Ragnarok: The End of the Gods

Booker Prize winner Dame Antonia Byatt breathes life into the Ragnorak myth, the story of the end of the gods in Norse mythology.

Ragnarok retells the finale of Norse mythology. A story of the destruction of life on this planet and the end of the gods themselves: what more relevant myth could any modern writer choose? Just as Wagner used this dramatic and catastrophic struggle for the climax of his Ring Cycle, so AS Byatt now reinvents it in all its intensity and glory. As the bombs of the Blitz rain down on Britain, one young girl is evacuated to the countryside. She is struggling to make sense of her new wartime life. Then she is given a copy of Asgard and the Gods - a book of ancient Norse myths - and her inner and outer worlds are transformed.

War, natural disaster, reckless gods and the recognition of impermanence in the world are just some of the threads that AS Byatt weaves into this most timely of books. Linguistically stunning and imaginatively abundant, this is a landmark.

Starred Review Booker Prize winner Byatt, a writer of exceptionally deep thinking and mischievous humor, who often incisively contrasts the great web of the wild with the tangles of human yearning and invention, presents a commanding retelling of her favorite myth, Ragnarok, the Norse “myth to end all myths.” Byatt reinvigorates this gripping vision of the end of the world and all its creatures through the eyes of her young self, a “thin child” evacuated to the countryside during the German Blitz. A thoughtful child who “devoured stories with rapacious greed,” she becomes utterly engrossed and stringently comforted by Ragnarok. Following the myth’s arc of disaster, Byatt first brings its lush, singing world to rhapsodic, scientifically precise life in a grand litany of living things as entwined as the fine threads in a vast, breathing tapestry. Then we meet the flawed, reckless gods: Odin, Thor, Frigg and her beloved son Baldur, and shapeshifter Loki, chaos incarnate, whose pranks turn the gleaming, fecund splendor of life into a wasteland of bone, ash, and darkness. In her bracing closing essay, Byatt shares her fear that we are unconsciously emulating the “irresponsible and wayward and mocking” Norse gods and truly bringing about the end of nature and ourselves. A gorgeous, brilliant, and significant performance. --Donna Seaman

“Color and sensation flood Byatt’s writing . . . One of the most brilliant minds and speakers of our generation.” –Independent

“Majestic . . . Dazzling . . . Wonderful . . . . What you see here . . . is the strength and fire of Byatt’s imagination.” —The San Francisco Chronicle

“Bristling with life and invention. . . . A seductive work by an extraordinarily gifted writer.” —The Washington Post

“Spellbinding. . . . Alive . . . Potent. . . . Byatt is a master storyteller.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“Proves that a serious, intricate book can also be a page turner . . . Manifest intelligence, subtle humor and extraordinary texturing of the past within the present make Possession original and unforgettable.” - Time Magazine