Which cat are you? Quiz
25 January 2025
Which cat are you? Which of these endangered cats best matches your personality? Try our meow-zing quiz to find out!
Thor and Loki – we all know about them, right? The hammer and thunder, and the mischief. We watch the movies, we laugh at their antics and we learn about the legends. Or do we? Old stories have a strange way of morphing in the telling. Over time, original stories evolve and their origins become confused.
Thor is the Norse god of thunder and lightning, he is a huge red-haired warrior who holds the thunder-hammer Mjölnir and wears the belt-of-strength Megingjörđ. He is the strongest of all gods and protector of Asgard (realm of the Aesir), and Midgard (realm of humans). In Norse mythology Thor is the son of Odin All-Father, and the Earth goddess, Jörđ. Thor has many brother-gods: Heimdallr, Týr, Baldur, Hermóđr, Höđr, Váli and Víđarr. He has a wife, Sif-of-the-golden-hair, and a partner, Járnsaxa – the giantess.
With Járnsaxa, he has two sons, Móđi the angry and Magni the strong, and a daughter, Thrúd the powerful. With Sif, he is stepfather to Ullr, archer god of the hunt.
Powerful and fierce in battle, Thor is the archetypal* hero-warrior, he is the destroyer of trolls, mountain giants and frost giants. Once, Thor disguised himself as a bride in order to retrieve his powerful hammer from the giant Thrym. He won Hymir’s cauldron with his strength of will and he faced the giant-king Útgarđa-Loki, who tricked Thor into failing three impossible tasks: draining the ocean of water; lifting the Midgard Serpent from the earth and battling old age: yet no shame fell on him for he surpassed all expectations. His tales are full of strength and valour. It is said that Thor will live on through many adventures and many battles until the time of Ragnarök, when the Aesir will face their foes and an endless winter will fall. Ragnarök will be the end of days and Thor will meet his match with the Midgard Serpent Jörmungandr.
In 1962, brothers Stan Lee and Larry Lieber and their friend Jack Kirby, created a new Marvel superhero named Thor Odinson. They gave him blond hair and an enchanted hammer and filled comic books with his might and thunder, eventually many films were created for Thor to star in. For a while, they turned Thor into a human doctor named Donald Blake, but then they gave him back his hammer and let him be the god of thunder. Odinson’s arch-enemy is now Loki, his adopted brother.
*An archetype is the ultimate version or a typical example of a person or thing.
Loki is handsome and cunning, malicious and clever. He is the Norse trickster god, responsible for much of the strife in Asgard. He is a tangler and a web-weaver.
In Norse legend, Loki’s father is the giant Fárbauti, (he-of-the-cruel-strike) and his mother is Laufey (Leafy) or Nál, (the needle). There are those who say that Loki was born from a flash of wildfire, as lightning struck dry pine needles and burst into flame. Loki’s brothers are Helblindi the giant and Býleistr the beekeeper. No one knows how he came to be in Asgard, but for a while he was blood-brother to Thor – both his friend and his enemy.
Loki is father to a monstrous brood of children: Jörmungandr – the Midgard Serpent – who is wrapped around the world, holding its tail in its mouth. It is fated to kill and be killed by Thor at Ragnarök; Fenrir the wolf, fated to kill Odin and be killed by Thor’s brother Víðar; and Hel, his daughter, who guards the halls of Hel, where those who die of sickness or old age reside. Loki is also father to Narfi wolf-brother.
Loki is a shapeshifter. He turned into a mare to become the mother of Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged horse (yeah, I know. It gets weird, right? Ed); a flea to land on Freya’s cheek as she slept, to steal her golden necklace; a gadfly to break his oath as the dwarf Brokkr forged Thor’s hammer; and a salmon to hide from the gods after he killed Thor’s brother Baldur. His tales are long and twisted, and yes, weird!
Loki was disloyal, sometimes aiding the gods, sometimes aiding the giants. Loki lies in eternal punishment for his crimes. He is tethered to the rocks beneath a giant serpent, who drips bitter venom all day long. His long-suffering wife, Sigyn, stands above him, holding a bowl to catch the venom, when it fills up, she must leave Loki to empty the bowl and then the venom drips and burns Loki and he writhes in agony. When Ragnarök begins, Loki will rise from his bed-of-rocks and he will ride with the giants and his monstrous children and all the inhabitants of Hel to the final battle. Thus, Loki will finally betray the gods of the Aesir and hasten the end of everything.
In the comics, Thor and Loki become locked in battle – Thor to protect Asgard and Midgard, Loki to dethrone Odin and destroy Thor. For the Marvel universe, there is life after Ragnarök. For the Vikings of long ago, Ragnarök was the end of life as we know it and is yet to come.
Marvel have given us their version of the frost giants of Jötunheimr, Bifröst the rainbow-bridge and its guardian Heimdallr and the Aesir gods, also they give us Yggdrasil and the nine worlds, but they are shadows of their origins. The ancient tales are skimmed for new ideas and new adventures, and the ancient gods are sent into battle again and again.
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Words: Annalie Seaman. Illustration: Kaley McKean
Which cat are you? Which of these endangered cats best matches your personality? Try our meow-zing quiz to find out!
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