Of Barbarians, Norsemen, & Comics

Here is an interesting story helping to debunk the myth that the Norse Vikings were well…barbarians (Maybe they were in some respect. My definition of Barbarism is people who are cultural destroyers as opposed to cultural creators—and they definitely did do some destroying). The verdict is not completely out—but as the article indicates, for their time, the Vikings may not have been as backwards as we have been led to believe. And their culture was in many ways, vibrant.

From the article:

“[T]he Scandinavians also had a highly developed legal system, perhaps the most democratic in the known world. Decisions were reached by voting at open meetings where all free men had the right to speak.

Women also had substantial powers. They could own land, inherit, and get divorced. Keys have been found in graves of women, which suggest that women controlled farms and property. There are even legends that tell of women warriors.

The Viking culture was a heathen and rich in mythology. The Viking gods, all with human characteristics, directed and dominated everyday life. The supreme god was Odin, whose two ravens, Hugin (Thought) and Munin (Memory), flew everywhere and spied on everyone.”

Speaking of Viking myths, when I was a young child, I was fascinated with Norse mythology. I preferred these stories to those of Greek mythology. I also have a comic book collection that numbers at roughly 4000. How are these things related? Both Marvel and DC comics have done something very creative with the mythological gods: They have incorporated them into their existing superhero universes. Yes, Zeus exists in the DC as well as in the Marvel universes. Of course, these companies can’t copyright these characters as they can their own wholly created superheroes. But they can copyright their company’s unique expression of these gods and goddesses.

In the 1960s, Marvel took the Thor of Norse mythology and made him into one of their flagship superheroes. This was Marvel creators Stan Lee’s (writer) and Jack Kirby’s (artist) unique take on Thor. This is Thor living in the 20th Century—in the same world as Spiderman, etc.—and fighting supervillians in New York City and elsewhere. And they did a good job of staying pretty close to the original myth, with a few minor changes.

Thor living on Earth as a modern day superhero is only one part of Marvel’s Thor narrative. The other cool thing they do is take Thor back to Asgard (the mythical home of the Norse gods) and here we can see the whole pantheon of Norse gods. Marvel, by doing this, is helping to keep these myths alive by telling new stories in this unique context.

I don’t approve of everything they have done with Thor; yet some of Marvel’s creators have told some great stories while demonstrating a thorough knowledge of the original myths and keeping true to the “spirit” of the original tales as well.

Walter Simonson’s run on Thor deserves notable mention.

When I last checked out Thor, Odin had died (in the superhero world, this doesn’t mean much as they can always find some way to resurrect these heroes from the dead—and this is especially true with gods. How do you kill a god for God's sake?) and Thor had assumed the mantle as leader of the Norse gods and became even more powerful by inheriting the “Odin power.”