Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas

Here are the stories the Vikings told in their halls before raiding, before sailing, before facing the inevitable darkness. Helene Adeline Guerber gathered these myths from the ancient Eddas and sagas, presenting the complete mythology of the Norse world: the creation from Ymir's flesh, the cosmic ash tree Yggdrasil linking nine kingdoms, and the slow march toward Ragnarok. Odin hangs wounded on that tree to gain wisdom of the runes. Thor summons lightning against giants. Loki breeds chaos among the gods, his children destined to devour the stars. These are not gentle tales. The Norse gods bleed, lie, scheme, and ultimately fall. What endures is not their immortality but their courage in the face of fate. Guerber writes with the reverent gravity these stories demand, tracing the entire mythological landscape from the first collision of ice and fire to the final battle where the world burns and rises again. For readers seeking the raw material that influenced Tolkien, Marvel, and modern fantasy, this 1909 collection remains a definitive English-language portal into the Viking imagination.