Helene A. Guerber wrote histories for grammar school children in the 19th century. Published in 1895-1896 by the American Book Company, Guerber’s Historical Readers in the Eclectic Readings Series were used to introduce children to the histories of the ancient and classical world.

Although probably nearly everyone has heard of Thor and his hammer, not everyone realizes how rich and deep Norse mythology really is. Their lore has suffered from their forced conversion to Christianity with the consequent changes to the stories. Also, overzealous Christian missionaries supervised the burning of wooden statues of the Norse gods, and other destruction of their religious remnants.

As a result, the best sources of Norse mythology are Icelandic, where the Eddas and sagas are the least corrupted and best known due to the island’s isolation. This book is based on those sources. The author begins, naturally, with the beginning. The Norse had very specific beliefs about how the world was formed, believing that the beginning was (as their stories continued to be) a conflict between fire and ice.

Next we examine the fifteen major gods in the Norse pantheon. Odin and Frigga (although both go by multitudes of other names) are something of the parental gods. Indeed, many of the Norse gods have their origin in one or both of this pair. Odin is the Allfather, the most powerful and wisest of the Norse gods. Nevertheless, he spends a great deal of time and effort to gain whatever extra wisdom or power he thinks he can find. Frigga, his wife, is the goddess of marriage, as well as atmosphere. Norse gods, you see, often had several areas of interest as well as sharing specialties between them.

Another god who is discussed frequently is Loki. He was a god of fire, and changed drastically in character through the lifespan of the gods. He began as something of a bumbler and trick-puller. He ended as a force of evil. He is the father of the Fenris wolf and the Midgard serpent, among others. He factors into a great many stories of the gods, either as one who tries to put one over on the other gods, or as one who helps to get the gods out of problem situations that he himself caused.

Many of the Norse myths consider human heroes and their women. One such case is that of a famous warrior who braved fire to find and win the heart of a Valkyr maiden, only to leave her later because of a potion which causes forgetfulness. Another is the story of a young hero (son of a great hero) who struggles for many years to win the hand of the girl he has loved since childhood, the daughter of a lord. These humans are rarely left to struggle on their own, gaining either the aid of the gods or the aid of weapons created by the dwarfs and granted immense magic.

The Norse world was not populated only by gods and humans. It also contained both light and dark elves. The dark elves were the dwarves, trolls, and kobolds. They kept to the dark places and possessed extraordinary skill with weaponry and magic. Both humans and gods came to the dwarves for weapons and other magical items that could not be equaled. The light elves were fairies and other such benevolent spirits which lived in Alf-Heim (Fairyland) and strove to do good.

The strongest non-human, non-divine creatures in the world of Norse myth are the ice giants. Originating near the same time as the gods, they hate the divinities with everything that they have. Though occasionally a female giant may marry a god and bear him a child, they mostly attempted to destroy one another.

In fact, this leads to one of the true oddities in Norse mythology. Unlike other culture’s divinities, the Norse gods were fated to die. On the day of Ragnarok the Fenris wolf would free itself from its bonds, the Midgard serpent would unwind from the world’s oceans, and the gods and ice giants would meet on the field of battle. Thus it was fated that the gods would lose, it was also believed that a few would survive to shepherd the world into a new era of peace and beauty.

Mythology is always fascinating, but never more so than when it so strongly reflects the nature and spirit of its people. The ancient Norse people lived with certain realities. There would be a long winter. There would be a short summer. The sea would be both benefactor and killer. These realities combined together to create a fascinating and rich mythology that used stories to both explain and illustrate the realities they faced every day. Also, in the traditional manner of gods echoing their followers, the Norse gods possessed every bit of strength, nobility and fierce determination of the Norse warrior.

This fascinating book provides a lot of detail, and even includes a fairly detailed comparison of Greek and Norse mythology meant to prove the theory that both had a similar origin that changed over time with differing circumstances.

The book also offers an extensive index and glossary. Finally, as the crowning touch, the book features dozens of poetical quotations from a multitude of sagas, poems and epics. The poems serve as a part of the narrative flow, rather than being apart from it. This gives the reader something of the feel of how the stories might originally have been told by native scalds (storytellers, poets and ballad singers). Overall, a fascinating book with information that is interesting and accessible to both the layman and the seasoned mythologist.