Norse Myths and Legends: Viking Tales of Gods and Heroes
The Norse myths have gained widespread attention in the English-speaking world, partly through a Scandinavian diaspora, especially in the USA) and partly through a great interest in the myths and legends which lie behind Viking activity.
Tolkien’s ‘Middle Earth’, too, as seen in both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films is heavily indebted to Germanic/Norse mythology. The Whittock’s book fills a gap in the market between academic publications and the interest-generating (but confusing) products of Hollywood and comic-culture. This is an accessible book, which both provides a retelling of these dramatic stories and also sets them in context so that their place within the Viking world can be understood.
The book explores Norse myths (stories, usually religious, which explain origins, why things are as they are, the nature of the spiritual) and legends (stories which attempt to explain historical events and which may involve historical characters but which are told in a non-historical way and which often include supernatural events).
- Publisher: Robinson; 1st edition (12 Oct. 2017)
- Language: English
- Paperback:
- 288 pages
- ISBN-10: 1472138031
- ISBN-13: 978-1472138033
- Dimensions : 23.3 x 2.1 x 15.3 cm
About the author;
HANNAH WHITTOCK has an MPhil from Cambridge in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic studies. She has co-written three books on Viking and Anglo-Saxon history and has written journal articles on Anglo-Saxon frontiers and coinage produced during the Viking Wars. She reads Old English and Old Norse.
