Gaiman, Neil

Norse Mythology

p.commentary – " ‘Like John Gardner in Grendel… and Phillip Pullman in his rewriting of Hans Christian Andersen stories, Gaiman takes a well-worn subject and makes it his own.’ - Publishers Weekly"
p.13 – “History and religion and myth combine, and we wonder and we imagine and we guess, like detectives reconstructing the details of a long-forgotten crime.”
pp.14-15 – “Sometimes details in the stories contradict each other. But I hope that they paint a picture of a world and a time. As I retold these myths, I tried to imagine myself a long time ago, in the lands where these stories were first told, during the long winter nights perhaps, under the glow of the northern lights, or sitting outside in the small hours, awake in the unending daylight of midsummer, with an audience of people who wanted to know what else Thor did, and what the rainbow was, and how to live their lives, and where bad poetry comes from.”
p.24 – “Loki makes the world more interesting but less safe. he is the father of monsters, the author of woes, the sly god.”
p.33 – “Look up into the sky: you are looking at the inside of Ymir’s skull. The stars you see at night, the planets, all the comets and the shooting stars, these are the sparks that flew from the fires of Muspell. And the clouds you see by day? These were once Ymir’s brains, and who knows what thoughts they were thinking, even now.”
p.45 – “Mimir shook his head. Nobody drank from the well but Mimir himself. He said nothing: seldom do those who are silent make mistakes.”
p.53 – " ‘Today,’ mused Thor, ‘it will probably take me about an hour to break every bone in your body. But I bet that with practice I could get it down to about fifteen minutes. It will be interesting to find out.’ "
p.74 – “At this the gods all nodded and grunted and looked impressed. All of them except for Freya, and she looked angry. ‘You are fools,’ she said. ‘Especially you, Loki, because you think yourself clever.’ "
pp.112-113 – “Beneath Loki the world seemed very small: he looked down at the trees and the mountains, tiny as children’s playthings, and the problems of the gods seemed a small thing thing also.”
p.128 – “Neither side could win the war. And more than that, as they fought they realized that each side needed the other: that there is no joy in a brave battle unless you have fine fields and farms to feed you in the feasting that follows.”
p.129 – “Kvasir, made of the joining of the Aesir and the Vanir, was the wisest of the gods: he combined head and heart. The gods jostled each other to be the next to ask him questions, and his answers to them were always wise. he observed keenly, and he interpreted what he saw correctly.”
p.174 – " ‘I’ve always prided myself on being powerful, and right now I feel like a nobody and a nothing.’ "
p.175 – " ‘Which is why I had you run against Hugi, who is thought. It does not matter how fast you ran– and none of us have ever seen anyone run like you, Thialfi– even you cannot run faster than thought.’ "
p.186 – “Loki looked unconvinced. ‘Perhaps,’ he said. ‘But I saw some apples in the forest that were finer in every way than your apples. Looked nicer, smelled nicer, tasted nicer than these. I think they were apples of immortality too. Perhaps a better kind of immortality than yours.’ "
p.191 – " ‘Well, perhaps. But that was so long ago. That was yesterday’s Loki. Today’s Loki is here to save you and to take you home.’ "
pp.206-207 – “Frey was silent, and Skirnir thought he had once again sunk into a troubled silence. But after some time he said, ‘I looked to the north. I saw a dwelling there, a splendid house. And I saw a woman walking up to the house. I have never seen a woman like her. Nobody who looks like her. Nobody who moves like her. As she raised her arms to unlock the door to her house, the light glanced off her arms, and it seemed to illuminate the air and to brighten the sea, and because she is in it, the whole world is a brighter and more beautiful place. And then I looked away and saw her no more, and my world became dark and hopeless and empty.’ "
p.218 – “In their huge bedroom that night, Tyr said to Thor, ‘I hope you know what you are doing.’ ‘Of course I do,’ said Thor. But he didn’t. He was just doing whatever he felt like doing. That was what Thor did best.”
pp.252-253 – “One by one that night Loki insulted the gods and the goddesses. He told the gods that they were cowards, told the goddesses that they were gullible and unchaste. Each insult was woven with just enough truth to make it wound. He told them that they were fools, reminded them of things they thought were safely forgotten. He sneered and jeered and raised old scandals, and would not stop making everyone there miserable until Thor arrived at the feast. Thor ended the conversation very simply: he threatened to use Mjollnir to shut Loki’s evil mouth for good and send him to Hel, all the way to the hall of the dead. Loki left the feast then, but before he swaggered out, he turned to Aegir. ‘You brewed fine ale,’ said Loki to the sea giant. ‘But there will never be another autumn feast here. Flames will take this hall; your skin will be burned from your back by the fire. Everything you love will be taken from you. This I swear.’ And he walked away from the gods of Asgard, into the dark.”
p.270 – “Brothers will fight brothers, fathers will kill sons. Mothers and daughters will be set against each other. Sisters will fall in battle with sisters, and will watch their children murder each other in their turn.”
p.272 – “Loki’s troops are the legions of Hel. They are the uneasy dead, the ones who died shameful deaths, who will return to the earth to fight once more as walking corpses, determined to destroy anything that still loves and lives above the earth.”
p.278 – " ‘I can see further than you can, Loki. I can see all the way to the world-tree,’ Heimdall will tell him with his last breath. ‘Surtr’s fire cannot touch the world-tree, and two people have hidden themselves safely in the trunk of Yggdrasil. The woman is called Life, the man is called Life’s Yearning. Their descendants will populate the earth. It is not the end. There is no end. It is simply the end of the old times, Loki, and the beginning of the new times. Rebirth always follows death. You have failed.’ "