Myth Retold

This is the myth of how a Jotun came in disguise and built a wall around Asgard and was tricked by Loki, and of how I got my horse, Sleipnir.

Way back in the early days of the universe, all of us gods had created Midgard and such, and we were working on Asgard, the home of the gods. A stone-mason came to us and said he could build it for us in three seasons if we gave him a heavy price - Freyja, the sun, and the moon. My fellow gods and I held a council, and we decided that if the stone-mason could finish it in a winter, which we knew was impossible, then we would give him the prize. We decided that this was the best way, as we could at least get part of the work out of him. He surprisingly agreed, but asked if he could use his stallion, called Svadilfari, to help him complete the work. We agreed, but were surprised to find that this stallion was hauling all of the rocks to Asgard to work on the wall.

When the end of winter was close, the stone-mason had almost finished the wall, and we knew that we were going to have to pay the stone-mason his prize. We all held another council and asked who had suggested giving Freyja, the sun, and the moon to the stone-mason as the prize. We were not surprised to find that it had been Loki's idea. So naturally, to avoid his punishment, Loki came up with a plan to keep the stone-mason from finishing the wall. Loki turned himself into a mare and lured Svadilfari off into the woods. When the stone-mason discovered that his horse was gone, he flew into a rage, revealing his true form as a Jotun (Giant). We called on Thor, who quickly came and, naturally, smashed the Jotun's head with his hammer, Mjöllnir. Later, Loki had been hanging out with Svadilfari, and he gave birth to a foal, who was Sleipnir. Loki presented Sleipnir to me as a gift, and I accepted it, knowing that this horse was the fastest in the world and had powers which I have already discussed in a previous blog.

Resolution

The resolution of this story is basically when Thor smashes the Jotun stone-mason's head with his hammer. When Thor does this, the Jotun cannot take his prize - Freyja, the sun, and the moon. Then, as kind of an addition to the resolution of this story, Loki comes back to Asgard with my brand new horse, Sleipnir. Even though Loki had given birth to Sleipnir, he was still a really nice horse, so I kept him and now I ride around on him wherever I need to go.

Climax

This story had a few ups and downs, but I'm pretty sure that the climax was when Loki turned into a mare and lured the stone-mason's horse away into the forest. This caused the stone-mason to get all mad and turn into a Jotun and such. What happened was that the Jotun's horse, Svadilfari, was helping the Jotun to complete the wall around Asgard by helping pull along the stones used to build the wall. When the wall was almost finished, the gods knew they would have to pay the stone-mason his reward - Freyja, the sun, and the moon - for completing it, even though they did not want to. So then Loki got to be the hero by turning into a mare and leading Svadilfari off into the forest, preventing the stone-mason from finishing his work on the wall. He got all mad and turned into a Jotun, so Thor showed up and smashed his head with his hammer. Thor always seems to show up to save the day.

Conflict

The conflict in this myth is, obviously, the conflict between us gods and the Jotun stone-mason. The stone-mason wants Freyja, the sun, and the moon in exchange for building a wall around Asgard. This creates some tension between us as we don't want to give him his payment, and he knows we don't want to give it to him. Loki comes in, as usual, and makes it even worse by turning into a mare and leading the stone-mason's horse away into the forest. The Jotun gets really mad when he doesn't quite finish the wall, so his true form is shown. We have even more violence and conflict when Thor comes and smashes the Jotun's head with his hammer.

Character Development

One of the main characters in this myth is obviously me, so I won't go into much detail on that. If you forgot what I look like, you can go look at my first post. (I will also be very angry.) Another one of the main guys is the stone-mason who is a giant (Called a Jotun) in disguise. He comes along to help build the wall around Asgard in return for the sun, the moon, and Freyja. When he does not finish building the walls, he gets really mad and shows his true Jotun form. We call for Thor, and he smashes the Jotun's head into "little crumbs" with his hammer.

Another of the characters is the trickster Loki. As usual, Loki tricks someone to get what he wants, but in this story, he actually ends up helping out. He comes up with a plan to keep the Jotun stone-mason from finishing the wall around Asgard by transforming into a mare and leading the Jotun's stallion away so the stone-mason has to pull the stone to the wall himself. He leads the stallion into the woods and returns a few months later with a gift - my horse Sleipnir.

A fourth major character is Thor. Thor shows up briefly at the end of this myth to do what he does best - smashing the Jotun's head with his hammer. Thor is the big strong protector of Asgard. He's also my son! I'm really proud of him, even though he's not the smartest...

And, of course, there's my wonderful horse Sleipnir. Even though he was born from Loki, he's still really cool. He's got eight legs, is the fastest horse in the world, and can travel on land, sea, or sky. In a lot of traditional picture sources, he has four legs split at the knee to make eight. Here's a picture of me riding him. A painting, not a photograph.

 

All horses should have eight legs.

Myth Setting

This is the myth of how I got my horse Sleipnir. It took place in and around Asgard, where a giant in disguise as a stone-mason came and offered to build a wall around it. He wanted some big payments, but we knew we could trick him into doing it without paying him, so we let him build the wall. This all happened during the winter (From the first day of winter to the first day of summer.) The stone-mason had a horse named Svadilfari to help him build the wall. The horse pulls all the stones that the stone-mason needs to build the wall. Asgard is surrounded by a thick forest, and a few days before the stone-mason finished and we had to pay him, Loki turned into a mare and lured Svadilfari into the forest. Months later, Loki returned and gave me an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir which was the offspring of Svadilfai and Loki. It's a little strange, but that's how I got my horse.

Three Cultural References

One of the main cultural references connected to me is a day of the week - Wednesday. This comes from another form of the spelling of my name, "Woden." The day was long ago called Wodensday, which changed over time into the day as we know it now - Wednesday.

Another reference to me is that me, Loki, and some other Norse mythological people have main roles in the novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

One of the most important references to me may be Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner, which is a series of four operas, in which I am one of the characters, under the name of Wotan (One of my Germanic mythological names.) I play the role of the king of the gods.