[The Bear's Lair] Max Payne, Norse mythology, the Aesir and Valhalla

Listen to me, you holy people, mighty and humble children of Heimdall!
I owe the work of Odin to narrate, of ancient stories that come to my mind.

With the first lines of Vǫluspá, the Prophecy of the Seer, I open this space dedicated to cosmogony, theogony and, in general, to mythology in video games.

Each week we will dive together into the stories, religions and legends that are the background to video game plots more interesting, but that's not all: we will also look beyond this horizon, to spy behind the scenes where, in most cases, we will find a substratum of ancient legends of our world.

Now, I know you are wondering «But why" La tana dell'Orso "?" , and it is a sacrosanct question. Well, as with all legends of creation, there are various and multiple interpretations. I could tell you that the bear has always represented one of the totemic spirits of the 5th Edition Barbarian, shamanic and also magical of human civilizations; I could instead write that, in one form or another, the bear always recurs in the unpronounceable nicknames I choose to use; for some, finally, the bear perfectly embodies the gruff, grumpy and semi-wild character of players who, like me, prefer the single player compared to the loud and annoying multiplayer.

While we wait to reach consensus, a bit like the Geth of Mass Effect, we could delve into the dense, cold and feverish mythology that permeates not only the videogame series dedicated to Max Payne, but also most of the pages of the –pregevolissima– graphic novel, inspired by the style of Frank Miller, which accompanies us along this painful and hallucinatory journey bullet time.

Max Payne and Norse mythology

The surreal and bloody path of Max Payne it is literally immersed in the Norse mythology; it goes from the most evident and obvious elements, such as the Valhallla project - which certainly will not refer to Jupiter Pluvius, in short! -, up to the most hidden and deepest veins, which are perhaps only grasped by enthusiasts. We will therefore try to discover these connections together, and maybe we will replay this videogame series with a completely different look.

But why did the authors of the game choose the Norse mythology? It's quite simple: the author of the story and script of the entire Max Payne saga is Sam lake, the pseudonym - as well as the quite literal translation - of Sami Järvi, Finnish by birth. The same face of Max Payne is based on that of Sam, who even starred in the graphic novels of the series.

Warning: from here on, for obvious reasons, there may be spoilers of the game which, it should be remembered, was released in 2001; after 17 years I think I can easily write a few more details, without fear of ruining the experience of others.

Max Payne's plot, in short

At the beginning of the third millennium, a terrible one snow storm wraps New York in its icy grip. A former agent of the city police department, now in the anti-drug force, stands atop a skyscraper besieged by police. The flashback starts which, in effect, is the story we are going to play from now on.

We will then discover that Max left the NYPD and moved to the DEA when some criminals, stoned with a new and very powerful synthetic drug called Valkyrie, they killed his wife and daughter, a few months old. With the help of friends and colleagues Alex Balder and BB, Max infiltrates the mafia clan dei Puncinello, and investigates to trace the perpetrators of the double as heinous murder.

Between the Italian-American mafia, Russian crime, corporations, political plots, betrayals, massacres and a shower of bullets in slow motion, Max will sink into a dreamlike journey to hell, in an urban landscape that has become a cold inhospitable land, streaked with few lights. of the steering wheels and the green luminescence of the synthetic drug, the Valkyrie, which is a bit the leitmotif of the plot, together with the intrigues and conspiracies.

The Valhalla Project

During the investigation, Max Payne will discover that his wife had come across, almost by chance (or maybe not ...), the Valhalla Project: a government program aimed at strengthening soldiers through the use of artificial substances.

Top Secret. Valhalla Project. United States Army. YGGDRASIL Network. Valhalla: the afterlife in Norse mythology where the bravest warriors spent the rest of their lives celebrating and fighting relentlessly; their wounds healed miraculously every night. Valkyries: the virgins who chose the most valiant Viking warriors and then brought them to Valhalla. 1991. The aim of the project is to create a chemical capable of increasing the courage and endurance of the ground troops. 1995. Unsatisfactory results. Project canceled.
Max: "Someone must have continued the search without authorization."

In full noir style, it is decided that Michelle, Max's wife, now knows too much and therefore needs to be silenced. And what better way to do it, if not with the subjects of the project itself?

Il Valhalla Project, therefore, it represents the casus belli, the reason that unleashed the protagonist's terrible revenge, but also - indirectly - the murder weapon.

But why is it called that exactly? In Norse mythology, as we all know by now, Valhalla (Valhǫll) is the Asgard palace which serves as a residence for the einherjar, the warriors who died valiantly in battle, destined to train and feast on wild boar, mead and beer until the final battle, the Ragnarok, in which they will be at Odin's side against the Giants.

In reality, to be picky, only half of the brave fallen in battle are taken by the Valkyries and transported to Valhalla; the other half ends up in the halls of Sessrúmnir, in celestial fields of Fólkvangr, under the dominion of Freya, goddess of fertility, beauty, love, sex, magic, war and death. Indeed, it is Freyja who makes the first choice, while Odin is entitled to the remaining half.

Returning to us, calling Valhalla this project probably has a certain ironic intent, given that in reality whoever hires the drug Valkyrie he is more like a zombie than a human being: he acts like an animal, does not seem to perceive pain and has very little intellectual faculties, being in a state that oscillates between madness, murderous fury and hallucinations.

The Valkyrie

One of the pillars of the peculiar relationship between Max Payne and Norse mythology, the synthetic drug Valkyrie (Valkyr in the English game) represents an acid green thread that links one event to the next.

 

Project Valhalla's test subjects were those damned drifters who had killed the people I loved most. The rest had been just a body count. Everything pointed to her. Mrs. Valkyrie.

La Valkyrie, of course, it refers to the winged maidens who, after Freyja's first choice, bring the remaining brave to the halls of Valhalla. Here, too, the ironic intent is quite clear: the drug of the same name, instead of being a winged girl who takes whoever takes it to a warrior's paradise, has revealed itself - quoting Max Payne himself - "a demonic one-way way to Hell".

But there is also another facet, which we will see shortly.

The Aesir Corporation

No, theAesir Corporation it is not the plumbing company of Tucson, Arizona - which actually exists, check it out - but it is the classic evil corporation colluding with corrupt fringes of the government, and it is the company that produces the drug Valkyrie. A bit of a cliché, perhaps, but then we'll see why, actually, it's a name that fits perfectly into Max Payne's plot.

A peculiarity: the company's motto is “A bit closer to heaven“, a little closer to heaven or heaven. Yes, because in Nordic mythology the Aesir, in a nutshell, are the gods of heaven and represent one of the two factions of the Norse pantheon, where the other is made up of the Vanir, deity of the earth.

A curiosity: Odin belongs to the Aesir lineage, as does Thor, while Freyja instead, we were talking about a moment ago, is part of the Vanir; she, however, is first taken as a hostage by the Aesir to guarantee peace between the two factions, and then assimilated into the Aesir themselves.
Why can this be important? We will find out shortly.

Nicole Horne

At the head of the Aesir Corporation is a woman, Nicole Horne who, in a peculiar way, in the in-game graphic novel is called "the queen of the underworld".

Who was the queen of the underworld, in the Norse mythology? None other than Hel, queen of Helheim ("the house of Hel"), that is the afterlife where those who die in a dishonorable way, of disease or simply of old age end up. A detail: Nicole Horne appears wrinkled and shriveled, and half of Hel's body appeared as if decomposed.

According to another theory, the name of Horne refers to the Gjallarhorn, the horn of Heimdallr which will sound at the dawn of Ragnarok, to gather the gods for the final battle, or at Odin's triple horn (potorio).

Could it also represent Odin's female counterpart, namely Freyja herself?
We do not know, but some elements could be interpreted in this sense.

Alfred Woden

Alfred Woden is a United States Senator and an influential member of the Inner Circle, a Masonic secret society which partially controls both the federal government and New York crime, and which also includes Horne.

Previously involved in the Valhalla Project, Woden is now Nicole Horne's nemesis, so much so that he leaks information about the Valhalla Project to Michelle Payne, to manipulate Max and have him kill several rivals in the Inner Circle, including Horne, with the aim of taking control of the secret society.

What are the peculiarities of Woden? It is or aspires to become the head of the company secret of which it is part, is a precious one source of information, plus it has one eye only.

Who else has these characteristics? Odin which, in its Anglo-Saxon version, is called Woden. Even Odin has only one eye, represents a very precious source of knowledge and information, and it is a leader of the Aesir of the Norse pantheon.

Odin had given away one of his eyes in exchange for the supreme knowledge, received from the omniscient giant Mímir; it is not known how Alfred lost the of him, but the parallelism here is quite evident.

It should be noted that Candy Dawn, a rather friendly prostitute towards the Puncinello family, as well the only woman directly killed by Max Payne (at least in the first chapter of the series), she calls him “One-eyed Alfred“. Candy is also the co-star of the hot recordings Horne blackmailed Alfred with.

"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." - Max Payne

Speaking of the name, Alfred: Ælfred, in Saxon, means "advised by the elves" or "council of the elves". In Norse mythology, at the head of the kingdom of the elves, Álfheimr, sits Freyr, who is the twin brother of the Freyja mentioned earlier.

Does your head explode? In summary, here is the further key to the interpretation of which I wrote a moment ago: just like the winged maidens, the drug Valkyrie, to all intents and purposes, transformed the subjects into warriors of Odin - Woden, before Hel - Horne took over the project and restarted it in secret.

alex balder

Friend and partner of Max Payne, Alex Balder has a short life in the game: the other element of the trio, BB, organizes a secret meeting to discuss the recent investigation, but at the end of the conversation Alex is killed by a killer no better identified, and Max is blamed for his friend's death.

Fans of Norse mythology will have already understood: Balder, Alex's surname, is a clear reference to Baldr or Baldur, god of benevolence and hope, unintentionally killed by his blind brother Hǫðr, deceived by Loki. The latter, the god of deception and of the deception, he will be banished by the other gods, and will begin to harbor such resentment that it will lead him to unleash the so-called Twilight of the Gods or, more correctly, the Fate of the Gods: the Ragnarok, in fact.

In the video game, too, the death of (Alex) Balder is a triggering episode, which will push Max Payne over the edge of the precipice on which he was brought by the killing of his family.

BB

Here we have another medium to large spoiler.

After several personal investigations, and after many, many, many bullets, we will discover the identity of the mysterious killer by Alex Balder: just BB, a friend of both the victim and Max. We will come to discover that this beautiful tome worked for the Aesir Corporation and therefore for Nicole Horne… and then we will dry it, to avenge Alex's death.

We don't know much about BB's life before he was bribed by the Aesir Corporation, other than that he is a DEA agent and always wears sunglasses. This aspect could be a reference to Hǫðr, the very blind god who kills his brother Baldr after being deceived by Loki. BB, still wearing his sunglasses, kills his friend Balder after being bribed, allegedly, by the Aesir Corporation.

Jack Lupino

One of my favorite characters of the whole saga: he is also passionate about Norse mythology, enough to call RagnaRock its eerie gothic club.

As we españoles know well, Lupino means "little wolf", and Jack himself gave himself the nickname of "Wolf Fenris". Now, as you certainly know already, Fenris / Fenrir is the wolf of the apocalypse: the feral and gigantic son of Loki who will be one of the protagonists of Ragnarok.

In addition to killing Odin himself, Fenrir is also credited with other major events of the end of the world; according to some sources it will be he himself who devours the sun and the moon, in others this act is performed by his children; according to other interpretations it will be Fenrir himself (and not Garmr, another legendary wolf) to fight with Tyr, the god of war, whose meat he had already tasted in the past: it is no coincidence that Tyr has only one hand. Odin will be avenged by his son, Víðarr, who is precisely the silent one god of vengeanceand one of the few to survive Ragnarok.

“I tasted the flesh of fallen angels. I tasted the green blood of the devil: it flows in my veins! I saw beyond the world of the flesh, the whole architecture of blood and bone. Death is coming! He will soon be among us, with Hell in tow! Here is the dawn ofeternal winter. I'm ready to become his son! " - Jack Lupino

The bold refers to a point which we will discuss later. A quote from Jack Lupino is not enough: I bring you the part of the photo novel that concerns him. It is maniacally disturbing, and therefore beautiful.

The Ragnarok

Jack Lupino's dark, demonic and creepy-as-hell nightclub.

The reference to what is - improperly - called Twilight of the Gods is clear: Jack Lupine was convinced that the end of the world was near, and therefore gave his restaurant the name of the final battle between Light and Order against Darkness and Chaos, in which the world (and the Nine Realms) will be destroyed and regenerated, starting a new cycle.

It is curious how Baldr (Alex Balder) and Hǫðr (BB) are expected to come back to life, inheriting the powers of divine parents, along with Odin's sons, Viðarr and Váli, and Thor's sons, Móði and Magni. Humanity, at that point, will be regenerated by a new original couple: Líf and Lífþrasir, essentially the Post-apocalyptic Adam and Eve.

The Fimbulvetr

The game is set during the worst snow storm never seen in New York, which shows no sign of stopping. Jack Lupino also explicitly speaks of the dawn ofeternal winter: Fimbulvetr, that is, the harsh, long winter that precedes Ragnarok.

Asgard Buildings

Another pretty glaring connection: Max Payne meets Woden - Odin in a building he explicitly recalls Ásgarðr, literally “the residence of the Aesir".

It is a completely separate realm from the world of mortals, Miðgarðr, if not for the thin rainbow bridge, the Bifrǫst, guarded by Heimdallr.

YGGDRASIL

La military computer network we encounter in the game is called YGGDRASIL.

Yggdrasill, however, it is also the name of the titanic ash tree that stands at the center of the cosmos, and that supports all nine worlds or Realms. Three of Yggdrasill's roots drink in as many worlds: one in Ásgarðr (Realm of Aesir), one in Miðgarðr (Realm of Mortals), and the other in Helheim (Realm of the Dead).

In addition to these three worlds, among the branches of Yggdrasill there is also the Realm of the Elves (Álfheimr) of which we have already spoken, the Realm of the Dwarves (Niðavellir), that of the Giants (Jötunheimr), the House of Vanir (Vanaheimr), the Realm of Ice (Niflheimr) and the Realm of Fire (Múspellsheimr).

Mona Sax

From here on the references become a little more obscure and, perhaps, stretched, but I have decided to illustrate them anyway for completeness of information. And also to show you, dear readers, how far you can go with some healthy over-thinking and a little free time!

Mona Sax introduces herself as Lisa's evil twin, and we know that Lisa is the wife of Don Angelo, head of the Puncinello family.

It soon becomes clear that Mona and Lisa are homages to Mona Lisa (Mona Lisa in English) painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, but there is another possible meaning behind the twins' names.

Lysa, according to the Old Norse vocabularies that I have consulted, means "to dawn", "to illuminate", and the Sax instead is a long knife or a short sword. Maybe they symbolize Good and Evil?

Mona is almost certainly not a dialectal insult, but I have not found any particular connections with the Old Norse languages; if any of the readers should come up with a meaning that has escaped me, I will be happy to add it.

Kyra Silver

During the game we can see, quite often, the news reported by a reporter from the New York News Network, who sometimes also deals with the weather.

Well, Kyra Silver can be anagram for "Valkyr laughed".

I admit it: in these last two points I played a bit with words and tried, as a whim, for meanings where there probably weren't any; the rest of the references are quite explicit and certainly wanted by the author, Sam Lake - Sami Järvi.

Not just Nordic mythology

If we look outside the first chapter of the Max Payne saga, in the comic "after the fall"We discover that Max's grandfather used to tell his grandson the stories and myths of the Greek world, such as the Odyssey: in a flashback we see a young Max very interested in ancient mythology.

A bit like you who have read so far, and for this I thank you. In bullet time.
For the moment I greet you and make an appointment for next week!