Recently evacuated to the British countryside and with World War Two raging around her, one young girl is struggling to make sense of her life. Then she is given a book of ancient Norse legends and her inner and outer worlds are transformed. Intensely autobigraphical and linguistically stunning, this book is a landmark work of fiction from one of Britain's truly great writers. Intensely timely it is a book about how stories can give us the courage to face our own demise. The Ragnarok myth, otherwise known as the Twilight of the Gods, plays out the endgame of Norse mythology. It is the myth in which the gods Odin, Freya and Thor die, the sun and moon are swallowed by the wolf Fenrir, the serpent Midgard eats his own tale as he crushes the world and the seas boil with poison. It is only after such monstrous death and destruction that the world can begin anew. This epic struggle provided the fitting climax to Wagner's Ring Cycle and just as Wagner was inspired by Norse myth so Byatt has taken this remarkable finale and used it as the underpinning of this highly personal and politically charged retelling
Ragnarok: the End of the Gods (Myths)
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Byatt peels back the cover of the book that the girl reads and takes us deep inside it as she delights in reimagining the twilight of the gods and the destruction of the world. ... Like Wagner before her, [she] dares to dream how the world might end ... this rewriting of the Ragnarok is a story for our time of overpopulation and anthropomorphic climate change, and of all time. --Financial Times
Surely among the most beautiful and incisive [pages] Byatt has ever written. --Independent
Byatt's retelling of Ragnarok is permeated with the loving familiarity of long acquaintance. Her language is lapidary. The terrible archness that can infest the narratives of sophisticated writers who attempt to master myth is resoundingly absent ... It is pleasant to imagine some lonely, bookish child discovering it and becoming entranced. --Evening Standard
A brilliant, highly intelligent, fiercely personal rendition of the Scandinavian mythology...a gorgeous enrichment and interpretation. --Ursula K. Le Guin, Literary Review
Byatt's writing, impassioned and liberated from the strictures of the novel, has never been so beautiful. --Telegraph
Byatt's prose is majestic, the lush descriptive passages - jewelled one minute, gory the next - a pleasure to get lost in. --Sunday Telegraph
Byatt paints beautiful and fantastic word-pictures, glittering verbal special effects. --Scotsman
Colour and sensation flood Byatt's writing . . . One of the most brilliant minds and speakers of our generation. --Independent
Byatt's prose, compact and lyrical, treats [the gods] with dignity...Ragnarok is a clever, lucid, lovely book. --Guardian
Thanks to a rare fusion of imagination and intellect, sensual poetry and cerebral prose, youthful joy and elderly wisdom [,Byatt has made]...an entire world, compressed but energetically alive in all its details. When we have artists like this, who needs gods? --Observer
Energy and power drip from Byatt's writing ... There are too many glittering sentences to quote here in full.
--New Humanist
Surely among the most beautiful and incisive [pages] Byatt has ever written. --Independent
Byatt's retelling of Ragnarok is permeated with the loving familiarity of long acquaintance. Her language is lapidary. The terrible archness that can infest the narratives of sophisticated writers who attempt to master myth is resoundingly absent ... It is pleasant to imagine some lonely, bookish child discovering it and becoming entranced. --Evening Standard
A brilliant, highly intelligent, fiercely personal rendition of the Scandinavian mythology...a gorgeous enrichment and interpretation. --Ursula K. Le Guin, Literary Review
Byatt's writing, impassioned and liberated from the strictures of the novel, has never been so beautiful. --Telegraph
Byatt's prose is majestic, the lush descriptive passages - jewelled one minute, gory the next - a pleasure to get lost in. --Sunday Telegraph
Byatt paints beautiful and fantastic word-pictures, glittering verbal special effects. --Scotsman
Colour and sensation flood Byatt's writing . . . One of the most brilliant minds and speakers of our generation. --Independent
Byatt's prose, compact and lyrical, treats [the gods] with dignity...Ragnarok is a clever, lucid, lovely book. --Guardian
Thanks to a rare fusion of imagination and intellect, sensual poetry and cerebral prose, youthful joy and elderly wisdom [,Byatt has made]...an entire world, compressed but energetically alive in all its details. When we have artists like this, who needs gods? --Observer
Energy and power drip from Byatt's writing ... There are too many glittering sentences to quote here in full.
--New Humanist
About the Author
A S Byatt's novels include the Booker Prize-winning Possession, The Biographer's Tale the quartet, The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life, Babel Tower and A Whistling Woman and, most recently, the Booker-shortlisted The Children's Book. Her highly acclaimed collections of short stories include Sugar and Other Stories, The Matisse Stories, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, Elementals and Little Black Book of Stories. A distinguished critic as well as a writer of fiction, A S Byatt was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a powerful re-telling of an ancient myth through the eyes and mind of a child reading about the Norse gods during the Second World War. The child, evacuated to the countryside, roams in woods and fields and takes delight in the beauty of the natural world. She gathers armfuls of flowers, knowing there will always be more to replace them. She visualizes the bombing raids over London as the Wild Hunt of Woden.
The book does not speak directly of our current environmental crisis, and yet there is an underlying feeling throughout that this is a myth for our time. It tells of a world that was created, that was abundant and full of life, and then was destroyed. Already the English landscape we inhabit is very different to that of the 1940s and immeasurably less diverse. This ancient myth offers no solutions, only warning - and what a terrifying end of the world it shows, as the people wait for a spring that never comes, wolves swallow the moon and sun, and the stars fall "like spent candles" from the sky.
The book does not speak directly of our current environmental crisis, and yet there is an underlying feeling throughout that this is a myth for our time. It tells of a world that was created, that was abundant and full of life, and then was destroyed. Already the English landscape we inhabit is very different to that of the 1940s and immeasurably less diverse. This ancient myth offers no solutions, only warning - and what a terrifying end of the world it shows, as the people wait for a spring that never comes, wolves swallow the moon and sun, and the stars fall "like spent candles" from the sky.
35 of 40 people found the following review helpful
By Nicki J
Format:Kindle Edition
When I first saw this title was available on NetGalley, I was so excited and requested it at once. I've loved everything I've read by Byatt and this story was of particular interest to me as I adore mythology.
I devoured this book in one sitting and loved every minute of it. The story of Ragnarok is told here as seen through the eyes of a young girl, reading the mythology from a book while she lives in the country during the war. I loved the way the child related the story to her own experiences of war and religion.
This book shifts between the child's thoughts and the Ragnarok story, but it never feels fragmented as Byatt manages to balance the two elements perfectly. The prose is beautiful and descriptive yet not overly 'flowery' and it is a real pleasure to read it and lose yourself in the words.
I enjoyed the note from Byatt at the end, discussing the approach she'd used, as that really helped bind the piece together.
It's been a while since I last did any reading on Northern myth, but I now feel inspired to grab up my copies of the Edda and the Kalevala again. This is definitely a book that I will be buying myself a print copy of so that I can keep it in my library and reread it in the future. Highly recommended to both lovers of literary fiction and those interested in mythology.
I received this book as a free ebook ARC from NetGalley.
I devoured this book in one sitting and loved every minute of it. The story of Ragnarok is told here as seen through the eyes of a young girl, reading the mythology from a book while she lives in the country during the war. I loved the way the child related the story to her own experiences of war and religion.
This book shifts between the child's thoughts and the Ragnarok story, but it never feels fragmented as Byatt manages to balance the two elements perfectly. The prose is beautiful and descriptive yet not overly 'flowery' and it is a real pleasure to read it and lose yourself in the words.
I enjoyed the note from Byatt at the end, discussing the approach she'd used, as that really helped bind the piece together.
It's been a while since I last did any reading on Northern myth, but I now feel inspired to grab up my copies of the Edda and the Kalevala again. This is definitely a book that I will be buying myself a print copy of so that I can keep it in my library and reread it in the future. Highly recommended to both lovers of literary fiction and those interested in mythology.
I received this book as a free ebook ARC from NetGalley.
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By Curiosity Killed The Bookworm
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Kindle Edition
Ragnarök is the latest edition to Canongate's excellent Myths series, all standalone novels by a variety of the world's finest writers. Written by A.S. Byatt of The Children's Book fame, it tells the Nordic story of the Judgement of the Gods or the end of the world.
Told through the eyes of a girl in wartime Britain, known only as the thin child, Ragnarök is a good introduction to Nordic myths. The thin child finds a book entitled Asgard and the Gods in the house she is evacuated to and she shares those myths with the reader. With her father fighting in the war, the thin girl is going through her very own Ragnarök, knowing that the end of her world must surely be coming.
The novel is not really about the thin girl though, it is more a collection of myths that lead up to Ragnarök. From the creation story of Yggdrasil, a great tree whose ecosystem was the world, to the tale of the great serpent Jörmungandr, who encircled the world. Like the thin child, Loki has always been my favourite player in the Nordic myths and this mischevious demi-god plays a big part in most of them.
Reading this, you will get the feeling of familiarity, even if you don't know the myths themselves. It really does emphasis that myths are borrowed and adapted throughout cultures. The Nordic Hel will have shaped the Christianity's Hell of eternal torment much more then the Greek underworld would have, where the Elysian fields were the reward of heroes.
The author's thoughts on myths are also included and are well worth a read. My copy (a proof not the Kindle edition) had place markers for the illustrations so I can't comment on those but am excited the see how it is illustrated. The bibliography is full of interesting titles if you wish to read more.
Told through the eyes of a girl in wartime Britain, known only as the thin child, Ragnarök is a good introduction to Nordic myths. The thin child finds a book entitled Asgard and the Gods in the house she is evacuated to and she shares those myths with the reader. With her father fighting in the war, the thin girl is going through her very own Ragnarök, knowing that the end of her world must surely be coming.
The novel is not really about the thin girl though, it is more a collection of myths that lead up to Ragnarök. From the creation story of Yggdrasil, a great tree whose ecosystem was the world, to the tale of the great serpent Jörmungandr, who encircled the world. Like the thin child, Loki has always been my favourite player in the Nordic myths and this mischevious demi-god plays a big part in most of them.
Reading this, you will get the feeling of familiarity, even if you don't know the myths themselves. It really does emphasis that myths are borrowed and adapted throughout cultures. The Nordic Hel will have shaped the Christianity's Hell of eternal torment much more then the Greek underworld would have, where the Elysian fields were the reward of heroes.
The author's thoughts on myths are also included and are well worth a read. My copy (a proof not the Kindle edition) had place markers for the illustrations so I can't comment on those but am excited the see how it is illustrated. The bibliography is full of interesting titles if you wish to read more.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully told
The Norse myth of Ragnarok retold in exquisite prose. Byatt uses the device of a precocious, 20th century child-reader, so the book is laced with the child's thoughts and... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Geoffrey Gudgion
1.0 out of 5 stars
Rather offended
Being an Odinist I rather took offense at being offered up Woden as representing the bombing raids over London, and the idea that the Norse gods were corrupt and evil. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Edda
3.0 out of 5 stars
An Enjoyable Re-Telling
I had been looking forward to reading Ragnarok: The End of the Gods for quite some time. Not only because of my love for ancient myths, but also because of the Norse links to my... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Dan Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
I enjoyed the poetic use of language and the traditional story telling approach. Ok, yes it is a tad pretentious but a beautiful read.
Published 5 months ago by Verena
4.0 out of 5 stars
Twilight of the Gods
I think it is probably helpful to have read the stories of the Norse Gods before starting this book. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Sarah
5.0 out of 5 stars
The power of myth
What a glorious read - one of those rare books where you revel in the author's joy of words, the visceral qualities having an almost physical impact on my reading experience. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Pensato
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ragnarok
Straight retelling of myth can be extremely dull - like reading an old schoolbook. This avoided that pitfall by linking the Asgard stories to the writers wartime childhood in a... Read more
Published 6 months ago by paulw
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good story
This book starts with a young girl in WW2 and tells of her love for Norse mythology, Byatt uses this character to recount the Norse myths. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Ms. K. Thomas
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reimagining the myth of the end of the gods
"[The gods] know Ragnarok is coming but are incapable of imagining any way to fend it off, or change the story. Read more
Published 12 months ago by LittleMoon
5.0 out of 5 stars
A compelling return to Norse myth for one of Britain's best writers
'Ragnarok' is A. S. Byatt's retelling of the Norse myth of the ending of the world, which she first encountered as a child during the Second World War. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Paul Bowes
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