Before the Middle Ages, Vikings used the stories of Norse Mythology to give meaning to their life, often revolving around gods and goddesses. In more recent years, these Norse stories have seemingly integrated their way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a fascinating way, especially if you’re a fan of the Norse tales. Throughout all four Thor movies and Loki’s original series, we see a glimpse into the lives of Norse gods, although it’s not always accurate to the original Norse stories. Being a fan of both Norse mythology and Marvel, I’ve seen things that are confusing, a bit upsetting, and all around exciting while watching Thor and Loki’s journey through the MCU. With the knowledge I possess based off of the movies and shows alone, here is a rundown of some Norse mythology depictions in the MCU.
Thor
We’re introduced to some of the main gods and characters that make up Norse mythology. There’s the brother duo of Thor and Loki, although in actual Norse they aren’t brothers; I wouldn’t even say they’re friends either, just two gods tolerating each other’s presence. Then, there’s the All-Father, Odin, the actual brother of Loki in Norse mythology, and Odin’s wife Frigga. There are other Norse characters throughout the movie such as The Warriors Three, Sif, Heimdall, and the Frost Giants, All of these individuals make up three of the nine realms in Norse mythology. We see one of the realms, Midgard (Earth), where Thor gets banished to when he’s temporarily not worthy and can’t wield Mjölnir, Asgard where the Norse gods live and travel the rainbow Bifrost Bridge to other realms, and Jotunheim, the home of the Frost Giants.
Thor: Ragnarok
This movie seems to encapsulate Norse legends the most and shows Ragnarok in a very captivating way. Not only is there a lot of references to actual Norse ideas, although they might not always be accurate, it starts off with Led Zeppelin’s song “Immigrant Song” that has references to Norse mythology; it’s all very fun. Anyways, Ragnarok is the end times in Norse stories. It’s when everything starts to go wrong and the cosmos and everyone in it is destroyed.
Most of the issues at the start of this movie are started by Hela, Thor and Loki’s sister. This is very interesting because in Norse stories, Hela, also known as Hel, is Loki’s daughter. Hela goes on a destroying rampage, and to stop her, Loki resurrects the ruler of the fire realm of Muspelheim, Surtur, and kills him. Surtur was actually played by Clancy Brown, the voice of Mr. Krabs, but I digress. All of this mess with Surtur starts Ragnarok. In Norse stories, Loki, in a mix of very unfortunate events, initiates Ragnarok by killing Baldur, the god of light and one of Odin’s most favored sons.
During the chaos and battle scene when everyone is trying to stop the destruction of everything in existence, there is a giant wolf named Fenrir who shows up. Fenrir seems like he belongs to Hela in the movie. In actual Norse mythology, he is Loki’s son. Besides Fenrir, we see throughout the movie another Norse character who goes by the name Valkyrie. Valkyrie are women who decide who will die during battle and get to go to Valhalla. There’s also Heimdall, the watchman of the gods and the guard of the Bifrost.
The end of the movie shows Asgard being destroyed and the Asgardians going to Midgard to try and start anew. According to the actual stories, at the end of Ragnarok the whole world sinks into the sea and there’s nothing left.
Loki – Season 2
For Loki, I’m skipping right to season 2 of this series because I want to touch on how everything ended. In this season, Loki is jumping through the past and present; he’s time slipping. He’s getting pulled around into different timelines and spit back out to a different one. It seems like through all of this, the only relation to Norse mythology is the fact that Loki is the main character and we get to see his whole mischievous persona. Besides that, we don’t really get anything in relation to Norse until the very end. To understand how the show ended, it might be better to understand the nine realms within Norse mythology.
The Nine Realms are nine different planets, like Asgard and Jotunheim as I had mentioned while talking about Thor. These realms are connected by Yggdrasil, a large tree that holds everything together. Atop the tree sits an eagle, who causes the wind to blow around the world from flapping its wings. Below the tree is a serpent that chews at the roots, and a squirrel runs up and down it spreading messages. According to a Norse legend, Loki is bound for eternity to the roots of the tree and is blinded by the venom of the serpent.
In the show, instead of Loki being bound to the roots of the tree, he seems to literally become the tree. He’s now Yggdrasil. At the end of the season, Loki’s stuck in one spot, holding everything together. He’s not only keeping the realms in place, but the different multiverses too. All of this is done by branch-like strands that surround him. It seems no matter what Loki does, in both Marvel and mythology, he ends up alone, stuck for eternity.
It seemed like the tales of Loki and Thor were coming to an end for the MCU, but with the announcement of them both returning in the new movie Avengers: Doomsday, it will be interesting to see what’s in store for the Norse gods.
Feature image by Madison Smarr through Canva
