
Welcome? Hardly the welcome that Odin had led me to expect. And in spite of Balder’s efforts to make me into one of the boys – to rope me into sporting events, to introduce me to unmarried girls, to generally encourage me to let my hair down and ‘chillax’ – I could tell that most of Asgard despised me.
… If Freya got a spot on her nose, it was always Loki’s fault. If Bragi’s lute was out of tune, if Thor lost one of his gauntlets, if someone farted audibly during one of Odin’s speeches – ten to one I’d get the blame.
Harris writes compellingly to create our appreciation of Loki’s psyche. I can’t stress enough how masterfully she reveals his thoughts. We are seduced into a shamefaced understanding, even admiration, for his chaotic and very immoral ways. As the narrator, he reveals both his motivations and the actual stories from Icelandic literature, which are represented faithfully, so if one is unfamiliar with them, one can learn a great deal. But with the added glamour of Loki’s personality we get so much more. Loki is witty, amusing and fun – it is true that bad boys are more attractive; I certainly enjoyed getting to know him. His tone moves from spitefully perceptive accounts of his tricky adventures with the other gods to an increasingly sulky description of his rejection by them, as well as glee at their suffering. The nine worlds and the denizens who live in them are vibrantly represented as well; Loki is a very observant narrator. There is, however, a darker narrative. Loki’s personal trajectory is like icing covering the slow doom coming to Asgard and the nine worlds. This doom is revealed in the poetic words of an Oracle, and Harris uses a seemingly explicit but really very equivocal poem to frame the final days and the coming of Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods. Many theorists of religion suggest that we create our gods as a projection of ourselves. The Norse pantheon certainly seems like a dysfunctional family, full of selfish, often stupid, innocent as well as vindictive fools; but as the story comes to its blazing end, Harris uses Loki’s words to show us the glory and might of the tribe under pressure when Odin appears on the Bifrost, the bridge connecting the worlds:And now, a figure came to stand halfway across its narrow expanse. Odin in full Aspect; spear in hand; colours flying. Sleipnir stood by him, in giant Aspect, his eight legs spanning the sky like a spider’s web; a nimbus of flame around them both gave them a twin corona. I had to admit that at that moment there was something magnificent in the Old Man; something noble and melancholy that might almost have touched my heart – that is, if I had one.
This is such an adroit and interesting retelling of the myths. There is something very appealing about change in the face of smug order. Maybe there is a deeper thread here, too, about the real need for the refreshing winds of chaos – now and then. The poem at the end certainly gives a rich summary of the tales, while it also offers a great deal of hope. Joanne M Harris The Gospel of Loki Gollancz 2014 PB 320pp $29.99 Folly Gleeson was a lecturer in Communication Studies. At present she enjoys her book club and reading history and fiction. To see if this book is available from Newtown Library, click here.Tags: Joanne M | Harris, Neil | Gaiman, Norse myths, the Prose Edda, Wagner
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