Week 2 Story: Loki the Clever Fool

Loki the Clever Fool 

Once there was a man named Loki who lived in a faraway land known as Asgard. Loki was known as the God of Mischief, and oftentimes as a result of his tricks, he found himself in strange and dangerous situations.

One day, Loki, while quarreling with his brother Thor, slipped off of Asgard and fell in a world known as Sakaar. As it was a different place from Asgard, Loki lost his powers to travel back home.

Sakaar was ruled by a man named the Grandmaster. The people who lived in the world, known as Ravagers, came across Loki and were scared of him, so they brought him to the Grandmaster, fearing he was a demon.

The Grandmaster was rather intrigued by the newcomer, so he decided he wanted to keep him on Sakaar. He asked the Ravagers what they thought about how to keep Loki from escaping.

"Lock him up in the dungeons," one Ravager said.

"Tie him to a chair," another Ravager said.

"Make him your pet," a third Ravager said.

To the last suggestion, Loki yelled, "NO! That's terrible, how could you suggest such a thing?!"

When the Grandmaster heard this, he decided to make Loki his pet. Loki was allowed to freely roam the Grandmaster's palace, and mingle with the party guests. Little did the Grandmaster know, that Loki was happy with being the Grandmaster's "pet", as it meant he wouldn't be bound and unable to live freely. Loki became good friends with the Grandmaster, and was even granted some control over Sakaar. Contrary to what the Grandmaster intended, Loki was actually given power, which is what Loki desires more than anything.

Eventually, Loki became bored of Sakaar, and he sought to go back to Asgard. He told the Grandmaster of his desire to go home. The Grandmaster was initially reluctant to let Loki go home, but he decided to help his friend leave Sakaar. In an effort to show off his "pet" to his people one last time before he lets him go, he requests Loki to fly with him in his special plane over his people on the way to the edge of Sakaar, which is where the exit is so Loki can leave Sakaar and go home to Asgard.

Although Loki felt embarrassed about being carried across the town, he decided to go through with it because then he could go home and have his powers back. When they got to the plane, Loki realized that the Grandmaster wanted Loki to actually hang from a rod under the plane with his arms!

While flying over the people, Loki noticed that they were pointing at him and making fun of him. This angered Loki so much that he started screaming back at the people, calling them foul names. 

"You fools!" Loki screamed. "You are beneath me!"

The people were shocked, considering that Loki was kind to them when he had power over them. The Grandmaster was so upset at Loki's behavior. He felt ashamed to have had such a rude pet, so rather than take him all the way to the edge of the world, he decided to shake Loki off into a wormhole!

"Take that you annoying brat! And don't ever come back!" he said, while Loki disappeared from view.

Now, poor Loki was lost somewhere in another world, still trying to get back to Asgard. While he was very clever at first, Loki let his anger get the best of him and he acted irrationally, turning himself into a fool when he was so close to returning home. Perhaps next time, he will learn to control his emotions and not miss out on an opportunity while being made a fool once more!

The Punishment of Loki by Louis Huard

Author's Note: I based this story off of the "Two Turtle Jatakas" from the Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. Being a Marvel fanatic, I decided to give the stories of "The Turtle and the King" and "The Turtle and the Geese" a new Marvel twist. The characters of Loki, the Grandmaster, and the Ravagers are adapted from the movie Thor: Ragnarok, which I actually watched just last weekend! I chose Loki as my main character because the character Loki often acts in both extremely clever and foolish ways. The two turtle stories reflect the cleverness of the turtle in one story and its foolishness in the other; for this reason, I thought they would be the best way to showcase Loki's clever but foolish character.

Note on image: I chose this picture of Loki because, in Norse mythology, Loki seems to always find himself in binds because of his tendency to cause mischief to others around him for his own personal gain. I thought it very well reflected how Loki, regardless of his cleverness, often finds himself being fooled.

Bibliography: "Two Turtle Jatakas", Jataka Tales, Ellen C. Babbitt.