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Trickster

Literary archetype

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  • 6 chapters
Renart the fox, drawn by Ernest Henri Griset (Q21458528) , from a children's book published in 1869. Original image found here , apparently an online museum catalog. Image cropped, deskewed, and corre
Ernest Henri Griset · Public domain

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Mythology

Tricksters, as archetypal characters, appear in the myths of many different cultures. Lewis Hyde describes the trickster as a "boundary-crosser". The trickster crosses and often breaks both physical and societal rules: Tricksters "violate principles of social and natural order, playfully disrupting normal life and then re-establishing it on a new basis."

Often, this bending and breaking of rules takes the form of tricks and thievery. Tricksters can be cunning or foolish or both. The trickster openly questions, disrupts and mocks authority.

Many cultures have tales of the trickster, a crafty being who uses tricks to get food, steal precious possessions, or simply cause mischief. In some Greek myths Hermes plays the trickster. He is the patron of thieves and the inventor of lying, a gift he passed on to Autolycus, who in turn passed it on to Odysseus. In Slavic folktales, the trickster and the culture hero are often combined.

Frequently the trickster figure exhibits gender and form variability. In Norse mythology the mischief-maker is Loki, who is also a shapeshifter. Loki also exhibits sex variability, in one case even becoming pregnant. According to "The Song of Hyndla" in The Poetic Edda, Loki becomes a mare who later gives birth to Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir.

In African-American folklore, a personified rabbit, known as Brer Rabbit, is the main trickster figure. In West Africa (and thence into the Caribbean via the slave trade), the spider (see Anansi) is often the trickster. In southern African folklore, the entity known as Kaggen often takes the role of a trickster, usually taking the form of a praying mantis.

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