A. S. Byatt. Ragnarök; The End of the Gods. Melbourne: Text, 2011 [Book Review] Geoff Berry 10.4225/03/59226ecd58f3c https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/journal_contribution/A_S_Byatt_Ragnar_k_The_End_of_the_Gods_Melbourne_Text_2011_Book_Review_/5016461 <div>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.</div> 2017-05-22 04:53:32 A.S. Byatt Wagner Myths Ragnarök Nordic myths mythopoeia British and Irish Literature