A To Z Challenge 2023: Myth And Folk Tales In Fiction - T Is For Tricksters!

 So, what is a trickster? And where do tricksters from myth and legend appear in modern fiction?

A trickster is a person or spirit known for - well, his tricks. Sometimes he does good, others he is nasty. You will probably have heard of quite a few of them, and, of course, they turn up in fairy tales as well, such as “Jack” stories, in which the hero fools a giant or other monster to save his own life and get its treasure. 

In Greek mythology there are characters like the god Hermes, who is rustling Apollo’s cattle almost as soon as he is born, then going back to  his cradle and playing innocent, and Prometheus, the god who loves humans.

There is Odysseus, who is probably the only one of the Greek leaders with a brain. He seems to have the favour of Athena, goddess of wisdom, which does help him.On his way home from Troy, in the Odyssey, he survives because of his trickster abilities. For example, his encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus, whom he and his men escape by getting the Cyclops drunk and blinding him. Then he tells Polyphemus that his name is Nobody, so that when the Cyclops complains to his brothers, he says that “Nobody” hurt him. 

Odysseus appears as a character in Madeline Miller’s Circe. If you want to see the film Ulysses, with Kirk Douglas, it’s up on YouTube, free. He is a major character in Whom The Gods Would Destroy by Richard Powell, which will be mentioned in more detail in my W post. In the film Troy, the role is played by Sean Bean, for once playing a character who isn’t killed off. 

Jacob is a Biblical trickster. He is the nerd in his family, brother of Esau, the big hulking not-too-bright hunter who is their father’s favourite while Jacob is their mother’s. They are twins, presumably not identical ones! There is a story that when they were being born, Esau came out of the womb first, but Jacob’s hand pulled him back by the heel.

Jacob helps himself first to Esau’s birthright in that famous story about the bowl of pottage, then to their father’s blessing. In the first story, Esau comes home exhausted and hungry and smells something good. It’s thick, yummy soup. He is persuaded to sell his birthright to Jacob in exchange for a bowl.

In the second story, the twins’ father Isaac is old and blind and dying. He asks his favourite child to go hunting and cook his favourite savoury stew, after which Isaac will give Esau his blessing.

Jacob, with his mother’s help, slaughters a goat which she cooks and puts the goatskin on to his arms(Esau is much hairier than Jacob), then puts on Esau’s clothes, which smell of him. 

Guess who gets that blessing? 

It’s sad, really, fooling that old man, though many years later karma strikes when his sons sell his favourite child to some Ishmaelites and tell him Joseph is dead. 

However, Jacob has many years more to play the trickster. He does get tricked himself into marrying his beloved’s sister. He gets his revenge on his father in law, Laban, when he is told he can have the brown and speckled sheep so manages to breed quite a few, much to Laban’s annoyance. The description in the Bible makes it sound like magic, so … is he a sorcerer? No idea! 

Eventually, he and his now huge brood travel homewards and meet Esau, now married and having his own tribe. Luckily for Jacob, Esau is a forgiving man. 

Thomas Mann’s delightful, if thick-as-a-brick, Joseph And His Brothers has an entire volume about Jacob. It’s not available in Apple Books and only the last two volumes are in Kindle, but you can ask your bookshop to get it in. I recently bought the whole quartet in hardcover from my local bookshop and didn’t even have to order it.

In the feminist retelling of the story, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, Jacob knows perfectly well who he is with on his wedding night. Rachel has had cold feet about marrying and her sister Leah agrees to marry him instead. 

Prometheus in Greek mythology steals fire from heaven to give it to humanity. He had established the way sacrifices worked, tricking the gods into choosing the fat and bones as their share of the sacrifice while humans got the good stuff, so fire was withdrawn from humanity. His punishment was to be stretched out in chains and have his liver eaten by an eagle every day, then eaten again when it grew back. He appears in Madeline Miller’s novel Circe.

Coyote is a Native American trickster. You will find him everywhere, whether it’s Charles De Lint’s fantasy or even Wile E! You know - the one who thinks of the most elaborate ways to get the Roadrunner?

I have just bought and started reading The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. Get a copy if you can - it contains Trickster stories by some impressive and well known writers, including Charles  De Lint, Jane Yolen and Holly Black.

You probably don’t need much reminder of the god of mischief, Loki, who is the smartest god in Asgard, although he ends up paying dearly for a lot of the things he does, even when they save the day.

Probably best to just mention some modern fiction in which he appears. The comics, of course. I have some of the early ones by Lee and Kirby, where he hasn’t been redeemed - and yet… in one story, after he has been defeated and killed(but never permanently, this is Marvel), while everyone else is celebrating, there is a tear in Thor’s eye. The later comics, by different authors and artists, are very different and Agent Of Asgard shows us a cheeky likeable Loki who is carrying out missions for the Allmother in return for having his sins forgiven, and thoroughly enjoying being the good guy for a change.

I’m listening to an audiobook of the children’s novel by Louie Stowell, Loki: A Bad God’s Guide To Being Good. In it, Loki has been punished for cutting off Sif’s hair. He has been sent to Midgard(Earth) as an eleven year old boy and ordered to learn how to behave within a month or it’s the cave and the poisonous snake for him. He has to write in a magic diary which has Odin’s voice and takes points from him for every perceived misdeed. He is not alone; he has a fake family, with Asgard watchman Heimdall and goddess Hirokinn as his parents and Thor, also in child form, as his brother. And the boys have to go to school! Thor is having a good time. Heimdall is researching parenting and trying out the advice. Loki keeps messing up, of course, but does love the Internet. It’s hilarious and the actor reading the role of Loki is a delight.

Anansi the spider god is from Ghana. He is a storyteller. He makes a lot of mischief in his stories.

 Anansi appears(as Mr Nancy) in two books by Neil Gaiman, American Gods and Anansi Boys. In Anansi Boys, he dies early on, in the middle of a song at a karaoke bar, falls off the stage and accidentally grabs a woman’s breasts on his way down. His son Charles “Fat Charlie” Nancy travels to the US for his father’s funeral and learns that he has a brother. His brother Spider has all the god powers, Charlie has none. A very funny story! 

I am lucky enough to own both the book and a BBC radio play with  Lenny Henry as Mr Nancy. I did read that they might be making a live action TV serial. Watch this space!