TOP 10 MYTHOLOGY BOOKS (HONORABLE MENTION: NORSE MYTHOLOGY)

 

That’s right – I don’t just have a top ten mythology books, or my usual twenty special mentions. I also have honorable mentions.

My usual rule is that I have no cap on the number of individual entries I can list as honorable mention for any given top ten if there are enough entries beyond my top ten or special mentions – and I tend to just list them in chronological or date order, usually date of publication for books.

However, for mythology books, I have some different rules, except the lack of any cap or numerical limit on honorable mention.

My primary rule is that I have honorable mentions for books in selected subjects of mythology, where there are enough entries for that subject (potentially racking them up for a top ten in that subject) – as here, with the subject of Norse mythology.

And where I have honorable mentions for particular subjects, I quickly recap the entries on that subject from my top ten or special mentions first before moving on to my further honorable mentions, in tier rankings and numerical sequence albeit with some degree of chronological or date order.

 

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TO RECAP NORSE MYTHOLOGY ENTRIES FROM MY TOP 10 MYTHOLOGY BOOKS (SPECIAL MENTION)

 

 

 

 

(1) THOMAS BULFINCH –

BULFINCH’S MYTHOLOGY (1867)

 

Bulfinch’s Mythology still remains a classic reference (and handily in the public domain) – as indeed it was for me as one of my introductions as a child to the world of Norse mythology, albeit a briefer recitation of that mythology than the one it has for classical mythology.

 

RATING:
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(2) JOHN LINDOW –

NORSE MYTHOLOGY: A GUIDE TO THE GODS, HEROES, RITUALS & BELIEFS (2001)

 

“We come from the land of the ice and snow

From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow

The hammer of the gods

Will drive our ships to new lands

To fight the horde, sing and cry

Valhalla, I am coming”

 

“Norse Mythology explores the magical myths and legends of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Viking-Age Greenland and outlines the way the prehistoric tales and beliefs from these regions that have remained embedded in the imagination of the world.”

The book is essentially divided into three parts, with a postscript for print and non-print resources about Norse mythology. The first part is an introduction for the historical background of Scandinavian mythology (including “cult, worship and sacrifice”). The second part is a chapter on mythic time. The third and predominant part is effectively a reference dictionary of entries in alphabetical order “that presents in-depth explanations of each mythological term… particular deities and giants, as well as the places where they dwell and the varied and wily means by which they forge their existence and battle one another”.

 

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HONORABLE MENTION: A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

 

(3) BEOWULF:

SEAMUS HEANEY – A NEW VERSE TRANSLATION

 

The most enduring mythic character – along with antagonists Grendel and his mother (with the subsequent dragon tending to be overlooked for that more intriguing mother and son duo) – from “the oldest surviving work of fiction in the English language, written sometime between 700 and 1000 AD”.

Indeed it’s so old – how old is it? Older than yo momma (but not Grendel’s momma) – “that the language it’s written in is barely recognizable as English” and it is more correctly described as Old English.

Like the Iliad and Odyssey earlier in these special mentions, it is an epic poem, but in Beowulf’s case it is “in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend”. The story, set in pagan Scandinavia, is reasonably well known, at least in outline, and is in an effective three-part structure that perhaps has added to its enduring appeal.

Beowulf, a “hero of the Geats” (in southern Sweden), “comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes” (once again gloomy Denmark pops up in classic literature), “whose mead hall Heorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel for twelve years”. In the first part, Beowulf faces off with Grendel, tearing off his arm and slaying him. In the second, Beowulf faces off against Grendel’s monstrous mother out for vengeance and slays her too. Yass hero, slay! Although he slays her in a very different sense in the 2007 film adaptation – not surprisingly given she appears as a golden form of her voice actress Angelina Jolie, complete with high heels! In the third, Beowulf, now a king in his elderly years, faces off and defeats a dragon, but “is mortally wounded in the battle”.

And now, in a posthumous fourth act, Beowulf wins honorable mention for my books of mythology – reflecting its status as one of the most translated works of Old English literature (in poetry and prose) as well as one of the most adapted and interpreted works of English literature in general. Not bad for a poem over a millennium in age, even going on a millennium and a half.

One such translation is the “new verse translation” by Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet and playwright Seamus Heaney. It was widely acclaimed by critics, albeit not universally – perhaps not surprisingly as no less than J.R.R. Tolkien wrote on the difficulty of translating Beowulf in an essay (“On translating Beowulf”).

On the subject of J.R.R. Tolkien, here’s a shoutout to him as an enduring influence on adapting or interpreting Beowulf through his study, in lecture or essay, as well as Beowulf as an enduring influence on Tolkien (“Beowulf is among my most valued sources”) – and through him on modern literary fantasy.

You might know Beowulf’s influence on Tolkien and modern literary fantasy through a little book Tolkien wrote called The Lord of the Rings. Although personally I tend to see more of the direct overlap through The Hobbit – with Bilbo as Beowulf, Gollum as Grendel, and Smaug as, well, the dragon. Sadly, no Grendel’s mother though.

 

RATING:

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(4) H.A. GUERBER –

MYTHS OF THE NORSEMEN

 

“Northern mythology is grand and tragical. Its principal theme is the perpetual struggle of the beneficent forces of Nature against the injurious, and hence it is not graceful and idyllic in character, like the religion of the sunny South, where the people could bask in perpetual sunshine, and the fruits of the earth grew ready to their hand.”

Myths of the Norsemen by American teacher and writer Hélène Adeline Guerber remains one of my favorite books for Norse mythology – and a vintage one at that. It owes its status as my favorite to being one of two books I first read to learn about the Norse myths as a child – the other being Bulfinch’s Mythology, but to be honest this did it better, not least because of its exclusive focus and the art plates throughout the book. It still boggles my mind that they had this vintage book in my school library – although one advantage of its vintage publication is that it is freely available online.

 

RATING:

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You can return to or find more top tens in my indexed page for top tens of mythology.