Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Norse describes life prior to the last battle, explains the significance and belief of different gods and goddesses, and then ends summarizing the last battle of Ragnarok. The Aesir’s were gods and goddesses who lived above earth, in a place called Asgard. The humans lived on earth. The Aesir could use a rainbow and travel between Asgard and Earth, but the humans could not. Hel was the underworld, which was consumed by the shadowy darkness of death. The Norse gods and the giants of Jotunheim had an infuriating war between them. Baldur was killed by Loki’s sneakiness and Loki was the only one who refused to shed a tear to bring Baldur back from Hel. Loki was chained up and punished with venom. He broke free of his chains and with the help of his children, they plagued the gods. The last battle of Ragnarok would destroy the universe. The Norse gods and goddesses face off to the giants of Jotunheim. The fierce battle would kill every god, goddess, giant, dwarf, warrior, elf and gnome. The last two remaining giants consumed the moon, stars and sun and then disappeared. The Yggdrasill tree collapsed and the entire universe was dark, cold and empty. Soon a new universe gave way to gods and goddesses and it was ruled without evil.

This myth is from the Norse culture. According to the website provided on World Mythology, the Norse region was considered Northern Europe and Scandinavia. Then, it spread out to Iceland, Greenland, parts of the British Isles, and even into Russia. Later, the Norse people were called Vikings.

This book describes all of the important mythical characters of the Ancient Norse. It is fun to re-learn about possible characters readers may have forgotten about. The descriptions & the pictures that go along with them make the book very enjoyable & fun to read. ( )