Norse Mythology

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Stories 1-4

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Stories 9-12

Stories 13-15

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Stories 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Story 1 Summary: “Before the Beginning and After”

Before the beginning, only Niflheim—the dark world of the north—and Muspell, the fiery world of the south, existed. Surtr stands at the edge of Muspell, holding a flaming sword, and waiting for Ragnarok so he can burn the world and kill the gods one by one.

A great world of ice formed over time in Ginnungagap—the void between Niflheim and Muspell. Where the fires of Muspell meet the ice, the hermaphroditic progenitor of the giants, Ymir, and an enormous hornless cow, Audhumla, are born. Ymir is nourished by Audhumla’s milk. Audhumla’s “pink tongue licked people from the blocks of ice,” first of whom was Buri, “the ancestor of the gods” (31).

Ymir gives birth to other giants, one of whom Buri takes as a wife; they sire Bor, father of Odin, Vili, and Ve. Wishing to create the universe, Odin and his brothers kill Ymir. The flood of Ymir’s blood kills the other giants, save one. Odin and his brothers fashion the world out of Ymir’s corpse; the oceans are his blood and sweat, and the dome of the sky is the giant’s skull.

The world “is a flat disk, and the sea encircles the perimeter” (33). Odin, Vili, and Ve make a wall of Ymir’s eyelashes to keep the giants at bay; this protected area is called Midgard. The brothers find a log of ash and a log of elm; Odin breathes life into them. Vili gives them will and intelligence. Ve carves them into the shape of humans—one male and one female. They named the man “Ask, or Ash Tree; the woman they called Embla, or Elm” (34).

Embla and Ask are the progenitors of all humans. They stay in Midgard, protected from the giants beyond the wall.

Story 2 Summary: “Yggdrasil and the Nine Worlds”

The ash tree Yggdrasil joins the nine worlds. Its first root is in Niflheim, in the spring Hvergelmir, and it is forever gnawed on by the dragon, Nidhogg. The second is in in Mimir’s well, in the world of the frost giants. A wise eagle perches on Yggdrasil’s topmost branches, and a squirrel, Ratatosk, sends messages between the eagle and Nidhogg. Odin hanged himself from Yggdrasil, “making the world-tree a gallows and himself the gallows god” (40). The gods travel between the nine worlds using Bifrost, the rainbow bridge.

Yggdrasil’s final root goes to Asgard, the home world of the Aesir gods where they make council each day. Three sisters, the norns, attend the well that feeds the root in Asgard: Urd, fate; Verandi, the present; and Skuld, the future. These are the sisters of fate.

Story 3 Summary: “Mimir’s Head and Odin’s Eye”

In Jotunheim—the world of the giants—is the well of Mimir, “the guardian of memory” (45). The well represents wisdom. Odin once asked Mimir if he could drink from his well. Mimir silently denied Odin’s request, but soon named Odin’s eye as the price for drinking from the well.

Odin cut out his eye and placed it in the water. He then drank a horn of water from the well. He was flooded with wisdom and now sees clearer with one eye than he had with two.

After a war with the Vanir gods, Odin sends Mimir to the Vanir ruler, Hoenir, to act as an advisor. The Vanir gods tire of Mimir, decapitate him, and send Odin the head. Odin resurrects Mimir’s head, and places it beside his own eye in the well of knowledge. He gives the drinking horn, Gjallerhorn, to Heimdall, who will blow it during Ragnarok to wake the gods.

Story 4 Summary: “The Treasures of the Gods”

Sif, one of the Aesir goddesses, is the beautiful wife of Thor. Thor wakes, and looking at the sleeping Sif, is shocked to see that Loki has cut off her golden hair. He puts on his belt, Megingjord, which doubles his power, and goes to look for Loki.

Thor breaks down Loki’s door and shakes him, asking him why he cut off Sif’s hair. Loki says, “It was funny. I was drunk” (52). Thor is angry; others will think Sif’s head was shorn as a punishment. Loki suspects she will be bald for the rest of her life. Thor threatens to break every bone in Loki’s body if he does not replace each hair. Thor breaks one of his bones. Frightened, Loki tells Thor that the dwarves can make golden hair and hurries off to find them.

Loki flies to Svartalfheim, to the ingenious sons of Ivaldi. His goal is to put the various dwarves into competition to make treasure for the gods. Loki presses on their pride as craftsmen to create “[e]ver-growing perfect golden hair” (54). He then goes to a dwarf named Brokk and his brother Eitri, challenging them in the same way. Brokk suspects Loki of causing trouble. Brokk and Eitri agree to the competition, but only if they can have Loki’s head if they win. Loki agrees, privately plotting to ensure that they will lose the contest.

As Brokk works the bellows, an enormous fly bites his hands—but this does not distract him. They make a huge golden boar. As they work on the next treasure, the fly—who is Loki—bites his neck; again, he ignores it. Eitri makes a golden arm-ring, Draupnir. Eitri sets to work on his masterpiece. Desperate, Loki bites Brokk’s eyelids, finally distracting him enough to try to swat him. Eitri is disappointed with the result of his final treasure. Brokk and Loki go back to Asgard for the dwarves’ treasures to be judged by the gods.

Odin, Thor, and Frey, the harvest god, are the judges. The sons of Ivnir made Odin a magical spear called Gungnir. For Thor, they made Sif a head of golden hair. For Frey, they made a portable, magical ship. The gods are very impressed with their treasures.

For Odin, Brokk made Draupnir, a golden arm-ring that, every nine months, duplicates itself by eight. He gives Frey the magical golden boar to pull his chariot. To Thor, he gives the magical unbreakable hammer, Mjolnir. All three gods are delighted with Mjolnir. Loki grows worried. Brokk and Eitri win the contest.

Loki offers to ransom his head with treasure, but Brokk declines. Loki agrees to let Brokk cut off his head, but only if he can do so without harming his neck. Odin agrees that this is fair, and Loki congratulates himself for his cleverness. Instead, the dwarf sews Loki’s mouth shut.

Stories 1-4 Analysis

Gaiman’s narrator takes on the persona of someone who lived long time ago and who speaks to an audience who is familiar with the gods and their exploits but wants to know more. This is demonstrated by the narrator’s frequent second-person addresses to the audience and the world they have in common.

The first section of Norse Mythology establishes the world of the Norse gods, heralding the end of the world even as it begins. For example, in the fire world of Muspell, Surtur waits; during Ragnarok, he “will go forth from Muspell with his flaming sword and burn the world with fire, and one by one the gods will fall before him” (30). The narrative is conscious of the end of the gods before the gods have even been created. This indicates shared knowledge between the narrator and the audience. In addition, it adds a fatalistic aspect to the subsequent events; this vein runs throughout the rest of the collection.

This section also introduces the main characters and settings of Norse Mythology. Odin is a wise, harsh god, who created life and whose knowledge is born of sacrifice. Thor, his son, is powerful, though largely unintelligent. Loki, the trickster god, skirts the line between good and evil.

Because mythology is largely static, there is little room for character development. Most of the gods’ personalities are set from their introduction. For this reason, Loki, the most unpredictable character, proves to be the one with the most depth. Though Gaiman gives little insight into his motives, Loki is the most pivotal character in the mythos. Significantly in this section, his meddling and trickery leads to the creation of Mjolnir, the hammer of the gods, and the chief weapon of Asgard’s defense.