Fall \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Harvest Moon<\/p>\n
A fascinating journey into Loki scholarship and through it into international scholarship on folklore has made me blink more than once in its equivalency to the methods of biblical scholarship I learned in seminary. \u00a0First, there is textual criticism. \u00a0That is, did this instance of a Loki tale originate in an Old Norse tale or a broader European context? \u00a0If it originated in an Old Norse tale we imagine it may accurately reflect the actual sentiment toward Loki held by those who followed the old Norse faith.<\/p>\n
However. \u00a0Even if it originated in an Old Norse folktale, does it have antecedents in either nearby folkloric material, especially Celtic since the Norsemen conquered and occupied Ireland, or in traditions from a larger ambit, say Greek or Roman mythology? \u00a0To the extent the story reflects Greco-Roman or Celtic material it cannot be said with confidence to reflect the view of the ancient Norse.<\/p>\n
Here’s an example. \u00a0There is, in a tale in which Loki, traveling, takes a staff to a large eagle, really a giant named Thjassi in animal form. \u00a0The staff sticks to Thjassi and Loki to the staff through the giant’s magic. \u00a0In return for his release Loki agrees to get Idunna and her apples for the giant.<\/p>\n
(Edward Burne Jones the_garden_of_hesperides_1870)<\/p>\n
Once released Loki goes to Idunna and tells her he’s seen better apples in the forest. \u00a0She wonders at this, gathers her apples for comparison and leaves Asgard with Loki. \u00a0When she does, Thjassi in his eagle form swoops down and gathers her up.<\/p>\n
Without Idunna’s apples the gods and goddesses of Asgard wrinkle and turn gray, beginning to grow old.<\/p>\n
There’s more, but there’s enough here to make the point. \u00a0Here’s a paragraph from Wiki on the Garden of the Hesperides:<\/p>\n
The Garden of the\u00a0Hesperides<\/a>, Atlas’ daughters, was\u00a0Hera<\/a>‘s orchard in the far western corner of the world, where either a single tree or a grove of trees bearing immortality-giving golden apples grew. Hera placed in the garden a never-sleeping, hundred-headed\u00a0dragon<\/a>\u00a0(named\u00a0Ladon<\/a>) as an additional safeguard. The 11th\u00a0Labor of Hercules<\/a>\u00a0was to steal the golden apples from the garden. He stole the apples by asking Atlas to steal the apples and in return he would hold up the sky for him. After Atlas picked the apples Hercules asked Atlas to hold up the sky for him while he made a pad of the lion skin. He never took back his job of holding up the sky and ran away.<\/p>\n So this Loki story recapitulates a Greek story about the hero Hercules. \u00a0Not likely to be a source of good information about Loki and the ancient Norse faith.<\/p>\n Here’s one other thing I’ve relearned in this foray. \u00a0Folklorists have a numbered system for the appearance of story types. \u00a0In the myth of Baldr, after he dies from an arrow made of mistletoe, an attempt is made to bring him back from Niflheim, the realm of Hel, Loki’s monstrous daughter. \u00a0 In the Aarne-Thompson system<\/a> of folklore classification this is a 931, in essence a variation on the story of Orpheus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fall \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Harvest Moon A fascinating journey into Loki scholarship and through it into international scholarship on folklore has made … Continue reading What I Learned in Seminary<\/span>