I wrote about my thoughts on D’Aulaires’ Norse Gods and Giants separately. However, I don’t believe one needs an introduction to Norse mythology to fully appreciate A.S. Byatt’s Ragnarok (published in the U.K. in 2011; to be published in the U.S. in February 2012).

In Ragnarok, Byatt creates the world of the Norse gods and brings it alive with rich prose. The background mythology I read in D’Aulaires’ is expanded ten-fold in Byatt’s novel, and the myths and stories became both beautiful and horrible by Byatt’s life-giving writing. Byatt’s story helped me embrace the myths, feel the significance of the various gods, and become emotionally involved in the destruction of the world as the Norse myths taught it.

Byatt frames her mythological retelling with a young thin girl, who is reading Asgard and the Gods as she lives in the quiet countryside during World War II. The thin girl does not receive a name, for it is not really her story. Rather, it’s the story of how myths become a part of our lives. The thin girl sees connections between the Christian myths she’s taught in church (and in her copy of The Pilgrim’s Progress) and the Norse myths she comes to love. Yet, she cannot claim “belief” in either of the traditions. Nonetheless, it’s clear that the Norse myths are her favorite. Once those myths became a part of her life, her perspective of the world around her is colored by the happenings of the gods she has come to love.

The girl’s developing perspective on the world is intriguing especially considering the ongoing war that she has fled to the country to avoid. The fact that the volume of mythology she is reading is originally from Germany, the land of her enemies, causes her pause in her considerations of how the world works. Her absent father becomes a figure in her own personal mythology of life. And the country landscape – trees, flowers, and colors – becomes a vital part of her daily life and her understanding of the traditions, from Yggsdrasil to the rainbow bridge to Asgard.

I loved how Byatt wove the two stories effortlessly. There were times when I began a chapter unsure if Byatt was taking me back to Asgard or if she was describing wartime for the young child. Because we are told the myths from the perspective of the child, who is learning them, this blending of life seemed so real-to-life. She herself cannot separate her real life in wartime, in the countryside, from the mythological world that has swept her away during her time of relative freedom to read and explore.

*spoilers*

The ultimate end of the world, according to the Norse tradition, was a rather horrible scene. Personally, I loved how the thin girl’s story wove into that too. Although the end of the novel was sad, I loved that all she had come to love about living in the country (and the ways the war had become a part of her life and her mother’s life) became likewise horrible as they re-entered the smoggy city. The “Ragnarok” of the novel was in one sense the end of the Norse gods as the tradition holds. But it was also, for the thin girl, the end of her childhood, the end of the world as she would long for it the rest of her life.

*end spoilers*

Byatt’s afterward, which explained her thoughts and intentions in writing the novel as she did, likewise brought the entire mythological novel in a circle. As a whole, I found Ragnarok superbly executed. And although an understanding of Norse mythology is certainly not required (Byatt will give you what you need), it got me excited to read more about the traditions. I want to reread Byatt’s masterpiece on occasion just so I’ll come to a better understanding of the Norse myths, so that I’ll feel as comfortable discussing Balder and Odin and Loki as I feel considering my “friends” Zeus and Athena and Hercules.

I read a review copy of Ragnarok via netgalley.com

Related posts:

Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney (Brief Thoughts) D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan Speeches of Winston Churchill