Final Review-Norse Mythology by John Lindow

Woo, what a ride. Finally finished this unholy monstrosity of a book last night, and what a feeling of accomplishment!

I already touched on this quite a bit when I wrote about my reading before, but I'll recap-if you are looking for asatru-related info, or instructions on rituals or rites for working with the Norse pantheon, look elsewhere. This is academic mythology. It is dry, dry, dry. Not even really much in the way of pictures, though there are a few. So it's a lot of hard slog buckle-down reading.

But coming at the pantheon as a total noob, I learned a ton and don't regret reading it. I think now I would feel more prepared looking at a book about asatru or working with the norse deities. I have a better idea of who they all are now, what myths they're associated with, their lineages and exploits. So that was good.

If you'd like to read this book for your initiation (or in general really) here is my advice:

-be prepared to spend 2 months on the one book. I am normally a voracious reader and burn through books almost as fast as literal fire, but I could only handle this in short sessions, with lots of time in between. Info overload, and not exactly gripping reading. (Unless you're a university student and read dry academic shit all the time. Then maybe you'll fare better.)
-pick up an actual "storybook" of the norse myths. In segments on some of the more important figures, this book does expand on the actual stories/myths a bit more than I initially thought, but it's not done in a storytelling fashion, more encyclopaedic.
-if you are already familiar with the norse pantheon and mythology, and are looking for info on spiritual working, skip this and head to a book more geared towards asatru/heathenry in practice. This book doesn't even mention modern paganism that I took note of. But maybe still ideal for a practitioner to read this if you have an interest in a more in-depth academic approach to things.

Glad to have it done. My brain is super loaded with info, but also super exhausted from cramming all that info into it. I've already chosen my next book and dived in, and it's going much easier. Will update again once I have a bit more on that to talk about.