/lit/ - Literature

>>14672990
>Gaiman's family is of Polish Jewish and other Eastern European Jewish origins.

>>14672990
>politically correct retelling
what

>>14673042
>>>/pol/

What about it is politically correct

gayman lOL\

>>14673130
Loki is polyamorous in this book.

>>14673047
>>14673130
He intentionally does not mention stories of rape that are in the original myths. Also, I could be wrong about this statement, this is why I asked if it was worth looking into.

Just read Hamilton’s Mythology

>>14673163
Its a book about european culture and mythology written by a kike, of course its not worth getting into. Only white people can write about white culture, mythology and history.

>>14673163
Well, likely because it's written for kids

>>14673172
underage

>>14672990
Just go read the Eddas, anon. They're a good time.

>>14673256
Seconded.

>>14673172
>You must be an insect to write a book about entomology

>>14672990
I've read it. It's pretty good in that Gaiman turns the stories into one cohesive narrative. It's pretty much a novel even though it feels episodic. Norse mythology is a lot more complicated than what we're lead to believe nowadays, but it's an enjoyable read which puts the most important stories into an order that makes them feel like a novel with a beginning-middle-end.

>>14673137
How so?
Tbf he is kind of an oddball in the myths aswell

You should read an actual treatise on Norse myth if you want retellings of myths.

Dumezil wrote a good book on the actual religion behind it, if you actually want to understand the people and the systems they lived by.

>>14673483
oof Loki a cute
CUTE

>>14673172
Imagine being a retard and underage.

>>14673511
How do they piece together the actual religion? Is it archeology + edgucated guess? Or extrapolation from written documents.

>>14673655
Both. Mythology is just a collection of stories, a religion is a collection of ethical values, political doctrines, and morally supported social systems: "how people think". Admittedly, this is MUCH easier to do with the Romans and the Greeks as there is far more attested material for them. Dumezil, and later thinkers, are WELL aware of this. In particular, Dumezil's work is rooted in the comparative method: all Indo-European religions and societies proceed from the same root, ergo we can find and view similarities ("determining what a man looks like based on how his children look"). Even if we have little attestation, we can look at how they view X, knowing how, say, the Romans viewed Y, with both X and Y descending from Z.

The only real critics of Dumezil's methods, that aren't just rehashing problems he is aware of and states, and those of those who followed in his footsteps, essentially argue that because this all involves White people you're a Nazi if you are even slightly interested in any of this. There are no competing scholarly theories.

>>14673137
Loki fucks literally everyone in the originals.

>>14672990
Read Kvilhaug, she is an actual Norwegian and an accredited expert on Norse mythology.

https://www.amazon.com/Poetic-Edda-Translation-Interpretations-Commentary/dp/1507620926/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487933825&sr=8-1&keywords=the+poetic+edda+six+cosmology+poems

>>14672990
i've got a signed copy of it
meh, it's ok. it's a bit like stephen fry's book about greek myths. it's a retelling of the stories for kids and people who aren't interested enough to read the whole eddas and/or plough through graves' book about greek myths
this type of thing isn't new. when i was a kid i had a book by the astronomer patrick moore that told the stories of the constellations that was written in a similar easy reading vein

>>14672990
>Also is there any good books aside from Snorri's Edda that further explain norse mythology?
You can skip Gaiman, read some Kevin Crossley Holland instead.

What are some good books about Celtic mythology?

>>14674605
Celtic Mythology: Tales of Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes by Philip Freeman

No.

He added nothing new whatsoever. The writing had a phoned-in quality. Just read the free stories online from a good folklore site.

>>14672990
>>14673163
>WHY IS THERE NO RAPE I NEED RAPE TO READ BOOK OTHERWISE BOOK ISN'T WORTH READING

>>14674841
Thanks

>>14673169
based Hamilton poster

>>14673694
Interesting. Though I am a little sceptical that that may get into the realm of "social seinces" which tend to poison history a bit. Correlations often produce half or apperant truths. Just look at "Hegel and Haiti" article that blew up and caused a lot of social scientists to bleed over into actual history.

What is a good book to acquaint myself with Slavic mythology?

>>14673137
In real Norse mythology Loki turned himself into a mare and got impregnated by a stallion then gave birth to sleipnir, he’s meant to be weird. That being said, Neil Gaiman is a terrible hack writer and so this book almost certainly sucks ass regardless

I listened to it as an audiobook and found it to be a good enough retelling. Sort of reminded me of a storybook you might read to children. If I had kids I would consider picking up a copy to read to them from.