Abstract

My specific folklore topic:
The purpose of this project is to explore the ways in which pre-Christian Norse folklore is being communicated in modern retellings such as novels and comic books (and their related movies).

How it relates to folklore:
Though the modern retellings of these stories are usually in the form of published works like novels and comic books that are not themselves folklore, the original stories were the folklore of the Norse people and are still a topic of cultural pride for those people and their American descendants.

Why I decided to do my research on this topic:
This topic is a perfect intersection of two things that interest me: fantasy/"geek" literature and my own recently discovered Norse heritage. As I've explored the religion and beliefs of my ancestors I've found that many of the stories are already known to me from other media. I love the idea of these old folk stories being carried on this way.

Exactly how you did your course project (step-by-step):

• Read the Prose Edda and some other books on Norse mythology
• Read a bunch of comics and some books about comics
• ???
• Profit!!!

What I learned by doing the project:
I learned that, for someone whose estate is so quick to sue the pants off anyone who dares use the word "hobbit", Tolkien sure did take a lot of inspiration from the Prose Edda. Also Grant Morrison is MUCH too enamored of psychedelic drugs.

Seriously, I learned a great deal about just how much some of my favorite modern stories borrowed from, were inspired by, or were straight retellings of this mythology. When reading the Thor series it was at times hard to tell what backstory occurred in previous issues and what backstory was part of mythology. I found it interesting that Loki is traditionally referred to by a matronym - a last name derived from his mother's name - rather than  a patronym - after the father's name - like both other Norse gods and Norse people of the time in general.

What questions, if any,  are still not answered by my research,  and what I would have done differently if I did the course project over:
Nobody seems to actually know if "dark elves" and dwarfs are the same thing. As the source of this confusion, the Prose Edda, was written in the early 13th Century an answer is not likely forthcoming. However, as works like Thor and Dungeons & Dragons show, the idea of dark elves is much too fascinating to disregard. I never did find a reason why Loki's surname uses his mother's name rather than his father's.

If I did the course project over I would have ditched Grant Morrison's Supergods, which started out as a fascinating history of superheroes and commentary on their mythical inspirations but, in the second half, turned into a masturbatory mess about using the royalties from the Arkham Asylum graphic novel to spend a couple years tripping on acid in exotic locales that was neither helpful as research nor all that interesting to someone who generally thinks of Morrison as just a pretty decent writer.