What survives, and how narrowly
Almost everything we know comes from two Icelandic books written down centuries after the Viking Age ended: the Poetic Edda, a collection of anonymous mythological poems, and the Prose Edda, composed around 1220 by Snorri Sturluson, a Christian chieftain-scholar writing a handbook for poets. One medieval Icelander's editorial choices stand between us and near-total silence. Every retelling you've read flows through Snorri.
The world, briefly
Nine worlds hang on the world-tree Yggdrasil: gods in Asgard, humans in Midgard, giants, elves, the dead. Odin, the one-eyed Allfather, trades comfort for wisdom at every opportunity, having given an eye for a drink from the well of knowledge and hung nine nights on the tree to win the runes. Thor, his son, defends the whole arrangement with a hammer. Loki, giant-blooded and god-adjacent, is neither villain nor hero but the story-generator: nearly every great tale begins with Loki causing a problem or ends with him solving the one he caused.
Ragnarok changes everything
What separates the Norse system from Greek Olympus is the ending. The gods live under a prophecy they believe: Ragnarok, the final battle where Odin falls to the wolf Fenrir, Thor and the world-serpent kill each other, and the world burns before renewing. The gods gather warriors in Valhalla not as reward but as recruitment for a war they've been told they lose. The mythology's whole flavor, generous, grim, and funny in the dark, follows from that.
The books, in order
Start with Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology (2017): the major myths retold straight, with Gaiman's ear for Loki's dialogue. Then Kevin Crossley-Holland's The Norse Myths (1980), the fuller standard retelling. When you're ready for sources, Jackson Crawford's Poetic Edda translation is the accessible modern one (his YouTube lectures on Old Norse are a free education in themselves), and Carolyne Larrington's Oxford edition is the scholarly standard. Snorri's Prose Edda, in any edition, is shorter and stranger than its reputation.
Wider and daily
If mythology as a subject has its hooks in you, our mythology books guide covers the field and the Greek route handles the other famous pantheon. For the habit version, 365 Days of Mythology tells one myth a day across 30+ traditions, Norse tales among them, ★4.7 across 39 Amazon ratings, one page with your coffee.
Common questions
What should I read first for Norse mythology?
Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology (2017). It retells the major myths faithfully and readably. Move to Crossley-Holland, then the Eddas, as appetite grows.
What are the Eddas?
The two medieval Icelandic sources for nearly all Norse myth: the Poetic Edda (anonymous poems) and the Prose Edda (Snorri Sturluson, c. 1220, a poets' handbook that preserved the stories).
Is Marvel's Loki anything like the myths?
The charm and the trouble-making carry over; the details don't. The mythological Loki is stranger: mother of Odin's eight-legged horse, bound under a serpent's venom, and fated to fight against the gods at Ragnarok.
What is Ragnarok?
The prophesied end: a final battle where most of the great gods die, the world burns, and a renewed earth follows. The gods know it's coming, which shapes the entire mythology's tone.