Before the beginning there was nothing - no earth, no heavens, no stars, no sky : only the mist world, formless and shapeless, and the fire world, always burning. The great Norse Myths, which have inspired so much modern fiction, are dazzlingly retold by Neil Gaiman. Tales of dwarfs and frost giants, of treasure and magic, and of Asgard, home to the gods : Odin the all-father, highest and oldest of the Aesir ; his mighty son Thor, whose hammer Mjollnir makes the mountain giants tremble ; Loki, wily and handsome, reliably unreliable in his lusts ; and Freya, more beautiful than the sun or the moon, who spurns those who seek to control her.
