by Pa Rock
Streamin' Demon
For those of you who enjoy heroic stories about the Norse Gods that spurred the Vikings on to ravage much of the known and unknown world - and let's face it, who doesn't? - here is something to satisfy that itch while being stuck at home with our 21st century plague. I am speaking of Ragnarok, a Netflix original series that is set and filmed in the mountains of beautiful Norway.
The first season, six episodes, is now available and streaming on Netflix, and a second season is reportedly about to be released. Watching the series requires some effort on the part of American viewers because it was filmed almost entirely in Norwegian - with occasional snatches of English - and requires the use of subtitles.
On August 26th of 2018 I ran a review in this space of the book Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. That book is a well written guide to understanding some of the basic characters in the panoply of Gods who populate the legends of the ancient Scandinavians. Chief among those are Odin, the one-eyed king of the Gods, Odin's son, Thor, the hammer-swinging God of Thunder, and Loki, the "trickster" whose antics finally brought about an end to the time of the Gods. Some of the material covered in Gaiman's book involves Thor's interactions with the Giants, a race of very large people in a neighboring land who stole Thor's hammer and set up a raging feud between themselves and the angry God of Thunder.
Ragnarok, the television series, begins as Turid Seier and her two high school-age sons, Magne and Laurits, are moving back to the (fictional) Norwegian town of Edda, a place they had left years before when the boys' father had been killed in an accident. They had been living in the capital city of Oslo, and it is obvious that the boys are not happy about returning to rural Edda - but the move is necessary in order for their mother to find work. She has a job waiting with an industry owned by the Jutul family, the primary employer in the area. The Jutul's factory is being blamed for the rapidly increasing pollution in the once pristine lakes and streams surrounding the town.
The Jutul family live in a very large house on the mountain that has overlooked the town for generations. They are the social and economic giants of the community.
As the Seier family is driving into town on that first day they come up behind an old man who is having trouble steering his electric vehicle. Turid stops the car and Magne gets out to help the man. The man's wife is at the store across the street. She walks over and joins her husband where she tells Magne that he is a good person - and then touches his forehead with her hand. As she touches Magne, there is a flicker in his eyes that seems to indicate that he has just awakened to something important.
The Seier boys enroll in the local high school which is run by the principal, Ran Jutul, the wife of the factory owner where Turid will be working. Also attending that high school are Ran's own kids, Fjor, her son, and Saxa, her daughter. Another student at the school is Isolde, the daughter of a teacher at the school. Isolde is a green activist who is informally investigating the Jutul's factory as a part of a school assignment. Magne gets paired with Isolde in working on that assignment.
Isolde and Magne spend a day walking up into the mountains to look at a retreating glacier and collect water samples, and they plan on returning to town that evening by flying off of the mountain on a double hang-glider. A situation develops that causes Magne to return to town early, on foot, and that evening he watches in horror as Isolde, drifting down to town, crashes her hang-glider into a power line and is killed.
As night is falling, an angry Magne picks up a very large hammer that his mother has been using to drive posts into the ground, and in his rage he flings the hammer skyward - and it disappears into the clouds.
Can you see where this is headed?
This is old story of good and evil, gods and giants, greens and polluters, dressed in modern times and set in a breath-taking location. Ragnarok is grand escapism in a time in which we all yearn to be free of our homebound confinement. I enjoyed the first six episodes immensely and am looking forward to the next season.
Thank you, Netflix, for opening a window on the complex culture and beautiful land of Norway!
Streamin' Demon
For those of you who enjoy heroic stories about the Norse Gods that spurred the Vikings on to ravage much of the known and unknown world - and let's face it, who doesn't? - here is something to satisfy that itch while being stuck at home with our 21st century plague. I am speaking of Ragnarok, a Netflix original series that is set and filmed in the mountains of beautiful Norway.
The first season, six episodes, is now available and streaming on Netflix, and a second season is reportedly about to be released. Watching the series requires some effort on the part of American viewers because it was filmed almost entirely in Norwegian - with occasional snatches of English - and requires the use of subtitles.
On August 26th of 2018 I ran a review in this space of the book Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. That book is a well written guide to understanding some of the basic characters in the panoply of Gods who populate the legends of the ancient Scandinavians. Chief among those are Odin, the one-eyed king of the Gods, Odin's son, Thor, the hammer-swinging God of Thunder, and Loki, the "trickster" whose antics finally brought about an end to the time of the Gods. Some of the material covered in Gaiman's book involves Thor's interactions with the Giants, a race of very large people in a neighboring land who stole Thor's hammer and set up a raging feud between themselves and the angry God of Thunder.
Ragnarok, the television series, begins as Turid Seier and her two high school-age sons, Magne and Laurits, are moving back to the (fictional) Norwegian town of Edda, a place they had left years before when the boys' father had been killed in an accident. They had been living in the capital city of Oslo, and it is obvious that the boys are not happy about returning to rural Edda - but the move is necessary in order for their mother to find work. She has a job waiting with an industry owned by the Jutul family, the primary employer in the area. The Jutul's factory is being blamed for the rapidly increasing pollution in the once pristine lakes and streams surrounding the town.
The Jutul family live in a very large house on the mountain that has overlooked the town for generations. They are the social and economic giants of the community.
As the Seier family is driving into town on that first day they come up behind an old man who is having trouble steering his electric vehicle. Turid stops the car and Magne gets out to help the man. The man's wife is at the store across the street. She walks over and joins her husband where she tells Magne that he is a good person - and then touches his forehead with her hand. As she touches Magne, there is a flicker in his eyes that seems to indicate that he has just awakened to something important.
The Seier boys enroll in the local high school which is run by the principal, Ran Jutul, the wife of the factory owner where Turid will be working. Also attending that high school are Ran's own kids, Fjor, her son, and Saxa, her daughter. Another student at the school is Isolde, the daughter of a teacher at the school. Isolde is a green activist who is informally investigating the Jutul's factory as a part of a school assignment. Magne gets paired with Isolde in working on that assignment.
Isolde and Magne spend a day walking up into the mountains to look at a retreating glacier and collect water samples, and they plan on returning to town that evening by flying off of the mountain on a double hang-glider. A situation develops that causes Magne to return to town early, on foot, and that evening he watches in horror as Isolde, drifting down to town, crashes her hang-glider into a power line and is killed.
As night is falling, an angry Magne picks up a very large hammer that his mother has been using to drive posts into the ground, and in his rage he flings the hammer skyward - and it disappears into the clouds.
Can you see where this is headed?
This is old story of good and evil, gods and giants, greens and polluters, dressed in modern times and set in a breath-taking location. Ragnarok is grand escapism in a time in which we all yearn to be free of our homebound confinement. I enjoyed the first six episodes immensely and am looking forward to the next season.
Thank you, Netflix, for opening a window on the complex culture and beautiful land of Norway!
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