The Norse elements of Ragnarök are wonderfully written.
Byatt weaves the myths out of nothingness into being with prose that is both
light and deep, and which draws heavily on the Nordic tradition using kennings
and poetical language that is so well done that it is barely noticeable. One of
the great strengths of this short novel is the way in which Byatt brings the
world of the Nordic Gods to life, as in this passage about the sea tree Rándrassil:
“In the kelp forests grew a monstrous bull-kelp, Rándrassil,
the Sea-Tree. It gripped the underwater rock with a tough holdfast, from which
rose the step like a whiplash taller than the masts or rooftrees, the stipe.
The stipe went up and up from the depths to the surface, glassy still, whipped
by the winds, swaying lazy. Where the water met the air the stipe spread into
thickets of fronds and streamers, each buoyed up by a pocket of gas, a bladder
at its base. The branching fronds, like those of the Tree on land, were
threaded with green cells that ate light. Seawater takes in red light; floating
dust and debris take in blue, weeds deep down in the dim light are mostly red
in colour, whereas those tossing on the surface, or clinging to tide-washed
ledges, can be brilliant green or glistening yellow.”
The weaving of the Norse myths into the story of a little
girl trying to make sense of a world in which bombs are raining down on the
earth, which seems to be the end of the world like Ragnarök, makes for a brave
and interesting comparison and Byatt also uses the girl as a vehicle to explore
the differences and similarities of the Norse myths and the Christian myth.
Jesus is likened to Baldur, son of Odin and Frigg who is beautiful and good and
true and doomed to die, and in his death the end of the world of the Norse Gods
begins. Norse and Christian heaven the girl finds boring. Telling the myths
through the eyes of the girl allows for a light and interesting introduction,
but for me there was something that didn’t quite work in this weaving. Perhaps it
was that the girl herself seemed to have no identity. Throughout the story she
is only ever referred to as ‘the thin child’ and we learn little about her
other than how she perceives the world through the myths and how it mirrored
the world in which she was living. In a way this lack of an identity made the
child seem unreal, less real certainly than the Gods about which she was
reading.
Overall I found Ragnarök an enjoyable story and where it
succeeds is how it introduces the reader to the world of the Norse Gods without
being overly academic or heavy. Instead it gives a gentle introduction which
left me wanting to know more and in fact I have gone on to read the
Crossley-Holland book, as I mentioned, and also have explored some of the
Poetic Edda and Prose Edda which are the more primary texts laying out the
world of the Norse mythologies. I did find the use of the girl as a vehicle a
little disappointing; though I could see how making the link between Ragnarök
and World War II, how to a child (or an adult for that matter) it may well have
seemed that in battle the world was coming to an end, there was something
lacking in the way this was explored and I was left wondering if the thin child
of the story represented Byatt herself or was simply a prop around which the
story had been built.
If you’re interested in learning a little about the Norse
myths I would say this is a good place to start, and it is true that A S Byatt
writes beautifully and introduces the world of the Norse Gods with a delicate
and poetic touch. But if you are interested in knowing more about the stories,
Kevin Crossley-Holland’s book of Norse Myths gives a more detailed overview and
tells the stories more directly and, perhaps, more beautifully than Byatt
herself.
Ragnarök The End of the Gods receives a world-ending 8 out
of 10 Biis.
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