[OLD] God or Goddess? (Lady Loki Oneshots)

A Lesson in Norse Mythology

So apparently I know more than a teacher does about Norse Mythology. How interesting.

Context: A good friend of mine across the world by the name of Tai, who you may know from the conversation in another chapter over Instagram, told me a wonderfully entertaining story about their lesson in Norse Mythology.

I suppose the word "lesson" should be in quotes, since the teacher probably just watched the Thor movies and left it at that.

No offence to the teacher though, I'm a student who lives in America, so you can understand the snark and frustration I have with the education system.

However I, a Canadian student who is stuck in America's summer with nothing else to do other than write popular fanfiction on the very people the mythology is about, have offered to give you a lesson about it.

If you're Tai's class, you can thank them for it.

Now I, a writer on the internet with nothing better to do, will do the thing school has failed to properly do. Teach you stuff.

But that ain't none of my business. *sips tea*

So, there are the players. Odin Allfather, Thor, Loki, his kids, and Baldr. Loki had kids? Who the heck is Baldr? I'll explain later.

First Odin. He's one of the three beings who helped create Midgard (Earth) and rules over Asgard and the nine realms. The nine realms are all placed on Yggdrasil, the world tree. Inside the tree are the Norns, the beings who grew the tree back when the world was first being created and they control the fates and lives of everyone ever.

Now back to Odin himself. He is the god of wisdom, poetry, death, divination and magic. He's almost got the characteristics of Loki. He's cunning and often disguises himself to gain more knowledge across the realms. The things Marvel got right are that he's
- The king of Asgard and the Æsir (pronounced Eye-Seer)
- He is the father of Thor.
However he is also the father of Baldr. And no, he is not Loki's father. Instead, they have a blood bond that makes them brothers.

Speaking of brothers, let's talk Thor. Thor is pretty accurate in the first movie. His character is pretty on point. The only differences are that his hair is red and he was never banished. Also comes Mjolnir. It's not that only he worthy can hold her, it's just that if you aren't strong enough you'll probably turn to dust, Thanos style.

Next comes Baldr. He's basically the perfect god. Everyone loves Baldr. So much so that his mother, Frigg made everything in existence swear that they wouldn't hurt him. Everything except mistletoe because it's so innocent.

Now this was actually because Baldr's death had a part in Ragnarok, the prophesied end of the world. However our favourite trickster ended up making an arrow of mistletoe and tricking Baldr's blind brother into launching it at him, thus killing him.

Speaking of the trickster, last but not least is Loki. And no, he is not as hot as Tom Hiddleston would have you believe. He was actually kind of ugly, also with red hair. Wow I just roasted myself. Whoops.

Anyways Loki was pretty standard except for one thing. Loki was the god of tricks, lies, stories, and fire.

(BUT HE'S A FROST GIANT!) I can hear you yelling

Nope! In Mythology he was a fire giant, known as the Jotuns. (Pronounced Yo-tens. These spellings are going to kill me)

Also unlike in Marvel he was a parent. One of his children was Hela, or sometimes Hel. She was a woman who was half dead and half living. As a result, she ruled over Hel, the land of the dead because Odin left her there. And she wasn't as hot as Marvel lead you to believe either.

Next there was Jörmangandr, (pronounced Yor-man-gan-der). Also known as the Midgard serpent. He was tossed into the Midgard oceans by Odin. When he comes back, Ragnarok will supposedly start.

Then there's Fenrir, also know as Fenris. He was a giant wolf that was supposed to kill Odin during Ragnarok. Odin locked him away in a cave.

These kids were born via Loki and one of his wives Angrboða, who was another giant/jotun. It turns out that Odin isn't a bad parent in Mythology, he's a bad Uncle! As soon as he saw them, he said that they were horrendous and monsters. Then he locked them away in several places. No wonder most of them have a part in the end of the world.

Oh and there's one more child to mention. Sleipnir. The eight legged horse.

Long story short, Odin wanted Loki's help distracting some giant from his work, so Loki transformed into a female horse to drive the giants horse away, therefore the giant couldn't finish his work in time. (Huh, Loki is genderfluid in both Myhology and the comics. MAKE IT HAPPEN MARVEL!)

However, Lady-Horse-Loki got busy with the other horse and he showed up a year later with an eight legged horse as a gift to Odin.

I'd like to see Marvel put that in their next movie.

So that pretty much the basics. There's a video by Overly Sarcastic Productions about the Pros Edda. This has a lot more stories and info about Norse mythology.

Hope that helped or was interesting.

Your welcome Tai.