Myths of Northern Lands - Narrated with special reference to literature and art

by H A Guerber

Hardcover, 1895

Status

Available

Call number

293.13

Publication

New York, Cincinnati, Chicago (1895) American Book Company

Description

A collection of myths that tell of the creation of the world, the deeds of such gods and heroes as Odin, Thor and Siegfried, the machinations of the evil Loki, and more. Entertaining and readable, these tales present the ancient Germanic and Scandinavian myths that have helped shape literature.

User reviews

LibraryThing member ML-Larson

This book is terribly outdated, and skews toward Christianity more often than not, but is a good primer for someone who doesn't know where to start with Norse mythology. It lays out all the gods, discussing their stories and how they connect to one another. It should be taken with a grain of salt,

like many other books from this time, and should definitely not be treated as any scholarly source.

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LibraryThing member dpappas

I found this book on Project Gutenberg and decided to read it before reading some Icelandic sagas so that I wouldn't be completely lost. For someone who had little knowledge of Norse mythology this was a good book to get an overview of Norse gods and mythology. I have seen some reviews that have

stated some facts in this book are not correct but since I am far from an expert on this subject I cannot comment on that. I was pleasantly surprised to get to read about Aslaug and Ragnar Lothbrok as I was not expecting them to be in this book (even the teeny bit that they were). I really enjoyed that the author sprinkled quotes from the sagas throughout this book. One thing that I felt might be interesting to some but was completely unnecessary to me was the comparison of Norse mythology to Greek mythology at the end. Quite frankly it just felt like filler and was boring. I think I would have liked it more if the author would have used the Greek names for the Greek gods instead of the Roman names. Now that I have more knowledge of Norse mythology I am looking forward to reading some Icelandic sagas.

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LibraryThing member yoyogod

While the Norse myths are interesting, I can't help but think that this is probably not the best book on the subject. As is fairly common for late 19th and early 20th century scholars--from what I've read at any rate--the author comes across as rather condescending. The introduction, which I assume

is by the author, was so pompous I only read a few lines of it before I put the book down and didn't pick it up again for over a year, and even then I skipped the introduction.

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LibraryThing member Zaria37

A book full of tales of the Norse gods, goddesses and more. It's a great book for people first learning about Norse Mythology. Has a few things missing or some things aren't clear but it's an overall great book about the Norse tales.

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