Tag: Odin

A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden: a review by Gretchen Brown

As the ways of the old gods fades to twilight and the religion of the White Christ sweeps Britain, we are brought into the dark cold world of A Gathering of Ravens, a beautiful compilation of both historical fiction and fantasy genres. Scott Oden’s writing is easily readable, yet hauntingly poetic and evocative in style of the Eddas or even the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf itself. The author gives us a theme with characters sharing a little of each side of the yawning chasm of morality with themselves and the readers. Ultimately, morality is defined for us as honor, to oneself and to those to whom one has sworn allegiance, a basic and ancient code integral to the Norse culture.

We follow a young Christian Anglo-Saxon monastic Etain who travels in the company of a Christian Dane, Njall. After the apparent death of Njall, she becomes the unwilling travel companion of the monstrous Grimnir, a creature who can best be described as kinsman to Grendel an orcneas, or orc. Grimnir is Corpse-maker and Life-quencher, the Bringer of Night, the Son of the Wolf and Brother of the Serpent. Like his namesake the Norse god Odin, Grimnir comes with many names, is complex, not always easily understandable and hardly predictable. Bent on cold revenge for an ancient slight, Grimnir is an unlikely protagonist, not at all likable, yet we are always rooting for him. His reasons for doing things are not always clear, perhaps not even to himself. He is a faithful follower of Odin, while spewing contempt on the humans, particularly any who follow the White Christ. Etain must walk in his world while remaining true to her own beliefs.  While doing so, it gives her an opportunity to feel compassion and loyalty for the prickly-natured Grimnir.

Their journey takes us from Anglo Saxon England and culminates in Ireland with a lineup of Irish kings and sorcerers, Norse warlords and Danish refugees who clash outside the walls of Norse-occupied Dubhlinn. They become separated, face many dangers, together and apart, yet curiously, Etain continues to be loyal to her captor, to see something in him others cannot.

Some readers more used to a modern writing style may find the Edda-like poetic passages that the author interspersed into the main body of the narrative, off-putting. I thoroughly enjoyed them for the authentic mood they conveyed. It may also be an easier read to those who more familiar with the historical period and the manner of speaking. He includes many italicized words perhaps not familiar to the average reader, though this is not meant to be a criticism as I felt he placed them in enough context, which the “uninitiated” as it were, could keep up. That said, this is not “fluff” fiction.

The only thing that confused me and took me out of the story was the strange time travel via the World Tree Yggdrasil.

Ultimately, A Gathering of Ravens will have you turning the pages, surprised by the twists and captivated by the moving quality of the author’s use of language. His characters are neither flat, nor one-dimensional, but will stay with you long after you have reached the end, hungering for more.

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Mythical Characters as Archetypes

Delving into mythology always brings one to discover interesting archetypes. In The Serpentine Key, Odin plays a minor, yet pivotal role in helping my main character discover something about himself. Odin is a study in contradictions, a multifaceted being who seems to shift and change, perhaps as he is interpreted. But putting such a mythical being in fiction is hardly new.

J.R.R. Tolkein was an English author noted primarily for his Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as its prequel, The Hobbit. He had been known to lament that England had no myth of her own, so Middle Earth was created, based extensively on The Ring of the Nibelung cycle as well as the Norse and Anglo Saxon myths that left them indelibly printed on Tolkien’s native soil.
It was natural to find the Germanic stories wending themselves in the work of an English author. Much of Celtic lore had been repressed by four hundred years of Roman occupation and Norse and Saxon tales were England’s most recent arrivals.

Many character archetypes can be found in Tolkien’s writing, most notably Gandalf known as the “wanderer” as was Odin himself. Like Odin, he wore a broad brimmed hat and wandered the earth with a staff. It is a hallmark of such a god that when he comes to your door such as he did Bilbo Baggins’ you must heed the call. He is not easily driven away. Like Gandalf, sometimes Odin’s messages to us seem keenly like warning when we are inclined to feel to sorry for ourselves and or too smug or simply too comfortable in our own personal status quo and we need a spiritual lesson taught.

Perhaps this “Consciousness” as Jung taught has come down to other authors, such as J.K. Rowling, also English, who depicted Hagrid, a man who comes knocking at your door and cannot be ignored. Like Odin, he is born of giants, large, bearded and closely associated with the natural world. Like Odin and Gandalf, he comes to Harry Potter’s door with a mission and won’t take no for an answer. Also he is associated with the natural world like Odin,

Odin shows up in long loved childrens’ tales such as Jack and the Beanstalk. To me, as a child, highly imbued with the old tales, the beanstalk seemed to represent the “world tree”, Yggdrasil, reaching up into the cosmos and yet the cosmos itself. At the top was a giant who possessed various magical articles that Jack was to try to obtain. Odin himself was born of giants and could easily have crept into such tales. As Christianity came to the British Isles, many of the old stories went underground, cloaked in mystery as much as the Old Man himself. He never entirely went away though, only cloaking himself in the tales. He comes to us still as Santa Claus. Before that, he was Father Christmas, a bearded, hooded figure, surprisingly benevolent. In the old tales, Odin was said to leave gifts to children in their shoes, taking the proffered hay for his eight legged horse, Sleipneir. To this day, Dutch children put out shoes for Sinterklaass, who rides a gray horse and who has two black faced helpers, listening at the chimneys to see who has been naughty or nice” who perhaps evolved from Odin’s two raven messengers, Huggin and Munnin, “Thought” and “Memory”. Over time, Odin, like all the old gods was made more palatable for the Christians of Europe by making him a saint and he comes down to us as Santa Claus or Saint Nick.

The gods received a heavy handed veneer by the coming of Christianity, never completely annihilated, but woven into the fabric of Old Europe. Our own planet Earth was named for the mother of Thor, a goddess named Jorth, one of Odin’s lovers. Most of the days of the week were named for the old gods. Even customs like “knock on wood” which almost everyone has heard, may go back to the custom of touching wood and calling on the god of the woods, the Saxon “Woden”, the spirit of all things wooden and a deity closely related to the Norse Odin.

I always found the “Old Ones” of Europe’s Iron Age cultures to be captivating fodder for character archetypes. They reveal something about the people who revered them, aspects of their daily lives that even archaeology sometimes has a difficult time revealing. They reveal stories of their own and forge a path that any writer can enjoy.  Let me know your thoughts below!