LL-L 'Resources' 2006.10.03 (08) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 03 October 2006 * Volume 08
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From: Tom Mc Rae [t.mcrae at uq.net.au]
Subject: Nordic Gods

BOOK REVIEW

“GIANTS OF THE FROST”
b y
Kim Wilkins

(Harper Collins 2004 ISBN 0 7322 7406 0

A quest ended for me on finding a copy of this novel after a long fruitless
search. It has been
well worth the wait as it covers one of my favourite mythologies. When I was
around 9 years
of age I found a book on old Nordic tales in our local childrens’ library and
have been hooked
on them ever since, Wotan, Loki, Hemdall, Thor , even the Norns play key roles in
a story
which, like so many of Ms Wilkins’ books, involves parallel worlds; our so-called
‘real
world’ and that dismissed by most as mere myth.

Victoria Scott, heroine of this story is one such debunker. A sceptical scientist who
dismisses accounts of religious and occult matters as nonsense Victoria ilives in
a world of
pure rationalism where the only sprits come in bottles; that is until she is
employed as a
trainee at a remote weather station on Othinsey, an island off the coast of
Norway. When her
new colleagues speak of strange noises in the forest, even ghosts she laughs at
them, at least
at the start. A weird apparition she encounters late one night is dismissed as a
nightmare but
is it really ?

Victoria adjusts to the loves lives and tensions of her small community where
tensions grow
as the most unlikely objects from labs and rooms disappear. As the team are the sole
occupants of the island which of them is the culprit ? Suspicions grow. Some of
her fellow
scientists tell Victoria of waking paralysed during night duty in the observation
lab and being
assailed by a hideous night hag. Easily explained of course, after all such night
paralysis is
not unknown and has merely stimulated a nightmare. She also learns that the name
of the
island can be translated as ‘Odin’s Island’ and that this is the first community
to reside there
since an early Christian settlement vanished a thousand years before.

Sceptical Victoria is badly shaken while working in a forest clearing. She has a
panic attack
after finding an anvil-shaped rock and feels she has encountered it before with
horrible
consequences. Impossible of course she has never previously been in this part of
the world;
or so she thinks.

In the other world of Asgard which Victoria dismisses as superstition we
encounter Vidar,
one of Odin’s sons who mourns his great love. A girl of our ‘real’ world of
Midgard who
Wotan murdered in a rage a millennium before. We also meet Loki, he of mischief
and deceit
whose house is filled with artefacts acquired in both worlds, some obviously
stolen from the
weather station. Well not exactly stolen, he’ll return them some time or other.

We also meet other members of the Nordic Aesir tribe, laughed off by Loki as gods
without
worshippers. From Wotan downwards they are a ghastly lot of brutal drunken debauchees
waiting for the time of Ragnarok, Twilight of the Gods, when Odin will be
consumed by a
giant wolf only to be released by his son Vidar. Aa new world will then arise
from the ashes
of Asgard with Odin supreme.

Vidar crosses into Midgard, meets Victoria and each seems to recognise the other,
is she then
his long lost love ? A strong bond quickly grows between them and Victoria finds
her solid
real world is far from stable. As the tale develops we learn of the awful fate of
the ancient
Christian community, how Vidar lost his great love last time round, and just how
evil Odin
is.

In addition we encounter the Norns spinning Fate in a labyrinth of roots beneath
the World
Tree of Ygdrassil and learn how they control Destiny. We journey to the Land of
the Dead
after which we learn how the great love affair develops this time around. Raging
Odin then
returns to Odin’s Island axe in hand!

Ms Wilkins evokes the beauty of the wild coastline and of the forest, I could
hear the wind
in the trees, envisage tree branches dance in the wind, even enjoy forest smells
of plant and
mud. A great read I’m glad I finally caught up with.

I endorse the reviewer in the journal ‘Visions’ ..............“I could hardly put
the book down.
Ms Wilkins; books are published in Europe, UK, and USA as well as here in
Australia so
they should be available to all List members, I regard her as being to Brisbane
what Jo
Rowling is to Edinburgh, keep those books coming Kim !

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