The Gospel of Loki by
Joanne M. Harris is a very good novelization of Norse mythology, told from the
perspective of Loki. Harris has clearly read The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson at the very least and studied
other texts on Norse mythology in order to formulate one of the best
representations of Norse mythology that I have seen in popular media. Of
course, her scope is limited to those stories that Loki plays a major part in,
so the book is not a great primer on all of Norse mythology, but since Loki is
a major player throughout the universe and especially during Ragnarok, there is
still plenty of interesting material for Harris to work with.
In a mark of true hypocrisy though, I will say that my
primary issue with this book is that it does not really expand upon the
original stories. Harris does great work in weaving together the disparate stories
about Loki that appear in Norse mythology, as they are primarily presented in The Prose Edda. She expertly switches
their order around to construct a more coherent storyline and creatively
provides Loki some motivation for the mischief he reeks upon the other
Asgardians by slightly changing his origins and place in the universe. However,
Harris does not give a lot of thought or time to Loki’s motivations, beyond the
basics of his nature as a trickster and his sense of betrayal by Odin. Also,
Harris does not give much characterization to the other gods beyond their epithets
and brief descriptions, making everything feel rather flat and without real,
understandable motivation.
I understand, of course, that it is difficult to really
expand upon mythology without running the risk of projecting too many modern
ideals and interpretations onto a different culture, but Harris did not shy
away from that at all. She uses many modern phases and descriptions for what
Loki does to make it accessible to a modern audience, but instead of feeling
like a natural part of the world as Loki describes it, it ends up feeling very
out of place. Again, perhaps it would work better if Harris had taken the time
to flesh out the characters a bit more, invented a few new stories to bridge
some of the gaps that still exist in the narrative, and really made the whole
Norse universe feel more modern, but that is not what Harris chose to do.
Credit where credit is due, however. On the whole, I do
believe that Harris does a wonderful job of writing a novel that makes some
sense out of the various stories that exist about Loki in what remains of Norse
mythology. I think many people who are not already familiar with the stories
will find this book very interesting and entertaining, and I have to praise
Harris for remaining so true to the source material in a way that many modern
writers do not care to. However, as someone already familiar with Norse
mythology, I am disappointed to not see anything particularly new or clever in the
presentation of these stories. Harris does not add much to our understanding of
Norse mythology and does not provide a unique perspective on how these
characters might have acted in different circumstances.
Harris, J. M. (2015). The
Gospel of Loki. London; Saga Press.
Sturluson, Snorri. (2005). The Prose Edda. (J. L. Byock, Trans.).
London: Penguin Classics.
