D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths, by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire

NOTE:  I wrote this post MONTHS ago but, for some reason, it never got published.  So, I suppose it makes sense in tandem with the review that I am presently writing on Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology.

Hooray!  It finally arrived!

Returning readers may recall (Ooo!  Alliteration!) my deep and abiding love for Greek mythology, owed almost entirely to a childhood babysitter and this book that I wrote about back in April (2023):

When I finally purchased my own copy -decades later in life- I learned that the D'Aulaires had co-written/illustrated even more world myths.  While I have a solid handle on Greek mythology, I do enjoy branching out and learning about the legends, folklore, myths, and fairy tales that come from other parts of the world.  Over the years, I have enjoyed a vague familiarity with Norse mythology, but I haven't spent nearly as much time with the pantheon of old-timey Scandinavia.

Until now.

No matter which way you look at it, the Olympians of ancient Greece are assholes.  Truly.  There isn't one among them without the stain of atrocity on his/her sleeve.  They are absolute train wrecks.  Imagine your most unstable relative - you know, the one who always blows up at holiday celebrations and ends up yelling at the kids.  Now imagine that relative is immortal and has unlimited power and drinks too much and exists in a dozen different beings.

Welcome to Mount Olympus.

The Norse gods are, for all their faults, slightly different.  They have immensely long lives, but know that their days are numbered.  They are discombobulated, unorganized, misogynistic (although somewhat less so than their Greek counterparts), and waaaay too into war (Excuse me, sir, do you have time to talk about Valhalla?), but they know that Ragnarok is pending and they want to get their shit together before it comes.  

Like their Olympian cousins, however, the Aesir are one hot mess.  (And so are the Vanir -a separate but related tribe/grouping of Norse gods- although I'd argue they are nutters to a moderately lesser degree.)  They fight with and deceive one another, but they share an overall goal for themselves and vision for humanity.  They seem a little more human than the Olympians, even though they are sometimes actual animals/monsters (literally -not figuratively- speaking).

From the entirety of both the Greek and Norse pantheons, however, one deity rises high above the rest.  Say what you will about her "profession" as the Norse goddess of love, beauty, fertility (also war, death, magic, lust, gold, according to other sources), Freya is BY FAR THE BEST OF THE BEST.  Here is why:

Do you see that?  In case you missed it, let me point it out again:

OK, one more time, just to be sure (Freya is just to the right of center):

Freya seems to be almost synonymous with HER CATS.  For this reason -and this reason alone- I want her to be my best friend.  Why is she always depicted with cats?  Scroll back up to the first image and you'll see something that only a divine being could do.  Freya's chariot/sled is pulled by cats.  Not huskies, not horses, not reindeer or donkeys or even Thor's famed goats.  Cats.  Say it again with me:  CATS.  The best part is that this isn't even the D'Aulaires taking some artistic license.  Since her inception, this honorary Aesir (originally one of the Vanir) has been chauffeured by cats.  Google it.

Loki is weird.  Thor is hilariously oafish.  Odin thinks he's sneaky (he's not).  No doubt about it, this pile of goons and faulty deities are laughable and wonderful in their own right.  I'm not sure who would win in a battle of the Olympians versus the Aesir (+/- Vanir), but I do know one thing:  Freya and her cats will ALWAYS win in my book.  And my kids agree, because science has indisputably proven the following:

Cats > Everything else