Mythology and literature in English

A theory is a common narrative that has been used repeatedly to justify or address questions about the history of something, or about the social or natural phenomenon that leads to the existence of objects as they are. Neil Gaiman uses the mythology of contemporary storytelling and fantasy to relate the story of a modern myth that starts with the creation of nine worlds. He investigates the presence of goblins, angels, and giants, as well as the rebirth of a new race and a new era as a result of the gods' dusk in Ragnarok. To achieve this modern-day mythology into fiction, Gaiman incorporates the spiritual aspect witnessed in many modern-day and ancient day myths. He achieves this through incorporating insights about ancient Greek mythology gods like Odin and Thor, as well as through the incorporation of supernatural characters like giants, such as Loki. In this literary work, the author implements a prose that is both skillful and witty as the mythical attributes of characters are brought out in Norse Mythology. For instance, the gods are portrayed as fiercely competitive characters, who are susceptible deception and to deceive others, and who normally let passion motivate their actions. Gaiman, therefore, works to bridge the gap between literature and mythology in this piece, as he utilizes the normal constructs of mythology in this account to qualify it as a modern myth for fictional literature.

In ancient societies, myths were common because people had been brought up in a society where people believed in the heroic endeavors that were told to explain the reason for the existence of different things. In the modern day of the internet, this has disappeared because people are able to tell the origin of things or the existences of different things in a matter of seconds as they have plenty of information literally at the tips of their fingers. People have ceased to believe in myths because technology has made information available to them and their ability to deduce origins or the reasons for a certain wonder they have has certainly been enhanced. However, mythology can continue to be utilized in modern day through fictional literature as has been demonstrated by Gaiman in Norse mythology (Gaiman 12). For instance, throughout the book, the author uses gods as powerful characters, because people in the modern society believe in powerful creatures in different formats. This is beneficial in fictional literature because it’s easy to manipulate the imagination of the reader to be anything, in a successful manner. Gaiman, therefore, uses these creatures to in his modern myths to successfully communicate his ideologies to the audience, in an interesting collection of fictional myths in his book.

The book also successfully presents different aspects of myths and beautifully ties them down to make an interesting fictional story. Gaiman tells a tale of very intelligent beings who are continuously roaming the earth looking for adventure. As such, they tend to roam into territories of giants and have adventures related to giants, extremely festive weddings, gods who have been kidnapped and go through plenty of deception and trickery. All these different adventures are all common characteristics of ancient myths, which were characterized by feasts, gods, giants or defeating a powerful negative force and also love and passion. The intelligent beings in Gaiman’s book are Norse gods namely Loki, Odin, and Thor. Odin is depicted as the father of the other gods and is wise and powerful while Thor is depicted as strong and brave, and who is able to strike things with his hammer named Mjolnir. The character of the third Norse god, Loki, is deceptive and smart, with a great tendency to star trouble for his personal interests or entertainment. Other gods are also mentioned in this book as well. All these characters are gods borrowed from ancient Greek mythology, but Gaiman is able to skillfully construct the story into prose that is entertaining and incorporative of these aspects into one story.

The stylistic devices used in myths are also employed in modern myths to achieve a good quality of literary content. A keen interest in myths demonstrates that myths liked to incorporate hyperbolic irony in the prose, to demonstrate the supernatural or uniqueness of the specific instance being described. Gaiman also carefully employs this stylistic device in his Norse Mythology. For instance, during the wedding feast of the goddess of beauty, Freya, Thor attends the wedding although he was also dressed in the same manners as a bride, so that he could be able to steal back his Mjolnir. The hammer had been previously stolen by an ogre, and this ogre was going to be getting married to the goddess of beauty. This scene of the mythical creation demonstrates hyperbolic irony because the situations are extremely unusual and outlandish.

In ‘The Master Builder’ the gods appear to be troubled their home in Asgard being vulnerable to intrusions from aliens when they are away on adventures and thus have to decide on the way to keep the borders of their home secure. Odin suggested that the gods should build a wall around their home. This brings out the lively and full of life retelling of the ancient myths that have existed for centuries about the world and its creation as well as matters about Thor, Odin, and Loki. The author manages to successfully make his own version of ancient myths and recreate them in his own interesting and skillful way. The book is not only interesting to read, but it is also a different depiction of the myths that have existed in history and makes its own artistic rendition. The author brings out his own creativity in the characters of ancient myths to recreate what can be considered as modern day myths. This, therefore, makes the book an excellent piece of fictional literature.

Some of the things that Gaiman did to add a personal touch to the ancient myths in Norse Mythology include sly flourishes, dialogue, motivations, emotions, and the role of the goddesses. Traditional myths paint goddesses as lesser than the powerful gods in a sexist community. His retelling allows the goddesses to stand up for themselves. This demonstrated when Freya asks when she gets the information that she was expected to marry an ogre, while she knew that she was the goddess of beauty. The point of the book is to be a fictional recreation of the ancient myths, and thus he makes sure to completely retell the myths and their purposes. He also has to spruce up the work with imaginative techniques; otherwise, it would appear as if he was someone who simply got the whole concept of ancient myths completely wrong. As such, the author added his personal touch to the ancient myths to achieve the current book.

The retell version also differs from the ancient Greek mythology because the gods appear to practice dialogue and the giants portrayed throughout the book are not as harsh as those in the ancient myths. Since the book is a retelling of these myths, is expected to differ from the original. The interpretation followed the direction of the imagination of the author as well as his target in terms of the thoughts he stirs in the minds of his readers. He considers that as a writer in the fictional literature genre, the audience would be fictional readers who would be willing t explore the imagination of the writer. While others may argue that interpretation of information, specifically preserved pieces of literature like ancient myths, would either have a negative or positive impact on that information, being either to alter the information or to make it clearer. However, fictional literature seeks to shape the consciousness of the reader using the choice of prose and language that the author intends to tell the story in.

Machan (301) also defends the retelling of myths in its presentation of Snorri Sturluson, who is one of the most influential and inspirational Anglo-Saxon literature contributor from the 19th century to the 21st century. The article points that Sturlusson had never spoken English, learned about Anglo-Saxon literature, or even visited England. However, Sturlusson ended up becoming the most iconic author of Anglo-Saxon literature. This article, therefore, presents a fascinating and highly specialized consideration of Neil Gaiman’s piece. This is because Gaiman employs ancient Greek mythology characters in his book Norse mythology with the aim of merging modern mythology into fictional literature without specifically following the same plots as the ancient mythology. Machan’s confusion in the prowess of a person who has very little knowledge or linkages with the English mythology and poetry, in the manner that Gaiman seeks to present his literature as someone who is not aware of the past mythology or someone who is just not interested in the mythology. He, therefore, employs imaginative concepts into his choice of ignorance to retell the myths in a modern manner and therefore imaginatively bridge the gap between the myths and the literature. He uses his imagination to come up with more refreshing concepts of myths and employs the concepts of literature to achieve interesting fictional literature.









Work Cited

Gaiman, Neil. American gods. Hachette UK, 2011.

Machan, Tim William. "Snorri’s Edda, Mythology, and Anglo-Saxon Studies." Modern Philology 113.3 (2016): 295-309.