Scala Radio Book Club: Loki by Melvin Burgess
Melvin Burgess reflects with us on why he turned to Scandinavian legends and mythology for his new novel
Last updated 27th Nov 2022
Mark Forrest greeted the trailblazing young adult author Melvin Burgess into the Scala Radio book club on Thursday, the 24th of November, to talk about his first adult novel Loki.
Born within the heart of a fire in the hollow of a tree-trunk, Loki arrives in Asgard as an outsider. He is a trickster, an unreliable narrator, the God of intelligence and politics. In spite of his cleverness and sparkling wit (or, perhaps, because of this...) Loki struggles to find his place among the old patriarchal gods of supernatural power and is constantly at odds with the God of thunder - Thor.
Alongside the politics of Asgard, it charts the course of Loki's many loves and families, from his mothering of Odin's famous horse to his intense, turbulent, and, eventually, fatal relationship with Baldr the Beautiful - a tender and moving story of love that goes wrong, jealousy and a transitioning that is forbidden by society.
Mark started the interview by asking Melvin Burgess: ‘Now, for those new to these stories of the Norse Gods, explain who Loki is and where he lives.’
‘Loki lives in Asgard, which is the home of the Norse Gods. He's the God of mischief. He's quite a complicated character. He's hilarious. He's a risk-taker. He's a shape changer. Well, you might say he's mad, bad and dangerous to know. He's a lot of fun to know as well.’
Mark wanted to know why Marvin Burgess chose Loki as the narrator of the novel: ‘Loki is also an unreliable narrator, which rather begs the question, why would you want to tell these stories through his eyes?’
‘Well, basically, because these stories have been told throughout the eyes of Odin and Thor the big famous heroic types and Loki as you might expect, takes a rather different opinion of this. We all know that history is very much written by the winners. Loki isn't a winner in all this. And his view on it is that it's all propaganda. That he's not necessarily the one who's telling lies. He's in fact a victim, much more than you might think, whether you believe him or not. Of course, that's another issue.’
Mark inquired: ‘What attracted you to retell these stories?’
‘I've loved these stories ever since I was a kid, and Loki was always the God that attracted me the most. I can tell you, Mark, that over the years, I've had a number of friends that remind me very strongly of Loki, and they've all been a lot of fun. They've all done me down in the end in some way or other, as is the way of these things. But there's something about the baddies; funny, silver tongues, inventive, clever, smart, apparently loyal, that is particularly attractive to me.’
Mark asked Marvin Burgess’s about his relationship with the narrator: ‘At the end of studying Loki and writing about him, did you feel a kinship with Loki?’
‘I admire him. He's the person that's far more attractive in fiction than in real life. I can attest to that, I wouldn't actually want to get up to some of the things he gets up to my personal policeman is far too big to allow me to carry on like that, but yes, I did. I did feel when I was writing that book that it was like channelling the voice of Loki. I really did enjoy it. It was a lot of fun. It was take the breaks off, hurdle downhill, and see where you go.’
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