KeMa, don't be jealous (but thanks for the shout-out). I am taking a class. It started tonight. It's online, so for a change of pace, I'm sitting at my computer. The class is called “Get Funny,” and it's offered through Greenfield Community College. I've wanted to take it for a while, but decided to wait until Babykins was waking up fewer than three times a night.
The first lesson was posted today — a historical overview of humor writing. Good stuff. I have already completed my first assignment, because it was quiet in the house and I'm a dork. We were tasked with reading either Aristophanes (my comedy hero), Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare's comedies, or the Norse or Icelandic Sagas. I read a bunch of Norse myths. You know what? They're funny! I wrote all about them with a spoiler warning on the class discussion board. You can read my little essay by clicking “more.” (Don't want to bore the looky-loos.)
Lesson One: Norse Myths (spoilers) by Motormouth
I decided to read some Norse myths, because I knew nothing about them and the reference to Thor cross-dressing as a bride made me laugh. I found a bunch of them online at TimelessMyths.com.
In these myths, originally written in the early 1200s, Loki, the trickster, is constantly causing trouble, but has the foresight to 1) be smart, and 2) be friends with the mighty Thor and Odin, who usually save his bacon. But in many of the myths, the giants are pretty tricky themselves.
In one tale, a giant named Skrymir disguises himself and makes Thor, Loki, and their buddies compete in different challenges: a drinking contest, an eating contest, a foot race, a strength test, and a wrestling match. Kind of reminded me of: Beerfest, Stand By Me (the blueberry-pie-eating contest), Will Ferrell streaking in Old School, Jim Carrey against God in Bruce Almighty, and Jack Black as Nacho Libre.
Anyway, Thor and his buddies lose, but it turns out that Skrymir hadn't just disguised himself, he'd disguised the contests — for example, in the drinking contest, Thor wasn't drinking ale, but the sea!
Another giant, Hrungnir, was challenged by Thor to a battle. The other giants were pretty sure that Hrungnir would lose, because of this unbeatable weapon Thor had gotten from the dwarves (thanks to Loki, after Loki cut off all of Thor's wife's hair… it's a long story). So the giants created a giant made of clay. This doesn't work out as they planned; instead of striking fear in to Thor, when the clay-giant sees Thor, it wets itself from fright. Funny!
Thor wins the battle but ends up with a whetstone in his head, and proves his own stupidity by distracting the goddess in the middle of her healing spell, so the whetstone stayed in his head. What a dummy.
Loki proves his worth in the cross-dressing Thor/Bride story — when the giant inquires about why “the bride” is eating so much, it's Loki who provides the “she was fasting!” answer. And then when the giant asks why his bride's eyes are red, Loki responds, “She's been so excited for the marriage, she hasn't slept in eight nights.”
(Another funny item in the “bride” story is that Thrym, the Giant/antagonist, is the leader of the frost-giants. the woman he wants to marry is Freyja, the sluttiest of all the goddesses, who is nevertheless outraged at the idea of bedding down with him. There's probably a joke about frigidity in there but I'm not going to dig for it yet.)
Is Loki too smart for his own good? Maybe. But he's a thousand times smarter than Thor-the-dummy, and this proves helpful to Thor. Plus, he's great for comic relief; in another myth, they need to make a frost-giantess laugh, so they tie the beard of a nanny-goat to Loki's testicles. When one or the other would pull, “both would squeal.” This made the giantess laugh for the first time in her life, saving the day.
Finally, Loki gets captured by *another* frost-giant (apparently the authors needed to make it apparent that Norway is a frosty place to live), Geirrod, who makes Loki persuade Thor to come visit. Thor agrees, but goes without his unbeatable sword, his iron gauntlets, or the Mjollnir, his girdle of might. A friendly giantess they meet along the way tells Thor he's walking into certain death, so she gives Thor her unbreakable magic staff, her iron gloves, and her own girdle of might, which makes me think of the modern-day mantra, “if I wear this girdle, I might get lucky.”
And yes, Thor *does* get lucky while wearing the girdle: he not only kills Geirrod, but G's two daughters, too.
All in all, there is plenty of humor in the Norse myths, and a lot of the humor seems entirely too familiar, considering the myths are more than 800 years old.