Frithcast Episode 26 -Talking Tricksters

Episode 26 – Talking Tricksters

Things we talk about in this episode:

Opening Music:

'Ancient Whispers I' by P C III, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.

[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/P_C_III/Ad_Astra_Vol_1/03_Ancient_Whispers_I]

Closing Music:

'Round II - The Ancients' by Learning Music, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence

[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Learning_Music/An_End_Like_This/32_Round_II_-_The_Ancients]

Background fire ambience by inchadney from freesound.org

 

NB: Throughout this episode, we refer to Loki as he/him, based on the understanding that Loki spends most of his time presenting as male and human-looking (give or take the odd mare episode...). If you know Loki as she/her, they/them, ze/zir, or another set of pronouns it’s all good :D

 

“Still on Aardvark are we?” Blackadder, Ink and Incapability, series 3 1989

‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance’ - written 1936, by Irving Berlin.

Tricksters in Druidic mythology: Gwydion and Lugh: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~gwydion/gwydion.html

The Roman trickster Mercury, (together with his Greek equivalent Hermes https://www.shmoop.com/hermes-mercury/ ) and Discordia. (her Greek equivalent Eris) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_(mythology)

Other tricksters of the world:

Papa Legba: https://exemplore.com/magic/papalegba also known as Eshu: http://www.levity.com/figment/trickster.html

Odysseus: https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Heroes/Odysseus/odysseus.html

The Monkey King, or Sun Wukong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN3_6efimoQ

Coyote and Raven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAKHGe6x8n8

Anansi the spider: https://kidworldcitizen.org/anansi-stories-trickster-spider-west-africa-caribbean/

Tricksters, hunger and food: many tricksters have an association with food, hunger and catching food (by setting traps): This can be seen Loki being wildfire, and participating in the eating contest at Utgard (which he cannot win) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX0DPZsCt7E :

Loki invents the first fishing net: http://www.norse-mythology.cba.pl/page,249,loki.html

“The earliest use of the word ‘Trick’ in Greek refers to baiting a hook to catch fish” – Trickster Makes this World by Lewis Hyde (1998).

The monkey trap, a page which describes the trap and how it applies to the trap of short-term thinking here: http://www.godlessinamerica.com/monkeytrap.html

“Fresh fish, we catch them, you buy them” - Disney’s Aladdin (1992)

“If you are faced with two paths, take the third way.” Paraphrased from Neelix in Star Trek Voyager’s episode ‘Author, Author’ 2001 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708851/quotes

The meaning of ‘mercurial’ - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mercurial

Kate’s cannonball and bucket of mercury experiment, otherwise known as the Torricelli Experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm5D47nG9k4 (forget the words, just watch the cannonball)

“If I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor.” Lyrics to ‘Sit Down’ by James, 1989

Loki’s involvement in the death of Baldur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXPj_XDtrkc

Some of the verses in the Havamal which relate to keeping your own counsel: verses 6, 10 – 11, 20 and 22. The dangers of mixing alcohol and wits, verses 12-14, 17, 19.

Loki’s Flyting: we’ll be looking at this in more depth in the next episode, but you’re welcome to go ahead and have an explore if you don’t mind spoilers!

 

Loki’s lips being sewn shut to stop him talking: http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/mythology/myths/text/treasures.htm

John Delancie playing Q from the Q continuum. Star Trek series, most notably The Next Generation episodes, but he also pops up in Deep Space 9 and Voyager. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(Star_Trek)

Light as a particle or a wave, or both or neither. It’s the joys of Quantum Physics: this video explains the theory step by step: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk3fgjHNQ2Q

How to find us online

 

“The Staff of Ra, I has translated it.” - Scaryduck’s version of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark: https://scaryduck.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/condensed-films-raiders-of-lost-ark.html

If you fancy a longer read, try Mercury Rising: Women, Evil and the Trickster Gods, available online here https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YemNP0rXIfkC&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq=mercury+the+trickster&source=bl&ots=ncCSbF4j7Y&sig=Vg1RAO0YE03AgktA5BOV55fbGjQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiF4_uHya3YAhWHLcAKHeDxAm04ChDoAQhVMAg

There’s also a TED Talk which might be of interest: https://www.ted.com/talks/emily_levine_s_theory_of_everything#t-420495

As a last aside, there’s plenty of artwork out there, but we did find these that seem particularly apt: https://muirin007.deviantart.com/art/Deceiver-of-the-Gods-560187369

https://sceith-a.deviantart.com/art/Loki-657643934

and a whole pinterest page here: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/110971578296659347/?lp=true