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The Influence of Norse Mythology on The Modern World
The Influence of Norse Mythology on The Modern World
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The Vikings have garnered attention over the years not only for their raiding and trading, but also for the Paganist gods and religion. Similar to many other ancient civilizations, the Vikings leave behind many myths containing tales of their gods and their beliefs. Marvel’s 2011 film Thor serves as an introduction to Norse gods and mythology, but it does fall flat in term of accuracy and detail in certain areas. Despite various large and small-scale changes to its overall plot and characters, Thor has been well-adapted to portray Norse myths as best as possible within an existing Marvel franchise.
The plot of the film is a sort of amalgamation of different Norse myths, of which one is the creation myth. Thor sets up the beginning of the
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True to the namesake of the film, Thor is the protagonist. The biggest change Thor faces in this film is that he now a clean-shaven blonde instead of a bearded red-head. Aside from physical appearances, Thor’s personality as a god is similar to the Thor in Norse mythology. As exemplified in the Lay of Thrym, Thor travels to Jotunheim with Loki and several other gods, although this time he is not dressed as a woman and he carries Mjolnir with him. In the film, Loki appears to act as a voice of reason by attempting to deescalate Thor’s impending anger towards the Giants recent trespassing into Asgard. Despite there being a supposed truce between Laufey, leader of the Giants, and Odin, Thor does not condone the Giant’s actions and wishes to wage war. This parallels Loki’s sentiments at the end of Lokasenna where he states, “I will go outside for you alone, because I know that you will fight [or kill]” (Acker 180), demonstrating Thor’s impulsiveness and perceived violent …show more content…
Furthermore, the main rising action and plot twist of the film are also products of Loki’s antics. The instigating moment which causes Thor to visit Jotunheim is in fact caused by Loki. Loki manages to sneak Giants into Asgard in order to create tension between Thor and the Giants, ultimately leading Thor to his banishment. This is consistent with events in Ragnarok, also known as the Doom of the Gods, where Loki is seen to side with, and even lead, the Giants and against the gods (Somerville and McDonald 51). The unanticipated plot twist in the film is that Loki initially betrays the gods and cooperates with the Giants, but is revealed to have double-crossed the Giants in order to gain Odin’s favour. All this treachery leads one to question Loki’s loyalty, as that is a very important quality of a warrior. This would usually bring up the subject of honour, but it is known throughout mythology that Loki is an eccentric character, and like Odin, transgresses boundaries. He has sacrificed his honour on many occasions, such as dressing up as “Freya’s” handmaiden, or seducing a horse, and fathering monstrous offspring (Lindow 217). Therefore, the fact that Loki misleads the gods and deceives the Giants in Thor is not
The representations of Thor has definitely changed over the past years because of the way people have thought and imagined about the “Thor scenes” in the Greek mythology to create a movie or cartoon for readers. Some representations have been kept and some have been varied, such as the outfit, powers and friends. During the years of people have created multiple movies of the same concept and have added more characters or changed some bits. In the extract of Snorra Edda it reveals that Thor wants to prove that he is powerful and worthy, he comes with the giant Hymer to find his own bait but ends up being arrogant and aggressive because the Midgard Serpant had made him angry. He cannot control his anger and slashes out. Meanwhile as, in the film
Since Hugo's father is focusing on Odin, he will help Odin when they both get into troubles.
During the separation, Thor is about to be pronounced king and their rivals, the Frost Giants showed up. Thor lives on a planet called Asgard, the Asgardians stole a capsule, the tesseract containing the Frost Giants powers. Thor
The movie Thor is about a young man who all he has dreamed about is becoming king of his home, “Asgard.” Thor is what seems to be a combination of a Viking with the power of lighting. Thor has a huge ego and at times thinks he is better than anyone else. While his brother Loki looks at him with great jealousy,
There are so many more Norse gods, but to list them all and talk more about each of them and tell their stories, is a large book by itself.
A combined example of these two aspects can be seen in the Avengers: Age of Ultron directed by Joss Whedon. Thor, Norse
2.) The Types of stories found in this book are based on Norse Mythology. They contain information on the creation of the Earth, (Midgard), and some of the trials that the gods and goddesses had gone through.
Even though everyone knew that Loki had done it, because they had lost the one that they loved, they were too sad to do anything about it. Frigg thought that she had made sure of Balder’s safety, even though she had overlooked this one small plant.
Lindow, John. "Loki (Norse mythology).” World Mythology: Handbook of Norse Mythology. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2001. Credo Reference. Web. 26 November 2013.
Ferguson begins by claiming that one of the main problems of trying to provide a history of the Vikings is that most of the literary sources that form our knowledge of the period were actually written hundreds of years after the events they describe. These literary sources, as well as documents mentioning the Vikings from the lands which they raided, cause some of our information to become skewed and unreliable. For this reason, Ferguson states that his goal in writing this book is to satisfy the reader’s desire for information “…without burdening it with an account of the innumerable controversies that cover every field of study of the period” (8). With this goal in mind, Ferguson implies that his main argument in the book is to cover every basic aspect of the Viking Age by using a variety of sources, all while giving his own expert opinion on the time period.
When they arrived, they brought their beliefs with them, and with that, their gods. The old gods are changed in very different ways, changes for example, in their names, character, and so on. Such as Mr. Wednesday, he is now known as Mr. Wednesday. When he was first created by the Norse people he was the king of the gods, the all-father, Odin, was the most well known of the over 170 names associated with him, from mercury to wōđanaz to even Óðinsdagr. The god in Norse mythology of a multitude of things: knowledge, sorcery, death, royalty, runic alphabet, healing, battle, poetry, frenzy, and the gallows. He was first derived from the roman god, mercury, in the 1st century. He then became widely accepted as a god among much of Europe, though he takes a much higher role in the Norse texts. A great majority of texts mentioning Odin, were Norse and from around the 13th century. Just as Odin was in the old European religions, Mr. Wednesday takes an particularly crucial role in American Gods, the role of the ringleader. He is preoccupied with gathering and joining the old gods into an army to finish the war that has begun with the new gods
Norse, Japanese, and Greek mythologies, too, agree on a lot of ideals. They each contain a clash of gods and the death of certain gods in order to form life. The list of creation myths, and myths in general, that relate to each other could stretch out for miles. With these parallels, humanity can better understand earlier cultures and document the method to how mythologies change over time. Works Cited Browning, W. R. F. Dictionary of the Bible.
To many, thanks to Marvel’s movie Thor, the most known Norse gods consist of Thor, Odin, and Loki. Those three gods are important to Norse mythology, but an overlooked Norse goddess is Hel the goddess of the underworld or her other title Hel of Helheim’s Hell Hall (Saunders, 2013). Hel is Loki and Angrboda’s daughter and it is said that her birth marked the beginning of disease (Took 2013).It is also said that Hel’s arrival to your village means that plaque was to come (Took,2013).According to the mythology she rules Helheim which is considered the Norse equivalent of the underworld (Saunders,2013). Unfortunately for Hel she was half dead, half blue, with a hideous face and gangrene on her legs, because of her ugliness she was banished by
In the movie Thor the title character is cast out of Asgaurd by his father and returns by proving himself worthy of his power and his father’s thrown. Similarly, the Odyssey is about Odysseus’ long journey back to his kingdom after the Trojan War. Thor and the Odyssey are very alike; but great hardship and historical literature reveals a contrast.
Thor is the Norse God of Thunder. He is also a Deity of lightning, storms, Oak trees, farmers, fertility, strength, destruction, healing and death. Thor is also a protector of mankind and is very loyal to his father Odin and the Aesir Gods. In the past, he came to their defence any time it was needed, no matter how far away he was or what else he was doing. His family always comes first.