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LadyNorthstar β Laufey : gender issues
Published: 2011-06-28 17:37:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 15181; Favourites: 306; Downloads: 74
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Laufey, in the myth, is a gal... but in the comics he is a guy.maybe writers get confused because matronimic is something totally unknown to americans? or they chose to change the sex because the 60's weren't ready for a powerful female character?
we will never know.
but I still feel like I had to make fun of this.
enjoy ~
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Comments: 144
Yea I was confused too especially when they added the movie to the mix it's all too confusing! Get your facts straight BEFORE you make the movie!!!!
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i think i know what happened, they did get the memo that loki named himself after his mother cuz he didn't like either of his fathers.Β
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Well I've been told that the matronimic name should be Laufeyjarson, Loki's dad is Farbauti and His mother is sometimes referred to as either Laufey or Nal. Laufey meaning "leafy isle" and Nal meaning "needle". Farbauti means "cruel or dangerous striker" and probably is a hint at Loki's dad being associated with lightening. His mother is associated with trees and by lightening striking a tree you get "wildfire" or Loki who in the folklore of certain Scandinavian countries is associated with fire. Marvel seems to either not have read very closely or decided to change certain parts of the myths since Loki's family tree isn't the only one they screwed up Thor's was changed too his mother isn't Frigga but Jord who happens to be a giantess. Β Β
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Loki's folks weren't even rulers in myth.The only MATRIARCHY in Norse Mythology is Nifleheimr ruled over by Hel. Laufeyson just sounded good.
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Yaooou!! Finally someone who's as bothered by this as me!
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They were -based- on Norse mythology.. But they aren't the actual gods and whatnot.
I actually prefer male Laufey.. s:
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I am very aware, in fact I was just making fun of the whole thing in general.
I still don't really get why they haven't called him Farbauti, I mean, Loki's dad has a name... there was no much need to make Laufey a man and Farbauti a woman, they could have just kept their normal names. whatever xD
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Loki FΓ‘rbautison vs Loki Laufeyson...Laufey sounds much better and, in our country's day and age, much more masculine than FΓ‘rbauti. Let's just be grateful that Marvel chose Laufey over NΓ‘l...I never liked her.
What I like is how they explain all this stuff in "Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers". Balder comes to the new King Loki and tells him all about the cycle of rebirth and the past lives of all the gods. He says that in his past lives Loki had been 'blood brothers' with Odin (like in Norse Myths). He also talks about Loki's children and how they all fit in as well as Loki's parentage and how he himself was, in some lives, a woman.
Very cool! You should find it on Netflix if you have it, it should still be streaming.
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I think about that sometimes... I actually prefer the name 'Laufey', though. Maybe they just wanted to change it up from the mythology a little.
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yeah, I always thought it was WEAK that we couldn't keep Laufey's gender right. The point is when they say "loki, son of Laufey" it marks him as DIFFERENT from them. I like to think they use his full name as sort of a way of calling him a 'mama's boy' or as a joke. Like "We only know for sure who the mother was..."
It just means that Loki is weird. Really weird.
And now Laufey finally has the daughter she's always wanted.
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I kinda wonder if they made her a man because it's a lot easier to spell....
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Well,in Thor he killed Laufey,and most people didn't care cause he was evil and all.But if he was a woman and Loki killed her,everyone would probably be more sensative cause it was a woman and his mother. Cause ya know,when a woman dies,it's alot sader then when a man dies.-.- Plus,there wasn't a single female frost giant in the movie,so I'd be weird if she was the only female.o.o
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the movie is based off the comic, it's the comic that started the mixing up gender thing. and in the comics loki does not kill laufey, odin does.
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In the remake of Loki's origin, Loki kills Laufey out of hatred towards him. (Thor Volume 3) and as you mention above, it's most likely changed because of the times, I'm guessing a King Laufey seemed more fit than a Queen.
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these stories confuse me so much. in the myth, i heard that jotuns did not have a specifics on gender, so any jotun could give birth, but then i heard that laufey got with farbauti, i just wish we could make up our minds!
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loki does not have a specific gender because he is a shape shifter, but jotuns in general can't. and laufey means frail and skinny so I'd say it's definitely not a man's name considered the times.
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so you think laufey was more feminine? even though (somehow) he was king of jotunheimm?
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Laufey in the legend was Loki's mother and was no queen, like his father Farbauti was no king... they just were powerful giants. and Laufey was probably a Vanir, a lesser race of gods - who lost the war against the Aesirs - that is the reason why Loki brings his mother name instead of his father.
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But now, because of gener issue everyone can wright mpreg fanfics without second thought `cause its CANON now!Hell Yeah!
EXMPL: Eidolon, tipe it on AO3
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alleluja, someone else noticed that otrageous error!
ok, it doesn't change the story, but c'mon, comic/movie writers: it's only to find the right name of the giant father, it's not so difficult! XD
nice strip, anyway!
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There are /so/ many discrepancies from myth to comic, but this is definitely one of the most irritating. I mean, some of the differences were for the sake of the story-line, but this just seems like a pointless change.
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I think it was because Farbauti was not a name they could hope people to pronunce someway or another but yeah, pretty pointless xD
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I also dislike they make Laufey a man in the comics also. They don't even give an explanation how this happen, they just accept it as fact
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they kind of gave, I've discovered. they kind of rebooted the original legends because the ragnarok happened already so when the gods and everything were born again, lots of things changes. so I guess I can excuse Stan Lee now that I know.
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I don't think I heard of an issue saying that, but I'll look it up
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there is an incredibly old issue where they meed the actual legend thor, with red hair and all, I think it's something around the '60s, if I can find out what issue it is I will tell you!
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I think that was also in an issue with a past life of Thor's
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there may be, I haven't read everything of thor because Iron Man and Xmen are a trouble already to backtrack xD
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All comics are hard to track
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AMEN TO THAT!! >[]< I just want some back issues of Journey into Mystery: Fear Itself. It came out in 2011! It was a big crossover event! So how come I can't find issues 624, 625, or anything between 632 and 639?
I live in America! It shouldn't be hard to find last year's issues!
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yup, especially when the torrents are barely seeded and there are no thing like trade paperback in your stupid nation *weeps*
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I don't think Loki's used to that much affection...
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he probably isn't
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Okay, I feel the need to start off saying I love this comic, it's really very funny.
But... I doubt the reason Laufey in the comics is male has anything to do with sexism & is probably nothing more than lack of research & cultural misunderstandings.
If I recall correctly (and I'll try to find a link or something verifying this later), the reason Stan Lee & everyone chose to make Thor a superhero instead of say, Hercules, is because the Norse myths are not as well known in the U.S. as the Greek, despite the fact that most of the days of the week in the English language are named after the Norse pantheon.
( To prove my point on Norse not being as well known as Greek? DA is giving me a red underline for the word Thor, but not for Hercules).
I have no clue how much research they did for the Thor comics, probably not much, but even if they did do research? There is no telling how good their sources were. It was the 1960's. Their entire ability for research would have been whatever the bookstore had on Norse myths or the public library. And is there really a lot of info on Loki's parents?
It's probably a bit of a cultural thing as well, they saw Laufeyson & assumed it meant Laufey was his father. In the U.S., while there will definitely be exceptions, the most common reason you'd be going by your mom's last name is that you were born out of wedlock.
Also, if they had kept Laufey as his mom & made her in charge of the frost giants (who is in charge of the giants in Norse myth anyway?)? Meant that they would have had a Giant (literally) EVIL QUEEN to use as a villian. I don't know where your from (I'm guessing Italy?), but in English speaking countries, evil queens are really easy to come by. I doubt you want a list of examples though.
Actually, that could have been it's own form of sexism right there if you wanted, the evil queen must be defeated by the good king (or his son?). Also, they made Sif a warrior, I have no clue what her early showings were like in Thor comics, but there is that to consider.
Note: Really fun example of "Did not do the research"? According to Wikipedia, Loki's first appearance was in Timely Comics (which would later morph into Marvel Comics in the 1960's) in August 1949 (the comic was Venus # 6) where he was a member of the Greek pantheon that had been exiled to the Underworld!
I really do like your comic by the way...
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I agree with everything you said but I want to add that Laufey was never evil. Her or Loki in fact. When Christains hit iceland and what not they changed the old ways slowly by adding twists to it. So if the people worshiped a tree they'd say that the tree was from a seed of a tree used for the cross that Jesus was put on. Loki along with the jotun got the raw end of the stick by being turned into evil things to be hated and feared when in fact they were being worshiped along side the norse gods. So to me "thor" is a huge slap in the face not just for this but for other reasons. I still love it though ^^ It's opened my mind to things I never knew or cared about so I guess it's a "how you view it" kinda thing ^^
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