Neil Gaiman and ‘Odd and the Frost Giants’
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By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 11/11/2009 2:15:00 PM
Neil Gaiman's latest story, Odd and the Frost Giants (HarperCollins, 2009), weaves a tale about a young boy and his quest to save his village in Norway from a possible everlasting winter. We asked Gaiman what drew him to Odd and why we may be hearing more about this unlikely hero in the future.
How did Odd’s story come about?
It began with my editor Sarah at Bloomsbury in the U.K. asking me to write a book for World Book Day, whereby authors write a book for free, and then publisher publish it for free, and printers donate the paper, and publish them in packs of 25 for £2.50 [$4.18]. Every child in England is then given a book token and they get to go into a bookshop and spend it.
At the time, I thought I would use one of the stories I’m writing for The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins, 2008). Eight months later she called me and said we’ll need the story in the next three to four months. And I told her I would send her a chapter, and she said absolutely not, we’ll need something original. So I said what do I have knocking around in my head that would make a satisfying novel, for 9- to 12-year-old kids, many of whom had never bought a book before?
What about Odd appealed to you?
I had this half idea in the back of my head about this boy with a broken leg, a messed-up leg, who was going to have to win Asgard back from the gods, and I loved the idea of Loki, Odin, and Thor. I wanted to use a book about really using your head. I wanted to use a book about being smart and thinking your way out of trouble. Whether that’s Odd thinking of making a rainbow out of a prism of ice, or the things he does at the end of the book where he actually wins back Asgard. It was all about using your head to get into trouble, and using your head to get out of trouble.
Will we see Odd again?
Definitely. I’ve had this lazy fascination for the Vikings for a very long time. I’ve read an awful lot of Viking literature and also was fascinated by the Orkney Viking sagas, which is when the Orkneys, which now sort of belong to Scotland, then belonged to Norway, and how it was settled. But there’s a point in the middle of the sagas where the Orkney prince decides he is bored and does something a bored person does and goes to Jerusalem. He goes through the Straights of Gibraltar, stops off in Spain, has a passionate affair with a Spanish princess, and goes back to Jerusalem, collects souvenirs, and comes home again. It’s a perfect journey to send Odd on, who we can now see is bigger than he was, but bigger than he ought to be. I’m telling myself I’m writing it, while I scribble things down and make up notes. I’ll probably start in the next three to four months.
You write for both adults and children. Do you enjoy one more than the other?
If you write well for kids, you may be changing lives, in a way you probably aren’t for adults. For adults you’re giving them a wonderful vacation, maybe educating them. But for children you’re giving them part of what made them.
What books did you read growing up?
I loved the "Narnia" books. I loved the "Mary Poppins" books. I loved J. P. Martin’s "Uncle" books. I think I loved books where you could feel there was an author, where I liked the voice of the author—even though they were adults—where they had a point of view. There’s something about the style in which the "Narnia" books were written, which were so much more important to me than the content in some ways. Those were the first books where I found myself noticing the sentences and found myself loving them.
Who is your favorite character you’ve ever created?
I love Silas in The Graveyard Book. I want to go back to him, but I suspect when I do it will be an adult book and not a children’s book. I loved writing him. I love characters that have a lot more going on than are revealed in the book.
