Everybody has trials to endure. Anyone who says they don’t undergo trials and tribulations would be lying. Some of these can be trials of wisdom, strength, honesty, or even integrity. For Thor Odinson, his trial was overcoming and defeating his fatal flaw in arrogance and learning the importance of humility. In his early years, Thor heard the heroic tales of his father Odin and the wars he battled in against the foes of Asguard. Thor and his brother Loki grew up desiring the throne of Asguard even though only one brother could take Odin’s place as king. On the day of Thor’s crowning, Frost Giants invade and attempt to take back their source of power that was taken from them by Odin so long ago. After the Frost Giants are destroyed, Thor is determined to go to their home planet Jotunheim and seek revenge. With Thor’s newly gained power of being able to wield Mjolnir and possessing all its power, he kills many of the Frost Giant soldiers. …show more content…
He has anger against his father for banishing him and his conceit still consumes him. Thor sets out on a quest to find Mjolnir and claim his rightful place in Asguard. It isn’t until after he is unable to lift the hammer after he finds it, does he realize he needs to change before he can be worthy again. Thor finds love for the humans of Earth and cares less about his own problems. He becomes humble and doesn’t think as highly of himself anymore. Although he no longer cares for the throne, Loki still lusts for it. To make sure Thor won’t be able to return to Asguard to claim himself king, Loki sends “The Destroyer” to Earth to kill the now mortal Thor and destroy Earth. Thor caring for the humans’ lives more than his own tells Loki, “These people are innocent, taking their lives will gain you nothing. So take mine, and end this.” After this The Destroyer seems to have killed Thor, but because of his selfless act of love, he became immortal again and was worthy to wield Mjolnir
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
The saga begins with a callous and wholly unnecessary killing. Sigi, the son of Odin himself kills the thrall Bredi simply because Bredi’s kill from hunting “was larger and better than Sigi’s, which greatly displeased Sigi” (Byock, 35). Sigi is displeased because he thinks himself of higher rank and stock than a thrall. In this
An unknown author wrote the The Saga of the Volsungs in the thirteenth century, basing his story on far older Norse poetry. Iceland was settled by the Vikings about 870-930, who took there the famous lay of Sigurd and the Volsungs. Native Icelandic poets loved the story of Sigurd and the Huns, Goths, Burgundians, with whom he interacted. This prose story is based on traditional Norse verse called Eddic poetry, a form of mythic or heroic lay which developed before 1000 in the oral folk culture of Old Scandinavia. In The Saga of the Volsungs the hero Sigurd is the one who corresponds best with the hero Beowulf in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. George Clark in “The Hero and the Theme” mentions: “The form of Beowulf taken as a whole suggests both the ‘Bear’s Son’ folktale type (especially as we find it in Scandinavia) and the ‘combat myth’. . . .” (286). The “combat myth” is what this saga is. When Sigurd was born, he was the grandson of King Eylimi; when Beowulf was born, he was the grandson of King Hrethel. The king said of Sigurd that “none would be his like or equal” (55), and this proved true; Beowulf as a young man was so strong that “he was the strongest of all living men” (196). The similarities between Sigurd and Beowulf continue through both works.
King Hrothgar had no solution to the conflict it was described that “All were endangered; young and old were hunted down by that dark death-shadow who lurked and swooped in the long nights on the misty moors” (Heaney 219). Grendel took over and established a kingdom. Grendel established a terrorizing fear in all the danes, until Beowulf comes along. Beowulf is immediately praised “There was no one else like him alive. In his day, he was the mightiest man on earth, high-born and powerful”, the Danes after seven years have found how to defeat this monster. (Heaney 222) Beowulf travels to another country and is one of kind, no one compares to his might and power. This proves how brave he is to travel to another country to defeat a monster that has had repeatedly attacked Danes. Beowulf emphasizes his bravery even more by declaring ““I hereby renounce sword and the shelter of the broad shield, the heavy war-board: hand-to-hand is how it will be, a life-and-death fight with the fiend”. This boastful attitude gives Beowulf the bravery to step up and fight using his barehands. The average warrior would use a shield and sword but, Beowulf is not average he shows that he is a hero and will fight Grendel as if he was invincible. Beowulf defeats Grendel by ripping of his arm and it signifies that he is not a fraud, but a man of his word. Beowulf pride gives himself an
Then he battles not one but two demons being two of the tests that he faces. Beowulf 's main purpose in Denmark is to kill the coldhearted powerful demon. “Gendel was the name of the grim demon Haunting the marches, marauding round the heath And the desolate fens;...” (lines 102-104). After his first battle “Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, spoke: “ We have gone through with a glorious endeavour and been much favored in this fight we dared against the unknown, Nevertheless, if you could have seen the monster himself where he lay beaten, i would have been better pleased, My plan was to pounce, pin him down In a tight grip and grapple him to death- Have him painting for life, powerless and clasped In my bare hands, his body in thrall. But i couldn 't stop him from slipping my hold, The lord allowed it, my lock on him Wasn’t strong enough, he struggled fiercely and broke and ran. Yet he bought his freedom At a high price, for he left his hand and arm and shoulder to show he had been here, A cold comfort for having come among us. And now he won 't be long for this world. He has done his worst but the wound will end him.”( lines 956-974). Then they decide to celebrate, little do they know that along with Grendel lives his mother. Seeking vengeance for her son 's death, she attacks Heorot and kills just one man being Hrothgar 's closest friend and advisor. In his grief, he
Thor wants to return home but believes he cannot because Loki said he was banished and that he had killed their father. After Thor doubts his return home the gatekeeper opens the portal for him to return home. At the end of Thor Loki also gets an opportunity to live, even though he tried tricking Thor into believing he could not return home because he killed their father. After Thor and Loki have their brother battle in Asgard they almost fall of the bridge, but, Thor holds on tight with Loki hanging from them. Odin awakes from his rest and grabs Thor’s arm, but, just as he is pulling them up Loki feels he is now unworthy and Let's go of Thor and falls off. He becomes the leader of his people, the Frost Giants.
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.
King Hrothgar once again looks toward Beowulf to take care of another monster. To get ready for this battle Beowulf wears armor and uses the Horting sword which has never lost in battle. Once again Beowulf shows his courage by deciding to go to the bottom of the monster filled swamp and fight alone. Fighting off monsters on his way down, Beowulf reached the bottom where he was met by Grendel 's mother. He tried to cut her head off with Horting, but she is too strong. Beowulf takes a sword made for giants off the wall, and uses his super strength to cut the mother 's head off. As a trophy of this battle Beowulf finds the body of Grendel in a corner and decides to take his head back to the mead hall. Hrothgar celebrates another victory by once again throwing a large celebration where they gave more gifts to Beowulf and the Geats. After two battles, Beowulf decides it is time for him and his men to head back to their homeland. Continuing to show courage, honor, and strength Beowulf states that if the Danes ever have anymore problems with monsters he will help protect
Rare is the tale without a conflict, without a challenge to overcome. However, to even reach the challenge the hero must first pass through the Trial. The archetype of the Trial can be found in almost any folktale. King Arthur must draw the sword from the stone to prove himself fit to be king. Hercules must face labors to atone for the murders committed in his madness. It is prominent in other areas of literature as well; it is especially well represented in The Plague by Albert Camus and Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
His jealousy over took him even though he was a god. He set out and found the mistletoe without any trouble; he then came back to where all the gods were testing out Balder by throwing things at him. Loki found Balder’s blind brother and told him that he should be respectful and throw something at Balder too. So because of Loki’s jealousy, he helped the blind brother aim the mistletoe at Balder and throw it. It killed Balder instantly.
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
There are several different ways to interpret a poem. Each word can either be a metaphor for something else or the words can mean exactly what they say. Either way there can really never be a completely wrong interpretation of a certain poem because everyone is going to see things in their own way. For example, an object or a phrase could have a double meaning. A conversation that seems somewhat insignificant could be very important to the meaning and the tone of the entire poem. This is the case in “The Descent of Odin” by Thomas Gray. The poem has several different hidden meanings and messages that might not be visible to the untrained reader.
At Ragnarok Loki compiled an army of giants and his offspring to destroy Asgard. He was successful in destroying Asgard but he was killed by Heimdall in the process (McCoy). It was the goal of Loki to plunge the universe back into chaos and at Ragnarok, he was
Hundreds of years ago people did not have the technology to explain different forces of nature. They created gods, each with separate powers, to rule their domains. Some of the gods were merciful, some were wicked, and others were merely servants of more powerful gods. Looking at the gods, it is easy to tell what the civilization most valued. I am going to look at the Greek and the Norse gods to compare what was most important to their societies.
...and defeated Grendel by himself, furthering his desire to become a major hero. After the death of Grendel, Beowulf and his crew left but soon returned when notice arrived saying that Grendel’s mother was now attacking. Beowulf returned to Denmark and there, vanquished Grendel’s mother adding more to his accomplishments. Beowulf fought for Denmark because he wanted to further increase his reputation and spread news of how great he was. During the story of Beowulf, we are informed that Beowulf thinks highly of himself, but takes no advantage of the people around him, “Thus Beowulf bore himself with valour; / he was formidable in battle yet behaved with honour / and took no advantage” (2177-2179). He believed if he helped, he would become a legend for Denmark. With this assumption, Beowulf is a good example of a man who fights by putting his own reasons before others.