This thesis provides a comparative analysis between Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods and Norse mythology. The analysis aimed to show how Gaiman employs Norse mythology, along with other mythologies from around the world, to weave a contemporary story about how America understands itself. The first part of this thesis provided a theoretical framework for understanding and defining myth in order to understand its role, purpose, and dynamic within the societies that gave birth to it. In that endeavour, the thesis relied on Northrop Frye’s definition of myth, followed by Claude Lévi-Strauss’s structural analysis of myth, which provided a necessary framework for the comparative analysis. The second chapter analysed the motif of war between two groups of gods in Norse mythology and the war between the Old Gods and the New Gods in American Gods. The goal of this comparison is to show how Gaiman takes fundamental mythological elements, such as the element of war, and fits them into the contemporary context, proving their timeless relevance. And finally, the third chapter focuses on the relationship between the characters in American Gods, namely Mr Wednesday and Shadow, and their mythological counterparts, the Norse chief god Odin and the sun-deity, Baldur. Ultimately, it has been concluded that Gaiman’s employment of Norse mythology proves that the passing of time does not take away from their relevance and that they still help the reader better understand the world in and around themselves.