\n
My biggest criticism of \u201cNorse Mythology\u201d is that it\u2019s too short. The book ends way too quickly, especially considering that it deals with such a rich mythology. Four or five more stories could easily fit into the book and further add to the depth of the characters.<\/p>\n
There are times when the characters do feel really weak. Gaiman has a habit of writing dialogue as Gaiman, rather than the characters that he is writing. This isn\u2019t as much of an issue with the characters of Thor, Loki and Odin, since the book\u2019s main focus is on them. Characters like Balder, Frey and Heimdall don\u2019t get enough enough time in most stories to form their own voices, so Gaiman takes over.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorse Mythology\u201d is a fantastic look into the world of Norse myth. The characters are more alive than ever before and Gaiman brings his masterful writing to these narratives, breathing new life into these old tales. Though the book is short and some stories are a bit boring, \u201cNorse Mythology\u201d is a great read for anyone interested in Norse myths.<\/p>\n
Contact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Ashton Newton Entertainment Editor Fans of comics and superhero movies are well aware of the lives of Thor, Loki and Odin. This is exactly what pulled author Neil Gaiman into the world of Norse mythology and began his inspiration for his narrative collection of Norse myths. \u201cNorse Mythology\u201d is Neil Gaiman bringing his narrative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":937,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/937"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}