The Terror of Knowing

It’s that time of the week again: it’s Tag Thursday. Hold the applause, please.

Considering I’m right in the thick of re-reading (this time via audiobook) Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology and I am quite a fan of an MCU character based on a certain trickster god from the Norse pantheon, I couldn’t not do this tag when I saw it over on Zoe’s blog a couple of days ago. Lots of credit must also be given to the creator of this brilliant tag, Kyera and you should definitely check out both of their blogs.

But, for now, onward, to the rules and the tag questions!

The Rules:

• Link back to my original post on Kyera’s Library so I can see all your answers! (Be sure to do this via pingback, I don’t get notified if you just tag my URL)
• Thank the person(s) who tagged you… show the community some love!
• Obviously, come up with your wonderful answers!
• Don’t forget to tag others to keep the tag going!

ODIN – FAVOURITE STAND ALONE:
Odin is the All-Father, the leader of the Norse Gods. He is the god of wisdom, poetry, battle, death, wine, and war, among other things.

The problem with reading so much YA fantasy is that very few books actually end up being standalones; in fact, YA fantasy has a habit of claiming to be a standalone only to have a series book deal announced shortly after the publication (and success) of a book. However, thankfully, one of my favourite books of all-time is a standalone and that is The Graveyard Book by the ever-wonderful Neil Gaiman. This book has my heart and soul and it is truly heartwarming and uplifting in the end, which is strange for a book that starts “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.”

THOR – A BOOK THAT HITS YOU IN THE FEELS:
Thor is the god of thunder, weather, warriors, strength, and storms, so his might packs a punch. He is married to the beautiful Lady Sif.

Weirdly connected to my previous answer by way of marriage is The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer, a non-fiction book/memoir exploring the idea of creativity and why we (as creators, as humans, as family members) struggle to admit that we need help and ask someone else for their knowledge, expertise, or (simply) money. Given that I am not a freelancer or busker or performer of any kind, I wasn’t expecting to be hit so much by this book but it ended up speaking so true to life in general and I did tear up at a few points when Amanda Palmer got a little personal.

LOKI – BIGGEST BOOK PLOT TWIST OR CHARACTER BETRAYAL:
Loki is the god of mischief, thieves and thrives on chaos.

I’m just going to say it: Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys. In hindsight, it’s SO fucking obvious, and WHY didn’t I see it… it’s literally said right there on the page but I skipped over it on first read and chalked it down to banter. I can’t tell you what or who this answer pertains to because HUGE SPOILERS but, yeah, bit of a plot twist really…

FRIGG – OTP:
Frigg is Odin’s wife, the goddess of love, marriage, fertility, and fate.

Since you’ve asked me at this moment, when I’ve done a recent re-read, I’m going say Nina and Matthias from Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. I CANNOT shut up about these two, I’m sorry/not sorry.

HEIMDALL – FAVOURITE SECOND BOOK IN A SERIES:
Heimdall is the god of loyalty, faithfulness and he is who protects the bi-frost, the bridge that connects all nine worlds.

In quite a few of my favourite trilogies/series, the second book has actually ended up being my favourite (i.e. Siege and Storm, A Gathering of Shadows) but I’d specifically like to choose The Mime Order, which is the second book in Samantha Shannon’s Bone Season series. It really introduces the idea of a clairvoyant underworld in a dystopian (but Victorian-y) London, and I loved getting to explore the different gangs that presiding over each territory in the city.

BALDUR – FAVOURITE MALE CHARACTER:
Baldur is the beloved son of Odin and Frigg, twin brother of Hodor.

This is SUCH a tough question to answer. My immediate thought was to say that I’m a big fan of Alucard from V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic trilogy. If you like sassy pirate/privateer types that are actually noble, see also: Nikolai from Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy.

SIF – MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK COVER:
Lady Sif is known for her beautiful golden tresses, although she is also the goddess of the harvest and is married to Thor.

I have a lot of beautiful books (and some absolute cover buys) on my bookshelves, but I’ll use this as an opportunity to talk about some of my most recent beautiful acquisitions. Namely Circe by Madeline Miller and The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar. I mean, just showing their covers doesn’t do justice to the rest of the book jackets and book design but just look at them:

FREY – BOOK/SERIES THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY:
Frey is the Lord of weather, god of light, summer, master of agriculture, fertility, and brother of Freya.

All of my favourite fantasy series make me smile because of the familiarity/nostalgia aspect that comes with re-reading them, but they’re not always full of the happiest of times, so for a legitimately happy book I’m going to choose Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.

FREYA – FAVOURITE BOOK SETTING:
Freya is the goddess of love and beauty, fertility, war, wealth and growth, and sister of Frey.

Whilst I love the idea of parallel Londons in V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic trilogy, I’m not sure I’d really want to live in any of them unless it was Red London specifically during the time of maybe the second book in the series? So I’m going to have to plump for Rivendell in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. I could deal with being an elf and just getting to lounge around there, talking about beauty and poetry and airy-fairy elfy business, I think I’d be quite at home there.

TYR – FAVOURITE BOOK WITH A BIG UPHEAVAL/EPIC FIGHT SCENE:
Tyr is the god of war

I LOVE the scrimmage scene in Samantha Shannon’s The Mime Order, and yes I’ve chosen this for another answer but I don’t care. This “fight scene” was really well described because Samantha Shannon completely gets the idea that, in filmmaking etc., a battle is choreographed almost like a dance at times by the stunt performers, and, weirdly, I think that also works when trying to describe the idea of the scrimmage which has its own rules and ethics and traditions.

ULLER – CHARACTER DEATH THAT AFFECTED YOU THE MOST:
Uller is the god of death, winter, archery and hunting.

I think this might actually be spoiler-y. So let’s just say there’s a death at the end of Crooked Kingdom that, given my own particular proclivities with regards to my ships and characters in that book, was particularly emotional. But a more generally acceptedly sad character death is any of those that happened at the Battle of Hogwarts (WHY JK WHY??), specifically Fred (seriously WHY), Tonks (NO), and Remus (my HEART).

NJORD – FAVOURITE BOOK AN EPIC JOURNEY ON WATER/OCEAN SETTING:
Njord is the god of the wind and the sea.

You know what book is really great and involves maps and pirate ships in different time periods? Heidi Heilig’s The Girl from Everywhere. Definitely one for people who love boats and sailing adventure stories and, even though action happens on-shore too, a lot of the narrative is centred on Nix and her father’s life on the ship sailing the ocean.

VALKYRIE – FAVOURITE STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER:
The Valkyries, much like the Amazons, are strong female warriors.

I could go for my usual answers but, right now, I’m re-reading the Artemis Fowl series and that’s making me think I’d like to use this question as an opportunity to give a much-needed shout-out to LEP Recon officer Holly Short. She is a bad-ass, kick-ass fairy and I love her for that.

AESIR/VANIR – FAVOURITE BOOK “CREW”:
The Aesir and the Vanir are the two groups of Norse gods, believed to be the old and new gods.

Whenever I think of crews, my mind automatically goes to the Dregs, the gang from Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom duology. It’s probably not surprising, given how much I love the books, and how often I talk about them in book tags, but they’re still my number 1 go-to answer whenever someone asks for my fave gang of misfits and found family.

SEIPYRTS – FAVOURITE SIDEKICK (NON-HUMAN CHARACTER):
Seipyrts is Odin’s trusty eight legged steed, yes you heard that correctly – eight legs. I promise that he is the god’s horse companion and not a giant spider that he rides around on… although that would probably strike more fear in the hearts of his enemies than a pretty horse does.

I am quite the fan of Mogget, from the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix, especially in the first book, Sabriel. There’s much more to Mogget than meets the eye but he seems to be a slightly snarky cat and I LOVE that.

There we have it, folks, that was the Norse Mythology book tag. If you like mythology, or if you just like book tags, I hereby tag you to join in and answer the questions! If you do, please link me to your post below because I’d love to read it!

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