There's a lot of Thor to look forward to in the coming year. Firstly, what
today's Observer calls 'Kenneth Branagh's unlikely first foray into Marvel comic book heroics', the film
Thor, due in May (and already much hyped, see my previous posts on this topic from
April and
May last year), or possibly even the 29th of April (will people be queuing for the film to get away from the Royal Wedding?). Never having been a reader of Marvel comics (is this something to do with my gender?), I'm not quite sure what to expect, and whether the film will just be a version of the comic, or whether it will have recourse to older sources. But
the recent publicity suggests this is one that will be more for comic fans than Old Norse mythology fans.
What actually looks like much more fun is
Legends of Valhalla: Thor, an animated film
being produced in Iceland (based on some Icelandic children's books) and to be released in the autumn. The film has
a cool website, where among other delights you can see interviews with
the splendid Terry Gunnell, explaining about Norse mythology (though I rather wish they hadn't used the term 'Asatru' for this).
Hi,
ReplyDeleteYou should try some of the Thors comics - I was hooked on the Norse Myths as a lad in the 60's as a consequence of them (even then with Asgard pictured as a high-tech superhero world the myths were retold for its audience remakably faithfully to the spirit of the source material) and in more recent years the mythology has been mined even more accurately.
The forthcoming movie has led to a tidal wave of one-off comics some of which do take a well-informed look at the mythology. They are still comics but as a way to popularise this element of our history they provide a good starting point.
nuff said!!!
chris