Eldrunn: Introduction

When I was younger, one of my favourite books to read was D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths. There is an image of Loki, impish and flame-haired, that is so clear in my mind I could probably draw it from memory. The myths are told in as uncomplicated an order as possible and trace Loki’s journey from impish relative, to malicious murderer, to the bringer of Ragnarok.

Later, I would read The Eight Days of Luke by the incredible Diana Wynne Jones and see Loki at odds with his adopted family in a contemporary setting. As the tale unfolds, it implies an endless cycle of stories repeated over and over again. Many years later, I would read the Marvel series’ Loki: Journey into Mystery, by Keiron Gillen, and Loki: Agent of Asgard, by Al Ewing, and enjoy the spiralling loops of fate, destiny and time all racing against one another to be the greatest determinant of who Loki would be.

Then came the MCU and a whole new adaptation of Loki, followed by more stretching of the character through the series on Disney+.

All this to say that this story is not really about Loki. It’s about a crazy idea I had when all these different iterations of the same god/deity were running around inside my head. It’s about a clear beginning, a clear motive and a vague idea of what happens after that. It will certainly require me to make a storyboard replete with thumb tacks and string so that I can pretend I know what I’m doing. It will be me making a lot of stuff up and hoping that it eventually makes sense because it ultimately makes sense in my head and that, my friends, is step one.