As pictorially illustrated as you could wish, this is still pretty much an adults-only telling of the Norse myth. It establishes what a Norseman is, and then cracks on with what one would have believed, with the whole geography of the Nine Realms questioned and portrayed as best we can get. Further to that is more or less a gazetteer of all the characters, godly and humanoid and from places somewhere in between. We see the Eddas summarised, in a way that makes them feel dry and uninteresting, unfortunately, before drifting through the sagas to other tellings, notably Wagner's – and even the riffs on Norse we find in Tolkien and many other fantasy writers.

Throughout, the book is careful to cover all bases, as to whether the details it gives are original Norse or something invented and tweaked by Christians centuries later – as well as adamant it is spelling Valhalla correctly and nobody else is (it has it as Valhol, even if one of the visuals spells it Valholl). It does act as a worthwhile read, however – it certainly taught me many things, even if they may not last in the memory. Certainly the Volsunga Saga just went on too long, but you can't shoot the messenger that the old beliefs and legends were a confusing mess. Coming across Thor as a bride, and then facing tests of strength and consumption, are like revisiting old friends, and that's only to increase the 'wordfame' of those who created these tales. This for the interested is a potentially excellent read – showing no let-up in depth and knowledge, and giving a lot of details of this civilisation.

This book was first published in March 2016 and is available to buy in hardback and ebook. I’m glad that Amber Books sometimes releases its older books for ARC readers on NetGalley as I get to read some amazing books that I might not necessarily see otherwise.

This book is an in-depth overview of the Norse Myths and legends. It describes the world of the gods, the characters and their relation to one another and then it briefly describes some of the most popular stories. I found the chapters relating to the written sources the most fascinating, how the Norse mythology that we know today are actually taken from Icelandic Medieval texts so they contain Christian influence. There is a chapter on Ragnarok and then end times and then the final section of the book looks at how Norse myths influenced literature and culture.

Part of the reason I chose this book is because a lot of recent fantasy and romantasy has ideas taken from Norse mythology. I recommend this book if you want a brief overview of the tales and characters. If you want a more detailed insight then I recommend reading this book alongside Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman, the audiobook is brilliant. There are photographs of archeological finds, carvings, tombs and paintings throughout this book that help explain the finer parts of the mythology.

In summary, I really enjoyed this book and it taught me more about a subject that I knew a little about. It also got me thinking more about retellings of stories and how maybe it isn’t always a bad thing to make classical stories more contemporary as long as we still preserve the original. Thank you to NetGalley and Amber Books for allowing me to review this book.

An informative wealth of knowledge, accompanied with fantastic illustrations.
Suitable for all that are interested in the Norse Myths.
I would recommend this book.

A very informative book with some great illustrations. Would recommend to anyone willing to learn a bit more about Norse mythology.

This is a very well-informed book on the subject, packed with information and illustration. This is definitely one of my favourite books on the subject.