Werewolves, Mockingjays and Gods

I'm going to make a proper post today. With words. Because lately I've been very silly and focused on revision and watching the six o'clock news, and not been spending enough time talking to people, finding out when Avengers Assemble is in the cinema, reading, and playing on all those games that I borrowed from Mcdogface.
So until lunch, I shall spend Saturday on my laptop.
I had a lie-in though, so I don't have much time.


So, 'Gods'. Why would I include that in the title of this post? Am I religious? (only to Cthulhu! IA! IA! CTHULHU FHTAGN!) Actually it is because I finished reading Runelight this week... Or last week... I can't remember anymore. Runelight is the seconds book by Joanne Harris about the Norse Myths. It's a good introduction to the myths, but I'd recommend reading some myths first. The first book, Runemarks, is set a few hundred years after Ragnorok, the Norse Apocalypse.  
For those of you not savvy with viking lore, Ragnorok happens after an axe age, a sword age, an age of fear, and three years of dark and deep winter. Then a wolf called Skol eats the sun, and a wolf called Haiti eats the moon. The Midgard Serpent, Jormungandr, stops eating his tail, so the water drains off the edge of the world. He then slithers to the shore to meet Thor, his eternal nemesis. Jormungandr's brother, the mighty wolf Fennir, breaks out of his chains (which he was tied in because a prophecy said that he was ultimately evil. As revenge, Fennir was allowed to bite the war god Tyr's hand off) and fights Odin on the same stretch of beach.
Loki, who had been locked in an underground chamber with a snake spitting venom in his face as punishment for the death of Balder- the only god to die in the Norse myths; he had been made immortal by Idun, who made every plant and animal promise not to hurt him. She forgot to ask a small missletoe bush, which Loki made a dart out of, and slew Balder with it, framing a blind man as he did so- manages to break free from his underground prison.
At the same time, Lord Surt and his fire giants come from the south of Midgard and burn everything. The gods start to fight them, while hoards of undead from Hel and Valhalla ride out on ships of corpses to fight the Ice Giants from the north and from Jotunheim.
Then there are a few battles (each carefully chronicled in the myths) and the world finally ends. Midgard is only inhabited by two humans, a male and a female, who survived Ragnorok by hiding in the branches of Yggdrasil, the tree that spans dimensions. 
In the books there are a few differences from the Norse myths, but the basic principles are the same. the end of the world happened, and then started again. The books Runemarks and Runelight are like new sagas for the vikings. In the first book, a girl called Maddy journeys into the world beneath to discover the ancient oracle, Mimir, and then prevent another Ragnorok; bringing the old gods back as she does so. Read it.

(to the right is a picture of me, The Dark Dragon.) 
Right, so Mockingjay. What is a Mockingjay, you might ask? Unless you know what one is, and you are screaming "Yayyyyyyy!"
A Mockingjay is a bird in the trilogy of books known as The Hunger Games. The books are set in the dystopian world of Panem: North America in the future. There are twelve districts around a Capitol. They are ruled by President Snow; a tyrant who has made the lives of millions misery. the districts hate the Capitol, and the Capitol finds the districts amusing.
Before the trilogy starts there was a war, in which District 13 was destroyed. Using genetic engineering the Capitol made many horrific Muttations, or Mutts, such as the Jabberjays, to keep an eye on the rebels. Jabberjays are birds which replicate the sounds that they hear and repeat them. The districts discovered they were being spied on, and defied the Capitol by sending false information to the Jabberjays. Furious, the Capitol destroyed the Jabberjays.
But a few got loose, and mated with Mockingbirds. Their offspring, the Mockingjay, is a symbol of rebellion. The Mockingjay badge worn by Katniss in the first book, and indeed the film they've just made, becomes a powerful symbol.


And Werewolves? I finally saw the film American Werewolf in London. Good film; got a few scenes of a *keff* sexual *keff* nature, so I wouldn't recommend it to younger siblings. But it is a very good film. I was going to put some werewolf mythology facts, but this post seems to be getting long.
Videos?

Dark Dragon