Norse Mythology

I've been reading Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, a re-presentation of about a dozen stories from old Norse mythology. It covers the origins of the world (as much of the story as is known) and many random adventures of the Norse gods.

It's a fun read. What's really fun about it I think is that this interpretation of the "originals" feels much weirder and less consistent or "smoothed out" compared with most modern media I've seen that is inspired by Norse mythology, especially say metal songs and video games. (For example, the game Valheim. It's a good game, and it also focuses on a more dramatic interpretation of the mythology.) The tone is not consistently serious. It is a bit horrifying at times, like the story of Loki's children. Much of the setting is unexplained. It includes random shit that doesn't need to make sense together, like the squirrel living in the world tree Yggdrasil. The squirrel talks to Niddhogg the water dragon of Niflheim and to an eagle that lives in Yggdrasil, and it gossips with and lies to both.

Overall it feels refreshingly strange.