ABSTRACT
One of the most memorable lines in the 2017 Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok is, “Asgard is not a place, it’s a people,” which is said by different characters at different times in the movie. In Norse mythology/religion, Asgard is one of the Nine Worlds, and it is, therefore, regarded as a sacred place, worth dying for, and even killing for. But, in one of those lovely cinematic twists made possible by the Marvel multiverse, Odin—the long-bearded, spear-wielding god played by Sir Anthony Hopkins—says, to his “number one” son, Thor: “Asgard is not a place. It never was … Asgard is where our people stand.” In relation to the connections between places and peoples, the theme of Home recurs throughout the movie, at the end of which Thor and his brother Loki tell their father they have come “to take him home.” But while the three of them look out over a beautiful cliff top, Odin says he’s “already home,” and dissolves into the ether, drifting and dissipating over the ocean below.
