Cycles of Norse Mythology - Book Review

Cycles of Norse Mythology by Glenn Searfoss delves into the fascinating history of Norse mythology with thrilling tales of the creation of the world, battles by the gods, and lots of magic. If your knowledge of Norse mythology started and ended with the movie "Thor: Love and Thunder," you will find Searfoss 800 plus page narrative of the ancient tales of the Norse world fascinating. The fantastical stories of Odin's journey through the mythical realms are the basis of the storytelling. Searfoss takes you to the ancient places of Valkyrie, Midgard, and Valhalla and tells you of the fascinating account of the world's creation. The book is an engaging, informative, and sound overview of the Norse gods, goddesses, the intriguing adventures, fascinating events, and how they all fit into Viking society and mores.

Cycles of Norse Mythology is an enthralling book to read. It tells in detail about the nine realms. It goes into the genealogy of each God and Goddess, including who they marry and their children. It vividly brings alive the Norse mythological heroes. The hammer-wielding, humanity-protecting thunder-god Thor, who relentlessly fights his foes; the one-eyed, raven-flanked god Odin, who craftily pursues knowledge throughout the worlds; the beautiful Freyja adorned in a falcon cape—a cleverly woven cloak of golden feathers is the goddess of love and war. She rides to battle to choose among the slain.

The vengeful goddess Skaði born of harm and damage, who wants to avenge her father's death. She marries the powerful god Njord who can calm both sea and fire and grant wealth and land. Searfoss writes of all these gods and many more like Freyr, Heimdall, who was born of nine mothers and had nine sisters, the goddess Iðunn and numerous more. You learn of the god Loki, who brings tragedy to the gods by engineering the death of the goddess Frigg's beautiful son Baldr; and numerous other deities.

The Norse believed that there were nine realms of existence, with one for the gods, one for humanity, one for the elves, one for the dwarfs, one for the underworld, and four others. These realms were all connected by the great ash tree (Mimamirth), which reached from the highest realm (Asgard) to the lowest realm (the underworld). Midgard is the realm of man and is in the middle of the world tree. Only the gods of Asgard can traverse all of the realms. One of the most colorful characters among the Asgard pantheon was Loki, the trickster who was always playing pranks on the other gods creating unnecessary trouble and sometimes getting himself into trouble as well.

Cycles of Norse Mythology is an excellent resource on Norse Myths. With this book, you will learn the stories of the whole pantheon of Norse deities. There is so much in these tales fire breathing giants, weird beings of all sorts, but that just makes the book better. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about the Norse myths.