While I was pleased to see that Hamilton had included the Volsunga saga in the chapter about Norse mythology (in many books it is replaced by the Nibelungenlied which was penned much later), she dismissed the saga by saying that the story is so well-known thanks to the Nibelungenlied that the original can be told briefly and THAT is an absolute no-go for me.

Fry used this novel as a source (and many others) because this is such a cohesive package, sorting out the various sources and semi being chronological. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Reading this you get to understand the culture of the Greeks, what they believed in and the values of these stories. Well, most of his problem was with those bite-sized little rundowns of the myths, which is what I liked about it. Does Edith Hamilton not care that the prototype is more important than the bastardized version invented by Germanic peoples?The truth is, she could’ve excluded the final 20 pages and sold this solely as ‘Greek Mythology’ and I may have given it 5 stars. Thus, I've tried to evaluate each book on its own particular merits, and also give some idea of how it stacks up relative to the others.

This was great for Greek mythology- with family trees at the back of the book to aid understanding and it was great to see how these heroes and Gods all connect. The books featured on this site are aimed primarily at readers aged 13 or above and therefore you must be 13 years or over to sign up to our newsletter.Since its original publication by Little, Brown and Company in 1942, Edith Hamilton's Mythology has sold millions of copies throughout the world and established itself as a perennial bestseller in its various available formats: hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback, and e-book. I knew that before purchasing it but still somewhat a shame, that there are never revised versions that included much more Norse Mythology. There are Heracles 12 labours which were so super condensed (akin to a summary), portions of the Aeneid I felt it (mainly second half) and aspects of the Iliad section. The following year, she and her sister Alice went to Germany and were the first women students at the universities of Munich and Leipzich. Our team is made up of book lovers who are dedicated to sourcing and providing the best books for kids.

Primeiro pensei lê-lo como preparação para o curso, depois imaginei que lhe daria uso obrigatório na licenciatura, e a dada altura percebi que, até aos dias de hoje, nunca terminei um livro que fosse forçada a ler. My only complaint is that in her effort to make it light reading perhaps, the author avoided the full range of Greek names and other details in the myths, when she should have kept them and even expand on them with a bit of etymology. I also enjoyed how the author included different versions of the tales and who originally wrote these down- for example, there are different versions of Jason on the Argo, whether Atalanta was part of the Argo or not and a different tale of Ipigneia’s demise (which I especially loved as her story was so sad! Bulfinch's cuts and changes to myths which accounts for the low rating (if there was a half-star rating system here, it would get more than Bulfinch's Mythology but as it is . For 75 years readers have chosen this book above all others to discover the thrilling, enchanting, and fascinating world of Western mythology-from Odysseus's adventure-filled journey to the Norse god Odin's effort to postpone the final day of doom.Some of the tales have a really insidious tone that I think could make for some chilling cinematics.