Unforgettable Characters : Character Portrayals in Norse Myths and Films about Superheroes

By conducting a text analysis this study analyzes possible similarities in the portrayal of story characters between historical Norse myths and contemporary film productions. The chosen historical texts are two stories from Norse mythology which render a myth about Thor and a giant named Hrunge as well as the myth Trymskvädet. The selected movies are two of the comic company Marvel’s productions about super heroes – Thor and The Avengers. Different categories that this study compares are how the characters are defined by their possessions or artefacts, the actions and the choices which the characters make, and also how their relations, roles and origins are being portrayed. As the result of study shows, there are some similarities between the historical texts and the movies with regard to how the stories portray the characters. According to cognitive theories, a story becomes more memorable if there is a balance between what readers intuitively expect and does not expect from the story while it unfolds in texts or multimedia productions. The reason for these similarities between textual and visual material created in different times may not only be that historical texts serve as the inspirational base for contemporary productions, but also relates to how myths have some unforgettable characters by striking a balance between intuitiveness and counter-intuitiveness features, and that the movies use character portrayals with a similar balance between the features