As the Worlds Turn: The Gospel of Loki

The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris

Gollancz

Pp. 302

Subtitled The Epic Story of the Trickster God, this is the story of Ragnarok from the perspective of Loki. Loki is often blamed for his tricks and his part in the downfall of Asgard, but he laments that he was tricked too and that the Worlds of Order and Chaos will perpetually battle each other. “The Worlds never really end – just the folk who have made it their own. And Order and Chaos never end, but the balance of power is in constant flux.” He is known as a storyteller and one who bends the truth, but he suggests this is no different from anyone else, and he understands that truth is not the same as history. He explains that religion and history come into being, “not through battles and conquests, but through poems and keenings and songs, passed through generations and written down by scholars and scribes.”

The tone of his narrative is gossipy and engaging, with wry asides and perceptive commentary. Loki is arrogant and confident; he loves causing chaos and tricking people into believing what he wants them to. He is seduced from the world of Chaos by Odin who brings him to the world of Order and sets him up as his son, but he is never accepted by the other gods and feels his difference. He also understands, however, that he can never return to his former way of life, as Sturt, god of the world of Chaos, will never take him back. As a result of this, he is brutally aware that he will have to take care of himself. His chapters are in the form of lessons with subtitles, such as “Never trust a ruminant”; “Never trust a wise man”; “Never trust a relative”; until he comes to the conclusion, “Basically, never trust anyone”.

While he likes some aspects of this world, not everything meets with his approval, and he is particularly dismissive of sentiment and love. “Love is boring. People in love are even more so… As far as I could understand, love made you weak and boring.” Loki doesn’t understand the concept of punishment either, which he criticises with a wry aside at modern culture. “Punishment is futile, of course. It doesn’t stop crime, or undo the past, or make the culprit sorry. In fact, all it does is waste time and cause unnecessary suffering. Perhaps that’s why it’s the basis of so many world religions.”

Loki’s account takes a modern world view: one in which we have to protect our world or risk losing it. But he is quick to point out the difference between the civilization and the earth, which will survive with or without us. “The Worlds have ended before, many times, and been remade. Nothing lasts. History spins its yarn, breaks threads, spins again, like a child’s top, going back to the beginning.” It is not the planet we seek to save, but ourselves, and he understands that we may have left it too late: change is inevitable. This is a frightening commentary on the hate-filled, virtue-signalling, self-preservation, capitalist society in which we live.

The implication is that the Worlds move between Chaos and Order with different gods in charge, depending on who writes the stories. “And that’s how, five hundred years later or so, a new religion with its new god came to supplant us; not through war, but through books and stories and words.” And, as if this was his plan all along, Loki emerges as the new central god. This is clever. And there is a sequel (The Testament of Loki). Of course there is; it’s fantasy.