This book is an anthology composed of nordic myth. Åke Ohlmark has selected nineteen sagas that he retells in this book. For those who are unfamiliar with Åke Ohlmark he is a Swedish writer and translator mostly remembered for his translation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings into Swedish. He has also translated and interpreted several older text relating to ancinet nordic history and mythology which obviously was his basis for this anthology.
I won’t bother you with details about the book since it contains the familiar stories about Oden, Tor, Loke and all the other viking gods common to the nordic countries. When I read this I a) realized how little I listened in school or remembered from school concerning this and b) how utterly boring the stories are. We are very spoiled nowadays with authors who actually write a story with descriptive images rather than regurgitating names of characteras, weapons, boats and places.
“A the son of B inherited the sword C and when he grew up he travelled to D where he killed king E and all his men.” I wonder if Eddings, Kerr, Feist and others would have sold as much if they told their stories in that manner?
After the initial stories about our viking gods Åke turns to common myths such as the story of Sigurd Fafnersbane and others. Most of you know the story of Sigurd Fafnersbane as Niebelungens ring since Wagner made an opera based on this story. Reading the book you also come to realize where Tolkien got a lot of his material. He has borrowed stories from nordic mythology and strung them together in different ways so that they make sense. He was also a much, much, much better storyteller stringing the bits and pieces of the story into a congruent whole.
The book is interesting in that it is a bit of our past and a lot of the stories are carried on into modern litterature and modern classics. By modern classics I mean basically anything written since the mid eighteens century. And if you are interested in nordic mythology you could pick it up but I am certain there are other more complete works that would be a better read than this book.