Loki, naturally, does not fight with the gods of Asgard.

The gods fight in one final glorious battle. Now I shall tell you of the days to come” “Until now I have told you of things that have happened in the past- things that happened a long time ago.

It spends the entirety of the collection building up to it: The collection ends with the most appropriate tale of them all, Ragnarok: the final destiny of the gods. He clearly establishes the confounds of this mythology before he even begins. But not before Gaiman takes the time to provide you with guided tour of Yggdrasil and the nine worlds that take root from her. They do battle with each other, with the elements and a whole host of nasties. And we have Loki, cunning and ingenious with his own complex intentions. And it really is what it says on the cover: it’s a whole bunch or Norse stories about some familiar faces. I think this can be taken as either an introduction to such works or simply as it is at face value. I do like old poetry, though not everyone does. In doing so he makes them approachable and, perhaps even, more engaging for a reader today. So here he has retold some already excellent stories. He has contributed much to the arts, and this work here shows he has much more to give.

He has many years of writing ahead of him (I hope.) And I don’t think it is too far a thing to suggest that he may win the noble prize for literature in his lifetime. He really is a talented man he is capable of that rare, rare, thing of being able to write fiction that is worthy of literary criticism but is also ridiculously popular and, well, just plain cool. Not only does he write fantastic comics, intelligent children’s stories and detailed novels about the nature of godhood (even if I didn’t personally enjoy them all), he also has adapted Norse mythology and re-written it with his modern stylish flair. I don’t say this out of a sense of personal bias, but with a degree of objectivity. Gaiman is, without a doubt, one of the most multi-talented writers alive today.

Norse myths neil gaiman