From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths
10 best books like From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths (Heather O'Donoghue): Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs, The Norse Myths, Exploring the Northern Tradition: A Guide to the Gods, Lore, Rites, and Celebrations From the Norse, German, and Anglo-Saxon Traditions, Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic, The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America, The Road to Hel: A Study of the Conception of the Dead in Old Norse Literature, The Real Middle-Earth: Magic and Mystery in the Dark Ages, Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas, A Dictionary of Northern Mythology, Heimskringla: or, The Lives of the Norse Kings
| Author | John Lindow |
| ISBN | 0195153820 |
Norse Mythology explores the magical myths and legends of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Viking-Age Greenland and outlines the way the prehistoric tales and beliefs from these regions that have remained embedded in the imagination of the world.
The book begins with an Introduction...
| Author | Kevin Crossley-Holland |
Here are thirty-two classic myths that bring the Viking world vividly to life. The mythic legacy of the Scandinavians includes a cycle of stories filled with magnificent images from pre-Christian Europe. Gods, humans, and monstrous beasts engage in prodigious drinking bouts, contests of strength,...
Exploring the Northern Tradition: A Guide to the Gods, Lore, Rites, and Celebrations From the Norse, German, and Anglo-Saxon Traditions
| Author | Galina Krasskova |
| ISBN | 1564147916 |
I got this book because 1. I am so sick of Wicca and 2. I thought it was time to investigate my Bavarian Swiss and Anglo-Saxon sides. (The Scots-Irish side can't take up all my reading time!)
It's a slim book, but I think it is good for beginners like me. She really describes the modern Heathen communities...
Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic
| Author | Edred Thorsson |
| ISBN | 0877285489 |
In giving us "Futhark, " the author re-initiates us into our heritage, explaining the mysteries of a profound system of thought and practice which underlies our developing Western culture. Both the spiritual heritage of ancient runic lore and the practical steps we can take to draw on rune power are...
The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America
| Author | Unknown |
| ISBN | 0140441549 |
One of the most arresting stories in the history of exploration, these two Icelandic sagas tell of the discovery of America by Norsemen five centuries before Christopher Columbus. Together, the direct, forceful twelfth-century Grænlendinga Saga and the more polished and scholarly Eirik's Saga,...
The Road to Hel: A Study of the Conception of the Dead in Old Norse Literature
| Author | Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson |
| ISBN | 0837100704 |
Using sagas, so called "myth", archaeological finds and first hand historical sources Davidson constructs Norse Pagan belief and customs pertaining to death, funeral customs, the afterlife, the spirit world, conception of the soul, necromancy and more.
Once again I'm blown away by Davidsons...
The Real Middle-Earth: Magic and Mystery in the Dark Ages
| Author | Brian Bates |
| ISBN | 0330491709 |
I was given this book as a present and was happy to get rid of it.
The author makes some big assumptions that are never proven for example that the religious world of the Norse was the same as that of the pagan Anglo-Saxons despite six hundred years difference and God alone knows how much influence...
| Author | Hélène A. Guerber |
| ISBN | 0486273482 |
Over the centuries, Northern mythology has exerted much influence on Western customs, language, and literature. Its principal theme of the perpetual struggle of the beneficent forces of nature against the injurious, and its twin characteristics of dark tragedy and grim humor, tinge much European...
A Dictionary of Northern Mythology
| Author | Rudolf Simek |
| ISBN | 0859915131 |
For two and a half thousand years, from 1500 BC to AD 1000, a culture as significant as the classical civilisation of the Mediterranean world settled an immense area in northern Europe that stretched from Iceland to the Black Sea. But the sources of our knowledge about these societies are relatively...
Heimskringla: or, The Lives of the Norse Kings
| Author | Snorri Sturluson |
| ISBN | 0486263665 |
The is a revised update of an early Everyman edition of Snorri's Heimskringla that was originally translated by Samuel Laing in the 1840s. The revisions are done by Jacqueline Simpson and Peter Foote, who for some strange reason revise the prose texts and supply new introductions but leave Samuel Laing's...
| Author | Anonymous |
| ISBN | 0140444742 |
Combining traditional myth, oral history and re-worked European legend to depict an ancient realm of heroism and wonder, the seven tales collected here are among the most fantastical of all the Norse romances. Powerfully inspired works of Icelandic imagination, they relate intriguing, often comical...
| Author | Mark Derr |
| ISBN | 1590207009 |
How the Dog Became the Dog posits that dog was an evolutionary inevitability in the nature of the wolf and its human soul mate.
The natural temperament and social structure of humans and wolves are so similar that as soon as they met on the trail they recognized themselves in each other. Both...
| Author | George Webbe Dasent |
Translated from Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe's collection. You may have heard of this particular collection; J.R.R. Tolkien cites it in "On Fairy-Stories." And you definitely know one tale: "The Three Billy-Goats Gruff."
There are a lot more here. Has some animal...
| Author | Norris J. Lacy |
| ISBN | 0872261646 |
This review is of the 1986, red-covered version of THE ARTHURIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA, chief editor Norris Lacy. It's a big book, 649 pages, and appears to be substantially the same volume as the yellow-jacketed edition pictured above. It's worth understanding that the general field of "Arthuriana" embraces...
Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar
| Author | Robert W. Lebling |
| ISBN | 1582436320 |
When Westerners think of a genie, the first image that comes to mind may be Barbara Eden in her pink harem pants or the illuminated blue buffoon from the animated Disney film Aladdin. But to the people of the Arab and Islamic worlds, the picture is dramatically different. Legends of the Fire Spirits looks...
| Author | Arthur Cotterell |
| ISBN | 0831773243 |
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| Author | Jesse L. Byock |
| ISBN | 0140291156 |
Medieval Iceland was unique amongst Western Europe, with no foreign policy, no defence forces, no king, no lords, no peasants and few battles. It should have been a utopia yet its literature is dominated by brutality and killing. The reasons for this, argues Jesse Byock, lie in the underlying structures...
| Author | Judith Jesch |
| ISBN | 0851153607 |
Well-illustrated, closely argued and fascinating. GUARDIAN This is the first book-length study in English to investigate what women did in the Viking age, both at home in Scandinavia and in the Viking colonies from Greenland to Russia. Evidence for their lives is fragmentary, but Judith Jesch assembles...
Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths
| Author | Nancy Marie Brown |
| ISBN | 0230338844 |
Much like Greek and Roman mythology, Norse myths are still with us. Famous storytellers from JRR Tolkien to Neil Gaiman have drawn their inspiration from the long-haired, mead-drinking, marauding and pillaging Vikings. Their creator is a thirteenth-century Icelandic chieftain by the name of Snorri...
Essential Asatru: Walking the Path of Norse Paganism
| Author | Diana L. Paxson |
| ISBN | 0806527080 |
A Journey to Fulfillment and RenewalIn Essential Asatru, renowned author and priestess Diana Paxson demystifies an ancient, rich, and often misunderstood religion, and offers a practical guide for its modern followers.Filled with clear, concise instructions on living Asatru every day, this...
Elves, Wights, and Trolls: Studies Towards the Practice of Germanic Heathenry: Vol. I
| Author | Kveldúlf Hagan Gundarsson |
| ISBN | 0595421652 |
Elves, Trolls, and Wights is the most complete study yet made of the various beings with whom the Vikings shared their world, from the smallest spirits of stones and plants to the great giants who strive against or aid the Norse gods. Elves, dwarves, giants, wights dwelling in rocks, streams, and oceans:...
A Brief History of the Vikings: The Last Pagans or the First Modern Europeans?
| Author | Jonathan Clements |
| ISBN | 0786715995 |
Between the eighth and eleventh centuries, the Vikings surged from their Scandinavian homeland to trade and raid along the coasts of Europe. Their influence extended from Newfoundland to Baghdad, their battles were as far-flung as Africa and the Arctic. But were they great seafarers or desperate...
