The Norse Myths Book

When it comes to myths and folktales, I'm something of a purist. The cultural aspects are often as interesting to me as the stories themselves, so I like to feel like I'm getting something relatively authentic. Unfortunately, this usually means wading through painfully academic translations, skipping back and forth between sterile prose and dry footnotes, salvaging what entertainment is left in the stories.

Rather than simply translate-and-annotate, Crossley-Holland has compiled these stories from multiple sources and retold them in his own lively, but not distractingly modern, voice. Far from a dumbing-down, he eloquently communicates the spirit of these stories with all of their tension, humor, and remorse.

Meanwhile, ample academia is tucked into almost one hundred pages worth of intro and notes written in the same lively voice; there are no stale footnotes here. The cultural context is established in the intro, where he also goes over sources and his approach to the retelling. Each story also gets a discussion at the back of the book which breaks down which elements were taken from which sources, variants and similarities to other stories, cultural details, running themes, anything that was left out, etc.

This author has done much, much more than haphazardly translate a bunch of stories. The myths are vivid and engaging, and the academics manage to be both solid and colorful. In short, this book has set a new standard for me. This is what a book of myths should be.