(This review may contain spoilers).
Considering what I’m writing personally, it’s surprising it took me a little while to actually sit down and read the actual poems, even though I do know most of the storylines.
I thought it was good to see the different kinds of poems and also how the stanzas were shown with the different mythological figures exchanging insults in some. While I do sometimes find it more difficult to read poetry, I did think there was some really nice visual imagery in many of the poems.
I recognised the story of Brynhild and Sigurd from a movie I watched a long time ago and it was interesting to see a couple of different versions of it. There were a lot of dark moments in the poems, such as when the children are fed to their father… and I found it very hard to feel sympathetic towards Gudrun, no matter that she did lose her brothers. Then again, it seemed that violence triggered more violence and treachery worse treachery.
I thought the first poem, the prophecy, was quite an interesting one, though I was confused by the slightly different version that seemed to be shown at the end. It would have been good to see the different poems set side by side, so I could see the differences in the tones.
I liked being able to see the poem where Thor had to dress as a woman to get his hammer back and to see Loki show his intelligence in his responses to the giant. I also found Loki’s Quarrel to be a really interesting poem, especially given the references to past events and hostilities between the gods.
I found it a bit difficult to tell which events had actually happened and which were merely alluded to. I did feel that the poems, although amusing in some areas and intense to read in others, didn’t showcase as much of the personality of the Norse gods as I might have expected. There were some quite confusing moments in the poems, too, where references were made to cultural things that I found trouble following.
While it was good to have some notes in relation to the poems, I think those notes could have done with being written after the relevant poem, rather than at the back of the book, by which time, I’d forgotten my individual questions.
Ink of Blood 