Norse Myths And Marvel

 I've been re-reading Neil Gaiman's delightfully chatty book Norse Mythology on a whim. I'd forgotten how good it is. It's interesting to read in his introduction that we don't have many Norse myths left. Most of them disappeared with the arrival of Christianity. We have the names of many gods, but not their stories. This is very sad, and I have the sinking feeling. I know all the available ones. There are far more Greek myths, but even those have many missing plays, since the fire at the Great Library of Alexandria. 

About all I can do now, for the Norse myths, is plunge myself into the Eddas instead of the modern re-tellings. 

Norse Goddess Idun, artist James Doyle Penrose

Meanwhile, there are the definitely not mythical Norse gods of the Marvel universe. I missed those comics as a child, because my mother thought comics were unworthy reading and wouldn't let me have any. I did get to read the Superman comics, as a friend of mine had those and we read them together. Amazing what I learned from them, by the way. A Superboy comic referred to the Herodotus “Egyptian Cinderella” story(young Clark Kent cheats on his history exam by time traveling…). Another told me the real full name of Nero. 

But I missed most of them. And I'm just catching up with the Marvel films, which assume you are a fan of the comics. You can enjoy them without having read the originals, but they do make references to things that happened in the comics, or characters who appeared there. 

Still, I've been watching, bingeing on the Marvel movies and recently watched the six part TV series Loki . 

As someone who has read the myths, I'm intrigued at the comics versions of the characters. Mythical Odin is rather scary, the god of the gallows, who rides an eight legged horse, Sleipnir, whose eight legs suggest the legs of four people carrying a bier. There were human sacrifices made to him, by hanging. Not a nice god.

Mr Wednesday in Gaiman's American Gods is not nice either. He manipulates everyone, including the hero, Shadow Moon, whose loyalty he definitely doesn't deserve. But he is pretty similar to his mythological original.

Marvel Universe Odin is dignified and wise; the worst you could say of him, really, is that he is guilty of bad parenting. There are no slain warriors feasting in his hall as Asgard has ordinary citizens as well as gods. They do have Bifrost the Rainbow Bridge, and the god Heimdall does keep a watch over it. 

Mythological Thor is kind, but not too bright, and drives around in a cart pulled by goats which he can slaughter for dinner every night, then restore next day. I assume that the rumble of the wheels sounds like thunder.

If something goes wrong, he either decides it's the fault of trickster god Loki, or he asks Loki for help. Actually, he is usually right when he figures it's Loki's fault. 

You do have to wonder how Thor sleeps so soundly when his wife Sif's hair is plucked out during the night, leaving her bald(you have to wonder, even more, how she sleeps through it!). That time it is Loki, who just thought it was funny. But Thor also sleeps through having his hammer, Mjolnir, stolen by a giant(this despite those high walls and Heimdall) and asks Loki for help, which he gives. That is the hilarious story of Thor's “wedding” where the thunder god disguises himself as the beautiful goddess Freya to get back his hammer, and lets Loki do all the talking while he consumes all the food at the wedding feast.

Marvel Thor is a lot smarter than his Norse original, and loves his trickster foster brother no matter what dreadful things he does. He does get to do some humorous scenes, but he is not dumb.

And then there is Loki, the trickster. He is not one of the Aesir, but a giant. He's the father, by a giantess, of three scary children, Hel the goddess of the underworld, the Fenris Wolf which will one day play a part in Ragnarok, and the Midgard Serpent, which coils around the world and is nearly caught by Thor when he goes fishing one day. He is the mother(yes, mother!) of Odin's horse Sleipnir    , due to one of his tricks that got the gods a huge protective wall.   He also has two normal sons by his wife, Sigyn. 

The other gods don't seem to like him much, but he fixes things for them, as much as he causes trouble, because he is the brains of the family. Unfortunately for him, he goes one step too far by playing one prank too many, causing the death of Baldur, a son of Frigg and Odin, and ends up in a sort of Prometheus snake situation, with dripping venom instead of that eagle. His loyal wife stays with him to keep the venom off his face. Nice to know someone loves him.

The Marvel Loki is recognisable but different. You can certainly him imagine doing some of his original's pranks, and there is a reference to Sif's hair(“I thought it was funny!” he protests), but not the same person. This Loki is a frost giant adopted by Odin and Frigga as a baby, but they don't tell him till he is well into adulthood. He starts off as a villain who has a big narcissism problem and wants to rule the world, then moves to anti hero and finally hero, willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good. 

But even as villain, he still has the same cheeky trickster charm as his original, which has gained him a lot of fans. Wherever he arrives, he introduces himself: “I am Loki, the bad guy.” 

And the last few weeks I have followed the streaming series Loki, in which we see things from his viewpoint, he finally makes a friend who believes he can improve instead of just being the character that allows the heroes to be their best, and has an impressive character arc that makes viewers cheer for him and weep when he hurts. Oh, and he falls in love, but she is another version of himself from a different timeline… talk about narcissism! She is, however, a badly hurt woman who has spent most of her life, from childhood, on the run from an organization that wants to kill her.

It was very well written. One of the script writers was on Twitter, explaining the thinking behind what the team wrote. Unfortunately   there were some entitled fans who need to get a life abusing him for the ending. I've been in SF fandom long enough to know that people like this are always around. 

There is a solution to not liking what you get, and it isn't being abusive to the authors. Fan fiction makes you feel much better and you can share it with others who think the same way. Goodness knows, there are plenty of fan fiction sites. 

It's wonderful to see what storytelling can emerge from mythology.