Thialfi sat on the banks of the river Ífingr busy cleaning his master Thor’s cloak deep in thought and pondering as he did so. Oblivious to his actions and deep in philosophical conundrum, as mere humans often do, there appeared a salmon frolicking in the waters before him. Thialfi glanced at the curious fish but continued to do his appointed tasks while dreaming away. The salmon stuck it’s head out of the water and spoke in a human voice and said to Thialfi, ‘Look at the housemaid of Thor, washing the gods unmentionables, one would think this would be your sister’s task to do, but here is the great clothes washer Thialfi cleaning his master’s cloths’, the salmon laughed at Thialfi trying to provoke a reaction from him.
Nevertheless, Thialfi continued with washing the cloak and staring into nothingness oblivious to the fish’s insults. The salmon scoffed at Thialfi and sneered, ‘By Odin’s sweaty armpits, most tedious when your insult the handmaiden of the great Thor and get not even a raised eyebrow’. With saying that the salmon jumped from the waters and transformed into Loki and he landed behind Thialfi, who had not noticed the transformation. Loki snuck up behind Thialfi and made his voice to be that of Thor’s the boy’s master and explained in a booming voice right beside his ear, ‘Where is my cloak boy! For the Jotan are approaching and I need to go to battle and need to be clad as the warrior god I am, make haste or I shall feed you to Fenrir myself.” So startled was Thialfi by this that he had dropped the cloak into the river and was now frantic to fish it out, his eyes darting to see where his master was.
Loki took hiding behind a tree and when Thialfi was seeking out Thor to no avail, Loki made himself known from his hiding. ‘ Ahhh there you are Thialfi, your master Thor has been searching for you but gave up and clad himself in a lesser cloak to battle the Jotan invaders, he was non impressed but it is better then appearing in battle as a soaked wench, do you not agree ?.” Grabbing a large branch Loki fished out the soaked cloak and looked at Thialfi, ” Luckily for you I was here or Thor’s favorite cloak would had been washed away to the ends of existence”, hanging the cloak up on a nearby tree limb to dry. “Thank you my lord Loki, I am sorry but my mind has been elsewhere and I was lost in deep contemplation and shunned by duties as such, again thanks for your aid or I would surely be Fenrir next meal”
Loki glanced at the human, brushed the grass and sat beside Thialfi and gazed upon him in a quizzical manner, before speaking once more, ‘ I might be a god but I am puzzled what one such as yourself would need to contemplate so deeply, I doubt it would be how much soap to use on a god’s cloak,’ Loki chuckled and continued on,’ Considering how a mortal and his sister came to be the servants of the god Thor and now housed in Asgard among the gods themselves, is it that even living in the land of the gods, you long for your home and family in Midgard ?,’ Loki asked glanced at Thialfi. Thialfi answered somewhat taken aback, ‘ No great lord Loki, it is not that at all, I and My sister am both grateful for finding ourselves in the service as one such as lord Thor, but I cannot help but ponder deeply as to what it all means ? I do not mean to offend but here I am sitting upon the banks of the great river Ífingr washing Lord Thor’s cloak, and there”, Thialfi pausing and points to the far bank of the vast river,’ just there is Jotunheim, the land of the giants. Are all things such divided such as thus, the good this side and the bad on that? Are …are things day and night or is there something more than opposites….” Thialfi remarks as his words stagger off and he sets himself off in deep pondering once more.
Loki looks upon Thialfi and suddenly jumps to his feet and grabs the boy upon his shoulder and exclaims,’ surely this will not do, we cannot have you pondering such things when there are more important things for you to be concerned about, like the state of Thor’s undergarments. I shall be the hero once more and rectify this situation post haste.” Startled Thialfi rushed to his feet fearing retribution for his thoughts but instead only gets a smile from Loki, “come now let me answer these things so that you no longer need to ponder so deeply, the human mind is a fragile thing and we wouldn’t want you to do yourself any injury, “with that and a wave of his hand Loki creates a portal between realms and drags Thialfi through it. “ I would ask that you remain silent about my portals to the Ægir or I will ensure you are my son Fenrir next meal.”
Blinding light and a sudden feeling of one’s body imploding and exploding all at once, Thialfi finds himself awakening at Loki’s feet with the god looking down upon him. ‘ I do apologize, I sometimes forget how fragile your kind is… come now let us put these thoughts of your to rest before Thor comes looking for his hand maiden, “ Loki chuckles walking ahead and Thialfi finds his footing and is startled by the sight before him. Before him lay the Ginungagap, the great void and to the north of it lay Niflheim, the land of mist, ice, and snow and to the south of the void lay Muspelheim, the land of fire. Awestruck he just stood there peering ahead at his miraculous site. Loki gazed upon him and scoffed, ‘Oh come on, don’t tell me u have never seen the birth of the world before, come on now I need to show you this so we can go back, I need some mead and all this tramping around the void makes me hungry and wanting female companionship and mischief, so come here and let me ease those ponderings of your.”
Loki pulled Thialfi beside him and pointed out to the void, “Tell me what do you see boy?” Thialfi replied, “ I see the land of ice and snow to the north and the land of fire to the south and the void in the middle, but I don’t understa… “, Loki cuts him off and says,” Pretty extreme opposites don’t you think, fire and ice, well gaze upon the void …child, and see what happens when there is no opposites, where there is no fire and ice, gaze upon the middle of the void where the two meet, you see there, there is the spark of life, that is were everything we are, everything we were and everything we will be is being birthed into creation. Not from the fire or ice alone, not from the light or the darkness alone, but from both of them dancing with one another. You mortals stand upon your green fields on Midgrad gazing up unto the heavens always so hypocritical about good and bad, left and right, light and dark, when Ve gave onto the first of you mind and intelligence, I think he must have left too many open spaces in there, “knocking on Thialfi skull mockingly.
“All you see is the division of the two, always opposites but there is no such thing in the grand scheme of things, everything is one in the same, one cycle to another and back again. One with out the other is impossible and yet you humans still believe they are and can be viewed as separate. When you actually open your mind and see the truth, accept the power of what I have shown you here today, the Jotun and even Ægir would fear you, as you would rival even them with the might that lay dormant within yourselves but nooooo, your to busy trying to label and divided everything, even yourselves, race, beliefs, gender… when will you realize that there is nothing that creates the divide other than yourselves.”, Loki stands next to Thialfi and peers into the void glancing as a sight no other human has before, “Do you understand now Thialfi, will you put that poor mind to rest before you set it alight with all these ponderings ?”.
“I think so yes, I think I do see it no….”
With a blinding light Thialfi finds himself on the bank of the river Ífingr once more, “…ow”, he says out load to himself glancing to where Loki where he once stood, not to no avail for he is alone. In the distance Thor’s, voice bellows, “Thialfi? Where in Helheim is that boy with my cloak?” Startled Thialfi jumps to his feet searching for the cloak and finds it hanging upon a tree branch, as he takes it off the branch he thinks to himself, “could I had been so deep in my dreams that … “, he glances to the river once more to see the salmon frolicking in the waters and he dashes toward Thor’s homestead, cloak in hand.
Written By D. Kay
RMJ Creations 