Fic: A Fairy in the North
Title: A Fairy in the North
Author: Pinigir
Fandom: Norse Mythology, British Folklore
Characters/Pairing: Loki
Rating: PG
Summary: Loki explains how an elf like him came to be a Norse god.
Notes: This is based on my interpretation of Loki. This view isn’t necessarily entirely based on what is known from mythological canon.
Notes: Sequel to Over the Sea.
A Fairy in the North
Hello again!
In my previous letter, I told you how I am not a giant, but actually an elf. I never explained how I got to be part of the Nordic pantheon. It seems like a bit of a mystery, doesn’t it? How could an elf like me have ended up in a place like that? I’m sure you are curious. Good thing for you is that I am willing to indulge you in your curiosity.
First, there are some things that you have to understand about my character. I am too intelligent and too curious for my own good. I am easily bored and always looking for a new adventure. I tend to get myself in trouble a lot. (Really, a lot.) I almost always manage to talk myself out of the trouble I have gotten myself into, but some damage can’t be undone. So yeah, I’m a trouble maker. Apart from that, I really love to toy with people. And I love attention, even if it’s the negative kind. All this makes a recipe for a varied and dangerous life.
In my home world, there were a lot of others that weren’t all that different from me. But still, I felt bored there. Maybe because all the others were so similar to me. I am not someone who wants to be part of the crowd. I want to stand out, I want to be special. So you could say that I wanted something else from my life. Which is why I chose to get out and explore.
The first thing I had to do, was to get myself off of the island. I knew that I was on an island, a very big one. You know, the one that has England, Wales and Scotland on it, though they weren’t called that at the time. It took me a while, but eventually I found a boat that would get me to the main land. Lucky for me, I didn’t get sea sick, but it wasn’t the greatest trip of my life. Boats in that era weren’t all that comfortable.
The boat landed somewhere in what would probably be called France now. After getting ashore, I wandered around, going from one adventure to another. My schemes and scams made sure I could get enough to eat and have fun at the same time. I often changed my shape, just for the hell of it. I especially had some exciting times when I went around in my fox form. Maybe I’ll tell you about it someday. I did almost get killed a few times, but that was nothing to deter me. If anything, it made me feel all the more alive.
Of all the places I travelled, there was nothing that held my interest enough for me to stay. (That was probably for the best, because the havoc I wreaked meant that the people there probably wouldn’t have wanted me to stay either.) So, I kept travelling.
That all changed when I came to the North. I didn’t especially like it there. It was cold and the landscape was unwelcome. It didn’t really make me feel at home. It was something else that led me to stay. Or should I say: someone else? Because it was Odin I found there. Odin actually understood me. He was the only one who ever did. And I understood him. Something he wasn’t used to either.
Very quickly we became partners in crime. We went on adventures together, could talk for hours on end about the things we cared about and taught each other things we had learned and that no-one else cared to know about. We became inseparable. In some ways, we were soul mates. We eventually celebrated this with sealing a pact to become blood brothers. What I had found here, in the North, was better than anything I could have ever hoped for.
Odin, as you may know, was the chief of the Norse pantheon. This didn’t leave me unaffected. It wasn’t long before Odin took me into his family. They accepted me, however strange I might have seemed to them. I got married to a wonderful woman and fathered her children. I also found an additional adventuring partner in Thor. He wasn’t the most intellectually challenging company, but he could play a wonderful brawn to my brains. To prove this, there are plenty of myths detailing our exploits.
Let me give you an example. I helped Thor get his hammer back when the giant Thrym had stolen it. Thor was nothing without Mjöllnir, his hammer, and needed to get it back. The giant was willing to oblige, as long as he would get Freya’s hand in marriage. Which, of course, was something that Freya would never agree to. So, there was a problem. And after a bit of thinking, I came up with a solution. Freya wouldn’t marry the giant, but we could pretend that she would. Thor could take her place, so that he could be close to Mjöllnir and take it back in his possession as soon as the opportunity arose.
It took a bit of cajoling, but I convinced Thor to go along with my plan in the end. To make sure that everything went according to said plan, I went with him, disguised as a bridesmaid. Thor wasn’t the most convincing of brides, but luckily the giants were too stupid to realize. With us in place, all we needed to do was to make sure that Thor would get an opportunity to get his hands on Mjöllnir. A little bit of subterfuge on my part took care of that, making the giants think that the hammer was an integral part of the wedding ceremony. The item was produced and as soon as it was within his reach, Thor grabbed it and used it to single-handedly kill Thrym and all of the other wedding guests. So, the day ended with Thor having his hammer back, Freya never having had to degrade herself by marrying a giant and the bad guys being severely punished. All because I was able to come up with a cunning plan.
Like I implied, this wasn’t the only time me and my cunning were able to save the day, be it working with Odin, with Thor or on my own. I have to admit that I caused trouble just as often, if not more, but that’s not relevant right now. I just meant to illustrate that I built up a life and a legend among the gods of Asgard. I slowly became one of them.
So, it was my connection to Odin that earned me my place in the Norse pantheon. It was my adventurous spirit that led me to leave my home and it was fortune, luck or whatever you might want to call it that brought me to the North. That pretty much sums up the story of how I came to be a Norse god. It’s quite straight forward, really.
Right now, many centuries later, I’m still technically one of the gods, though I am in disgrace. If you know your mythology, you might know how that came to be. Why I’m still here and why I haven’t simply run away and returned to my homeland, is something I might tell you at a later time. This particular letter has come to an end.
Be seeing you,
Loki
+++
I love feedback!
Author: Pinigir
Fandom: Norse Mythology, British Folklore
Characters/Pairing: Loki
Rating: PG
Summary: Loki explains how an elf like him came to be a Norse god.
Notes: This is based on my interpretation of Loki. This view isn’t necessarily entirely based on what is known from mythological canon.
Notes: Sequel to Over the Sea.
A Fairy in the North
Hello again!
In my previous letter, I told you how I am not a giant, but actually an elf. I never explained how I got to be part of the Nordic pantheon. It seems like a bit of a mystery, doesn’t it? How could an elf like me have ended up in a place like that? I’m sure you are curious. Good thing for you is that I am willing to indulge you in your curiosity.
First, there are some things that you have to understand about my character. I am too intelligent and too curious for my own good. I am easily bored and always looking for a new adventure. I tend to get myself in trouble a lot. (Really, a lot.) I almost always manage to talk myself out of the trouble I have gotten myself into, but some damage can’t be undone. So yeah, I’m a trouble maker. Apart from that, I really love to toy with people. And I love attention, even if it’s the negative kind. All this makes a recipe for a varied and dangerous life.
In my home world, there were a lot of others that weren’t all that different from me. But still, I felt bored there. Maybe because all the others were so similar to me. I am not someone who wants to be part of the crowd. I want to stand out, I want to be special. So you could say that I wanted something else from my life. Which is why I chose to get out and explore.
The first thing I had to do, was to get myself off of the island. I knew that I was on an island, a very big one. You know, the one that has England, Wales and Scotland on it, though they weren’t called that at the time. It took me a while, but eventually I found a boat that would get me to the main land. Lucky for me, I didn’t get sea sick, but it wasn’t the greatest trip of my life. Boats in that era weren’t all that comfortable.
The boat landed somewhere in what would probably be called France now. After getting ashore, I wandered around, going from one adventure to another. My schemes and scams made sure I could get enough to eat and have fun at the same time. I often changed my shape, just for the hell of it. I especially had some exciting times when I went around in my fox form. Maybe I’ll tell you about it someday. I did almost get killed a few times, but that was nothing to deter me. If anything, it made me feel all the more alive.
Of all the places I travelled, there was nothing that held my interest enough for me to stay. (That was probably for the best, because the havoc I wreaked meant that the people there probably wouldn’t have wanted me to stay either.) So, I kept travelling.
That all changed when I came to the North. I didn’t especially like it there. It was cold and the landscape was unwelcome. It didn’t really make me feel at home. It was something else that led me to stay. Or should I say: someone else? Because it was Odin I found there. Odin actually understood me. He was the only one who ever did. And I understood him. Something he wasn’t used to either.
Very quickly we became partners in crime. We went on adventures together, could talk for hours on end about the things we cared about and taught each other things we had learned and that no-one else cared to know about. We became inseparable. In some ways, we were soul mates. We eventually celebrated this with sealing a pact to become blood brothers. What I had found here, in the North, was better than anything I could have ever hoped for.
Odin, as you may know, was the chief of the Norse pantheon. This didn’t leave me unaffected. It wasn’t long before Odin took me into his family. They accepted me, however strange I might have seemed to them. I got married to a wonderful woman and fathered her children. I also found an additional adventuring partner in Thor. He wasn’t the most intellectually challenging company, but he could play a wonderful brawn to my brains. To prove this, there are plenty of myths detailing our exploits.
Let me give you an example. I helped Thor get his hammer back when the giant Thrym had stolen it. Thor was nothing without Mjöllnir, his hammer, and needed to get it back. The giant was willing to oblige, as long as he would get Freya’s hand in marriage. Which, of course, was something that Freya would never agree to. So, there was a problem. And after a bit of thinking, I came up with a solution. Freya wouldn’t marry the giant, but we could pretend that she would. Thor could take her place, so that he could be close to Mjöllnir and take it back in his possession as soon as the opportunity arose.
It took a bit of cajoling, but I convinced Thor to go along with my plan in the end. To make sure that everything went according to said plan, I went with him, disguised as a bridesmaid. Thor wasn’t the most convincing of brides, but luckily the giants were too stupid to realize. With us in place, all we needed to do was to make sure that Thor would get an opportunity to get his hands on Mjöllnir. A little bit of subterfuge on my part took care of that, making the giants think that the hammer was an integral part of the wedding ceremony. The item was produced and as soon as it was within his reach, Thor grabbed it and used it to single-handedly kill Thrym and all of the other wedding guests. So, the day ended with Thor having his hammer back, Freya never having had to degrade herself by marrying a giant and the bad guys being severely punished. All because I was able to come up with a cunning plan.
Like I implied, this wasn’t the only time me and my cunning were able to save the day, be it working with Odin, with Thor or on my own. I have to admit that I caused trouble just as often, if not more, but that’s not relevant right now. I just meant to illustrate that I built up a life and a legend among the gods of Asgard. I slowly became one of them.
So, it was my connection to Odin that earned me my place in the Norse pantheon. It was my adventurous spirit that led me to leave my home and it was fortune, luck or whatever you might want to call it that brought me to the North. That pretty much sums up the story of how I came to be a Norse god. It’s quite straight forward, really.
Right now, many centuries later, I’m still technically one of the gods, though I am in disgrace. If you know your mythology, you might know how that came to be. Why I’m still here and why I haven’t simply run away and returned to my homeland, is something I might tell you at a later time. This particular letter has come to an end.
Be seeing you,
Loki
+++
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