Come on, you have to admit, when considering the Þrymskviða, the image of Þrymr pulling back the bridal veil to reveal Chris Hemsworth in a dress standing before him is pretty funny. At least I thought it so.

I like to look at the media depictions of these characters and compare them to their mythological counterparts. Disney's Hercules was ridiculous and a missed opportunity. But the way they depicted Maui was really, really good -- and when you consider that Maui is slightly different in every Polynesian culture that discussed him -- almost plausible as legitimate Polynesian mythology.

For the most part, the majority of the pagan gods are not exactly nice people in the stories. Plenty of rape and killing relatives to go around. Not that the Old Testament Yahweh is exactly a shining role model either.

Also, while it's not so much in the "evil by modern standards" category, New Testament Jesus is often rendered benign and generically harmless by people who profess to be Christians but don't want to deal with any of the parts of his teachings that might inconvenience them.

Most of the old stories/religions have been cleansed for the modern palette. For better or worse, I suppose it's bound to happen, religions have to evolve or suffer the fate of extinction. A little ironic =)

Nothing religious about Marvel, except Disney’s worship of Manna.

If there are any modern “pagan” worshippers of the traditional gods, I hope they’ve preserved the fundamental version. Probably closer to any truths.

There is no "fundamental" version of these myths. In many cases (particularly with Norse mythology) all we know is what was written down by Christian scribes, purposely redacted to fit a Christian worldview. Modern Neopagan ideologies necessarily have to differ because of the dearth of original sources from which to reconstruct the religion, and because neopaganism in modernity would be inextricably linked to modern political, cultural and moral norms (as any religion in any age would be.)

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neopaganism_in_Scandinavia

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81satr%C3%BA

Paganism is well and alive. It is the 5th most popular religious sect in Iceland (and the most popular non-christian sect; excluding atheism). I bet there are even people here on HN that know some people that are pagan.

I’m not exactly sure how they worship their gods, but I’ve heard there are some feasts and artwork dedicated to certain gods. In Iceland most people (even Christians and Atheists) attend a “Þorrablót” which is feasting in honor of Þór.

You should go to a Comicon =)

When I speak of the old gods, I throw Yaweh (God or Allah depending on the sect) in there as well. A 5000 year old run counts as an old god in my book.

Pre-MCU at least, Loki in particular had come to be seen as god of merely mischief/trickery--I assume in part from various comic/cartoon treatments. Heinlein spends some time on this "rehabilitation" in Job: A Comedy of Justice.

I think Baldr is supposed to serve as the role model in these stories (and is arguably inspired by Jesus). And that is sort of why Loki is such a villain, since he conspired to have Baldr killed.

Loki was more a trickster than an outright villain. Most of his stories are about him cleaning up the Æsirs' messes and getting zero respect for it.