The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [472]
Some time after the creation of the world and all its inhabitants, while Odin and his brother are wandering through Midgard, on a forest path near the borders of Jotunheim they meet a handsome young man with twinkling eyes and a mischievous expression, who introduces himself as their `cousin' Loki.
Loki becomes the most interesting figure in the story. Although he is of giant stock, the gods welcome him, because he is charming and cleverer than any of them. But there is something deeply ambivalent about his nature. In the perpetual rivalry between the Aesir and the giants, Loki's ingenuity extricates the gods from one difficult situation after another, even though it is often Loki's own two-sided nature which has created the problem in the first place. His trickery proves so useful to the gods that they invite him to become one of their own number. But somehow it seems there is always a catch to what their crafty new companion is up to; some hidden price to be paid for the benefits he brings them.
The dark side of Loki's nature is confirmed when one day he disappears and Odin, looking down from the lofty eyrie from which he can view all the world, is eventually horrified to spy him in Jotunheim, playing with three young monsters. It turns out that Loki has sneaked off to have an affair with a giantess, and that these are their offspring: Hela, half a living woman, half a decaying corpse; Jormengand, a fast-growing serpent; and Fenris, a ferocious wolf. The news strikes the Aesir like a thunderclap. Are these hideous creatures destined some day to play a part in the long-prophesied end of the world, Ragnarok, the Last Great Battle? At the urging of Thor, god of physical strength and battles, the gods take steps to neutralise these fearsome new arrivals. Hela is sent down to preside over the underworld. Thor hurls Jormengand into the sea, only for the monster to coil itself round the earth as the Midgard Serpent. The Fenris Wolf is eventually chained up on an island. But from now on the gods live in perpetual fear that, when the day of Ragnarok arrives, the terrifying power of these monsters will be unleashed.
Loki revenges himself for what has been done to his offspring by secretly cutting off the shining golden hair of Thor's wife. When Thor guesses who is responsible, Loki attempts to appease his wrath by persuading the dwarves who fashion gold and wondrous inventions deep in the mountains to make a succession of miraculous gifts. One of these is new hair for Thor's wife, spun from purest gold. They also include a gold ring which has the power to multiply itself, thus guaranteeing infinite riches, and a set of magic weapons: a spear for Odin which always returns to his hand after he has thrown it; a boat which can travel by sea, land and air; and a mighty hammer for Thor, so powerful that it will overwhelm any opponent. But the presentation of these gifts itself leads to a further row, which ends in one of the dwarves angrily sewing up the loquacious Loki's mouth with leather. The other gods all laugh, at seeing him for once unable to speak. When Loki tears off the thong, it leaves his mouth scarred and his smile twisted. From now on he and the Aesir are set ever more at odds.
The showdown comes when it is announced that Baldur, Odin's youngest son and the most loved of all the gods, has been made invulnerable to attack by any weapon made from a substance which originated in the earth. So dark has Loki now become that, by `dark inversion, he develops a passionate hatred for the perfect young hero. He discovers that the one substance which can harm Baldur is mistletoe, because it grows on trees and therefore not directly from the earth. He hardens a twig of mistletoe into a