Thor: Ragnarok Trailer Breakdown

Greetings readers!  I hope you had a lovely Easter.  If you're interested, I did a post about the Easter Bunny's origins a year ago; you can read it here.

Today I thought that I would try something a little bit different for a blog post.  This past week has been a very good one for trailers, between Detroit, The Last Jedi, and Thor: Ragnarok.  As a huge Marvel fan, I was very excited by the trailer for the new Thor...but, as a huge mythology nerd, I was even more excited.  That trailer packed so much mythology into under two minutes, and I fangirled pretty hard at some of what was included.

But then I thought - I have a blog where I talk about mythology.  Why not do a breakdown of the trailer?  But, instead of focusing on the Marvel aspects, why not point out all the similarities to classical Norse mythology?

And so, without further ado, let's jump into the trailer!

First of all: The name.  In Norse mythology, Ragnarok is literally "The Doom of the Gods".  In traditional mythology, Ragnarok ends with most of the Norse pantheon (and all but a handful of mortals) dead.  The name of the movie alone is setting the stage for a cataclysmic event.

Thor drops into the trailer right away.  Mythological Thor isn't the brightest lightning bolt in the sky, but he's always game for a fight, and he fights hard to defend those close to him.  Marvel movie Thor is pretty much the same in that aspect.

What really interested me were the red, glowing eyes and mouths that can be seen six seconds into the preview.  In mythology, Ragnarok comes at the hands of the denizens of Muspelheim - fire Jotunn.  These giants are led by a being named Surtr, and it's at their hands that the world ends in fire.  The few seconds these dark figures are in the trailer doesn't say much about them, but it has me wondering if they might be the fire Jotunn. (Frost Jotunn have already appeared in the first Thor movie, and their world was explored by Thor and his companions.  It wouldn't surprise me to have the fire Jotunn show up, and I'm wondering if Thor might be hanging upside down in Muspelheim.)  If so, it's another way the trailer is tying back to Ragnarok.

The next character to appear in the trailer also supports Ragnarok; her name is Hela.  This is the Marvel version of the Norse goddess Hel, who rules over (if her name didn't give it away) Hel, the Norse variant on the underworld.  Mythological Hel is the goddess of death, as well as being the child of Loki.  When Ragnarok arrives in mythology, the forces of Hel (led by Loki) rise up from the underworld and fight against the gods.

The trailer certainly sets Hela up to be a major villain.  She destroys Mjolnir with what looks like very little effort.  Then she is shown standing in front of the armies of Asgard, home of the gods.  "Asgard...is dead." she declares dramatically, and then fire sweeps throughout Asgard, destroying everything.  (Fire!  Again, it all ties back to Ragnarok.)  I'm very much looking forward to seeing what role she plays in the movie.

Next you have Thor being dragged away by a beautiful warrior woman.  This woman is called Valkyrie in the Marvel comics, and she too has a mythological counterpart.  I'll shamelessly borrow a line from my book to describe the valkyrie:

"The valkyr were the angels of the battlefield, fearsome women warriors who could sense the approach of death and were tasked by Odin to aid his chosen side in battle. When a warrior died they bore him up to the Halls of Valhalla, the Hall of the Slain, where he would join the ranks of the Einherjar. There he would be waited upon by the valkyr and never know sorrow until the coming of Ragnarök.”

Now, I highly doubt that Thor is dead in the trailer, and the arena he winds up in doesn't look much like any afterlife.  However, it's worth noting that the Hall of the Slain, where all the valorous dead wound up, was known for its feasting, drinking, and brawling.  To have a character named Valkyrie dragging Thor to a place where he's forced to fight isn't too far off from mythology.  In addition, her very name is already setting this character up to fight on Thor's side against the bad guys during Ragnarok.  She seems to be a pretty competent fighter, so I'm looking forward to that.

A few of the characters from previous Thor movies make a cameo in the trailer.  Heimdall, the watcher of Asgard, is there - and so is Loki.  Now, it's no surprise that they chose to show Loki in the trailer, since he seems to be a fangirl favorite of Marvel.  The inclusion of Heimdall could just be a coincidence, one of many characters from the Thor franchise that they just so happened to pick.  However...the myth nerd in me says otherwise.  I think his inclusion, along with Loki, was a deliberate foreshadowing.

In the myths, during Ragnarok Heimdall plays an important role.  The watcher was never particularly fond of mythological Loki, a trickster whose mischief often went a few steps too far.  When Loki eventually was responsible for the murder of a god, Heimdall helped track him down and imprison him.  During Ragnarok, Loki breaks free of his bonds and fights against the gods.  Heimdall counters him.

In the myths, Heimdall and Loki kill each other.

I can't see Marvel killing off Loki.  (At least, not permanently, at any rate.)  Tom Hiddleston is a huge asset to them, and as previously mentioned, Loki has a lot of fangirls.  My best friend is one of them, and I know she would riot if her favorite character died. (Just like I did when my favorite Marvel character was killed off by Loki...)

However, I can see Heimdall being killed off.  It would lend additional emotional weight to the story.  His sacrifice could inspire Thor to fight harder.  And it would help to show again the villainous side of Loki, who tends to swing between villain and anti-hero in the movies.

And those are my thoughts on the trailer!  It's a lot of text for less than two minutes of video, haha.  I'm not sure if any of my speculation will pan out, but it's always interesting to me to see what they choose to draw on from the myths.  What are you guys' thoughts?

Intro to Warcraft Mythology

Hello all!

For this series of posts, I thought I'd try something a little new.  I've looked before (briefly) at some of the mythology in Star Wars, and at the way mythology has influenced pop culture.  Now, for the first time, I'm starting a series of posts on the mythology within a video game.  Let us turn now to the wonderful:

Some of my readers have likely figured out that I play World of Warcraft (given my oh-so-subtle references to it in a number of posts).  I've been a WoW gamer since 2008, and part of what's made me stick with the game is the story.  World of Warcraft has a hugely intricate and diverse backstory, explored not only in WoW itself but also in the precursor games (e.g., Warcraft) and a large number of books.  One of their most recently released books, called Chronicle, was a comprehensive backstory for the world, beginning with the creation of the universe.

As both a Warcraft and mythology nerd, I totally geeked out over that.

The more I've explored it, the more I've come to realize that the mythologies found within World of Warcraft are every bit as rich as their real-world counterparts.  Part of this is because most of the myths and gods of the various races in WoW are based upon real-world religions - a theme I intend to explore in my posts.

So, since the Warcraft movie is coming out soon, I thought I'd start a series of posts about the mythology within World of Warcraft.  I'll be taking a look in the next several weeks at the deities and practices of several of the different races in the game - both Horde and Alliance.

I'll do my best to make sure these posts are interesting for WoW players and non-gamers alike.  I have a few friends in WoW who haven't known about some of the lore I'm discussing, and I'm running all of my posts through a non-WoW playing beta reader before publishing them (thanks Mom!).  If you have questions, please shoot me an email or comment below!  I'd love to clarify or discuss anything you'd like to know.

Interestingly enough, several of the races in WoW worship the same deities, just under different names.  This is true of the night elves and the tauren, who worship the moon goddess.  To the night elves she is known as Elune, whereas the tauren know her as Mu'sha.  Mu'sha and Elune share the same stories and powers between the two races, despite their difference in name.

Other races within World of Warcraft worship beings from the same general family.  The night elven druids revere the Wild Gods, ancient and powerful deities who take the form of animals.  The trolls perform rituals to members of the loa, their own name for the Wild Gods.  Even the pandaren worship a group of Wild Gods, though they know the four beings they devote themselves to as the August Celestials.

Then there's the interesting dynamics between the draenei and the human religions.  Draenei worship both the Light and the Naaru (who are servants of the Light).  Humans, on the other hand, learned about the Light through the Naaru but devoted themselves solely to worship of the former.

All of this and more will be talked about in my posts.  I'm super excited for this, guys, and I hope you are too!  I'll see you next week!

Mythology in Pop Culture

Hey guys! So tomorrow I'm going to be doing a panel on mythology at my local community college. I needed to type up all of my notes for it, and it struck me as I was doing so that my presentation would make a pretty good blog post. Because of that, you get to read what I'm talking about tomorrow – which is the way that mythology influences pop culture.

Let's start by taking a look at comics, shall we?

Obviously, there's Thor. I wish I could quote Stan Lee and say “ 'nuff said”, but there's actually more to talk about. In both the comics and the myths, Thor is the Norse god of war and storms; Loki is a trickster trying to bring about the downfall of the gods; the Bifrost is a rainbow bridge; and Odin is the king of the gods. Odin is also the god of wisdom. In the myths he has two ravens who fly around the world and tell him everything that they see. One of my favorite parts about Marvel's movie is that in the first Avengers, two ravens fly by when Thor and Loki are arguing – a very nice reference to the original myths!

Although the comics and movie adaptations are awesome, there are quite a few differences between them and the original myths. For one thing, the mythological Thor isn't all that bright. He mostly just wants to hit things with his hammer.

 

Then you have Sif, who is a goddess of fertility and the harvest – she's definitely not a warrior. Perhaps the biggest difference is that Thor and Loki aren't actually brothers! In the myths, Loki is the sworn blood brother of Odin.

Thor may be the most obvious representation of mythology in modern comics, but he's not the only one. Let's move away from him and take a look at the DC comics.

First, you have Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is an Amazonian princess. Some of her origin stories say that Wonder Woman is the daughter of Zeus, king of the Greek gods and lord of the skies. That's right – Wonder Woman is a demigod.

 

Then you have Superman. His story has close ties to the Christian and Jewish faiths – and those ties were written deliberately. There's a story in the book of Exodus about a baby named Moses. During the time period in which Moses was born, the Pharaoh of Egypt had enslaved the Jewish population. Their numbers kept growing, and the Pharaoh feared revolt, so he ordered all baby boys to be killed. To save Moses, his mother put him in a basket and sent him floating down the river. He was adopted by the Pharaoh's daughter and raised by a family not his own. Eventually, Moses grows up to save his people.

Now let's look at Superman's origin story. He was born on a world that's about to be destroyed. His parents put him in a little space-cradle and sent him away to save his life. The cradle carries him to Earth, where he is raised by an adoptive family. Superman goes on to save the world – many, many times.

(This photo was just too hilarious to not share!)

There's definitely some similarities between the two stories – and, like I said, they were put there deliberately. The writer and artist of the original Superman stories were both Jewish. The character of Superman first appeared around the time of World War II, when Jews were facing horrific persecution. Superman's creators wanted to create a figure of hope for their people, so they wove the story of Moses into the character of Superman. Pretty cool, right?

Let's turn away from comics and take a look at another aspect of popular culture. I'm a huge fan of video games – how about you? Do any of you guys play World of Warcraft?

Mythology has influenced a lot of video games, but WoW is a treasure trove of mythology. I can think of about half a dozen different mythologies that show up in World of Warcraft, and that's just off the top of my head – I'm sure there are a lot more. One of those mythologies appears as soon as you go to make a character – the druid.

 

Druids have their origins as sort of priests in Celtic mythology. In the myths they have close ties to nature, and are often depicted as shapeshifters. In various stories druids turn into wolves, bears, boars, swans, and a myriad of other things.

In World of Warcraft the druid class' powers are tied to nature – sun, moon, and plants. Like their mythological counterparts, druids are shapeshifters. These are a few of their various forms.

 

 

Another mythological influence in WoW can be seen heavily in the race of the Trolls. The religion and culture of the Trolls are based on myths from Latin America. An area in WoW called Zul'Drak provides the best example of this. Take a look at the architecture: This is a temple in Zul'Drak.

 

This is the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, found in the Aztec city of Teotihuacan.

 

 

One of the most prevalent figures in Latin American mythology is the god Quetzalcoatl. He appears in the pantheons of several different Latin American cultures, including the Aztec. Quetzalcoatl translates to “the plumed serpent”, meaning a snake covered in feathers.

 

 

Creatures that match this description appear in many places in WoW.

 

 

Let's travel from Zul'Drak and Latin America to the Storm Peaks and the Norse.

 

 

This zone is perhaps the most obvious portrayal of mythology in World of Warcraft – they barely even changed the names! First you have the val'kyr, servants of the Lich King who raise the dead to join his evil army. In Norse mythology the valkyrie are choosers of the slain. They raise worthy dead warriors to a hall called Valhalla, where they have a huge drinking party until the end of days.

Perhaps the most amusing nod to mythology in this zone are the characters of Loken and Thorim. Loken is a nefarious trickster trying to bring down Thorim. Thorim has a hammer named Krolmir.

 

(Thorim with Krolmir)

 (Thor with Mjolnir)

Hmm.

I'd like to look at another genre influenced by mythology: Fairy tales.

How many of you have seen or read Sleeping Beauty? You know the story: a girl is cursed and falls into a 100-year sleep; a wall of roses grows up around her; a dashing prince finds her and wakes her up with a kiss.

Now let me tell you the story that I think inspired Sleeping Beauty – an old Norse saga called the Story of Sigurd.

I mentioned valkyries when I was talking about WoW. In addition to being choosers of the slain, valkyries were also able to influence the outcomes of mortal battles. When the Story of Sigurd begins, a young valkyrie named Brynnhilda has been ordered by Odin, king of the gods, to let one specific side win a battle. Instead, she allows the other side to win.

Not a good mistake to make when your boss is king of the gods.

To punish Brynnhilda, Odin locks her away in a castle and curses her to sleep until a man comes along and wakes her up. She will then marry this man. Odin does take some pity on Brynnhilda – he raises a wall of fire around the castle, so that only a truly brave man will be able to reach her.

That's right. Odin is Maleficent.

 

 

(They even have matching birds!) 

Brynnhilda is eventually woken up by a man named Sigurd, and the two fall in love. Unfortunately, unlike in Sleeping Beauty, the duo do not live happily ever after. Sigurd is given a potion that makes him forget about Brynnhilda. He marries someone else, and his brother-in-law finds and marries Brynnhilda. The jealous valkyrie talks her husband's brothers into killing Sigurd. She then kills herself by jumping onto Sigurd's funeral pyre.

Yeah, Norse stories aren't really known for their happy endings. If it makes you feel any better, a horse was found missing from the stables and a stablehand said he saw Sigurd and Brynnhilda riding off into the sunset together.

But I digress. The Story of Sigurd differs vastly from Sleeping Beauty in its ending, but the core concepts are pretty darn similar.

 

 

Let's look now at one of my favorite parts of modern pop culture: Star Wars.

Is anyone else totally psyched for the new movie? Because I sure am!

Anyway, Star Wars has some of its roots in Arthurian legend. You have a bunch of knights running around trying to save the galaxy from evil. They help the innocent, protect the weak, and are generally seen as virtuous – at least, until they turn evil themselves. That's pretty similar to King Arthur and his knights, right?

Well, Star Wars also has heavy ties to Buddhism. Let's take a look at the Jedi Code, which states:

There is no emotion, there is peace.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

There is no passion, there is serenity.

There is no chaos, there is harmony.

There is no death, there is the Force.

In Buddhism there is a concept called The Four Noble Truths. These truths state that:

1. There is suffering.
2. Suffering is caused by desire and ignorance.
3. Suffering can be ended by putting aside one's desires.
4. The fourth noble truth details an Eightfold Path to enlightenment, which leads to the end of suffering and desire. This path includes moral conduct, meditation, and wisdom.

I see a lot of Buddhism in the Jedi Code. If you give up emotion, you will not suffer, so you will be at peace. Ignorance can cause suffering, so it follows that knowledge can prevent suffering. Without passion, one will not desire, so one will not suffer from their desires.

So...I guess the Jedi are a sort of Knight/Buddhist monk hybrid?

 

I hope you guys found this interesting! I really love seeing how mythology influences pop culture, and the way that pop culture adapts mythology to suit its own needs. What have you watched (or read, or played, or heard) that you can see mythological ties in?