Norse Mythology
By Neil Gaiman
I started listening to this audiobook last year on my birthday in December when I took a really memorable long walk from the Northern to the Southern tip of Singapore. I remember I was deep in the heart of Sentosa late at night with no one around, walking towards the empty Southern shore while one of the great storytellers of our time, @neilhimself, was narrating his book that retold famous Norse myths. It was a real treat, listening to him tell the story of Odin giving up his eye to drink from the well of knowledge that lay at the base of the Yggdrasil, the world tree. Then after that day my life became a rollercoaster and I didn’t pick the book up again for months.
minor spoilers below for Norse myths
The one thing you have to know about the Norse gods is that they are total bros, and most of the time they are total jerks and they don’t really treat mortals with any kind of benevolence. You have to gain and command their respect. Take for instance the whole deal with the Valkyries. These are enigmatic shieldmaidens that ride on flying horses to carry the souls of warriors that died bravely in battle to Odin’s hall in Valhalla. To do what? Well, feast and fight and party with beer and mead. For what purpose? This is all an insurance policy for Odin, because he’s scared out of his mind that when Ragnarok, the final battle that ends all things, comes around, he’s not going to have enough badass bros to help him defeat the frost giants. So Odin has this whole gig with the Valkyries gathering up slain warriors so he can be as prepared for Ragnarok as possible. Just imagine that is legitimately what you believed the afterlife was. You bro out with your one eyed bro god till the epic final battle where you fight frost giants with all your other bros. But the only way to get there is to die heroically in battle. You think about that for a bit and you start to be able to imagine what it’s like to be in the mind of an ancient Nordic person. It’s wild.
Here’s exhibit A for how you wouldn’t think a god would behave. This one time, Odin seduced a giantess who was guarding the Mead of Poetry, tricked her into letting him drink all of the mead, and then flew away in the form of an eagle, with the father of the giantess chasing in tow. Odin then let out a wet fart of mead right into the giant’s face, throwing him off Odin’s trail. It is said that those who tasted the mead fart are the originators of all bad poetry.
And that’s Odin, who’s supposed to be the All Father, the wisest one. We’re not even talking about Thor who is the broiest of them all! Actually, to my surprise, the main character across all these myths is none other than Loki. It really was eye opening how much of a critical role he plays in moving all the plots along. He is such a fascinating character to me. All I knew from before was that he was mischievous and often jealous of others, and that his relationship with the other gods was one of sibling rivalry (goes to show you can’t learn everything about mythology from Marvel movies). For multiple times in the book, Gaiman talks about how Thor’s first thought when something goes wrong is that Loki had something to do with it, and after that is ruled out his second thought was to ask Loki for advice on how to fix it. I thought Loki was just the black sheep of the family who’s charm and wit let him stay on long after he’s outlived his welcome. And that he was, but there is so much more depth and tragedy to it.
There is a giant wolf Fenrir, who is so heinous, angry and powerful, that at the end of the world he is released and devours the sun before joining the final battle where he lets out his vengeful fury against the gods of Asgard. Who is he and how did he get that way? When we first get introduced to him, he was a little puppy who was the bastard child of Loki and a giantess (they all apparently have a thing for large women). As the puppy grew, he was taunted by the gods to break out of ever stronger chains, until at last, fearing that he was too powerful, the gods plotted to bind the wolf in a ribbon made dwarven magic, for as long as the world lasts. To me, the idea that this leviathan-esque monstrosity gets introduced to us as a puppy, and then he was driven into his sinister form by the trickery of the gods themselves, is quite eye opening. There is no clear dividing line between good and bad. We are rooting for the gods, but not because they are the “good guys” per se.
In fact the main villain is also the most interesting and charming character. Loki carries the plot till the very end. Like Ragnarok end. I had no idea that it was Loki who is the main antagonist of Ragnarok, which he turns into after a final villain arc, at the end of which he is bound and imprisoned in a really gruesome way — deservedly so I must say, for doing some really sniveling, dishonorable things to his brethren.
These stories really piqued my interest in these ancient people’s whole worldview. Major religious traditions in today’s world all have epic stories of course, but they mostly have very clear lines demarcating good and evil. And evil is always this otherworldly thing that seems so detached from everyday life which is supposed to be pious and pure. Not for the Norse though. For them the end of the world is an inevitable end result of a family feud, where the intimate relations are what makes the petty jealousies and treacheries fester until it all comes to a head. These are stories of gods that exemplify every of our human traits.