Operating outside the framework of right and wrong, tricksters do not recognize the rules of society. Their characters and actions are far from simple, however. Often childish, greedy, lustful, and even nasty, tricksters can also be friendly, helpful, clever, and wise.
Sometimes they appear to be clownish, clumsy, or foolish, although they usually possess amazing powers of survival. A trickster may come to a sorry end in one story but then, after being miraculously brought back to life, reappear in other tales.
Sometimes a trickster is a creator or culture hero whose activities explain how some aspect of the world came into being. In northeastern America, for example, myths of the Algonquian-speaking people tell of a trickster named Gluskap. Gluskap lived in the cold north, but during a journey to the warm south, he tricked Summer, a beautiful female chieftain, into returning north with him. After she melted the cold of Winter, Gluskap let her return to her home.
Maui, the trickster hero of the Polynesian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, created the world while he was fishing. He let out a long fishing line and reeled in island after island from the bottom of the ocean. Later, Maui stole fire from the underworld and gave it to humans. Trickster figures appear in the myths of many Native American groups.
When tricksters' pranks benefit humans, they are considered culture heroes. In stories from the Northwest Coast region, the trickster Raven recaptured the sun from a distant chief who had stolen it and left the earth in darkness. Greek mythology also includes a trickster associated with the gift of fire.
Angry at having been tricked, Zeus refused to let humans have fire, but Prometheus stole a burning ember from the gods for people to use. A trickster may be a go-between or messenger between the human and divine worlds. Hermes, the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology, was the god of travelers and trade but also of thieves and deceit. He hid their tracks by tying tree bark to their hooves. Eshu, a West African trickster also known as Legba, is associated with travel, commerce, and communication—or miscommunication.
He creates quarrels among people or between people and gods. In one myth, he causes conflict between a man and his two wives. Disguised as a merchant, Eshu sells one of the wives a fine hat, which pleases the husband but makes the other wife jealous.
Eshu then sells a more splendid hat to the second wife. The special attributes and their genius crimes are explained in detail in the following paragraphs:. Lugh was a trickster God who was a Smith and also a craftsman. He was also believed to be a very brave and skilled warrior apart from the role of the trickster, which he played with the people of Ireland. His tales of wisdom and tricks are very famous in Ireland because he could change his appearance, where he sometimes used to appear as an old man following the people believing that he is very weak.
The famous book, The Druids which is written by Peter Beresford Ellis, has suggested that he was the inspiration for various folktales of mysterious stories in the Irish legend.
He has also offered the theory that the word Leprechaun is the variation of the word Lugh Chromain, which has a meaning of little stooping Lugh. Wisakedjak was a native American Trickster God whose folklore is present in both the Algonquin and the Cree. He was the one who was considered to be responsible for creating a very big flood that wiped out almost all the parts of the world after the creator had built it and then used his magical powers for rebuilding the current world.
Read Hagstones in Magic Folklore, and Symbolism. He has often pranked his friends for the benefit of mankind and also ensured that these pranks do not harm them. Just like the tales of Anansi, his stories have a very clear pattern and a format that usually begins with him trying to deceive or trick someone or also manipulating someone for doing him a favour and then always giving a moral at the end of the story. It is considered to be a very important cultural figure in Caribbean mythology as well as Western African mythology.
The tales of the spider originated way back in the country of Ghana. Story of Anansi the spider involved the spider getting into some sort of ill-doing or mischief and facing a very horrible fate like being eaten alive or dead. And then finally managing his way out of the dangerous situation by talking and using his clever wits and words.
These tales originated as a part of the oral tradition and then they were able to travel across the sea to the North American region during the era of the slave trade. These tales were considered to be serving the purpose of the cultural identity along with providing lessons for the people about how to rise and outsmart those people who could harm or oppress the poor section of the society.
For the elderly and the grown-up people, Neil Gaiman has written American Gods which has featured the character of Mr. Nancy who is considered to be the spider of modern times. Veles Slavic was very famous in the parts of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Russia. These areas contain rich moral stories and history about the trickster god. He was considered to be an underworld God who was associated with the various souls of the deceased ancestors.
It is also believed that he sends the souls of the dead out in the world of the human beings in the form of messengers. Apart from the role which he plays in the Underworld, he is sometimes also associated with the storms which happen like the ones in his ongoing battle with the thunder god. He is considered to be a major supernatural force in the mythology of Slavic.
He is sometimes compared with Loki and Hermes of Greece for their similar mischievous behaviour. This god is also recognized by his curved back posture and also the magic flute which he always carries with himself wherever he may go. In one of the Legend, it is mentioned that when he was traveling through the land where he turned the winter into the spring with the beautiful music coming out of flute and also made it rain so that there would be a very successful harvest in the future months of the year.
It is believed that the curved posture of his back is symbolic of the bag of seeds and the various songs which he carries with himself. He is also believed to be the one who can bring the warmth of the spring and the melting of the snow according to his will.
It is also believed that just by the sound of his flute the various seasons were changed and the various women who danced on the song got pregnant with child. The various images of Kokopelli, which are thousands of years old have been found in the various rock art around the American southwest. Loki is a God of the Norse mythology, who is considered to be one of the biggest tricksters amongst the trickster Gods.
He has become a very famous character and pop culture due to the famous Avenger movie series in which his character is played by the British actor Tom Hiddleston. This particular god is famous for bringing out discord and chaos throughout the world by challenging the different Gods and also bringing the change which is not necessary. The mysterious God Loki serves the same purpose which a coyote does in the native American tales or the Anansi spider in the African lore.
Aztec Mythology : Huehuecoyotl, aka the Old Coyote , from Aztec Mythos is a shape-shifting trickster known for being equally likely to perpetrate cruel pranks against his fellow gods and mortal alike while also be prone to throwing grand parties as a god of storytelling, music, dance and merriment. Unfortunately for the Old Coyote, Huehuecoyotl's tricks frequently backfire and cause more trouble for himself than the intended victims. Tezcatlipoca subverts the archetype in that he was at the same time an authority figure and a very important one at that.
The only times he was really trickster-ish was mainly when he wanted to annoy his brother, Quetzalcoatl. However, he was definitely at the far "god of chaos" end of the trickster archetype much of the time. Alternative names for him translate approximately to things like "he to whom we are his slaves", "change through violence" likely a reference to revolution , and "enemy of both sides".
Depending on the story, he ranges from simply being a clever animal to an outright god. Personality-wise, he ranges from an unreliable-but-friendly ally to humanity, to a too-clever-by-half Jerkass-ButtMonkey who teaches people how to behave by negative example, to the personification of chaos, definitely powerful, but nobody's friend. The Raven fills the role in the Pacific Northwest, where he is an anti-hero sort of deity.
His claim to fame would be stealing the sun from its keeper, allowing light to come into the world for the first time ever. Norse Mythology : Loki, one of the most famous examples thanks to his appearances in The Mighty Thor and various adaptations. He's a spirit of chaos, and Odin's bloodbrother, who's mostly kept around because he's useful, but ends up causing more trouble than he helps and eventually betrays the gods though not entirely without reason Odin is also a trickster in Norse mythology, though more beloved than Loki.
One of Odin's common actions is to hide as a human among mortals and check their hospitality, honor, etc. It's even theorized that Odin and Loki originated as the same character, but the myths evolved to split them so that the negative aspects were all concentrated into Loki. Maui, the demigod from Pacific Mythology , most recently depicted in Moana. He used his powers to play pranks on demons, like bringing dead animals that they were about to eat back to life, and killing his own demon grandfather and tricking the other demons into eating him.
He later created the earth by tricking his own niece into dancing with demons and then getting trampled to death by them. Classical Mythology has Eris the goddess of discord whose throwing an apple labeled "For the Fairest" among three goddesses when she wasn't invited to a demigod's wedding was actually the cause of the Trojan War and a more positive trickster in Hermes.
While usually known as the messenger of the gods, he was also known for cunning and inventiveness; his first exploit was stealing the cattle of Apollo, earning him the mantle of god of thieves. Live-Action TV. Star Trek: The Next Generation : According to some of the novels, Q is the Ur-Example for this trope In-Universe , with every trickster god, alien and human including Loki and Prometheus, where the Q Continuum strung him out on a cliff and had wild animals eat out his internal organs repeatedly for giving humans the gift of fire on a whim being based in some shape or form on him Supernatural : The Norse trickster god Loki goes around playing Deadly Pranks on various people, usually to take the haughty down a peg or two.
It's later revealed that Loki had actually made a deal with the Archangel Gabriel to impersonate him for a few millennia, as Gabriel didn't want to have anything to do with the War in Heaven. Tabletop Games. This god was slain alongside almost all the other goblin gods when the deity Maglubiyet slaughtered the goblin, hobgoblin and bugbear pantheons in order to claim their races, but found a way to have the last laugh on its killer.
The slain god survived in shattered form as many bodiless spirits, which appear when Maglubiyet commands his followers to assemble into hosts and possess goblins, turning them into the chaotic and destructive nilbogs and giving them magical powers focused on mischief and mockery in order to sow chaos and ridicule in Maglubiyet's forces.
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