Once you get acclimatised – around page 50 – to the endless naming of names, the narratives really kick into gear. These vats are deep inside the mountain of Hnitbjor, which opens only to my command. In this incomplete anthology of loosely-related tales it gets a bit confusing: Here is Baugi chatting to Suttung, refusing to let Bolverkr (who is actually Odin) drink the magical mead he has prepared: "I have it safe in vats, in Bodn and Son and the kettle Odrerir. In a long saga such as Lord of the Rings this literary device contributes to the sense of deep underlying mythology. even their goddamn kitchen implements had names! Their weapons had names, their cities and animals had names. The heroes and heroines of Norse mythology all had several names and alternate identities. The structure is logical but the early chapters suffer slightly from the Norse insistence on naming everything up front.
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