dance of the jötnar: examining the Ragnarok TV series.

There's this sudden departure in Ragnarok S1 E2 where the teen jotun Fjor needlescratch hijacks the Edda High School's Spring Dance's DJ booth with his phone to put on a seething & primal track, and a ritual of choreography involving his sister Saxa & odd new kid in school Laurits unfolds in front of the student body who clears the floor for their weird leaning, quick, whip-jerk movements that the trio performs more for each other and its own process' sake, than to the surprised & awed room.

The implied NorsePlay from this would be: How much of a different culture have the jotnar developed in their cosmological exile into frosty Jotunheimr (or flaming Muspelheimr) since the beginning of time? The scene reveals a semi-supernatural music & dance tradition stepping out into view, impressing its way into a Midgardian small town world.

Later episodes show the jötnar having to vote on a consensus for war by placing their hands upon an axe, and double-handedly slapping the table to agree with given statements as that potential confrontation is discussed & debated, like some peculiar jötunthing parliamentary procedure.

There's also almost a calling of the circle, where there's a Voluspa-like incantation happening, but it's different, as if the jotnar are speaking their own version of the same prophecy but from the adversaries' side of its forecast of Ragnarokian doom.

In Vidar's office, there's what seems to be a brutalist modern sculpture, and strangely spike nubbed ashtray centering his small meeting table. We might consider this as reactive Jötnar Art, a counter-creation to Odin's Æsir-crafted world. And it seems all the jötnar smoke like chimneys, which perhaps can be seen as a subtext for destruction of the current physical Níu Heimar, or more of being closer to the pre-creation dominant elements of fire & ice. 

To introduce the other side of factions, when Magne (David Stakston) visits the rich estate hall of Jutulheim, two parallel "contests" of Útgarðr occur which mirror the trials of Thor where he drinks from a horn that seems to stay more full than it should, and an armwrestling match against his school principal Ran (sultry Synnøve Macody Lund).

[Ran wins!]

Magne's becoming Thor also serves as a metaphor for high school adolescence's finding oneself, and the giants' apparent deaths & reincarnations shows how they flip-flop familial roles between each other. Other NorsePlays use this reincarnation factor, like the young adult series The Blackwell Pages or New Zealand's The Almighty Johnsons. And reincarnation's use by Ragnarok might possibly be influenced by the very uncommon in Norse Lore reincarnations of saga hero Helgi Hundingsbane & his Valkyrie lover Sváva, but could also just as easily only be a modern writer's mechanism to explain how nigh-immortal giants sustain their presence & property without being noticed. 

A hammer pretty much machined out of Marvel's Thor films, which jotun leader Vidar confiscates and pointedly states, "This looks like a prop", appears early on, perhaps referencing Þrym's taking of Mjölnir, but also Magne trying to temper it in Jutulheim's fire reflexively referencing Marvel Comics' invention of Muspelheim's First Flame and sharing the same name as the MCU's Eternal Flame from Thor: Ragnarok (2017 CE).

The show's tonality wavers from half of a teen drama to half of a small-town behind-the-curtains mystery. It lacks some depth, but if we stop to examine the details, like all the jötnarkulture above, there's expansive aspects worth thinking about.

Genre limitations & insights aside, Ragnarok's also fun. It makes me wish John Hughes had done a The Breakfast Club-toned teen fantasy dramedy. There's shades of BBC's Misfits, where characters are feeling out their powers to tell a coming-of-age-superhero/villain story. It's the peers & student body not knowing who, or in this case what, you really are, and the tension of their discovering that you're actually the friendly neighborhood Norse God. That's all an amplified adolescence metaphor, along with regular generational friction reflected from mythological conflict stories of elder "Gods" versus younger deities, told in this context as the jötnar versus the Æsir, and even jötnar teens chafing against jötnar elders. And despite some of the Twilight-esque YA structures, NorsePlay is still in for Season 3, which as of this post has already concluded shooting, is in post-production, and was announced to be its final season, airing sometime 2023.

And if Magne's positioning on the pencil skirt merch above is any indication, we certainly aren't the only fan of Ragnarok. You go, boy of Thunder.

["Follow My Will (Giant Dance)" lyrics & vocals by Anna Hansen.]

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Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants at age seven. Since then he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the Map of Midgard project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay. If you have employment/opportunities in investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer, do contact him.