Scandinavian Folklore in Popular Media
The creatures, symbols, and themes of Scandinavian folklore can be seen readily in the Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R Tolkien. For example, the "one ring" comes from folklore, such as the famous legend, The Volsunga Saga. In this story, a magic ring owned by a dwarf named Andvari is stolen. When Loki, the god of Fire, steals the ring, Andvari shouts "I curse you for this! The ring will carry my curse forever. All who possesses the ring will be destroyed!" This only leads to death and destruction, and later Fafnir morphs into a serpent of sorts, whose outer body matches his inner evil created by the ring. This theme seems to carry over into the story behind the character Gollum. Also, there is a parallel between the Nordic legend of Frotha-Firth who stood as a peacemaker, and Frodo, the seeker of peace.
Other symbols of Scandinavian folklore can be seen in the Swedish film Marianne. At the heart of this film is a Mare that sits on the chest of victims, suffocating them.
The manga series Oh My Goddess! by Kōsuke Fujishima contains many elements of Scandinavian folklore, most notably the three leading female characters, who are named after the Norns, and many Scandinavian creatures are present to an extent, such as Sleipnir, Fenrir, and Garmr.
In 2010, the French composer Kentin Jivek releases an album called "Ode to Marmæle" inspired by the myth of the same name and norwegian folklore.
Read more about this topic: Scandinavian Folklore
Famous quotes containing the words folklore, popular and/or media:
“So, too, if, to our surprise, we should meet one of these morons whose remarks are so conspicuous a part of the folklore of the world of the radio—remarks made without using either the tongue or the brain, spouted much like the spoutings of small whales—we should recognize him as below the level of nature but not as below the level of the imagination.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Both gossip and joking are intrinsically valuable activities. Both are essentially social activities that strengthen interpersonal bonds—we do not tell jokes and gossip to ourselves. As popular activities that evade social restrictions, they often refer to topics that are inaccessible to serious public discussion. Gossip and joking often appear together: when we gossip we usually tell jokes and when we are joking we often gossip as well.”
—Aaron Ben-Ze’Ev, Israeli philosopher. “The Vindication of Gossip,” Good Gossip, University Press of Kansas (1994)
“The media no longer ask those who know something ... to share that knowledge with the public. Instead they ask those who know nothing to represent the ignorance of the public and, in so doing, to legitimate it.”
—Serge Daney (1944–1992)