The Children of Odin by Padraic Colum

[Ulf]

The Children of Odin

Illustrated by Willy Pogany


Heimdall and Little Hnossa, by Willy Pogany [1920] (Public Domain Image)

This is Padraic Colum's retelling of the Eddas and the Volsung Saga for young adults. Colum and Pogany also collaborated on The Adventures of Odysseus, and The King of Ireland's Son.

Part I. The Dwellers in Asgard

1. Far Away and Long Ago
2. The Building of the Wall
3. Iduna and Her Apples: How Loki Put the Gods in Danger
4. Sif's Golden Hair: How Loki Wrought Mischief in Asgard
5. How Brock Brought Judgment on Loki
6. How Freya Gained Her Necklace and How Her Loved One was Lost to Her
7. How Frey Won Gerda, the Giant Maiden, and How He Lost His Magic Sword
8. Heimdall and Little Hnossa: How All Things Came to Be
9. The All-Father's Forebodings: How He Leaves Asgard

Part II. Odin the Wanderer

1. Odin Goes to Mimir's Well: His Sacrifice for Wisdom
2. Odin Faces an Evil Man
3. Odin Wins for Men the Magic Mead
4. Odin Tells to Vidar, His Silent Son, the Secret of His Doings
5. Thor and Loki in the Giants' City
6. How Thor and Loki Befooled Thrym the Giant
7. Aegir's Feast: How Thor Triumphed
8. The Dwarfs Hoard, and the Curse that it Brought

Part III: The Witch's Heart

1. Foreboding in Asgard
2. Loki the Betrayer
3. Loki Against the Aesir
4. The Valkyrie
5. The Children of Loki
6. Baldur's Doom
7. Loki's Punishment

Part IV. The Sword of the Volsungs and the Twilight of the Gods

1. Sigurd's Youth
2. The Sword Gram and the Dragon Fafnir
3. The Dragon's Blood
3. The Story of Sigmund and Signy
4. The Story of Sigmund and Sinfiotli
5. The Story of the Vengeance of the Volsungs and of the Death of Sinfiotli
6. Brynhild in the House of Flame
7. Sigurd at the House of the Nibelungs
8. How Brynhild was Won for Gunnar
9. The Death of Sigurd
10. The Twilight of the Gods

[Psychonaut]

Excellent! This book was my first real introduction (outside of the snippet in the back of Edith Hamilton's Mythology) to Norse mythology. Colum is a great storyteller whose retellings of the myths are great for those of all ages.

[Osweo]

A man with an absurdly Irish name writing a book about Scandinavian mythology, illustrated by a man with a Russian surname meaning 'unclean'...

I read it all in Crossley-Holland's translations first. Will have a little look though, thanks! up001:

[Óttar]

A man with an absurdly Irish name writing a book about Scandinavian mythology.

A bit like Seamus Heaney, an Irish Gaelic speaker learning Anglo-Saxon and doing a translation of Beowulf.

[Svarog]

A man with an absurdly Irish name writing a book about Scandinavian mythology, illustrated by a man with a Russian surname meaning 'unclean'...

Unclean but not in the sense dirty because he did not take a bath for several years but in the meaning close to the meaning of heretic, Christians used to call heathens poganini (pl), that was their way to insult the followers of the old religion, or someone who did not accept the Lord's blessing and thus far is 'dirty' and should be avoided, later heathens accepted this name, some took it seriously, some took it as a joke, and the word itself is often used in the humorous purposes, word spread through all Slavic nations and there is a similar English word - a Pagan, slightly different meaning but in the basic pretty much the same. My grandmother used to tell me ty pogany when i would still a cake