60 pages • 2 hours read
Neil GaimanAmerican Gods
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context: Norse Mythology and Odin
Though American Gods depicts deities from many different cultures and religions, Norse mythology is the most predominant. Wednesday is the Norse god Odin, and Shadow is his son, and the journey Shadow embarks upon mirrors many elements of Norse mythology, particularly the stories involving Odin. Norse or Scandinavian mythology is a collection of myths, stories, and beliefs that comes from the Nordic region, having originally stemmed from Proto-Germanic folklore. Nordic folklore can be traced back to Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, parts of Great Britain and Ireland, and several other parts of Northern and Eastern Europe. This religion is built on collections of stories about gods, giants, mythical beings, and the worlds they inhabit. Rather than a single definitive text of Norse beliefs, modern scholars have assembled a loose cosmos of mythology based on sagas, poems, myths, stories, and other key texts that combine to present a cohesive (though occasionally contradictory) pantheon of gods.
Foremost among the Norse gods is Odin, a renowned magician associated with war and battle. Warriors who are killed in combat are collected and taken to an afterlife called Valhalla, where they feast and drink with Odin in his hall. Odin is typically flanked by ravens named Huginn and Muninn; in various legends, he also has a large wolf and a magical horse with eight legs. As well as being associated with the creation of the world, one of the most relevant stories of Odin involves the loss of his eye. He exchanged his eye for wisdom while sacrificing himself by hanging from Yggdrasil, the sacred tree at the center of the world. He spent nine days and nights hanging from the tree in exchange for greater knowledge of the world. Odin is also known by the names Wodan, Woden, and Wotan. Woden is the etymological origin for Wednesday, the day of the week. In American Gods, Mr. Wednesday is the alias used by the American incarnation of Odin. He is an old man with one eye who performs tricks on people. He makes Shadow hang for nine days and nights on a tree as a form of symbolic sacrifice.
Another prominent Norse god in the novel is Loki. In Norse mythology, Loki is a trickster god who thrives on chaos. He is the son of the goddess Laufey and Farbauti, one of the mythical figures known as jotunn. Many of the Norse myths tell the stories of the tricks and jokes Loki plays on the other gods. His relationships with the other gods are also shifting and uncertain, depending on the origin or author of the story in question. At the end of the world—known as Ragnarök—certain Norse myths portray Loki as fighting against the other gods. In American Gods, Loki is Wednesday’s ally and hopes to sustain himself with the chaos that Wednesday’s plan will bring about. He adopts the name Low Key and allows himself to be sentenced to jail so that he can spend time as Shadow’s cellmate. Loki manipulates and controls Shadow from behind the scenes while doing the same with the new gods once he is released. He disguises himself as the so-called Mr. World and ultimately betrays the new gods, intending to foster a war between the old and new gods. Other examples of Norse mythology in the text include the Norns, who help tie Shadow to the world tree during his vigil for Wednesday, and the presence of Thor, another god.
Cultural Context: Rock City and House on the Rock
American Gods explores the intersections of religion and culture in the United States of America. As characters repeat throughout the novel, America is no place for gods. However, a wealth of belief and spirituality exists on the continent, and this abundance of non-religious belief is turned in alternative directions. Examples of the expressions of modern American spirituality can be found in the depictions of Rock City and the House on the Rock.
Wednesday takes Shadow to the House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The House on the Rock is a large collection of American cultural artifacts taken from across the country and presented in a museum. The museum consists of many rooms, each of which contains some strange or unique attraction. Halls of mirrors, funfair rides, toys, signage, dioramas, and even a giant carousel can be found in the House on the Rock. The items in the collection are not always authentic; as Wednesday notes, many of the suits of armor in the museum are dated incorrectly or are simply fake. The museum’s origin hints at the spiritual power of the location. Alex Jorden, the founder and original owner of the House on the Rock, was inspired to build the attraction as a way to spite one of his neighbors. As a roadside attraction in a country where one of the new gods is dedicated to the road network, the collection of American cultural artifacts is itself an expression of American cultural and cultural appreciation. Like the American culture depicted in American Gods, the House on the Rock is a confusing and bewitching assortment of ideas, beliefs, and interests taken from across the country and the world, then presented as a single, unified idea.
Rock City is another tourist attraction. It is located on Lookout Mountain in Georgia and consists of a series of giant rock formations, as well as collections of garden ornaments, dolls, and attractively cultivated gardens. Like the House on the Rock, Rock City was founded by people who were inspired to turn a local attraction into a way to make money. Rock City was founded by the inventor of miniature golf, Garnet Carter, along with his wife, Frieda. During the Great Depression, they needed to make extra money. They built Rock City as a way to supplement their earnings, and the attraction still welcomes half a million visitors each year. Notably, Lookout Mountain and Rock City offer visitors the chance to stand in a place where they can see seven different states at the same time. The unique spot represents the meeting point between states, just like the United States is a mixing pot of different cultures. The gods from various backgrounds meet at the point in the country where the most states can be seen at the same time, illustrating the breadth and divergences in American culture.
Publication Context: The Anniversary Edition
This study guide uses the author’s preferred edition of American Gods. A short time after the novel was originally published in 2001, Gaiman was approached by Hill House Publishers to print a special, limited edition of American Gods. Gaiman provided the publisher with his unedited manuscript for a preliminary draft of the novel, which was then combined with a series of editorial corrections, modifications, and alterations implemented between the completion of the first draft and the publication of the novel’s first edition. Together with his publishers, Gaiman combined these various drafts and versions of American Gods into a slightly longer version which—in Gaiman’s view—is now the final version of the novel.
The Hill House edition of American Gods was limited to 750 copies, each of which was very expensive. For the novel’s 10th anniversary, Gaiman requested that the Hill House edition be made available at a far lower price. According to Gaiman, this preferred version is some 12,000 words longer than the original edition of the novel, and it is the version of American Gods of which he is most proud. Several short scenes have been added, and several more have been extended or shortened. However, no substantial plot or character points have changed between the two editions. The 10th-anniversary edition of American Gods also includes a short scene in the appendix in which Shadow meets Jesus Christ, though Gaiman states that this scene is not intended to be included in any version of the novel.
Related Titles
By Neil Gaiman
