Questions about Thor: Ragnarok

@weirdraptor

Just let him be. Let him ask his questions in peace. He isn't insulting anybody or even putting the MCU down. You're getting worked up over nothing.

I haven't yet seen Thor: Ragnarok, DC-Fan, so I can't answer your second question, but I can answer this one. (I've been fascinated by both Greco-Roman and Norse mythologies since I was very young.) 

I don't know how it works in the comics, but in mythology Hel[⁄a] is the daughter of Loki and the giantess Angrboda. Like Hades, she rules over the dead, and her realm (Hel) is named after her, as Hades's is named after him. (Indeed, we derive our English word hell from this goddess.) Unlike Hades, however, who rules over all of the dead (then divided into the infernal Tartarus, the purgatorial Asphodel Meadows, and the paradisiacal Elysium), Hel only receives that portion of the dead who died from disease or old age. Those who died gloriously in battle are taken to the golden hall of Valhalla by Odin's warrior-maidens, the Valkyries. 

Odin, a solitary, lonely god (very different from Zeus), one should note, is as much a death god in Norse Mythology as Hel is (there is also another deity who keeps the souls of those who died at sea, Ægir, assisted by his wife Ran and their nine daughters); indeed, other than both ruling over the dead, Hel and Hades have precious few similarities. Hel is an unapologetic enemy of the Æsir gods in Norse mythology, whereas Hades is an Olympian god in the Greek (though he has been made a villain by, say, the movie Hercules--and Wonder Woman [?]). 

The Valkyries and the Amazons are also very different. Despite their prevalence in pop-culture, the Amazons' appearances in Greek myth are few and far between, whereas the Valkyries are ever-present in the Norse. The Amazons tend to be villainous when they appear, whereas the Valkyries are on the side of the gods. Both are warrior-women, but the Amazons are not goddesses (Heracles kills many of them in his 9th labor); the Valkyries are (with the caveat that Norse deities are not immortal as their Greco-Roman counterparts are). 

While the similarities between these disparate mythologies are often surprising because of the general lack of cultural diffusion, there are also a number of very striking differences.

EDIT: I see that JudgeJuryDredd and merh have already replied similarly. Well, just some more reference notes for your interest, DC-Fan . As Merh said, you should read Norse (and Greek) mythology; it's wonderful. 

Yes it can. Children can be disinherited. When the disinherited kids get the Throne it's usually just because they have enough political support and a big enough army no one is willing to challenge them.

DC-Fan

As I said to Lord Death Man on another topic, sorry to play the pedant, but that's not exactly true. Henry passed the Third Succession Act, July 1543 through Parliament to restore both Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession. It was a pointed exception, as otherwise both would be illegitimate; by passing the act, Henry legitimized them, and they were restored to the succession not because of blood but because of law. Henry's only legitimate son to survive to adulthood took the throne after his father's death as Edward VI; he tried to bypass the Act and name Lady Jane Grey as his heir, at which he was unsuccessful because the ability to change a previous act rested with Parliament, which wanted to keep the succession.

...which is why poor Lady Jane was executed in the Tower in 1554.

Again, it was a matter of law and the sovereignty of Parliament, not of blood and the arbitrariness of kings.

Henry was a man.
Odin is a God. 
Hela possesses certain powers banishment doesn't necessarily eliminate. As is pointed out in the movie, Hela draws power from Asgard so banishment reduced her power, but only so long as Odin was there to keep her away. Once she returned, her power grew.

This being Marvel, not mythology.

Ragnarok is something the Norse God's were aware of. Knowing Loki's place in it, they let him stay. For all the mischief he made, they let him stay.

The Norse gods are very human. When the enemy sent Odin's old advisor's head back to him,  Odin preserved Mimir's head so that it could continue to offer him advice




Odin did not lose his eye in battle, but sacrificed it to gain certain knowledge. He sacrificed himself to himself to gain sacred runes.
Odin is more a God of War & of kings & is known by over 100 names. He sends his 2 ravens out every morning & they return at dinnertime to tell Odin what was going on in the world.
Thor was more the every man's god.
Odin sought to make a powerful son by impregnating the embodiment of Earth making Thor the son of a sky God & earth.

There was a fascinating usefulness to their mythology. Thor rides in a chariot drawn by 2 goats which he can eat

The God Freyr possesses a ship which always has a favorable breeze, but can be folded up & placed in his pocket when not needed

DC-Fan

In many ways, I'd say the most famous story in classical mythology is Homer's sequel, the Odyssey, but that's neither here nor here.

OK, famous stories in Norse mythology...

(One should note that, unlike the huge amount of material we have about classical [i.e., Greco-Roman] mythology, our primary sources about the Norse are really only the Christianized Eddas [Poetic and Prose].)

Offhand, the theft of Thor's hammer is very famous, having been depicted in probably thousands of children's books, but I'd say the death of Bald[e]r is probably the key tale in Norse mythology. It is the moment that begins Ragnarok, the death of the gods, and turns Loki, previously a trickster-deity who helped the Æsir and was Odin's blood-brother, into an unremitted villain. In his memoir Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis wrote this about his discovery of the tale: The Baldr story has been cited and recited countless times, including in Longfellow's poem "Tegnér's Drapa," which prompted Lewis's experience.

So, yes, offhand I would state the death of Baldr is the most famous story in Norse mythology--certainly the most seminal.

DC-Fan

I should have added Wagner's Ring Cycle in there if only as a caveat, as it is without a doubt the most famous story based on Norse/Germanic mythology, even if our knowledge of it is based on Wagner and not on the original sources. It depends on where you parse Norse mythology as opposed to Germanic (they're nigh-identical) and whether one wants the original stories or not.

We owe so much of elements in our cultural understanding to Wagner's interpretation thereof: the Flying Dutchman, the Ring Saga, the term "twilight of the gods," Tristan and Isolde, the Grail Quest, the Bridal March...