When C.S. Lewis wrote Woobie!Loki fanfiction

[selenak]

Yesterday, when I had occasion to hunt for quotes, I was reminded of this bit in Lewis' early day memoirs, Surprised by Joy, about his teenage self - already a big fan of Norse mythology - distracting himself of the horror that was English Public School by writing. As one does. (The easiest modern day equivalent for the "Bloods" referred to in the

Comments

[amenirdis]

Exodus does look interesting. I have no idea where the Ramses II thing started since it doesn't make sense timewise. Nor, frankly, does Ahkenaten, good as Pillar of Fire is. I think it makes far more sense historically to have Seti be the Pharaoh of Joseph and to put the Exodus in the later 19th dynasty mess with the successors of Ramses III. Why? Because Joseph's world is very clearly described, and I think it makes sense as the post-Hittite power void after the fall of Ugarit and the cities of the coast in the 13th century BC. Seti (like his briefly reigning father Ramses I) was from Avaris, a very pro-Semitic (and I use that word cautiously in the sense of tribes) area that had long had very friendly relations with the coast. I can see that Seti would be perfectly comfortable with a Habiru counselor who could indeed attain power. The area of Avaris already had a Habiru population, and the Delta, unlike much of the Levant, wasn't having a serious drought. There followed a century of stability which changed after the

[selenak]

Ramses II. really makes no sense whatsoever timewise, so I'm really curious whom we can blame for first bringing him up as a candidate!

Seti as Joseph's Pharao: now that I can see. (Instead, the poor guy gets cast as the childkilling Pharao in the movies.) Mind you, every now and then I also toy with the theory that the whole Exodus saga happened generations earlier, right at the start of the 18th dynasty, because of the natural catastrophies documented for the reign of Ahmose I.

[amenirdis]

I have no idea when that first appeared -- the nineteenth century maybe?

Seti's not the childkilling sort at all. He seems to have been a nice old duffer with a short, fairly prosperous reign. I can't frankly think of much he did besides restore the temple at Abydos with his name all over it.

Oh, yes, putting it back in Ahmose I has definite storytelling possibilities! The only problem I would have there is that in Palestine there's not the post-Hittite power void, and it seems pretty clear in Exodus that the Hebrews are moving into an area of petty kingdoms, not part of a large and well organized empire. I mean, Jericho etc are small fortified towns and there seems to be no central authority among the Peleset. That seems to me to be a scenario out of the Mediterranean Dark Age, and the Hebrews are part of the movements of peoples in that era. You would think that if there had been the mighty Hittite Empire there when they moved in they would have had their butts kicked.

[ljlorettamartin]

Had to look up "woobie" on tvtropes.org, got overwhelmed as usual by tvtropes.org.

[selenak]

LOL. That is the curse of the website.

[meganinhiding]

I personally think Ramses II gets cast into the role of the wicked Pharoah because he's relatively well known among the Pharoahs outside of King Tut.

I would join C.S. Lewis' club for people appalled by making Loki Odin's son because their relationship from myths is fascinating whether its platonic or not and the norse mythology section on AO3 was taken over by the movies so I've given sifting for strictly non-Marvel Odin and Loki.

I wonder if the Thor series would have been an Odin series if it had first come out in say the nineties or afterwards.

[selenak]

You could be right re: Ramses.

And yeah, me too. Back when the Marvelverse first drew me in, I thought what a shame it was we get lame old daddy issues instead of the myths relationship. One reason why I hope there WILL be an American Gods tv series this time is that the Odin and Loki characters there are the Norse ones, not the Marvel variation.