Me too. I lose a lot of puns because of this, I suspect.
I think the biggest clue in the book about Baldur is when Mr. World says, “Don’t worry, it’s not mistletoe.”
Mistletoe is the one thing Baldur was vulnerable to (and what eventually killed him). There are a bunch of other clues as well.
Didn’t figure it out. Felt like an idiot when it was revealed (if you can count something that’s technically that obvious as “revealed.” :smack:)
I thought the book kind of fell apart - good idea, some great scenes, but something just got lost in the execution. Anansi Boys pulled the idea together better (though it was a very different book with a very different scope and tone).
ETA: At least I got Wednesday almost right away.
I didn’t get it, I think because I don’t sound out names in my head. It’s really obvious when you do that, so I suppose i’m sort of glad for my dimness there.
I didn’t get Jesus turning up until the second time through, either.
Jezus?
I didn’t get it, but then my knowledge of any of the mythologies involved was (and still is, admittedly) pretty much nil when I read it. I recognized the name when Shadow did, but I might even have had to go look it up to see how the mythology fit the way the character was portrayed in the book.
I still enjoyed the book, and have read it twice so far. I’ll likely read it again eventually.
Lud/Nudd/Nodens, I think. He’s almost certainly a Celtic god. IIRC, he mentions that he likes the taste of bodies in bog water (when he’s drinking Laphroaig), which places him in the British Isles or the parts of Northern Europe that also have bog bodies. And weren’t they in the Excalibur? I may be misremembering. It’s been a while since I read it.
The temple to Nodens at Lydney Park was likely an incubatio, where you’d go to have a curative dream–and dreams generally don’t stay in your memory too well.
I listened to that part of the book on CD while on a road trip, so I automatically assumed it was Loki. Not sure if I would have guessed it from reading.
Not that anyone asked, but on the whole I was very disappointed in the book. I thought it had a fantastic premise, some great twists, but was ultimately anti-climactic and didn’t accomplish nearly as much as he could have with the characters and the story.