What to read after the saga about Vinland?

All good, and Vinland Saga came out an excellent anime, there is a wonderful drawing, and an intriguing plot, and incredibly worked out characters, and a powerful message, and excellent music that complements all this action. There is only one problem-the title series last only 20 minutes, and the gaps between them stretch out of the week and almost to infinity, which is objectively not enough to fill the gaps in all 24 hours, but the good I have a way out of this regrett. Well, like a way out, the book of the English writer Neil Gaiman called the Scandinavian gods, and I will try to tell about it in this video.

This work is a retelling of the main myths of the Scandinavian epic, well, those that about Loki, Torah, Odin and the rest of the host of the gods that live in a beautiful Asgard. Moreover, the retelling is by no means dry, but a very artistic. Neil Gaiman at modernizing the myth ate a dog and more than one, as I am using obsolete phraseological units. So, he wrote a script for Beowulf, a film based on an ancient German epic, an American gods, where a lot of different mythological and not very characters are transferred to real America, and even managed to release his own tales. This eccentric is versed in folklore like none of the popular modern authors, so who, how not to give him an old Scandinavian myth in a new way.

Gaiman’s book, despite his ancient primary source, read freshly. It consists of 15 chapters, each of which is dedicated to one of the myths. Thanks to this, it reads very quickly, literally in a couple of evenings.
But with all this fragmentation, the book has a central plot, which to some extent captures every separate story, and ultimately connects all these shreds in an almost integral narrative with its tie, the second act and denouement, well, and a bunch of filler units, where without them are already without them.

But why read these old myths, I have already stuck them on foreign literature and I know about this of your nifelheim everything that is possible, you will notice you? And I will hurry to disappoint you – no, you do not know anything about him really, at least I knew before reading the novel. For example, did you hear the myth that Loki once turned into a mare in order to seduce the horse and save the Torah with friends and the rest of the world from the end of the world, and then gave birth to a foal with eight legs for Odin. Most likely no, but it was, and this is far from the strangest part of Scandinavian mythology. Well, okay, probably the same, but, believe me, there is enough other madness there. And I could give a bunch of examples of this, but, alas, spoilers. Just be prepared for surprises, oddities and a large number of extremely useful information, which you can feed your friends for the next couple of weeks, after reading the book, or maybe years with care.

You will learn what Valgala is, what a great tree Igdrasil with its nine worlds and where Raki Kawahara took the name for his Alvheim. Yes, yes, it is from Scandinavian mythology. Well, finally you will understand what kind of crap on the first episode of Vinland Saga hung out. Thought it was some random tentacles?! An-no! This is Yermungand, the world snake, which is putting on the whole earth with its tail. Perhaps you saw him in these pictures. And by the way, in honor of the same monster, even anime is named, Yermungand / Jormungand (2012).

But not only about ridiculous Piratespins.org.uk madness and interesting facts, Scandinavian gods. As I said, the narrative often prevails, thanks to which the book manages to create tension and make a couple of unexpected or unexpected moments, and someone can cause this set of words, but not with me, I have not uttered not tears … True!

Although it also found sadness and hopelessness on me, but in the end it was generally difficult to read from the oppressive foreboding of trouble. And this, I remind you, is a book about myths, and not some psychological thriller.

And the main characters of the work, despite the apparent simplicity, are surprisingly interesting characters.

The main role here, of course, pulls on the Loki. This guy in real myths reveals no worse than in the entire franchise Marvel. Here he is the same playful, cunning, incredibly ambitious and unpredictable type, which will do something terrible, then build something beautiful in place of this terrible place. From a myth to the myth, he either turns his Assgard friends in dark jungle, then leads them out of there intact and unharmed, and sometimes even with a couple of apples. It is extremely interesting to observe such a marvelous hero, especially realizing that it was not a writer, but an entire people, who, out of a century in a century, remade and improved this madman from a century. In fact, without Loki we would hardly have a dedpool, the same Loki, or Ostap Bender.

But besides Loki, there are enough interesting characters in the book. For example, Thor. He in myths most reminiscent of his variation from the third film Marvel than from the other two. He is cheerful, moderately stupid and very light in hand. To kill someone for him is the same as spitting. And it doesn’t matter who, some giant, or … some giants, to him along with his Moolnir, who flaunts on the cover of the Russian and Ukrainian edition of the book, everything is in the case. Well, with such a beauty, this is understandable!

And there is one in the book – very interesting and influential character, in whose honor all day in English was named, Wednesday (English. “Wednesday”), I understand, it doesn’t sound very similar, let’s better, (in the online translator), you see, so, despite all its importance, we know less about him than about Zeus or Jupiter. In the films of Marvel, he is only a secondary wise old man, and compared to Thor and Loki, he is hardly represented in modern culture. In the Scandinavian gods, Neil Gaiman tries to solve this historical injustice and tells a lot of interesting things about this father of the gods. So, one at one moment sacrificed himself and sagged on the great tree Igdrasil 9 days.

And also remember that head from God of War, so this head is MIMIM, to which one brought his eyes to drink from a source of wisdom. Well, then he was chopped off his head. Yes…

And on this, the heroes remembered for me, as it were, ended, the rest of the Asgardians are rather a pleasant background than independent personalities, at least in the Scandinavian gods they simply lack a place, because there are only 230 pages there. So after reading, they, along with their Asgard, resemble something like a kindergarten where everyone is fighting, playing and indulging. Well, and they love to kill each other, of course.

There is a lot of cruelty in the book in general, a bunch of a wide variety of creatures die immediately moments. At one point, they even pour blood into the vat for cooking from some and make a mead of it, and in the final of the book there is a mandatory large knead, even though it is a little. And even one scene of love pleases in the Scandinavian gods is present. But unlike all sorts of Martines in this book, Neil Gaiman does not relish all this.

Cruelty here without picturesque details, and even rather frightening things do not leave behind an unpleasant taste of bitterness and do not particularly avert. Therefore, you can read the Scandinavian gods even with your children, brothers, sisters and grandmothers. Well, except to miss a couple of moments. This will add to the already beautiful atmosphere of the book even more authenticity, feeling like that the old man who sits by the fire on a cold winter night and tells the excited crowd a breathtaking story about gods and their adventures in the enchanting Asgard.

I finish on Sim, gentlemen. Write what Scandinavian myths you like the most, good, the choice is big, but at the same time share your last or favorite books. And you can not even read this article by the fire, just put it a plusik and write something in the comments. Thanks for, I hope, meaningfully spent time!