Sibley, Jane; Norse Mythology According to Uncle Einar. Xlibris Corporation, 2000 ISBN: 0-7388-4419-5

Jane Sibley's Norse Mythology According to Uncle Einar is a retelling of the Prose Eddas in a pseudo-modern idiom. While the frame story of Uncle Einar is of an Uncle telling bedtime stories to his young niece and nephew, it should be stressed that this is not really a children's book; while some of the stories might be appropriate for children, many of them (especially “Freyja's Little Secret” and “The Counterfeit Suitor”) are not, and it seems like a lot of the humor will pass over the heads of anyone under fifteen.

This “children's book for grown-ups”, as the back cover refers to it, takes a decidedly irreverent look towards the Elder Kin, but not one that is disrespectful. Odin is recast as a small-town mayor, also functioning as owner of the Valhalla Sports Bar and Grill, where the regulars, the Einherjar, hang out. Thor is the hard-drinking biker and proprietor of the Thrudheim Athletic Club, while Heimdall is head of the FBI and has most of the Aesir bugged. Frey and Balder both work in film, while Idunn and Bragi are vegan pacifists. Loki is a smarmy con-man and alcoholic light-weight, and the Jotuns are mostly backwater, low-class rednecks (with the occasional knock-out, high-class daughter). In many cases, the portrayals are not completely divergent from the basic portrayals of the Aesir and associated wights in the lore, but they lack complexity or more than basic insight into the character of the Elder Kin. These are not traditional looks at the Aesir, to say the least.

Each story, except for “Thor's Summer Vacation” is a self-contained chapter, and clearly identifiable as a particular piece of the Lore. The book begins with “How Asgard was Built, and How Odin Got a Horse”, and then to “How Tyr Got his Purple Heart”, which is a version of the Binding of Fenris. In this version, Fenris is named the son of Loki only at the insistence of the Einherjar, who decide that since Loki was such a “son of a bee”, that the mangy dog running around the alley behind the Valhalla must be his son, come looking for Daddy. Tyr decides to feed this dog, binding it to him as an attack dog. Fenris threw himself into the training, but his huge size lead Tyr to contact the Norns at the “Wierd [sic] Sisters Occult Bookshop and Tea Room (Fortunes Told!).” The three sisters consulted tea leaves, crystal balls, and the Gardnerian I-Ching to tell him that Fenris is soon to go berserk and tear down Asgard, including The Valhalla. Tyr ties up Fenris first with titanium-steel, 1 ton test chain, then with Kevlar-steel-neutronium alloy chain, both of which Fenris breaks easily. Skirnir, Frey's publicist, “moseyed down to Alfheim where ... the elves and fairies lived”. He returns with a silky pink ribbon, which Fenris resists as “it looks like it was made by a buncha fairies.” When Fenris cannot get free, he takes Tyr's hand, and is tied to a cinderblock [sic] and concrete doghouse they constructed for him in back of the Valhalla, while Tyr recuperated from the anesthesia.

That is fairly representative of how the stories are told. They stick true to the plot and characters, but translate them into their own idiom somewhat haphazardly; Mjollnir, which features so heavily in the lore, remains a magical hammer, but Utgard-Loki's tricks are the work of Staffan Spelbjerg, the movie director. Gungir remains a spear, but Frey's Sword of Victory becomes a Purdey's shotgun which never misses (and was given to Skirnir in recompense for him bringing Gerd to Asgard).

All told, there are sixteen stories in nineteen chapters; the other three chapters are the second part of “Thor's Summer Vacation” and a chapter on “The Lay of the Land” and “Dramatis Personae.” “The Big Heist” is about the abduction of Idunn, and is followed by Freyja attempting to lure the ubergeek hunk Ottar into her bed in “Freyja's Little Secret.” “How Thor Lost His Hammer and Freyja Didn't Get Hitched” is followed by “The Day it Rained Mead”, wherein Odin steals Secret Recipe Mead from a “made man” named Suttung, only to have it destroyed by a warhead launched at Suttung's VTOL capable limo. “Thor's Summer Vacation”, in two parts, includes most of his travels with Loki, including gaining the services of Thjalfi and Roskva (the second being a tattoo artist by trade) and his adventures at “Utgard-Loki's Pool Hall.” “Thor's Fishing Trip” is followed by the wooing of Gerd in “The Counterfeit Suitor”, and Thor battles Hrungnir the junkyard owner in “Showdown at the Jotunheim Corral”, followed by Thor in a WWE-style wrestling match with Hrungnir's nieces in “Thor and the Masked Madwomen.” Skadi marries Njord in “The Dating Game”, and that leads to the Ragnarok tetralogy: “How Balder Bought the Farm”, “Loki Lips Off”, “Loki's Terrible Day”, and “The War to End All”, which has the prophecy of Ragnarok portrayed as a video game that Odin considers installing in the Valhalla.

In terms of construction, the book is quite good; the stories flow logically from one to another, much as if Uncle Einar was telling them over a succession of nights. With that in mind, the last two chapters, “The Lay of the Land” and “Dramatis Personae” fit into the structure, though they still feel somewhat out of place at the end of the book; perhaps Lay of the Land, at least, should have been after “How Asgard was Built...”. If the reader is willing to accept a reinterpretation of the Lore into a not-always-orthodox modern idiom, Jane Sibley's Norse Mythology According to Uncle Einar is an enjoyable, easy read, with independent chapters which are small enough for a single sitting, or a long wait in a doctor's office. Those who deplore any disrespectful treatment of the Elder Kin and the Lore, however, should likely not read this book. While the portrayals of the Gods are not blatantly wrong, they are approached not from a point of view of reverence for the Elder Kin, but rather one of good stories which bear repeating.