Monash University
Browse
- No file added yet -

A. S. Byatt. Ragnarök; The End of the Gods. Melbourne: Text, 2011 [Book Review]

Download (56.83 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2017-05-22, 04:53 authored by Geoff Berry
The Nordic myths of Asgard have been paid a fair degree of respect over recent years. They were a major inspiration behind Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, which received magisterial filmic treatment from Peter Jackson, and were granted a more explicit role in Kenneth Branagh’s recent visual feast Thor. A. S. Byatt’s new novel Ragnarök is a much more personal journey than these heroic epics, retelling the core mythic cycle of the Northern Europeans through the thoughts and experiences of a small girl during the Second World War air raids in and around London. Explicitly taking its cues from Dr W Wagner’s 1880 book Asgard and the Gods, Byatt’s reverie also clearly utilises autobiographical details in its telling of “the thin child” during wartime.

History

Publication date

2011

Issue

21

Document type

Book Review

Usage metrics

    Colloquy: Text, Theory, Critique

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC