Once Upon a Time VIII - Short Story Quest I - Wildfire in Manhattan by Joanne Harris

[byslantedlight]

This quest involves the reading of one or more short stories that fit within at least one of the four genres during the course of any weekend, or weekends, during the challenge. Ideally you would post about your short story readings on Sundays or Mondays...
Fantasy
Folklore
Fairy tale
Mythology - Wildfire in Manhattan by Joanne Harris

And we're off! Having just finished a book yesterday, I picked up A Cat, a Hat and a Piece of String by Joanne Harris, and the short story I was up to fits pretty well into Mythology for this challenge, so... *g*

Wildfire in Manhattan is the story of Lukas Wilde, who it turns out is a Norse god living in Manhattan (hmmn - now where have I heard a similar theme, recently?! It was originally published in a Neil Gaiman collection of short stories - I must check dates!). He's an Aspect of the god of wildfire, has retired on the proceeds of being in a band with spectacular stage shows, and comes to realise that he and the other old gods aren't safe - they're being hunted by Chaos, the Shadows - "Skol and Haiti, the Sky-hunters, servants of the Shadow, Devourers of the Sun and Moon".

I've always liked the Norse myths, but I've never read them in huge detail, so I had to go and look these chaps up - according to a Wiki entry: In Norse mythology, Sköll (Old Norse "Treachery") is a wolf that chases the horses Árvakr and Alsviðr, that drag the chariot which contains the sun (Sól) through the sky every day, trying to eat her. Sköll has a brother, Hati, who chases Máni, the moon. At Ragnarök, both Sköll and Hati will succeed in their quests. And that's going to be an excellent side-effect of this challenge, nipping off to research other mythological characters in the process... *g*

Harris' story also features Máni (Moony in the story - a mad old tramp) who is the god of the moon (interestingly, a man in Norse myth) and Sól (Sunny in the story - a pretty, innocent-seeming woman) who is the sun god (a woman in "High Germanic" mythology - and also Norse myth), who are indeed being chased by the "wolves". Thor (Arthur - also Our Thor, get it?) is a god of rain in the story, and although he's in love with Sunny it's a tragic affair, because she can't be happy without clear skies and sunshine, and Thor is surrounded by rain and storms. Lukas, or "Lucky" is of course Loki, complete with a daughter called Hel. (Oh, interesting, he's apparently also a mother - By the stallion Svaðilfari, Loki is the mother—giving birth in the form of a mare—to the eight-legged horse Sleipnir, though that isn't even mentioned in the story - but then it's only a short story, of course!). His brother in the book is Brendan, who according to Wiki could be either Helblindi and Býleistr, but as a god of domestic fire doesn't seem to fit either brief/non-description in Wiki.

So this is very much an adapted story of mythical gods - presumably, as in The Almighty Johnsons, they've rather changed over the years, even though their general character goes on. It's interesting that it was set in America too - I wonder why Harris chose to do that? There were other elements of the mythological - the runes and cantrips that were cast to try and escape the wolves fell into place nicely. I don't know that setting it in Manhattan added anything to the story - it felt as if it could as easily have been set in Norway, or Auckland, or Wells-by-the-Sea. Maybe the modernity of it was an extra contrast to the way we usually imagine the old Norse gods?

Did I enjoy it? Well - it wasn't wonderful, as so many of Harris' stories are, and I didn't feel the magic of it especially, but I was happy enough to read it, and interested enough in the twists she gave the myths to go and look them up for this post. It was a sort of hard-bitten cynical Manhattan view of the world, I'd say, touching on the gum-shoe in tone. Not quite what I'm usually looking for when I pick up something once upon a time (and what does that say about me, or about magic, or does it say anything at all about either beyond learned-response?!), but an interesting twist to think about...

And wow - hark at me. I can ramble in a much longer and relevant-to-the-story way from a short story, apparently... *g*

Comments

[etain-antrim.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying your book related news, so thank you for that. I plan to start an assault on Angela Thirkell soon--she sounds like my cuppa for pleasure reading. Good luck with your challenge. You're off to a great start.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh I do hope you enjoy Angela Thirkell, she is just pleasurable, happy reading (and yet insightul and witty and smart in writing about people and society too)!

And thank you! It's true that it's barely a challenge really, in that I love fantasy/once-upon-a-time to start with, and I've been enjoying my Magic in History and Culture course too, but... maybe the challenge is to think and post about the stories after I've read them! *g*

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

Joanne Harris obviously likes Norse mythology because her Runemarks was based on that too. Liked that one a lot and her Gentlemen and Players is on my list of favourite books.

You're off to a good start! I was about to ask if you knew about the review site but I checked first and there you are. :-)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hee - I'm generally pretty good at following instructions, me... *g* Although I was rather confused - the instructions on the review site say to leave a comment when you leave a review, but there were hardly any comments on the review post. Do they mean somewhere else, or is it just something that people tend not to do?

The Runemark books are totally on my list - but I'm not allowed to buy them until I've finished some of the books on my shelf now. I was going to be so good, since I'm still between houses, and don't want to have to squeeze more into my storage if I decide to go away again for a bit, but the libraries here tend not to have the books I want now, and oddly enough I struggle to pick things out that I end up enjoying reading... it never used to be like that, I was library-girl...

[lynn williams (from livejournal.com)]

I've just read JH's latest book The Gospel of Loki so it seems she really does love Norse mythology. I enjoyed it. It was fun and entertaining.
Lynn :D

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hello and thank you, that's good to know! I really like Joanne Harris' books, but oddly enough I always worry that I might not enjoy the next one and the magic will go, so a good review is always reassuring. I read just the first few lines of yours, to avoid spoilers, but if I read TGoL for this challenge I'll go back and see what you thought in more detail. How cool to meet someone else from the challenge - thanks for dropping by (and I see you're from near my old stomping ground too - wave to Manchester for me!)