Manny Rayner's book reviews

I loved the Norse myths when I was a kid, though I can't remember which book it was that I read. If you're another fan, I'll give you a gentle warning: the Kenneth Branagh movie Thor may leave you feeling just a tiny bit irritated.

Don't get me wrong. There are many things to appreciate: Branagh has done a good job of directing, the actors all turn in excellent performances, and the CGI artists are on form too. You'll laugh a few times, and you may shed the odd tear - though I do feel obliged to point out that the most moving sequence is a direct steal from a certain Disney picture. Anyway, never mind that. The thing that really annoyed me is that the Æsir have been rather egregiously Americanized. Heimdall is, sigh, black. I'm all for multi-culturalism, but there were no black people in Scandinavia when these myths were being created. Having a black As (singular of Æsir, as any fule kno) makes no sense at all. And yes, I'm the first to admit that Jaimie Alexander out-Xenas Xena in her depiction of Sif, but a) Sif wasn't a warrior, she was a fertility goddess, and b) she can't be a brunette, since Loki tricks her into cutting her golden hair in one of the stories, and this is often read as referring to harvesting wheat.

Okay, okay, it was fun. And you don't need to tell me, I know it's mostly Marvel's fault and Branagh's just following their adaptation. All the same, consider yourself warned.
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PS In case anyone is wondering, I would like to make it clear that I am not a white supremacist, and I'm rather shocked to discover that I agree with them on certain points.

Well, statistically, I guess it's inevitable that white supremacists are right every now and then. Hitler had some good things to say about the health dangers associated with cigarette smoking. You just have to evaluate these things on a case by case basis.