From Asgard To Valhalla Essay

This paper looks at the 1986 Danish animation movie for children called Valhalla. The main focus of this paper is to analyze how the various Scandinavian and Nordic deities are portrayed in the film in comparison to how they are portrayed in traditional Scandinavian mythological texts and poems. The paper will also look to analyze how much and in what contexts the creators of the movie have decided to differ from the mythological stories in order to portray an artistic product that they have wanted to produce. The main source of information about the gods in this paper is Heather O’Donoghue’s book From Asgard to Valhalla 2008 as well as H.R. Ellis Davidson’s chapter in Ancient Cosmologies called Scandinavian Cosmology.
The movie is based on a story from Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda where Thor, Loki and Tjalfe travel to Utgardaloki’s castle located in the city of Utgard. The translated version of the story used as a source is called “Thor’s Visit to Jotunheim”. Once they arrive in Utgard Utgardaloki announces that only men who are better

While crossing the bridge in Odin’s chariot Tjalfe is surprised by the presence of his sister Roskva who secretly wanted to also come to Asgard. Tjalfe is happy that his sister decided to hitchhike with the group and wanted to also work as Thor’s servant.
After arriving to Asgard the pair realize that being a servant to a god is not as glorious as they once thought it to be. The pair is forced to do the same work that they had to do in Midgard, the only exception being that they are now serving a god instead of their own family. One day Loki arrives with a small troll named Quark who he was challenged to teach how to behave by Utgardaloki. Quark is a real menace and because of this Thor loses his temper and decides to “return” Quark back to Utgardaloki. This is the point where the story starts to closely resemble the story of “Thor’s Journey to