As Gaiman says, “I’ve tried my best to retell these myths and stories as accurately as I can, and as interestingly as I can.” It’s in service of the former goal that the book begins with a section called “The Players”, so we can meet Odin, Thor and Frey, as well as Mjollnir (Thor’s hammer), Gungnir (Odin’s spear) and Skidbladnir (Frey’s collapsible ship). Gaiman explains, “My first encounter with Asgard and its inhabitants was as a small boy, no more than seven, reading the adventures of The Mighty Thor as depicted by American comics artist Jack Kirby.” This collection of Norse myth is for an audience even more likely to know the Norse gods through the Marvel universe than Gaiman was: Chris Hemsworth has been appearing as Thor at regular intervals on multiplex screens for the past six years.Īnd Norse mythology is surely due a retelling. Just when we think we’re on firm metaphorical ground, a snake comes along and confuses everythingīut now it turns out that it’s Odin he loves best.
Gaiman’s Sandman exists in a world so dense and dark that the stories haunt his readers long after the comic is put back on the shelf. Still, it comes as something of a shock that he begins this most recent book with the words, “If I had to declare a favourite, it would probably be for the Norse myths.” Surely Gaiman loves the Greeks the most? All those gorgeous Sandman comics, playing around with Greek mythology and the strange space between personification and abstraction: Dream, Death, Desire. And that’s before you get on to his children’s picture books.
He is a thesaurus of myth, both original and traditional, as comfortable appraising the science fiction of Douglas Adams or co-authoring fantasy with Terry Pratchett as he is reimagining the story of Orpheus and Eurydice or creating a bleakly funny serial killers’ convention in small-town America. I t’s virtually impossible to read more than 10 words by Neil Gaiman and not wish he would tell you the rest of the story.
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