The Poetic Edda speaks of gods and goddesses and their
strength and power but when it really comes down to it, is what they are
fighting for really worth all the trouble? Loki brings to light all the flaws the
gods and goddesses have made at a dinner in the section of Loki’s quarrel. This
is one of the first times when the doings of all the gods and goddesses is confronted,
and they realize just how
embarrassing their actions are. In the text Loki states,
“You’re brave in your seat, but you won’t be doing that, Bragi the bench
ornament! You go and fight, if you are so furious, the truly bold man doesn’t think
twice.” (Larrington 83)
Loki calls out several other figures in the room
whether or not they were friends to him in the past. Even the goddess Freyia
which he in turn says to her “Be silent Freyia, you’re a witch and much imbued with
malice, you were with your brother, all the cheerful gods surprised you, and
then, Freyia, you farted.” (Larrington 86) In todays times we see people continually
calling each other out on social media in a very personal manner to “start a fight”.
Typically, even in this setting many people are hiding behind a computer screen
and calling out insults to others in order to fire up a storm. Most cases today
do not normally turn into an actual fight and simmer down over time.
Rob Reiner
exploits this idea in his movie, “The Princess Bride”. In one particular scene
of the movie Wesley the hero of the story, who has been disguising himself as
the Dread Pirate Roberts, ultimately faces Prince Humperdinck who has stolen
away Wesley’s true love Buttercup. On the night of Prince Humperdinck and
Buttercups forced wedding Wesley shows up conveniently after a series of small
battles and extreme physical pain in order to save his one true love Buttercup.
Prince Humperdinck races into the bedroom chamber and realizes Wesley is still
weak from the physical tolls he has undertaken but is still intimidated by his
shear strength in surviving so many battles. In this scene they are across the
room from each other tossing insults at each other in an attempt to weaken the
others manhood but never truly fighting. Wesley uses his clever insults to
degrade Prince Humperdinck just as Loki has degraded many of the gods and goddesses
at the dinner. In most cases the exchange of insults is a mental game in order
to bring down the others ego and seeing who will break down first. Whoever
loses control is considered the loser and often leaves the conflict peacefully
until a later time. In the end, Wesley along with the aid of his friends over
comes Humperdinck leaving him tied up in his own bedroom chamber and steals
back Buttercup who was stolen from him in the first place. Wesley, Buttercup,
Fezzik and Inigo Montoya all ride off together on white horses in the glory of
the unexpected success over Prince Humperdinck.
I think this is a very unique approach to this story, when I read the first few pages I just saw Loki as a mean spirited bully but I believe he serves a much deeper role. Loki humanizes the gods and shows all of their flaws. It is strange to think that people at one time recognized and worshipped these people in the stories as gods when they are displaying such petty human attributes. I believe that this sort of situation can be compared to social media fame, people can appear to be a sort of flawless "god" on social media by only displaying certain parts of themselves or their lives but in fact they are human and have flaws like everyone else does.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your comparison of Loki to Wesley. Both characters take down their peers or villains through a battle of not merely physical means, but intellectual banter as well. By doing so, they have an extra advantage over their opponent. Plus, it helps them defeat them in whatever conflict they have because psychologically while they are taking down the character mentally, they are helping themselves become more confident in the battle. This is important to see in many works of fiction, but especially in the two you mentioned. On the topic of social media, we can see this technique also used as cyberbullying in today’s society.
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