Books I’ve read in 2018

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

★★★★☆

This book was a surprisingly easy romp through some of the classic Norse myths.

Why did I read this book?

1. It was 99p on an Audible Daily Deal
2. As our post-modern culture moves away from narrative (see Present Shock), the impact of the stories and myths that drive our collective lives and cultures gets lost. Britain is a real mish-mash, but it’s part Nordic, so I wanted to know.

As a Christian, the contrast and comparison with Christianity was always in my mind, and playing off against the stories as I heard them, but here are a few takeaways.

Our days of the week come from these Norse gods

I should’ve already known this, but right away in the book there’s a reminder that Tuesday (Týr’s day), Thursday (Thor’s day) and Wednesday (Óðinn’s day — Germanic Woden) come from the names of these Nordic gods.

We should expect to find something of these ancient myths penetrating our collective psyche still. Perhaps the most striking of these features would be glorification of military might. We still love it.

The Gods Aren’t Angry:

The way we often hear God talked about, he’s a bit like one of the Gods of Asgard: corrupt, grumbling and in the mood for vengeance. That’s what all gods were like. And then the early church comes along saying “God so loved the world…”, and everything changes.

Hell is Hel

The realm of Hel, presided over by the goddess of the same name, seems a lot closer to the dominant Catholic / Protestant understanding of ‘Hell’ than anything we actually find in the Bible. The fact that Christianity appropriated the name of the Norse Hel may imply some appropriation of concepts too. (In the Orthodox tradition, which didn’t spread to Nordic or Germanic areas, we don’t find the same ‘Hell’ at all).

Thor is a bit lame

Compared to his Marvel counterpart, Thor really is a bit thick. Very strong, but thick.

Myth is used to explain the world around us

Since the modern-era, we may not think we need myth and story to explain our world, but you could just hear the context of where these stories were told weaved throughout them. Hel is in the very north, where it’s even colder and where the Sun never rises. Mountains are full of giants. Keep an ear out when politicians set forth visions, they’re not just describing facts (if at all!) but a narrative, a story that tries to explain where we are, how we got here, and where it’s all going.