Imagine a world in which Christianity was merely an exotic minor cult that died out before the end of the Roman Empire. A world in which the official state religion of these islands is that of the pagan Saxons and Vikings, and people still worship the old Norse gods. It's a neat idea, and one that allows Horrid Henry author Francesca Simon to explore the Norse myths in a quest tale with a contemporary central character, and have a whale of a time in the process.
The opening chapter does a good job of setting everything up. Our young heroine is Freya, named after the Norse goddess, of course, which is no surprise as Freya's mum is a pagan priestess. Although if that conjures images of wild dancing in the woods between bouts of human sacrifice, think again. The Norse religion of this parallel universe is just as etiolated as the Church of England in ours, and poor Freya finds the whole thing terminally boring.
Her dad has lost his job and is temping as a security guard in the British Museum. But Freya's parents are divorced, and she finds herself in the middle of their disputes, especially when her daffy dad gets his shifts mixed up and has to take her to work with him one night, much to her mum's ire. Freya isn't that impressed either. She had been hoping Dad would be looking after something interesting, such as the Egyptian mummies, but it's boring old Norse stuff again.
Freya feels mysteriously drawn to one of the exhibits, Heimdall's Horn, which she blows. That brings to life four of the nearby Lewis chessmen, a brother and sister called Alfi and Roskva, Sleipnir, the great eight-legged horse of Norse myth, and the gloriously named Snot, a berserker with a tendency to kill first and not bother to ask any questions at all. Freya is pitched into Asgard, where Odin and the other gods are fading away. Her mission and she is given no choice but to accept it is to go on a perilous quest to save the gods.
What follows is a terrific journey through the world of the Norse myths, a harsh northern landscape sparkling with magic. There are encounters with wolves, giantesses and ghosts, and a chilling visit to Hel, the Norse underworld, where Freya meets the region's namesake, a goddess whose bottom half is rotting away. Freya is an engaging and well-realised stand-in for the reader, at times querulous and frightened and desperate to go home, at others showing all the courage and stamina required of the best quest heroines.
There is plenty of humour of the dark Viking kind, but that's in keeping with the Norse tradition of laughing in the face of adversity and only to be expected from the author of Horrid Henry. Children will love the banter, the darkness and physicality of the tale, and will gain insight into a religious view that certainly doesn't tell people to turn the other cheek.
It's also good in an age of young adult/crossover tomes the size of house bricks to encounter a book of a reasonable length pitched at older junior children. It will be a reasonably challenging read for them, but it's a proper children's book and original to boot. My one quibble would be that Freya's parents aren't used enough apart from that, Francesca Simon has certainly delivered the goods. I take my horned helmet off to her.
