1/6/20 Justin Cohen PD 2

Norse Mythology

            Today in class, we listened to a presentation on Norse Mythology. Our target goal was to examine the morality of deception in Norse Mythology. The lesson started with an interesting dilemma; “You stealing a random man’s car results in the cops catching the murderer whose car you just stole. Does the fortuitous result of your wrongdoing justify your wrong doing?” On one hand, you didn’t know he was a murderer at the time you committed the crime, which shows you did in fact have malicious intent. On the other hand, you may have made society a better place as there is one less murderer on the streets.

    In the first story, we learn about “Sif’s Hair.” Loki cut off Sif’s hair and soon after realized that Thor would get very angry since Sif’s is married to Thor. In order to fix what he had done, he had the idea to go to the dwarves as they are the best craftsmen in the world. They were split into two groups, a gods’ team and Loki’s team. They were to compete against each other. Each group was ordered to make gifts for the gods. Loki’s group made Sif’s new hair out of gold, the other made Mjolliner (Thor’s Hammer). Loki turned himself into a flying insect and tried to bite one of the eyes of the dwarves making the hammer, causing him to mess up the creation, which is why it can only be wielded with one hand. This goes back to the original question in the introduction paragraph. Loki cut off Sif’s hair and seriously injured a dwarf. However, from these sins, came what was used to defend Asgard, the house of the Gods. Did the ends justify the means?

    The second story was called “The Master Builder.” Loki negotiates a bet in which he bets a man that he cannot build an extremely tall and wide wall in just one season. If the man can build it, he would receive Freya’s hand in marriage, the sun, and the moon. Loki made this bet without consulting any of the gods and without asking Freya permission to bet her. With the help of his horse, the betting man was on pace to finish the wall. In order to ensure the man loses the bet, Loki distracts the man’s horse while the gods killed him. Once they kill him, it is realized that the man is a “giant”. Without Loki’s reckless, and impulsive decision-making, this giant would still be alive and well, roaming the world. Does this make his behavior righteous?

    This moral question appears quite often throughout Norse mythology and other forms of mythology as well. In the Bible, before Eve ate the apple, there was no sickness or death, pain or betrayal, no sadness or depression. When she ate the apple, her and Adam gained knowledge of such things. Although these may be seen as “evil”, it is the fact that we go through these awful experiences, that we are able to appreciate their foils. This must be why people such as the Norse created an evil figure that is immortal. It is because they realized that good and evil balance each other out and sometimes good can come from evil and vise versa.