Table of Contents

Introduction / 1. The Sources of Norse Mythology / 2. The Gods on the Ground / 3. Myths in the Viking Age / 4. The Twilight of the Gods / 5. Pagan Myths under Conversion / 6. The Rebirth of Norse Mythology

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An engaging account of the world of the Vikings and their gods.

About the Author

Christopher Abram is Lecturer in Medieval Scandinavian Studies at University College, London where he teaches Old Norse mythology, literature and language. He has published scholarly articles on eddic poetry and is working on a volume about the transmission of the Icelandic eddas. 

Reviews

‘Undoubtedly a learned, informative and enjoyable account of the Norse myths that presents a new model for future discussion.'
*BBC History Magazine*

‘The most innovative aspect of Abram's account is the emphasis he places on skaldic verse, particularly in his chapters dealing with the Viking Age and the conversion period. Though it would be easy to dismiss this poetry as no more ancient than the high medieval sources in which it is preserved, Abram takes the more challenging line that some of it is indeed originally from the pagan period and very successfully teases all kinds of new insights from it. He does this by paying much closer attention to the contexts and detail of this poetry than previous commentators... this is undoubtedly a learned, informative and enjoyable account of the Norse myths that presents a new model for future discussion.'
*www.historyextra.com*

[a] valuable introduction to the subject.
*Contemporary Review, Volume 293, No. 1702*

Almost all of the scholars from whom we have learnt about Norse mythology were synthesisers, carefully combining fragmentary evidence from different regions, periods, and genres to build up as coherent a composite picture as possible... Dr Abram takes the opposite approach, isolating each individual instance of a myth’s occurrence, discussing it as an entity in its own right, and relating it to whatever can be discovered of its social and historical context — and indeed, in the case of skaldic verse, to what is known of its author and the patron for whom he wrote... However much we already know and love Norse myths, Dr Abram’s book will add a vivid new awareness of the human processes that created and preserved them.
*Folklore*