I am not religious, but I can still be interested in beliefs around the world as they are part of the various cultures. The Norse gods may not have so many true believers these days, but they have had quite an influence on western culture. Every kid knows about Thor thanks to the Marvel comics and movies. In those he visits our modern world, but he was born hundreds of years ago in the minds of the people who endured harsh conditions to get by on the northern lands of Europe and colonised places such Iceland and even North America. According to Wikipedia these stories were written down in the 13th century as Christianity too over. Previously it was a largely oral tradition.
Neil Gaiman has drawn on these traditions in his Sandman and American Gods works. More recently he has produced a book based on the original myths. I had my copy as a Christmas present. It was a second hand copy found in a charity shop, but I do not mind that. I actually got to hear Gaiman read some of it live when I attended the recording of a BBC radio show.
The stories read something like fairy tales with some detailing the origins of the world and gods, then they go into some of their adventures. A lot of these revolve around the trickster Loki sowing havoc and Thor having to sort out the consequences. There is a fair bit of sex and lots of violence. The stories are fairly short and the whole book is a pretty quick read, but they are entertaining.
It is interesting to see where the recent versions of the characters come from and how much they relate to the old stories.
American Gods was a book that became a TV series recently. It portrays gods from various cultures struggling against new religions such as technology and media in modern America where they had been brought by various immigrants. Odin is one of the main characters and Thor makes an appearance too. There are lots of references to the Norse myths, including dwarves who forge magical weapons.
I have not read much of the Thor comics, but I have seen all the Marvel movies he appears in. The myths of heroes and monsters make for fun movies.
Terry Pratchett also incorporated Norse gods into his books and Tolkien was influenced by them. It seems there is relatively little source material, but writers can put their own twist on it. 
Steem on!
The geeky guitarist and facilitator of the 10K Minnows Project.
