The umbrella, a gift from Thor

category: notion

The umbrella, a gift from Thor

A Norse Myth: Thor, Loki, and the Umbrella Trick

In the golden days of Asgard, when gods still played like children beneath Yggdrasil’s branches, Thor and Loki were young in mischief and might. Thor, already boasting the strength of thunder, was easily riled, and Loki—ever the sly one—knew just how to provoke him.

One day, as clouds rolled low over Midgard, Loki approached Thor with his usual grin, eyes gleaming with mischief.

“Brother,” Loki said, “they call you the god of thunder, but I wonder—do your storms answer to your will, or do they come and go like your temper?”

Thor frowned. “Of course they answer to me! The sky shakes at my command!”

“Prove it,” said Loki, nudging him. “Let us play a game. Cast your storms upon the little humans. Make them tremble. Show me the strength of Mjölnir.”

Thor, puffed with pride, raised his hammer and unleashed a roaring tempest upon Midgard. Lightning danced like snakes across the sky. Thunder cracked mountains. Rain fell in furious sheets. The humans—tiny and fragile—ran for cover, crops drowned, homes were shattered, and rivers swelled into monsters.

When the chaos passed, Thor looked down and saw only ruin.

“Perhaps…” he muttered, troubled, “perhaps I went too far.”

“Ah,” said Loki, with mock sympathy, “you just need to help them. Maybe something to shield them? Something simple. Like… a cloth stretched on sticks?”

Thor blinked. “An umbrella?”

“Yes!” Loki clapped. “Give them umbrellas to protect themselves when your fury strikes again.”

Relieved to right his wrongs, Thor descended to Midgard and gifted humanity the knowledge of how to build to protect themselves from the rain.

But as soon as he left, Loki sat upon a hill and cackled.

For while Thor had gifted humanity umbrellas against rain, he had forgotten the wind. And Loki, whispering into the gusts, sent a mighty gale sweeping across the land. Umbrellas snapped backwards, tore from hands, flipped inside out like dead birds in the storm.

The humans wailed. Thor, hearing their cries again, turned his eyes downward, confused.

And up on his hill, Loki laughed and laughed, his trick complete.

“Poor Thor,” he chuckled. “Still strong as a storm… but not nearly clever enough to master the wind.”

And thus it is said: when your umbrella turns inside out, it is Loki’s laughter riding the wind, reminding the world that even gods can be fooled.