Norse Mythology

To finish March and my slew of folklore and legends, I read Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology (published 2017). I was familiar with the major players in Norse mythology, Odin, Thor, Freya, and Loki, but not with the actual stories. Gaiman retells these stories and creates a story arc that begins with the creation of the nine worlds and ends with Ragnarok, the death of the gods.

I liked "Yggdrasil and the Nine Worlds", "The Treasures of the Gods",  "Freya's Unusual Wedding", "The Last Days of Loki" and "Ragnarok: The Final Destiny of the Gods". There is also a glossary of terms at the end which I found handy. I think Loki, the trickster, is one of the most interesting of the characters, although I don't particularly like him. I do like Freya and her chariot pulled by cats.

Eight Months on Ghazzah Street

Book 43 (I think) is Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, described by critics as a Middle Eastern Turn of the Screw. I have vague memories of Turn of the Screw from high school English. Two children and their possessed governess in England.

Anyway, in Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, Frances Shore and her engineer husband move to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Instead of living in an apartment complex for British ex-pats, the Shores live in a sublet on Ghazzah Street with Saudi nationals and other Muslims.

Though she ventures out into the city, most of Frances' days are spent alone in their apartment or visiting the two housewives who also live in the building. She keeps a travel diary, goes on the roof to get some sun, and listens to the goings-on in the other apartments, especially the supposedly empty apartment above theirs. Frances decides to investigate and her suspicions increase throughout their eight months on Ghazzah Street. Some parts of the book were slow, but my interest grew alongside Frances' suspicions.

I liked this description of the supermarket: "The supermarkets are all well stocked, but there is always some elusive item; this breeds the desire to go to more supermarkets. shopping is the highest good in Saudi life. Every need and whim under one roof--Lebanese pastries, a Mont Blanc pen, a diamond snake with emerald eyes; a pound of pistachio nuts, two tickets to Bermuda, a nylon prayer rug with built-in compass. Perhaps some blueberry cheesecake ice cream, and Louis Quinze fauteuil; a new Toyota, and a portrait of the King. The car parks consume acres, the facades glitter like knives" (Mantel 96).

Eight Months on Ghazzah Street is part travel journal, albeit not a very factual one, and part mystery.

42: The Golem and the Jinni

The Golem and the Jinni is about two supernatural beings in 1899 New York. The Golem, Chava, was created by a wayward and fallen Jewish scholar for Otto Rotfelf in Prussia. A Golem is a being made of clay whose one task is to obey his/her master's will. Rotfeld dies while crossing the Atlantic leaving his Golem masterless, yet able to instinctively hear the desires of everyone around her.

The Jinni, who later chooses the name Ahmad, had been imprisoned in a tin jug for centuries. He is suddenly released and finds himself in Arbeely's tinsmith shop in New York's Little Syria neighborhood. Though free from the jug, the Jinni is still fettered with a bracelet, binding him to the wizard who trapped him.

Chava and Ahmad's paths cross and their lives become intertwined. As they venture out into the city, the must be careful about who they reveal their true natures to or risk endangering themselves and those around them. An nighttime incident threatens to destroy the tenuous "human" lives they have created for themselves. More dangerous though, are the unknown agents who seek the Golem and the Jinni and place their very existence in jeopardy.

The Golem and the Jinni was a great book that blends folklore, religion, science fiction, and fantasy. It took me about three weeks to read this since it's quite long, 471 pages. I found the action really picked up about halfway through the book. The story is layered and is told from alternating viewpoints that go back and forth in time and place.

Book 41: Black Cats and Evil Eyes

Black Cats and Evil Eyes: A Book of Old-Fashioned Superstitions was a light, enjoyable read, and informative. Most superstitions concern major life-events that people in earlier times has little or no control over: birth, pregnancy, death, marriage. Superstitions are often a mix of a pagan and religious beliefs. Here are some interesting ones.

1. Moonlight: Ancient peoples didn't understand gravitational pull or the tides, but they did believe that the moon controlled all water on earth and bodily fluids. The word lunatic is derived from the Latin word Lunaticus which means moonstruck and was used to refer to people who seemed to be temporarily mad during the full moon. Later, neuroscience provided an explanation for  disorders like epilepsy. It is still believed that all sorts of unusual things happen during a full moon, such as increased crime and hospital admissions.
2. Black cats: I love all cats so this superstition doesn't really affect me. But, during the Middle Ages, black cats were portrayed as the familiar animal of witches. Puritans later associated them with the Devil and witchcraft. The attitude towards black cats depends on one's location. In Norse mythology, Freya, goddess of fertility and queen of the Valkyries, was said to have a chariot pulled by black cats. In Scotland, a black cat outside your home is a sign of prosperity. But in Germany a black cat who crosses your path from right to left is bad luck, but one who crosses from left to right is okay. 
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4. Never kill a spider: spiders served a practical purpose in the country by killing other pests. It was therefore customary to allow a few cobwebs in the home than to risk having infected food. Christian fables also related how Jesus and David were hidden in caves and protected by spider webs. I prefer to kill spiders.
5. Never give a knife or scissors as a gift: doing so cuts the ties between the giver and receiver. The only antidote is to give a coin in return, thus paying for the knife or scissors. So, take all the knife sets off your wedding registry.
6. Never turn a loaf of bread upside down after slicing it: This one has several origins. For Christians, bread was sacred since Jesus has blessed it at the Last Supper. Bakers often marked bread with a cross and turning the bread over would be seen as sacrilegious. Bread was sacred for the ancient Greeks and Romans as well. Hesta (Greek) and Vespa (Roman) were the goddesses of the hearth, domesticity, and the family and the patrons of break-making. Some believed that turning a loaf upside down was an insult to these goddesses. Finally, in 18th-Century France each town had a public executioner whose life was full of superstitions. The executioner and his family were isolated from the rest of the community. The loaves of bread destined for the executioner were turned upside down by local bakers so no one else would mistakenly take them. 

Lessons from a Grimm Life

A few days ago I finished Grimm's Fairy Tales. I've read most of the stories before, but some were new. I was reminded of a book I read earlier this summer about the origins of some of the tales.

Before I started my 1,000 Books project, I read The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth . The Wild Girl is the story of Dortchen Wild, the neighbor and later wife of Wilhelm Grimm. Dortchen and the brothers Grimm grew up in Hessen-Cassel, a small German kingdom that fell to Napoleon. Dortchen was one of the sources of the fairy tales that the brothers collected and later published.

The love story between Dortchen and Wilhelm reads like a fairy tale. Dortchen's father was cruel and frowned upon and later forbade her friendship with the Grimm's. Dortchen's sisters all married and escaped the confines of the family home, but Dortchen was left to care for their father. It wasn't until after his death and the success of Grimm's Fairy Tales that Dortchen and Wilhelm found their own happily ever after.

Dortchen told Wilhelm: "Hansel and Gretel", "Six Swans", "Rumpelstilstkin", "All-Kinds-Of-Fur",  "Sweetheart Roland" and many others. Dortchen was given credit as a source of the stories, but not much is known about her.

The Wild Girl is excellent; it's a book that I would reread.

The Wild Girl

Legends of Ireland

March is coming in like a lamb in terms of my reading. I did finish Legends of Ireland last night in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day. This particular edition was originally published as Contes et legendes du pays d'Irelande in 1963 and translated in 1968.

I liked "The White Trout", "The Voyage of Maelduin" (a bit like the Odyssey), "Patou Mac Daniel", "The Children of Lir", and "Deidre and the Sons of Usna".

Deidre's Lament by J.H. Bacon 1905