Norse Gods: A Huge Pile of LOL
I've been looking into the history of some of the Norse gods ever since I started collecting Thor (which has been awesome). One of the gods I looked at (via Wikipedia, what else?) is named Balder (or Baldr, in Norse). In the comics, he's Thor's slightly dense BFF. In mythology, Balder is one of those unfortunate gods best known for dying. Basically, Balder has a dream that he's going to die, and gets super-depressed. His mother, looking out for him, makes every person and thing in the world promise not to harm Balder. Unfortunately, she forgets to ask mistletoe, apparently because it resembled the marshmallow guy in Ghostbusters - something that makes you kiss surely can't be harmful in any way. Unfortunately, Loki heard about this exception, and forged a spear made of mistletoe.
Here's the hilarious part - Loki got his chance to strike when he discovered the gods had found a new game: They were chucking things at Balder and watching them harmlessly bounce off. He gave the spear to a blind god, who, for once, did actually hit the mark, and Balder was killed. Despite the fact this was supposed to be a great tragedy, I couldn't help but giggle. Only in a pantheon so similar to a drunken frat party could this death have happened: "We're out of beer! What now?" "I know! Let's lob goats at Balder again!" Poor Balder. I think if I ever took up fanfiction, I would write about the Norse gods. In no other pantheon can you have such inebriated, testosterone-filled fun.
Here's the hilarious part - Loki got his chance to strike when he discovered the gods had found a new game: They were chucking things at Balder and watching them harmlessly bounce off. He gave the spear to a blind god, who, for once, did actually hit the mark, and Balder was killed. Despite the fact this was supposed to be a great tragedy, I couldn't help but giggle. Only in a pantheon so similar to a drunken frat party could this death have happened: "We're out of beer! What now?" "I know! Let's lob goats at Balder again!" Poor Balder. I think if I ever took up fanfiction, I would write about the Norse gods. In no other pantheon can you have such inebriated, testosterone-filled fun.