If people tried to make an argument that J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t used Norse mythology as a backbone structure when writing The Hobbit in 1937, they would be without-a-doubt completely wrong. Many creatures were pulled straight from the Norse myths and thrown into his famous story, but did he use some of the Norse gods as structures for his characters as well? In the book The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, he states that Gandalf is seen almost as an “Odinic Wanderer”, comparing him to Odin the Allfather (Carpenter, C. Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien). Rather than Odin, though, another almost-unlikely god could fit the part of Gandalf’s basis, and that would be the trickster god, Loki, son of Laufey and Farbauti.
Loki, without a doubt, would be an obvious one to bend the truth or outright lie to anyone that he speaks to, but would Gandalf be as obvious as well? There are countless tales of Loki lying to get out of troubles that he has caused himself, such as the myth “The Theft of Idun’s Apples”. While on a trip to Midgard with Odin and Honir, an enraged Loki struck a giant, who was disguised as an eagle, with his staff. The large bird took off with Loki, who was quite literally stuck to him. The eagle made sure that Loki’s unforgettable ride was the most unpleasant one he’d ever had. Finally, the eagle agreed to let him go, but only one condition—Loki was to bring the goddess Idun and her golden apples of youth to him. To trick Idun to bring her apples out of Asgard, Loki told her “‘Deep in the forest just beyond the Bifrost, I came across a tree quite unlike the others…Idun, it bears golden apples’” (Crossley-Holland 40). He then took her to Midgard with her apples, only for her to be taken away by the giant. When the other Asgardians realize...
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...ense of humor, though. Gandalf may be based from the Allfather, Odin, but it seems he is loosely based off of the Mischiefmonger, as well. Even if it may be slight, the similar characteristics are there, mirroring small details of both. Gandalf could have been meant to be Gandalf the Slightly Mischievous, and it’s seemingly possible that was what he was going for when he wrote The Hobbit.
Works Cited
Byock, Jesse L. and Snorri Sturluson. The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology. Penguin Classics, 2006. Print.
Carpenter, Humphery, Christopher Tolkien and J.R.R. Tolkien. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Print.
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Norse Myths. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980. Print.
McCoy, Dan. Loki | Norse Mythology. 2013. Web. 5 December 2013.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Annotated Hobbit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. Print.
The paper will begin with a look at the life of Tolkien. This will serve the purpose of providing some context for the novel. Looking into the life of Tolkien will also serve to give the reader some insight into the mind that gave birth to such a rich land and why the novel may have some importance for sufferers of mental illness. Next will likely be a short summation of the
Throughout his works, Tolkien includes, in varying degrees, every major component of our Primary World: landforms, minerals, weather and climate, natural vegetation, agriculture, political units, population distribution, races, languages, transportation routes, and even house types. “He did more than merely describe these individual comp...
Here is a short list of some of the Norse Gods, starting with the Aesir Gods.
The first vignette, A.D. 813, illustrates the establishment of gods in the new world. Norsemen sail to North America, calling on the All-Father to keep them safe. Once established, their bard sings of Odin around the campfire. The Norsemen then meet a native, a “scraeling… dressed in furs” with “small bones braided into his long hair” (68). They entertain and feed him before sacrificing him to their god: “…they carried him at the head of a procession to an ash tree…where they put a rope around his neck and hung him high in tribute to the All-Father…” (68). While their singing to Odin drew the Grimner’s attention, it was the sacrifice that brought him to the new land. The day after the homage, “two huge ravens landed upon the scraeling’s corpse…[and] the men knew their sacrifice had been accepted” (68-69). The blood and sacrifice strengthened Odin’s tie to the land. Though the Norsemen all die in an attack by natives, the religion, though abandoned, is not entirely forgotten. When Leif the Fortunate arrives later, his gods await him.
But does it really matter? Most fantasy books take many parts of Tolkien's work, as he was one of the pioneers of the genre of fantasy fiction. Dungeons and Dragons takes a lot of races and other elements out of the LOTR. What The Sword of Shannara did was show that people would buy and enjoy other fantasy books than The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Loki is known as the trickster god of Norse mythology and is even said to be one of the first anti-heroes. He is also probably one of the most well-known tricksters as well. In the Norse myths, he is often portrayed as being very mischievous and is always causing trouble for the gods. In fact, “he was so outrageously mischievous that he even sneaked his way into becoming a god” (Allen, and Saunders, par. 1). However, even though he almost always seems to be getting the gods into some kind of trouble, he also helps them at times in an attempt to get them out of their predicaments…even if those predicaments are his own fault to begin with.
“Thoth.” The Hutchinson Dictionary of World Mythology. Abingdon: Helicon Pub, 2005. EBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
Loki was a Norse god that was fickle to say the least. He played pranks and created so many problems for the other gods, including
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again. New York: Ballantine, 1982. Print
Tolkien, J.R.R. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1954. Print.
Morford, Mark P.O., and Robert J. Lenardon. Classical Mythology. '7th ed'. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
In the The Lord of the Rings, by J. Tolken, there are many things that make the story symbolic of a Christian influence. The constant emphasis of good vs. evil brings forth reason to suspect that this novel has a Christian basis. In this paper I will prove and backup my personal opinion through sighting specific examples of the influences from the book.
Rosenburg, Donna. World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics. Third Edition. Chicago: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group, Inc., 1999. Text.
There are also similarities between some of the key gods from both Chinese and Norse mythology. One such similarity is between the trickster gods. In Norse mythology the trickster god is Loki and in Chinese mythology it is Monkey. The main deference between the two is that Loki wanted to destroy and Monkey wanted to rule.
Lawall, Sarah N. “The Aeneid.” The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 612-652. Print.