Norse Mythology: Great Stories from the Eddas

by Hamilton Wright Mabie

Book Overview

Rooted in an oral tradition, fantastic sagas of Norse mythology found their way into print seven centuries ago, in documents known as the Eddas. This book presents 17 of the most popular tales, from the creation of the world to the death of the gods and the world's destruction.
Masterfully retold, the legends include Odin's trip to Mimer in search of knowledge, the making of Thor's hammer, the loss of Idun's wondrous apples, and the task of securing the dreaded Fenris-wolf with unbreakable silken twine devised from "the sound of a cat's footsteps, the roots of the mountains, the breath of a fish, and the sinew of a bear." Here, too, are accounts of "The Wooing of Gerd," "Thor Goes a Fishing," "The Death of Balder," "How Loki Was Punished," "The Twilight of the Gods," and "The New Earth."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486420825
• ISBN13: 9780486420820
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.2" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

excelent book

Excelent book, a documented historical background and well written, with a very complete section about the mythological concepts and deities.

Depends on your purpose.

It's an alright book, nicely written and does indeed have stories from Norse Mythology. It may or may not be for you though. If you just want to read the stories cause you like mythology and folktales, then by all means buy it. It's written in with sentences and paragraphs instead of the poetic forms these stories were originally created. To me it seems to be more for a younger age then your average adult, but that doesn't necessarily subtract from the book. If you were looking to read it for research or personal studies, I'd get a different book. The Eddas may be a little difficult to read at first because of the style of writing, but they are better in terms of research sources. My copies of the Poetic and Prose Edda not only have more details for stories found in this book, but also have stories not put into this book. They also have background notes, definitions of words, and anthropological notes. As far as I'm concerned it's purpose was more towards entertainment then heavy-duty research.