Those aren't symbols, they are runes. There is a huge difference. Also joten in old norse refers to giants most of the time. If there were creatures taller the you average man/elf in norse mythology, then it was considered to be joten.
Man I love your videos I'm hoping once I pay off my credit card and have more money I'll be a patron for you. Always love your videos. You should check out Haze the video game.
There's fight, flight and freeze but what about just die? Lol, I only ask because under great stress and in times where I should do those, I just faint. If I'm stressed, I faint. If I'm freaked out, I faint. If I see blood, I faint. Is that just an evolutionary failure? Like fainting goats?
Fun fact: the Moder can be seen throughout the movie before the massive reveal,it's been hiding and stalking the group the entire time which makes it much creepier and scarier that this massive thing is somehow about to hide in plan sight multiple times and has the patience/intelligence to stalk it's prey
I think one of my favourite parts of this is the long shot a little later into the movie and you can see most of Moder's body in the background just moving through the forest.
I dont believe that. There's definitely a small glimpse here and there but it's definitely not throughout the movie. Not like the Starbucks cups in fight club.
I like the idea that Moder hangs her victims in the trees as a way to make a mockery of Odin's sacrifice to askr Yggdrasil. That's actually pretty metal and shows how petty the Jötunn can be.
@@kassyyar97 It's the origins of the runes. It's in the Hávamál. It's specifically the Rúnatal or Óðins Rune Song (Stanzas 139-146). I know that I hung on a windy tree nine long nights, wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin, myself to myself, on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run. No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn, downwards I peered; I took up the runes, screaming I took them, then I fell back from there. The obvious Christ parallel has not been lost on scholars. 😁
I don't think it's a mockery but rather moder does that to offer her victims for her freedom. I am not norse but fallen gods in my culture do horrible sacrifices to appeal for their freedom from the mortal realm. Basically they want out of earth and go back home from whence they came hahahahah
@@janinebelleestrada7096 Well given that Moder is the offspring of Loki, I think it's pretty reasonable to say that she's doing it as a mockery. Loki is the trickster God after all and is known for doing things like that. I also don't really see Moder wanting to leave Earth. She wouldn't be accepted in the other realms and, as shown in the movie, loves the worship even if it's forced worship. If you don't mind sharing the name of your cultures' pantheon or religion, I would love to look in to it. I like learning about these things and it's sounds quite interesting. :)
@@spook4597 Loki's daughter Hel wasn't seen that way though, apparently she treated all mortals equally and was thought to be busy tending to Helheim. Her brothers Jormangundr and Fenrir were more beast like in their nature and personalities. Also, Loki is apparently adopted by Odin and some scholars believe they could be related, she could be doing out of honor in some sense.
Legit one of the coolest monster designs I've seen in a long time. One of the few times where the reveal of the monster only enhanced the horror rather than detracting from it.
If you connect the wounds on Luke’s chest, it makes an Odal rune, which among other things, means “Family”. Luke was marked to join the pagan community rather than being sacrificed
Yes, family, but as with most things Luke had a choice. I don't believe they would have forced him to join without the choice. Once his friends were gone the family was banking on him being so weak and scared that he would fall down and worship.
@@Aganie.where in the movie did it specifically mention the Odal or Algiz rune? It akshually showed you, it never told you. I’m only being as pretentious as you are btw
The "parachute" they found was actually a tent. If you look at the wallet at 9:50, it's a picture of a family with one girl standing away from the rest. Most likely, the VW bus that was found in the beginning was owned by the family. They came to the woods to go camping, Moder marked the girl, and killed the rest. The girl grew to be the woman who was talking to Luke in the village.
I like the thought of burning the forest down to destroy such a creature, but it is probably a terrible idea. The Nordic language is often in the form of runes, which hold a magical significance in many cases. There are runes carved into the trees throughout the forest, which might be binding the entity to that forest. Destroy the forest, and you may be destroying a seal and allowing the monster to roam free.
Consider the possibility that it isn't limited by the woods but is bound by them. Like, it is well adapted to them and would obviously have difficulty operating elsewhere, but what if burning the woods doesn't trap it, but releases it from a trap it is already in?
Actually if you search for swedish results they almost unanimously say it means moonse, not elk, or they say its both. Its probably a translation mistake somewhere since Älg means moose, but is very similar to elk.
@@khurgar8120 You have some wires crossed my friend. In all Germanic languages, the word Elk and its cognates originally refer to "Moose". We still call them Elk. But when European settlers colonised North America, they started calling another cervid (Wapiti) Elk and instead used a Native American word, Moose, to refer to true Elk. So the translation is correct, it's just that Americans use it for the wrong animal lol
@Armata Strigoi Ah yes, blame us for the geniuses who also named a desert "Desert Desert". The Europeans were notorious for using local names that meant the same thing as their own languages.
@@chrisdufresne9359 Again, wires crossed. I'm not saying "Moose" is incorrect, just that the word Elk is applied "incorrectly" (and I use that term loosely, language evolves). So really, if I'm blaming anyone it's the settlers for misidentifying an animal. Personally I prefer Moose and Wapiti in the American context, and Elk when referring to our own population (of Moose lol). As an aside, naming things synonymously is not an exclusively European phenomenon lol
The reason the moder dropped luke instead of killing him is because it wanted luke to pray to it, to submit to it, hence why when luke got back up, the moder pushed him back down, to force luke to worship it, but luke always intended to fight back.
I don't blame Luke for hiding. There's bravery and then there's assessing the situation. 1) he's outnumbered 2) they have longer weapons 3) they are under the influence so more tolerant of pain 4) They are much more violent. Good luck scaring them off 5) They are much more experienced in fighting 6) they've got nothing to lose
Like they even have weapons and stuff. What's this one guy who clearly has no fighting experience gonna do against 2 clearly tough guys. It's better for the one guy to die than both
1: he has a bottle that if he smashed, could be a lethal weapon 2; if he smashed it on their heads, they would die in seconds due to the toughness and thickness of that glass and the relative thinness of a human skull (posibly even caving it in)
@@aidenyorke2132 he wouldn't have had the chance. They're prepared for violence he wasn't. He would've ended up dead like his friend. Luke isn't the friggin Punisher.
@@sorrenblitz805 bottle is made of glass, glass can cave in hooman skool, they have knife, stab liver, take hour to bleed out, smash skull? die in seconds.
As for people being related to their gods, in Irish mythology the Irish people are said to be direct descendants of Donn, the god of death. And fun fact, Donn had a great hall called Tech Duinn where he gathered the souls of his descendants after death. Nobody was allowed in if they didn't share his blood. Meaning the Irish basically had their own exclusive afterlife.
I'll be honest, that just made me think of the South Park episode (or movie?) where everyone's in hell, complaining about being in hell and how they were devout ________, only for the gatekeeper to be like, "Ooh, sorry. No. The correct answer was Mormon!" Except here, the correct answer is being Irish-born!
Bears actually can pull an entire elk into a tree. It makes them feel safer when eating. However, they can't string it up like it was because they don't have opposable fingers like the monster thingy.
When? And what kind of bear? Black bear will occasionally drag smaller kills up hollowed trees to store them temporarily, but record weight black bear are hardly as heavy as young adult elk. Grizzlies can climb quite well, despite misinformation contrary, but their longer claws make dragging anything else up prohibitively difficult. Only a regular brown bear could even feasibly do this with an adult elk, but i find it hard to believe, and harder to believe that if this DID happen that not one person ever has taken a picture of it and posted it online because i find zilch.
@@skeletonnoise6178 if i had a dollar for every time i walked upon a bear in the wild and was completely fine, i could buy and fedex you a quality pair of hiking socks. Enjoy nature, just do so responsibly and with respect for it's power.
Since she is able to make people hallucinate so vividly there's a chance that the immortals she's made are having a wonderful time. She could be giving them the greatest experiences they could ever ask for through hallucinations.
Or their worst nightmare for eternity. Odin was known as The God of Ecstasy. Pretty sure this is a giant, since it hides in the forest, feeds on people, and uses immense illusions to trick its prey... doesn't seem like it would give you anything but pain 👁👄👁
@@Dirrtyvictory if I ate suffering, a paralyzed immortal being that's having the magical equivalent of a nightmarish LSD trip would be like having neverending wagyu
Fun fact: Odin, the leader of the Norse gods, is said to have carved humans from driftwood to look like him and his friends. So it's less "the gods look like us" and more "we look like the gods". It's also common to hang charms made of driftwood as they ward off bad intentions!
It's actually trapped in the forrest by the runes, if we go in with the supernatural element. Several of the main ones mean family, boundary, and protection. Put them together and it extremely loose and roughly would be "This group must remain here." More literally It's "The family must remain within this boundary or be punished." When I first watched it I thought the runes meant the cabin was protected from whatever creature was present, but watching I realized I had the context wrong. I'm by no means an expert in the runes or anything close, but I find them interesting and read about them a bit.
"The family must remain within this boundary or be punished." If that really is what it means then I give you another one: Maybe the runes were made by the creature herself as a warning to her followers. So they dont even try to leave. But as to how many of the (still mobile) followers can actually read the thing... that I dont know.
Another cool little note. From what I remember about Elder Futhark, the symbol that is put on the chest of the followers is the rune for property. The god is essentially claiming the followers as property, and forcing them to stay there. (I could be misremembering however, so correct me if I'm wrong)
@@nella544 Jottun aren't the offspring of Loki. Loki himself is half Jottun. Jottun are just inhabitants of the world known as Jottunheim. His offspring came from three sources. His twin sons Nari and Vali are of his wife Sigen, Jormangandr, Fenrir, and Hel are of his Jottun sidehoe Angrbotha, and her horse son Sleipnir was fathered by Svadilfori.
@@tamasrehany6532 Thinking about it more, I think it may actually be more of a safespace that the creature made for herself. The runes seem to be a warning towards someone trying to leave a home, which could serve as both a warning for the Jötunn and her followers, though it could also serve as a warning to outsiders, as that forest is clearly not their home, essentially telling them to leave the forest or they will be punished or subjugated to Moder's cult.
Yeah a lot of people dump them like garbage because they don’t want to deal with them anymore or hermits take them out into the middle of nowhere to live out of until it’s uninhabitable or they die and abandon it. Or kids take old broken down vans in the middle of nowhere so they can leave it there and come back to party in it and get laid rather then bring a tent back and forth lol and then we have the hippies cult that does all of the above
Same thing for the US state I live in, out in the forests and mountains you can stumble across a lot ov abandoned vehicles. Found one upside down in a shallow river at the bottom ov a cliff when I was younger. My dad called the ranger to make sure nobody was hurt but it turned out to have been down there for many years.
Design of the moder was very good. The scariest part of it is to me that it can very easily hide in plain sight in the forest. Something that big and that silent is more chilling than many more "gory" monster designs.
I never really saw Luke as being a coward, it was just self-preservation and what he does later on proves he isn't one. At the store the friend should have just given the dude his wedding ring like when it comes down to it its just a replacable item. 🤷🏽♀️
Did Roanoke also imply that?(I haven't watched the full video yet) Roanoke seems to have completely unreasonable expectations on your average human being sometimes.
In the book there never even was an extra friend who got killed, Luke just grew apart from them because they all grew up and got good jobs and started families and he thought they felt they were better than him
I kind of disagree there. Not necessarily insulting him for being a coward but what he did was inherently cowardly. Two on three is significantly different than three on one. His buddy was left alone against these gangbangers when if his friend was there to back him up those dudes might have thought twice. And as for it's just a wedding ring that's absolutely b******* nobody should ever have to give up something valuable to them Even if they're threatened. That's basically enabling bullying behavior.
I had a different take from the movie as far as the monster went., especially since it's naming is likely important, Moder being mother. Additionally I seem to remember some mention of I think it was the Vikings whom abandoned sickly children in the wilderness, so it's possible that Moder was supposed to be linked to abandoned children. When it comes to the very specific criteria for selecting a new inhabitant for the village, it seemed that it selected the man because he was not just unable to cope with the loss of his friend and the trauma of the event, but also his freezing up and hiding out of sight when it happened, not unlike a child might. The fact he was being ostracized by the rest of his group may have been a secondary factor that triggered his marking. Thus I got out of the movie is that it is some sort of twisted parental figure. Everyone who enters the forest is either an intruder and threat to her collected 'family' and must be dealt with, or a wayward 'child' to be added to her collection after having branded as belonging. Given how ancient parenting techniques were fairly cruel in many places in the world, having an ancient local-deity having a twisted sense of parental protection over the village makes sense. When the man was escaping, he finally 'grew up' and was able to find the strength to stand on his own and fight back thus it allowed him to leave, or alternatively he had been accepted as a child and his rebellion got him banished from the haven it believed it had granted him.
Not just the freezing up and PTSD, but that survivor was said to be the only one among his friends who hasn't settled down, gotten married or gotten his act together. Maybe that was more than just a throwaway line to show he was affected more by the experience and instead a hint that the monster is looking for a "childlike" person who will be dependent on them. The others were more grown with families to go back to and thus would fight back and resist in the monster's mind. Meanwhile the survivor one would be more likely to cower and join the cult with nobody to go back to and being emotionally stunted.
@@jeffumbach But the woman showed him her mark and said that they're all destined to end up in the trees so it sounds like every one of them was planned to become christmas ornaments sooner or later.
Jotun is a term in Scandinavian mythology that ascribes to all supernatural beings that while not the gods but is used to describe "Giants" and other primordial things. Such as Normal Giants like Logi and Utgard-Loki, and the Ice Giants of Jotunheim, and the Fire giants of Muspelheim. Or creatures like Hræsvelgr which, while not a giant (but well a giant bird) is a being that predated the Asir.
One thing I noticed is that Moder plucked out the blonde cultist’s eyes because she looked at her. They all have to bow down and not look. I noticed as well that Moder has 4 arms. The two main ones, and two that are just below her eyes. Also the reason she doesn’t kill the protag after he burns her followers is likely because she only has a few left now and needs all of them she can get, and is thus still trying to get him to submit. I think this creatures power and sustenance comes directly from being worshipped. Notice how being shot while the elders are burning barely registers for her, but then after the elders are all dead and she purges the followers that look at her, an axe swipe hurts her. This makes me think that she gets weaker if she has less worshippers
This is how every man-made deity works. If people don't believe they become forgotten 😂 This is why all religions fade eventually, younger generations move on from whatever supernatural silliness their grandparents forced their kids to follow along with and eventually progress happens. But sadly there are always enough weirdos and fools that think only they know some "truth" that makes them special, and you will be special too if you believe, that this rubbish will continue for many generations to come. But I do hope that one day faith is not taken so serious, at least to the point ov making some unwell individuals think they have a spiritual given right to harm other people simply for not following those same ideas. Because that is honestly what all religions are, an individual idea that more and more people are willing to believe in, usually due to their fear ov death and what comes after. But regardless anyone claiming they know which deity is the "real God/goddess" is just a liar, a fool, or they are trying to willfully deceive you for whatever reason. I find it sad, gross, disturbing, hilarious, and frustrating all at the same time. And I am always disgusted with anyone that claims there is "only one true god", because that is so ignorant and wrong, there have been many deities throughout human history. And we have zero proof for any ov them other than the individual humans desire for their chosen one/many to be real. However, like Artemis, Njordr and Ereshkigal, even the Abrahamic pagan deities will fade from history given enough time. Because nothing we humans create will last forever.
Fun fact: if Luke reacted at the store, it is very likely that he would get beaten to death too, since a bat has longer reach than a (averagely breakable) bottle, also you can't really sneak up on people that are highly alert (like aggressive robbers). One more reason I wouldnt blame him.
Fun fact: A liquid-filled glass bottle makes an excellent projectile weapon, and the liquor store is full of them. You should blame Luke, unquestionably.
@@peculiar They had knives. the only person to blame for the death was the friend which wouldn’t give up the ring. literally the first thing ANYONE will tell you when in a robbery is to comply. Absolutely nobody that cares about your life will tell you to fight back if you can get out of the situation by letting them rob you.
As an actual Swede, some input for context: -In Norse mythology, what constitutes a "god" vs some other supernatural being is somewhat subjective: The jötnar (usually translated as "frost giants", though I think this probably borrows too much from Roman mythology) were distinct from the Aesir gods, but could apparently still intermarry and procreate with them. (Some accounts specifically involve a jötun marrying or trying to marry/rape an Aesir.) Occasionally, full-blood jötunns where counted among Aesir as equals and worshiped as legit deities. Notably Loki, Skaði and Gerðr were all jötunn who married into or - in the case of Loki - was adopted as Aesir. So, apparently they weren't vastly different in the physiological sense. One should probably think of this as less a matter of different species and more a matter of different cultural _tribe._ (See also the Vanir, who were "other" gods apparently indistinguishable from the Aesir.) -Also in Norse mythology, shapeshifting was a relatively common ability. Some individuals could change their _hamn_ (physical shape) and therefore simply turn themselves into animals, and this was regarded as normal. Loki, specifically, is very known for this ability - even managing to be the _mother_ of Sleipnir after turning himself into a mare. Loki's three other known children were a huge wolf, a gargantuan snake and a goddess who was half corpse split down the middle. (Fenrir/Fenris, Jörmungandr and Hel, respectively.) Since the mother of the three (Angrboða) was also a jötunn, all three of Loki's children by her were full-blood jötnar. A personal theory of mine is that they at least partly inherited the shape-shifting ability of their father and simply appeared in the form they felt was most comfortable or natural. The implication, it seems, is that jötnar can naturally change their _hamn,_ or shape. Assuming, of course, that Loki wasn't just very special that way. (The guy is incredibly vague given what little we know of him, and of the mythology in general.) So, basically, the difference between a jötunn and a god was mainly a matter of context, and it seems they could often look like whatever the heck they wanted. Appearances aren't much to go by, at least when it comes to the jötnar. And no, I don't think there are any surviving pagan communities around here. The old religion has been very thoroughly extinguished by Christianity over the last two thousands years or so. Frankly, it would be more interesting if it wasn't. If you do come across some insane cult in a remote part of Sweden, most likely they'll be some variety of Christian.
As a non Swede who has casually read on the subject and wants some clarification: I read in a wikipedia citation that led to a history of the etymology of jottun is that they were viewed as fairly neutral and over time began being viewed as more of monsters and ugly giant trolls. I assume probably as christianity kept spreading. Anyways, the stuff I researched backs up what you said about them being just like another tribe, but there are no surving stories that have the beast ones like Fenrir every shapeshifting. Also I don't recall Aesir shapeshifting either unless they were specifically magical like Odin? So I get the feeling that Loki was indeed special because he could and other could not. But you say that they are all sorta viewed as able to do it? Are there examples of Jotunn (besides Loki) taking other forms I missed?
@@bluecanine3374 Well, the jotunn could be called "neutral" in the sense that they apparently weren't considered evil by definition, nor _necessarily_ hostile towards the gods. They were often portrayed as _antagonistic_ towards Asgard, but more in the sense of being a rival tribe with a whole lot of grudges. Individual giants would still trade and make deals with the gods (with the Aesir usually trying to screw the giants over) and as I said they married each other on occasion. Regarding the shapeshifting, first of all I didn't mean that Loki's children were strictly speaking shapeshifters themselves, but I do think Loki's ability would be a neat explanation for why they all had the shapes of _very_ different beings despite having the same parents, both of whom were jotunn. Anyway, it's just a personal theory of mine and I don't have anything to back it up. Secondly, I meant that shapeshifters were common in that running into one wasn't too unusual. Like, a myth might mention a guy who likes turning into an otter sometimes without elaborating further and everyone just accepts it. This one dwarf transformed into a dragon, because that's apparently something that can happen. (That said, Loki does seem to have been special in that he could turn himself into whatever the heck he wanted whenever he felt like it, which I don't think was common at all.) I'm not completely sure any of the Aesir aside from Loki and maybe Odin had that ability. It simply doesn't seem to be a trait associated with them. Freya did own a cloak that let her turn into a falcon, but that implies she couldn't transform on her own.
There are several "pagan" communities here in Sweden which are incredibly easy to find One example is "Foteviken" down in Skåne which is a re-constructed viking village built on the foundation of the original one and the people who live there lives as they did in the old days And there are dozen of socities who get together for celebrations so... From your statement its obvious you have never even bothered to look Also the Aesir did not marry with the jotun they married with the Vanir which was the other pantheon from which Odin hailed...he formed the aesir though and the two families married to maintain peace Also "skifta hamn" that is a Christian thing...so I dont know what your sources are but...yeah seems like you are mixing everythinh together
Great comment! Check out the band Black Messiah for some really great songs about Norse mythology if you like symphonic metal. I recommend the songs played in this order The Ritual, Kvasir, Call to Battle. Also if you want a more free interpretation of Norse Mythology the God of War 4 game is absolutely fantastic. I've had campfires in the woods multiple times and listened to God of War 4 Mimir Boat stories around the fire. Check that out too! Amon Amarth is a good viking metal band too, and a few others
I absolutely love the design of Moder and is one of my most iconic creature designs in recent media. I watched the movie just bc of it's silhouette in a Netflix promo.
This might be very specific but when I first saw this monster it really reminded me of this bizarre freaky game called They Breathe where these weird jellyfish things took your frog friends bodies and they basically looked like a cartoonish-cow head at first glance but it’s actually y’know, dead frog body.
Funny story, I was searching this channel swearing Roanoke already had a "The Ritual" video, turns out I watched Nerd Explains video like a year ago when I started watching Roanoke. Anywho, glad to see this movie getting analyzed, keep up the good work my man.
I think you did address this towards the end, but - Moder kept pushing the main character to the ground at the end because she was trying to make him kneel before her in worship like the cultists did. She might gain sustenance from worship and as such, she doesn't want to kill the last person around to give her power after killing all of her cult. Also, damn, you're pretty hard on the main dude 🤣. It's like you say in the beginning - some people just have an intense Freeze response. He clearly felt horrible guilt over the incident in the store and still did what he could when he was in the forest to save his friends.
I love the shot at 29:08. Showing the monster simply looming with no buildup is really effective and making it genuinely scary. The director’s cut of Alien also does something like this and it’s my favourite scene in that movie, no musical buildup either. It’s just there.
I can't really dunk on the guy for freezing when his friend was in trouble. 1) Definitely because who knows what any of us would do in that situation. 2) Narratively, gives us an arc for the character.
Right he didn't run away or push his friend in front of the criminals that would be messed up. He was actually smart enough to react quickly and hide. His friends blaming him was very unfair. The criminals are the only ones to blame
Yeah 1v2 when one of them has a knife and your drunk you wouldn't stand a chance. Especially against criminals ready to kill you for no real reason. His friends sucks ass for for blaming him.
I think in that situation, where he was outnumbered 2 to 1 and they had knives, he made the 100% right decision staying hidden as helping would've only gotten them both killed, seeing as his character was not a krav maga or jujitsu expert. The friend was a moron for refusing to give his ring, but the only ones who should be blamed are the criminals who did it.
As far as whether paganism is considered witchcraft, not inherently. However, the concept of witchcraft predates Wicca by several thousand years as Wicca was made up by Gerald Gardner in 1954. Germanic/Norse Pagan mythology actually has it own version of witchcraft called seidr. It actually largely informed the concept of witchcraft in Christian Europe. As far as semantics go, I think it would be accurate to call it witchcraft as long as the wicker man was intended to cause some sort of magical effect. To your question of whether humans were said to be descended from Jotunn, nope, though it is a very logical guess. In the creation myth of Germanic/Norse Paganism, Odin and his two brothers Vili and Vé were walking down a beach and found two logs washed ashore, one of ash and the other of elm. Odin gave the logs spirit and life, Ve gave them movement, mind and intelligence and Vili gave them shape, speech, feelings, and the five senses. The logs then became the first humans, Ask and Embla.
Thank you or the information, I've been practicing Asatru for he past few years, and so many things are either lost in Christian "interpretation" or from lack of so many things not having been properly written down. I knew most of what you said, accept what they called "witchcraft"
The christian understanding of witchcraft more pertains to sorcerery in general and the KJV mentions witches and that thing is pretty old. So the idea of a witch predates wicca
Fun fact, there are actuslly FOUR fear responses. The Most commonly known are Fight and Flight. Lesser known is freeze, the fourth is one nobody really talks about, and that is Fawn. I doubt Fawning would do much good in this scenario, but essentially, to fawn is to, say, tell a human serial killer or whatever that it's super impressive how he killed your friends or family, and just keep flattering, complimenting and being charming with them. Whatever buys you more time, right, best case scenario the killer decides you're entertaining enough to keep alive and he kidnaps you instead of killing you. With any luck the killer is pretty dumb and you'll be able to get a passerby to take notice and get rescued within a day or two. But yeah, that is how fawning works as one of the four fear responses.
I always thought that if somebody is trying to kill me i would ask to join them instead of being killed because "actually I've always wanted to be a killer too" and then whenever we are caught by the police plead that i was forced into it (of which i basically was) and then get a lighter sentencing and survive
@@atimidbirbyes, it is! And its mostly seen in women and children who are trapped in abusive situations. For example, if youre being physically abused by a partner or parent, you may try to be as kind, accommodating, and loving as possible to avoid another beating. Especially if you’re a kid who has a sibling, you may fawn and cater to your abuser so YOU become the favorite and the other kid takes the brunt of the abuse
If it wasn't such a big part of the movie, I wouldn't even have paid attention to Luke's "choice." There's a much bigger moral quandary in play: Rob refused to give up a material possession because of sentimental value knowing full well it would likely cost him his life. I don't recall recall his backstory, but if his wife (and children?) are still alive, do you think they're going to applaud his bravery? She's now a single mother because Rob knowingly chose to die (and still lose the ring) than to live, buy another one--and spend the rest of his life being a good husband and being in his children's lives. And that's not all! Let's pretend I'm Rob and you're Luke. Are you the bad friend for not helping me attack 2 armed thugs who seemingly only want money OR am I the bad friend for expecting you to willingly risk your own life because I selfishly refused to give up a material possession? I would never ask such a thing of my friends. I've been a lifelong boxer and I'll tell ya right now the bottle Luke had wouldn't have meant a damn thing, doubly so from the distance he was at. Even more so if he was not mentally experienced for violence. I can already hear people saying, "NAH DAWG, I'D TOSS THAT BOTTLE AND BUST HIS NOSE." Let me preemptively help save you from a future mistake: 1) Aside from a firearm, a knife might be the worst possible weapon to come up against. I could talk at length about that, but there's tons of videos explaining why I'm sure. They're bad news. BAD. 2) If you haven't been in--or conditioned to be in--these kind of violence situations, let me please share a vital tip: you plan for what could go wrong, not for how badass you're going to be. It's not "I'll throw the bottle and destroy him!" You want to win? You better have 3 follow-up plans just as good for when you miss that throw because your hands are shaking like a leaf and you aren't exactly the Kobe Bryant of bottles. Then what? Fists? More bottles? Okay. They get to you after braining Rob anyway. The only person at fault here was Rob, and shame on him and anyone questioning Luke for choosing life over a circle made of metal.
+Jauphrey - I agree with you 100%. That said, I'd point out that Norse deities like Moder see any form of surrender as a sign of weakness. Only the warriors who fall in battle are considered worthy of ascending to Valhalla. Rob giving up his ring would essentially indicate his surrender. If that happened and these friends happened to visit the forest after that, Rob would likely be picked to serve the Jotunn, while Luke would be impaled on a tree like a deer! On a side note, the reason Moder let Luke go in the end was that he struck her with the axe. That showed he was no longer a coward at heart, and consequently, of no use to the Jotunn.
I completely agree with you. I've seen some comments from tough guys talking a lot of smack behind their keyboards about how they'd never back down in a fight and have their friends' back. A little disagreement that turns into a fight is different from having your life threatened by some junkies for your stuff, especially when they're armed, and you're not. That bottle would have only helped Luke win this fight if he was somehow able to take one of the guys out with it before they even saw him coming. I've been threatened at knife-point in a mugging on two separate occasions, once when alone, and once when with my girlfriend. In hindsight, you think of all the things you *could* have done. The ways you could have escaped or fought back. However, in the heat of the moment, when you haven't had time to mentally prepare and your back is suddenly up against a wall, you do what you have to to survive and get somewhere safe. In a situation like a mugging, that almost always requires giving them what they want. Your life isn't worth the contents of your wallet and your phone. Choosing to fight someone that's armed when you are not, isn't a risk that most mentally stable or rational people would make, especially not people that don't have experience in violent situations. If Luke had come out from where he was hiding and confronted the muggers, all because Rob was refusing to comply, they probably both would have just been murdered for nothing. They aren't fighters. They aren't hopped up on whatever substances the robbers were. They would have lost. And all the comments that trash-talk Luke's decision to keep himself safe don't know what they're talking about.
Fun Fact: if this thing was discovered it would probably be studied by whoever got the rights to the woods instead of being killed. Curiousity > Survival
@@draciskullz1245 the foundation is more focused on containment than actual academic research. Any research they do conduct is done to find ways to contain the entity in question. They might throw in a few D class personnel to gain some insights into the entity's behaviour, do some study on the runes and stuff then just built a huge fence around the whole damned forest.
''spooky forest'' heh you mean my backyard? (i live on a forest covered island in Sweden) also yes were doing fine up here, its actually really easy to live in peace with these things, you just need to put up a proper sacrifice on the lynch tree every Sunday at around midnight, they are quite polite when fed.
I'm already really freaked out by supernatural beings but holy CRAP this thing scares me to hell and back. Whenever I see it's little glowing eyes and glimpses of it just casually standing in the open I get chills. Idk why, but glowing eyes scare the snot out of me + this thing is so powerful and intelligent that it doesn't feel the need to hide and yet still it remains mostly unseen because humans are very good at not seeing what they don't want to. By the time you've realized it's targeted you, you're basically dead. So anyways, uh, I'm never camping again; BYE
The monster was so cool, I decided to read this book, but I had to stop half-way through. Everyone told me the second half was when it got good, but even though Adam Nevill is an excellent writer, he has this little problem called "not getting the fuck on with it". He can't describe something in a single paragraph- he needs eight pages. And if he describes it once, he needs to describe it half a dozen times. You can only read about how dark and gloomy and damp the forest is a certain number of times before you just can't take it anymore.
@@TheWhills Stephen King had most of his career as a horrid Young Adult novelist but nothing more, he had a few years as a halfway good novelist with the help of booze and cocaine but he dove to deep into those 'aids' and got the mental bends and couldn't resurface.
So, some people have pointed parts of this out, but I'll go into a bit more. Moeder (or Moeter or Moetr, could be spelled many different ways and I just don't know the proper nordic) is as you said a Jotunn. But it gets a bit more complicated the further you go in. In the grander Norse mythos there are many realms all connected to the world tree, Yggdrasil. Of which most realms are home to a group of humanoid races. For example, the realm we inhabit is called Midgard. Midgard is meant to be a sort of interconnecting point and the home of mortals. From there you have Asgard, Vanaheim, Jotunheim, and so on until you have nine realms in total. Since Midgard is often meant to be the intersection of most of these realms, a lot of stuff tends to make it's way TO midgard. Hence why we have this creature that is a child of Loki. Loki is a half giant who had a child with Angrboda, who is either a full giant or also half giant. They had a number of children, but we're focusing on this one. Now jotunn aren't typically . . . gods in most cases. They are remembered and memorialized, sure, but they typically are not beings that are actively worshipped. Which makes this creature interesting due to the fact that it WANTS to be worshipped. Now when it comes to ancient rituals it gets a bit murky. This is mostly due to christianity putting a torch to old traditions. So I am pretty sure this creature is pretty much taking the "express" route to worship. Hence the gratuitous sacrifice. Now what is more interesting is the act of how it accepts tribute. Instead of say "devouring" or so on, it seems to take the tribute and toss it onto the trees in a visceral display. This could be taken many ways, but I think it's a bit of an old blood ritual. By tossing tribute onto the trees, it lets the blood feed the roots. This strengthens the trees which have runes carved into them. So from what I think I can gather the trees are acting as wards or a barrier. A way to keep either vengeful gods or creatures from other realms from entering. I'm pretty sure it was more tame in the past, but again I think it's taking the Express way. Probably due to either panic or just not knowing how to properly do things. As you said the forest used to be far more vast. Which meant more places to roam, more villages for tribute and probably a bigger buffer to keep the eyes of Odin off of her back. But it's just an idea really.
24:22 In Norse mythology the first two humans were made from ash and elm flotsam by the gods Odin, Vili, and Ve, one shape their bodies, one gave them minds, and the other gave them souls. So it's actually that humans were made in the image of the gods.
And the sky is a jotunn's skull, the trees are his hair, streams and rivers his blood. And the clouds are his brain... Edit: might've got some of that wrong, but that's basically the jist of it.
I remember that a comment on another review of that movie had a pretty good idea to survive that thing: since it's apparently the son/daughter of Loki, it kind of proves that the north Gods are a thing, at least to some extends, so trying to call on the help of some of the more helpful one (like Thor or Odin) could potentially be a good way to get some help.
I love the idea of one of these guys calling on Thor because its the only god they can think of and Moder just gets a lightning bolt to the head and explodes and the credits roll
This was actually a good horror movie and the Monster was always in the background hidden really well and really it was really in the background a lot when pointed out lol
The suggestion to burn the forest down made me remember a quote from "The conjuring" which is: "Sometimes its better to keep the genie inside the bottle". If something is bound to a particular area, you might just want to leave it be instead of taking a risk and accidentally setting it loose
24:25 in Norse Mythology humans were actually created from wood so we're not really related to the gods in that way. Askr and Embla made from an Ash tree and an Elm tree
Or was it that we were found in ice, gathered by giants, pulled from a river by Odin himself, they had more creation myths for humans than I care to count, seeing as each tribe/ village used the same gods, and gave different stories, and all of them are historically accurate to believe for that faith, they were a rural religion, we can't codify them that easily
Roanoke, it wasn’t a parachute they found, it was the family’s tent. Not criticizing, I know it was an honest mistake. Like the video, keep up the great content.
The creature in this movie doesn't force all the group to recall traumatic events. Luke is the only member of the group with an event traumatic enough for Moder to consider him fit for purpose and fit for worship. It's confirmed by the movie itself - Dom before he is sacrificed - that the nightmares the other men were having were visions of their own death. They aren't terrified because they're being forced to relive bad memories, and they are instead terrified because they've been shown how Moder intends to kill them. As for the woods, it's hard to say whether or not Moder is forcibly kept in the woods by the many runic inscriptions we see, or whether it is simply tied to forested areas and has chosen that specific area to make its own "territory" for the purpose of hunting and gathering worshippers. Because we cannot precisely define whether the Jotun is trapped within that sector of forest, or conversely chose that sector of forest for itself, we can't rightly say that burning the entire forest would actually destroy the Jotun inside. It certainly might - but only if Moder is truly trapped to that specific sector of forest regardless of the runic inscriptions. If the runic inscriptions are keeping Moder there, for example, then you will burn what are in effect guardian trees before you burn Moder, and at that point Moder is free. Conversely, if Moder has simply chosen to live in that location and the inscriptions are its own, then there's nothing necessarily stopping it from fleeing the burning forest and at that point you've just made an incredibly powerful creature incredibly angry. Burning followers is one thing, as followers are inevitably replaceable. Burning down an entire forest? Not sure that's the way to go, chief.
I don't care how supernatural this thing is, if it tries to make home in a densely populated place then it'll learn how we are on the top without all that fancy god stuff.
Ik this is a year old but i LOVE this creature design! Id love more monster movies where the creature has prey characteristics because its just super unsettling to me! Like when i hear about chronic wasting disease or zombie deer i get real creeped out. A prey animal behaving strangely is unsettling! So when a monster has obvious prey characteristics, there is just a deep sense of wrongness it brings. And personally i feel deer/elk etc specifically have that potential to make scary monsters due to how they are viewed as harmless prey irl. Side note dont ever underestimate the damage a prey animal can do when its terrified or provoked lol
I like to think that Luke grew a spine (aka character development/redemption) over the course of the movie, as he didn't ditch his other friend when he was in need and learned how to fight back, both against his trauma and the 'person' assaulting him. But that's just me "shrugs"
Completely different creatures being part of the same “race” or “specie” is a very common thing in mythology, especially Norse. Just look at Loki and his sons, Loki is a giant who has a fairly human look and his four offsprings are: a ginormous snake that wraps around the world, a giant wolf with basically infinite strength, a height legged horse who can run at absurd speeds and a half dead half alive woman who rules the underworld
@@cayreet5992 depends on the version, there's some where each one has its own parent, with each one being related to the creature that resulted, Norse paganism is very difficult, each village shared the names of God's, then made up their own stories, so there's 4 different creation myths for humans that I know of off the top of my head for just Norse, no matter what you say about them, it's probably not far from some actual historical version, just translate back through time
The entire situation sucks for Luke- from the mugging, his friend's death, to him being blamed for it, especially since it seems like that blaming didn't occur only under the duress of the events. As for dealing with Modir... honestly, I'd say "keep mouth shut" may be the best policy. *Maybe,* set up shop and keep people out, or otherwise keep it from getting more worshippers on the off chance that it does gain strength from them. Elsewise, start talking to every single specialist in Norse Mythos and get their opinion on the runes and some of the lower level effects of the monster. Then work up to "Well, let's say that the hypothetical monster *is* a Jotun. How could you guarantee killing it in a way that it can't cause anymore harm?" Say that you are writing a book or something. Authors are always asking weird questions and hypothetical scenarios. However, if this is, indeed, a Jotun, then there is the possibility that *Odin* exists. So the more expedient idea- or at least a worthwhile back up plan- may be to, well. Start fucking praying to Odin and asking him to, _"Please,_ fulfill [his] oath to eliminate the Jotun." Or find someone else who already worships him to page him about the Jotun that he missed.
A fun thing I like to think the reason she didn’t leave the treeline to chase him is (well the more speculative biology reason but anyway) that it could be that she’s used to predators (be it other gods or Joten or the like) she avoids due to not being able to handle them on her own or the predators having an advantage outside forests because she has less chances to hide or fight them off due to how different the terrain is. She doesn’t realize they’re all likely gone or corralled into little pockets of forests or rivers and lakes like she is and that it would be safe for her to continue running down prey or moving from town to town for new worship. Or it’s magic.
Please do more supernatural creatures and entities on your channel! There’s just something interesting and fascinating about a science-minded individual covering creatures and entities that are, by nature, supernatural.
9:44 it was a parachute? i always thought it was the tent of the family from the photo, that went camping out there. eventually the family was also chased to the village where only the mother or daughter survived bc she was marked, becoming the nicer younger woman (bc of the whole everlasting life thing) that checks on them
I love this movie. I wish more people would talk about it. Maybe the build up is cheesy for some, but I love it so much. The emotion and guilt the MC feels really went to me.
16:35 I choose to imagine that in an alternate world the thing just starts throwing rocks at him. Not even big ones like it intends to unalive him but like small rocks that will just really freaking hurt. He's doing his little scream at it and in return it just started pelting them with rocks. A moment that could be rather funny similar to and I believe it was dog soldiers the guy just hammering the werewolves hand.
What I find really interesting is that this movie also implies that more of Moders kind exist. Meaning they could make sequels of other Yotun hunting people.
The ᛟ Rune is called Ophala meaning "Heritage, Home". The other hung next to it ᛉ is Algiz (algirsh) meaning "Defense, Elk" Most (not all) Norse runes are more round than the Proto-German progenitor runes which are jagged like these. The Norse probably did use Old Futhark Runes when they still stoke a dialect of Proto-Germanic however, their changing language (Old Norse) forced them to alter the Futhark to meet the linguistic changes. most runes if written upright are positive. blessings and such. if written upside down they are called "merkstaves" which reverse their positive meaning. For instance in proto-germanics: Fehu ᚠ : Wealth Sôwilô ᛋ : Strength there are runes whose name alone are negative Naudiz ᚾ : Peril, Emergency Kaun(an) ᚲ : Blister, Ulcer btw: i see later in the vid the runes are more curved which is very much norse.
@@RyuusanFT86 Norse not "worse". I suspect its a cultural thing, you must understand the first runes were a - what is now - northern german to danish invention. as the tribe (proto-germans) expanded northwards to what is now sweden and denmark they were not only cut off from their continental european friends by the north- and baltic sea, but the half-life of information changed their language and ultimately their runes by which they communed with their gods with. this trend can be seen in most germanic people, all these unique germanics invented their own spin on the revered runes. All the proto-german runes are rather geometric and jagged in shape (all runes being made of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines) whereas the more refined norse runes featured rounds. They are more articulated in a way and you must consider that these are what must be considered an improvement to the classical elder-futhark. you must understand that these are not just letters like ABCDEFG but they are symbols they used secondarily for communication and primarily for religious means. with them they communed with their gods, carved them into weapons to be blessed in battle and undertook rituals to appease a plethora of gods. to consecrate a runes they (sometimes but not always) "bound it" by staining the ridges of it with blood. and like i said: the placement is important as this is not a simple letter but everything about anything has religious significance to some degree. like i said: spelling the rune upside down meant the meaning was reversed. however, i don't know the significance of spelling runes on their side.
@@JHenryEden Ive seen examples of futhark runes written sideways on rune stones and graffiti so I assume that it's largely a stylistic choice rather than a ceremonial one, though it could be a case where different cultures had different contexts for example the Frisians, early Anglo-saxons, and proto-norse couldve had different meanings . Though admittedly I am no expert and given that the traditions of using runes largely fell to the wayside up until fascination with ancient cultures during the 19th century brought back interest it may just be a matter of lost context.
I was like I noticed this movie sounds familiar I didn't realize fondflix had did a review on this but I'm still super interested to hear the breakdown of everything how you do The reason I remembered it was cus of the big beast like creature on the thumbnail!
I love Foundflix! Because of the way my brain works, or doesn't as it were, his breakdowns help me understand things I may have missed. Roanoke fills the other side of backstory, history and science.
I think you mentioned making videos about Cryptids. It would be pretty cool to see cryptids and other fantasy creatures. I know it can get pretty crazy with all the different backgrounds and sources, but you do a really good job breaking down all of those options.
I have been going through your older videos, so seeing you add supernatural creatures and lore discussion is super awesome! I love your movie recaps man, you are the best creator for these! I haven't been able to find your gaming videos, but I will someday!
I'm a big fan of the original book and I was quite pleased to see how the movie turned out, though I could have sworn there was a short prequel story written by the author but I can't seem to find any record of it. From what I remember it was about a writer or painter in the late 19th/early 20th century who came to visit the village back when it was actually a village to get some peace and quiet while he worked on some new material, the story is told through his perspective via diary and he learns a lot about the people who once lived in the village and their strange religious practices.
I gotta say, I actually like that you're branching out to more fantastical or otherwise supernatural things. Me being a fan of fantasy and folklore as well as a man of science, I like to entertain myself with ideas about how supernatural and mythological beings from fantasy and folklore would function in the real world if they existed, or how science could be applied to a fantastical/mythological world.
Great video. I love the monster in this. So amazing and otherworldly. And the forests looks quite similar to the forests of northern Sweden, even though it's filmed in Romania. I think our forests are a lot bigger though. It still covers a lot more land than much of mainland Europe does. Probably because we have a pretty low population density. I'd just like to say, that Moder is probably based on a moose and not an elk. There are no elk in Europe, so the Jötunn would have no reason to take that shape. Elk only live in North America and some parts of Asia.
One of my favorite takes on this film comes from a guy who said that if this monster really is the son of Loki, then it implies Loki is real. So is his step nephew (not brother) Thor. All you gotta do is invoke his name and watch the lightning show as Mr Hammer lays the smack down
I liked this, glad to see supernatural stuff is being considered now there are so many different ways things can go. I'd love to see a video on orcs from LoTR or something similar.
Bullets work on it too. It flinches when Luke shoots it. It shrugs it off pretty easy, but one hunting rifle round is like a single bee sting to something that big. Some guy with an AK47 would be more like a swarm of wasps which is absolutely lethal. A few soldiers could probably mulch it without much issue to say nothing of things like tanks or artillery. Also Jotun is pretty much a catch all term for non-god supernatural entities. Usually they have to also be at least kind of intelligent too.
@@brandondavis7777 Given the likely caliber of that rifle and the sheer size of the target that's pretty ridiculous a thought honestly. The way it moved is also not how a bullet would transfer energy. It was pretty obviously a full body flinch. Possibly reflexive, but it felt that hit regardless. It didn't do much more then piss it off, but if it felt a dinky little rifle like that it would more then feel someone opening up on it with 7.62 AP rounds. He hurt it with a fucking axe for gods sake, a bullet is vastly more powerful then that. It's obviously not invincible no matter how supernatural it is.
I get that everybody would probably say Hey I would have done this this and that but you truly don't know what you would do in those situations until they present themselves! We would all like to think we would be the hero but it doesn't always work out that way!
@Yoshikage Kira you’re the one who made a statement telling this guy something that was wrong, so why don’t you? Nothing was repeated from this comment. You’re also replying with haste, so I doubt I’m wasting much of anything on your end.
The SCP Foundation has a creature similar to this in containment. They keep it contained through a very complex and horrendous ritual. Oddly enough, the way the ritual works against that SCP is by essentially tricking it into thinking it's helpless.
Roanoke is the type of guy in the horror movie who knows how to avoid getting gobbled by skinwalkers, but he gets unlucky and everyone dies without his advice.
I like this movie for the human element of the movie. Luke is hinted to be an alcoholic, and its perfectly human to freeze when attacked. Combine the two, he's not gonna stick his neck out. Each of the friends treats Luke differently about it, which would 100% be the case. Every friend you have would likely feel differently about it. But in the end, he didn't do anything wrong (in my opinion). Him not reacting doesn't mean he killed his friend. It was all wrong place wrong time. Which is the same with the friends in the forest. Wrong place, wrong time. Then you have to wonder what's going to happen after this? He went on a trip to the forest with friends and all those friends died. The police would suspect the hell out of him, not to mention Dom likely had told Gayle his opinion of Luke, so she wouldn't be on his side. His life is a cluster fluck after this. And that sucks balls. 😕
In the book there's no dead friend, he's just grown apart and become estranged from them because they lead different lives. He also ends up wandering away into the distance (naked except for a flower crown I think? Frock maybe included?) And has been away far longer, grown a beard, covered in dirt, bleeding from the head, So when he gets found/gets to town he's getting put in lockup and questioned for sure
19:04 In the US, replacement trees are only planted for logging purposes. This doesn't cover trees being cut down to put in housing tracts, strips malls, farms, and many other reasons relating to human expansion.
I'm really into supernatural creatures, and while I love the more biology focused videos you do, I absolutely adore that you're going into more mystical movies.
"It's England. Lead won't be flying." Any American that thinks that Europe is save from force multiplication in any regard should seriously consider this: Criminals usually don't care if something is illegal, don't step in, don't argue with criminals
@@rafaelalodio5116 EU is attached to Russia/middle East/asia by landmasses. It's much easier for people to smuggle force multipliers. Most of them are older ones from Eastern Europe though. Some are also just new ones bought legally but stolen or used by some questionable individuals. We still allow you to purchase force multipliers over here after all. Idk about the UK but all I know is that a tunnel and thin strip of water connects the mainland of Europe and the UK. If criminals want something they can get it
Loki is depicted in Norse Mythology has neither male or female generically. He shapeshifts both into male, female, and animals forms, and yes he does various things as a horse in the mythology. So Moder "Mother" by comparison could possibly be neither male or female aswell. Though I don't know hardly anything about Moder in general.
I decided to try translating the runes in the movie based off what you're showing, as I've not seen the movie myself. As a Norse Pagan, I've looked into this kind of stuff a lot, It looks like Elder Futhark, which, fun fact, the Norse used Younger Futhark, not Elder. I'm also writing this as I'm watching the video, so maybe you've already translated it all at the end, I don't know. 6:19 Looks to say œnn (they fucked up the grammar, you don't double up runes in Futhark). I couldn't find any direct translations, but the closest ones I could find were related to greenery and nature, so that makes sense, given the forest. 6:39 So, one interesting thing about Futhark runes, is they can make words when put together, but they can also mean something specific if used just on their own. Here, the one on the left means "ancestral/hereditary land", and the one on the right is a protection rune associated with elks. 8:18 I can only fully make out the symbols on the closest tree. I initially thought these were words, but when I tried to translate them, I came up with nothing. Instead, I'll treat them like the ones hanging in the cabin. The bottom one is another "ancestral land" rune, while the top two relate to "trees/fertility" and "wealth" respectively. 8:21 Again, can only make out the upfront stuff. The top one is another land rune (I'm seeing a trend), the one below it means "sun/victory", and the very bottom one means "ice/freeze". Weirdly enough, the one in the middle doesn't actually exist. The closest equivalent I could find is ᛃ, which means "good harvest", but that's a bit of a stretch. 13:07 Another protection rune. Fitting. 13:21 There's the ancestral land rune again. Why it's carved into their chests, I have no idea. Alright, that's all the runes I could see. A lot of ancestral land and protection runes. I also wanted to talk about some of the things you brought up. First, Moder (actually spelt Móðir, with the "ð" being pronounced like a "th") isn't an actual Goddess in Norse Paganism, she was just made up for the movie. Second, a jötunn, or the plural jötnar, is just the general term for beings of chaos, or enemies of the Gods. For example, one of the Gods of the seas, Ægir, was a jötunn. Then he married the Goddess Rán and became a God in his own right. On the topic of how the Gods created man, Odin and his brothers (yes, the old man has brothers), Vili and Vé, supposedly crafted man from ash wood after creating Midgard (I think it was ash wood). And finally, DO NOT BURN THE FOREST! Based on all the protection runes carved everywhere, the forest is likely keeping her contained, so destroying it would only serve to set her free. And considering she's supposedly a Godess, fire probably wouldn't even kill her, at least not permanently.
Well, since you asked: In Norse mythology, Odin and his brothers created Earth from the remains of the Father of all Giants and created us humans. Let's just say there's been bad blood between Aesirs (including us humans) and Jotuns, because, c'mon, how would you feel if your parent was chopped up and used to make a world that gave birth to tiny creatures? You might be pissed off and want to kill every Aesir, Vanir, and Human you see, or if you're a Child of Loki, have humanity worship. However, you should also teach them a lesson by being cruel to them. Let's just say, if you want a Jotun who is kind to humanity, consult with Loki or his sons, Jormangandr or Fenrir, but not his daughter Hel. She deals with the Dead and gives them peace in the afterlife. Other Jotuns are pretty much spiteful towards Humanity, Fire Giants are much worse. As far as I know, killing a Jotun is pretty straightforward: Just aim for the ankles and hope you bring it down to its knees so you can deliver the fatal blow. It worked for Thor, and all he needed was the world's heaviest hammer. Also, be sure to choose the right Runes for the job.
I like the idea of overcoming and slaying a god and keeping the axe that’s been dipped in its blood as sort of like a dragon slayer kind of weapon from berserk, making the axe much more powerful than it would’ve been. This also opens the idea of maybe a godslayer storyline. Idk just some cool thoughts.
I love how you don't notice it stalking them on the initial watch so your main monster/disease/starting at the feet expert makes a video on it (which was amazing by the by) and now you have 2 reasons to re-watch
I know im sooooo late but ive been binge watching since i found this channel. Love the south park reference right off the bat "if you forest when you shouldve mountained, youre gonna have a bad time" you are hilarious dude
Odin is called the allfather. He's said to have blown life into mankind by carving a man and a woman out of Ash wood and elm wood to his likeness. The first couple was named Ask and Embla. Norse mythology by Neil gaiman is pretty cool if your looking for some easy to read info and it being a tad humorous.
Idk if you'll read this, but I've always loved your content and I am so stoked you've started covering supernatural creatures! Thank you for the change and please don't revert lol
Thanks for watching guys! I am currently out of town so I dont know how many comments Ill answer but I appreciate yall checking it out!
Those aren't symbols, they are runes. There is a huge difference. Also joten in old norse refers to giants most of the time. If there were creatures taller the you average man/elf in norse mythology, then it was considered to be joten.
Finally
3rd Times the charm. The mutants from RAGE. Cool creatures And diffirent types.
Man I love your videos I'm hoping once I pay off my credit card and have more money I'll be a patron for you. Always love your videos. You should check out Haze the video game.
There's fight, flight and freeze but what about just die? Lol, I only ask because under great stress and in times where I should do those, I just faint. If I'm stressed, I faint. If I'm freaked out, I faint. If I see blood, I faint.
Is that just an evolutionary failure? Like fainting goats?
Fun fact: the Moder can be seen throughout the movie before the massive reveal,it's been hiding and stalking the group the entire time which makes it much creepier and scarier that this massive thing is somehow about to hide in plan sight multiple times and has the patience/intelligence to stalk it's prey
I think one of my favourite parts of this is the long shot a little later into the movie and you can see most of Moder's body in the background just moving through the forest.
0:54
It is a god after all so id think its rather intelligent
Keep in mind it is the child of Loki, the god of disguises and tricks
I dont believe that. There's definitely a small glimpse here and there but it's definitely not throughout the movie. Not like the Starbucks cups in fight club.
I like the idea that Moder hangs her victims in the trees as a way to make a mockery of Odin's sacrifice to askr Yggdrasil. That's actually pretty metal and shows how petty the Jötunn can be.
Could you elaborate on Odin’s sacrifice? You got the best of my curiosity 😯
@@kassyyar97 It's the origins of the runes. It's in the Hávamál. It's specifically the Rúnatal or Óðins Rune Song (Stanzas 139-146).
I know that I hung on a windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run.
No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn,
downwards I peered;
I took up the runes,
screaming I took them,
then I fell back from there.
The obvious Christ parallel has not been lost on scholars. 😁
I don't think it's a mockery but rather moder does that to offer her victims for her freedom. I am not norse but fallen gods in my culture do horrible sacrifices to appeal for their freedom from the mortal realm. Basically they want out of earth and go back home from whence they came hahahahah
@@janinebelleestrada7096 Well given that Moder is the offspring of Loki, I think it's pretty reasonable to say that she's doing it as a mockery. Loki is the trickster God after all and is known for doing things like that. I also don't really see Moder wanting to leave Earth. She wouldn't be accepted in the other realms and, as shown in the movie, loves the worship even if it's forced worship. If you don't mind sharing the name of your cultures' pantheon or religion, I would love to look in to it. I like learning about these things and it's sounds quite interesting. :)
@@spook4597 Loki's daughter Hel wasn't seen that way though, apparently she treated all mortals equally and was thought to be busy tending to Helheim.
Her brothers Jormangundr and Fenrir were more beast like in their nature and personalities. Also, Loki is apparently adopted by Odin and some scholars believe they could be related, she could be doing out of honor in some sense.
Legit one of the coolest monster designs I've seen in a long time. One of the few times where the reveal of the monster only enhanced the horror rather than detracting from it.
For real, usually the reveal of the monster just desensitizes you from the mystery, but this monster stays mysterious
I watched this movie with my mom and dad and we were all actually pretty disappointed in the monster reveal
It kinda tainted the movie for us
It’s so morphed I love it
I think the alien from nope has the same effect
@@willt9721 the giant jellyfish?
If you connect the wounds on Luke’s chest, it makes an Odal rune, which among other things, means “Family”. Luke was marked to join the pagan community rather than being sacrificed
The other rune is Algiz, or elk. It's a little more on the nose than the Odal's use here; Algiz is also a divine protection rune.
Yes, family, but as with most things Luke had a choice. I don't believe they would have forced him to join without the choice. Once his friends were gone the family was banking on him being so weak and scared that he would fall down and worship.
yea thats what the movie literally tells you....
@@Aganie.where in the movie did it specifically mention the Odal or Algiz rune? It akshually showed you, it never told you. I’m only being as pretentious as you are btw
The "parachute" they found was actually a tent. If you look at the wallet at 9:50, it's a picture of a family with one girl standing away from the rest. Most likely, the VW bus that was found in the beginning was owned by the family. They came to the woods to go camping, Moder marked the girl, and killed the rest. The girl grew to be the woman who was talking to Luke in the village.
Was going to comment on this as well until I saw your post.
Wow, that's an interesting observation. 😵
I like the thought of burning the forest down to destroy such a creature, but it is probably a terrible idea. The Nordic language is often in the form of runes, which hold a magical significance in many cases. There are runes carved into the trees throughout the forest, which might be binding the entity to that forest. Destroy the forest, and you may be destroying a seal and allowing the monster to roam free.
I mean, fire is usually pretty effective at killing things too
As long as it escapes to Florida or Texas, we’re good.
@@Wanabechef question is if it escaped to florida would anyone even be able to tell the difference?
@@Sarindanvelor true, who cares we already shoot each other there
@@vyor8837 mortal things, anyway. Not a great risk when the mortality of the intended target is dubious
Consider the possibility that it isn't limited by the woods but is bound by them. Like, it is well adapted to them and would obviously have difficulty operating elsewhere, but what if burning the woods doesn't trap it, but releases it from a trap it is already in?
Considering that this is a pagan god I wouldn't be surprised.
Secure contain protect
Yeah, that's a possibility
Then trap it on another
@@gweds no, the SCP foundation would definitely accidentally burn down the forest then try to restrain it somehow
Fun fact: The "cross" they pin the sacrifices to is itself a rune with a few meanings; courage, protection, and funnily enough _elk._
And if inverted, death
Actually if you search for swedish results they almost unanimously say it means moonse, not elk, or they say its both. Its probably a translation mistake somewhere since Älg means moose, but is very similar to elk.
@@khurgar8120 You have some wires crossed my friend. In all Germanic languages, the word Elk and its cognates originally refer to "Moose". We still call them Elk. But when European settlers colonised North America, they started calling another cervid (Wapiti) Elk and instead used a Native American word, Moose, to refer to true Elk. So the translation is correct, it's just that Americans use it for the wrong animal lol
@Armata Strigoi Ah yes, blame us for the geniuses who also named a desert "Desert Desert". The Europeans were notorious for using local names that meant the same thing as their own languages.
@@chrisdufresne9359 Again, wires crossed. I'm not saying "Moose" is incorrect, just that the word Elk is applied "incorrectly" (and I use that term loosely, language evolves). So really, if I'm blaming anyone it's the settlers for misidentifying an animal. Personally I prefer Moose and Wapiti in the American context, and Elk when referring to our own population (of Moose lol).
As an aside, naming things synonymously is not an exclusively European phenomenon lol
The reason the moder dropped luke instead of killing him is because it wanted luke to pray to it, to submit to it, hence why when luke got back up, the moder pushed him back down, to force luke to worship it, but luke always intended to fight back.
Yeah, seemed like Luke was the last human in the Forrest, so it would make sense for it to make him worship rather than just killing him
I don't blame Luke for hiding. There's bravery and then there's assessing the situation.
1) he's outnumbered
2) they have longer weapons
3) they are under the influence so more tolerant of pain
4) They are much more violent. Good luck scaring them off
5) They are much more experienced in fighting
6) they've got nothing to lose
Like they even have weapons and stuff. What's this one guy who clearly has no fighting experience gonna do against 2 clearly tough guys. It's better for the one guy to die than both
if you see your friend gettingf their ass kicked and dont do anything you are a coward wheter you would have won the fight or not
1: he has a bottle that if he smashed, could be a lethal weapon
2; if he smashed it on their heads, they would die in seconds due to the toughness and thickness of that glass and the relative thinness of a human skull (posibly even caving it in)
@@aidenyorke2132 he wouldn't have had the chance. They're prepared for violence he wasn't. He would've ended up dead like his friend. Luke isn't the friggin Punisher.
@@sorrenblitz805 bottle is made of glass, glass can cave in hooman skool, they have knife, stab liver, take hour to bleed out, smash skull? die in seconds.
As for people being related to their gods, in Irish mythology the Irish people are said to be direct descendants of Donn, the god of death.
And fun fact, Donn had a great hall called Tech Duinn where he gathered the souls of his descendants after death. Nobody was allowed in if they didn't share his blood. Meaning the Irish basically had their own exclusive afterlife.
do you have any source for that? I can't have enough Irish mythology books
I'll be honest, that just made me think of the South Park episode (or movie?) where everyone's in hell, complaining about being in hell and how they were devout ________, only for the gatekeeper to be like, "Ooh, sorry. No. The correct answer was Mormon!" Except here, the correct answer is being Irish-born!
Irish pagan here you’re correct with that
i may need to find an irish victi- i mean nice irish person then
that reminds me to much about Secret of Kells movie...... I'm going to go watch it again
Bears actually can pull an entire elk into a tree. It makes them feel safer when eating. However, they can't string it up like it was because they don't have opposable fingers like the monster thingy.
Well I’m not going hiking
That's actually really creepy imagine seeing that irl
We should give bears opposable thumbs to spite god
When? And what kind of bear? Black bear will occasionally drag smaller kills up hollowed trees to store them temporarily, but record weight black bear are hardly as heavy as young adult elk. Grizzlies can climb quite well, despite misinformation contrary, but their longer claws make dragging anything else up prohibitively difficult. Only a regular brown bear could even feasibly do this with an adult elk, but i find it hard to believe, and harder to believe that if this DID happen that not one person ever has taken a picture of it and posted it online because i find zilch.
@@skeletonnoise6178 if i had a dollar for every time i walked upon a bear in the wild and was completely fine, i could buy and fedex you a quality pair of hiking socks. Enjoy nature, just do so responsibly and with respect for it's power.
Since she is able to make people hallucinate so vividly there's a chance that the immortals she's made are having a wonderful time. She could be giving them the greatest experiences they could ever ask for through hallucinations.
Or their worst nightmare for eternity. Odin was known as The God of Ecstasy. Pretty sure this is a giant, since it hides in the forest, feeds on people, and uses immense illusions to trick its prey... doesn't seem like it would give you anything but pain
👁👄👁
@@Fenrirwandering231 but odin didn't really get on well with the jotunn so im confused the correlation between him and the giant
She feeds on pain though, so they're probably suffering for eternity.
@@Dirrtyvictory if I ate suffering, a paralyzed immortal being that's having the magical equivalent of a nightmarish LSD trip would be like having neverending wagyu
or causing them immense pain, but i imagine that is more likely.
By making them immortal they become a power source for her forevermore.
This movie is a perfect example of why shortcuts are the shortest distance between point A and certain death.
Fun fact: Odin, the leader of the Norse gods, is said to have carved humans from driftwood to look like him and his friends. So it's less "the gods look like us" and more "we look like the gods". It's also common to hang charms made of driftwood as they ward off bad intentions!
It's actually trapped in the forrest by the runes, if we go in with the supernatural element. Several of the main ones mean family, boundary, and protection. Put them together and it extremely loose and roughly would be "This group must remain here." More literally It's "The family must remain within this boundary or be punished." When I first watched it I thought the runes meant the cabin was protected from whatever creature was present, but watching I realized I had the context wrong. I'm by no means an expert in the runes or anything close, but I find them interesting and read about them a bit.
Family actually makes sense.
As Joten is the offspring of loki, maybe him, odin or thor placed those runes there to keep it in there
"The family must remain within this boundary or be punished."
If that really is what it means then I give you another one:
Maybe the runes were made by the creature herself as a warning to her followers. So they dont even try to leave.
But as to how many of the (still mobile) followers can actually read the thing... that I dont know.
Another cool little note. From what I remember about Elder Futhark, the symbol that is put on the chest of the followers is the rune for property. The god is essentially claiming the followers as property, and forcing them to stay there. (I could be misremembering however, so correct me if I'm wrong)
@@nella544 Jottun aren't the offspring of Loki. Loki himself is half Jottun. Jottun are just inhabitants of the world known as Jottunheim. His offspring came from three sources. His twin sons Nari and Vali are of his wife Sigen, Jormangandr, Fenrir, and Hel are of his Jottun sidehoe Angrbotha, and her horse son Sleipnir was fathered by Svadilfori.
@@tamasrehany6532 Thinking about it more, I think it may actually be more of a safespace that the creature made for herself. The runes seem to be a warning towards someone trying to leave a home, which could serve as both a warning for the Jötunn and her followers, though it could also serve as a warning to outsiders, as that forest is clearly not their home, essentially telling them to leave the forest or they will be punished or subjugated to Moder's cult.
4:59 As someone who grew up in the country you'd be surprised how many vehicles are in the deep woods and completely overgrown.
Yuo
Yeah a lot of people dump them like garbage because they don’t want to deal with them anymore or hermits take them out into the middle of nowhere to live out of until it’s uninhabitable or they die and abandon it. Or kids take old broken down vans in the middle of nowhere so they can leave it there and come back to party in it and get laid rather then bring a tent back and forth lol and then we have the hippies cult that does all of the above
Same thing for the US state I live in, out in the forests and mountains you can stumble across a lot ov abandoned vehicles.
Found one upside down in a shallow river at the bottom ov a cliff when I was younger. My dad called the ranger to make sure nobody was hurt but it turned out to have been down there for many years.
Sant
"you should never ask a evil paganistic god her weight"
just perfect
Design of the moder was very good. The scariest part of it is to me that it can very easily hide in plain sight in the forest. Something that big and that silent is more chilling than many more "gory" monster designs.
I never really saw Luke as being a coward, it was just self-preservation and what he does later on proves he isn't one. At the store the friend should have just given the dude his wedding ring like when it comes down to it its just a replacable item. 🤷🏽♀️
That is his story arc. He learned to fight, he got over his trauma from his friends death in the store.
Yes agree kinda frustrating how people keep calling him a coward most of us probably do the same
Did Roanoke also imply that?(I haven't watched the full video yet)
Roanoke seems to have completely unreasonable expectations on your average human being sometimes.
In the book there never even was an extra friend who got killed, Luke just grew apart from them because they all grew up and got good jobs and started families and he thought they felt they were better than him
I kind of disagree there. Not necessarily insulting him for being a coward but what he did was inherently cowardly. Two on three is significantly different than three on one. His buddy was left alone against these gangbangers when if his friend was there to back him up those dudes might have thought twice. And as for it's just a wedding ring that's absolutely b******* nobody should ever have to give up something valuable to them Even if they're threatened. That's basically enabling bullying behavior.
I had a different take from the movie as far as the monster went., especially since it's naming is likely important, Moder being mother. Additionally I seem to remember some mention of I think it was the Vikings whom abandoned sickly children in the wilderness, so it's possible that Moder was supposed to be linked to abandoned children. When it comes to the very specific criteria for selecting a new inhabitant for the village, it seemed that it selected the man because he was not just unable to cope with the loss of his friend and the trauma of the event, but also his freezing up and hiding out of sight when it happened, not unlike a child might. The fact he was being ostracized by the rest of his group may have been a secondary factor that triggered his marking.
Thus I got out of the movie is that it is some sort of twisted parental figure. Everyone who enters the forest is either an intruder and threat to her collected 'family' and must be dealt with, or a wayward 'child' to be added to her collection after having branded as belonging. Given how ancient parenting techniques were fairly cruel in many places in the world, having an ancient local-deity having a twisted sense of parental protection over the village makes sense. When the man was escaping, he finally 'grew up' and was able to find the strength to stand on his own and fight back thus it allowed him to leave, or alternatively he had been accepted as a child and his rebellion got him banished from the haven it believed it had granted him.
My favorite take so far. Kudos.
Not just the freezing up and PTSD, but that survivor was said to be the only one among his friends who hasn't settled down, gotten married or gotten his act together. Maybe that was more than just a throwaway line to show he was affected more by the experience and instead a hint that the monster is looking for a "childlike" person who will be dependent on them. The others were more grown with families to go back to and thus would fight back and resist in the monster's mind. Meanwhile the survivor one would be more likely to cower and join the cult with nobody to go back to and being emotionally stunted.
I'm not buying it as we see other adults have been taken who were part of families. As least it's not the only reason.
@@AirQuotes and they were killed while the marked one wasn't meant to be sacrificed.
@@jeffumbach But the woman showed him her mark and said that they're all destined to end up in the trees so it sounds like every one of them was planned to become christmas ornaments sooner or later.
Roanoke: "Sorry about the lack of games in Roanoke GAMES."
Me: "My guy, every video you put out is enjoyable."
I'm here for his monster physiology insight, everything else is a bonus
The best place to get scientific breakdowns of the least scientific things, without having to read a boring research paper.
Every video is glorious ❤
Not much about Roanoke either, so yeah.
Me: "I'm not as forgiving as the rest. Shame on you Roanoke. Shame SHAME. Go take a FUcKIn LaP!!!!"
Jotun is a term in Scandinavian mythology that ascribes to all supernatural beings that while not the gods but is used to describe "Giants" and other primordial things. Such as Normal Giants like Logi and Utgard-Loki, and the Ice Giants of Jotunheim, and the Fire giants of Muspelheim. Or creatures like Hræsvelgr which, while not a giant (but well a giant bird) is a being that predated the Asir.
Giant really is a misnomer, more accurate to call them devourers
Just like how _Faerie_ is used for a wide range of various creatures in Celtic mythology.
Didnt the director in the end say that its actually the black goat or "shub niggurath" from lovecraft lore?
@@thesenate4815 did he?
@@Beastly_Genius i think it was in a later interview. I dont know if it was foundflix who mentioned it or not
One thing I noticed is that Moder plucked out the blonde cultist’s eyes because she looked at her. They all have to bow down and not look.
I noticed as well that Moder has 4 arms. The two main ones, and two that are just below her eyes.
Also the reason she doesn’t kill the protag after he burns her followers is likely because she only has a few left now and needs all of them she can get, and is thus still trying to get him to submit. I think this creatures power and sustenance comes directly from being worshipped. Notice how being shot while the elders are burning barely registers for her, but then after the elders are all dead and she purges the followers that look at her, an axe swipe hurts her. This makes me think that she gets weaker if she has less worshippers
Oh wow, I just noticed the second set of arms as well!
Although it looks like the second set is closer to her abdomen. Is the thing hanging from her face like skinned arms/hands with no bones/muscle?
Makes me think that the lore in inconsistent
This is how every man-made deity works.
If people don't believe they become forgotten 😂
This is why all religions fade eventually, younger generations move on from whatever supernatural silliness their grandparents forced their kids to follow along with and eventually progress happens.
But sadly there are always enough weirdos and fools that think only they know some "truth" that makes them special, and you will be special too if you believe, that this rubbish will continue for many generations to come.
But I do hope that one day faith is not taken so serious, at least to the point ov making some unwell individuals think they have a spiritual given right to harm other people simply for not following those same ideas.
Because that is honestly what all religions are, an individual idea that more and more people are willing to believe in, usually due to their fear ov death and what comes after.
But regardless anyone claiming they know which deity is the "real God/goddess" is just a liar, a fool, or they are trying to willfully deceive you for whatever reason.
I find it sad, gross, disturbing, hilarious, and frustrating all at the same time.
And I am always disgusted with anyone that claims there is "only one true god", because that is so ignorant and wrong, there have been many deities throughout human history.
And we have zero proof for any ov them other than the individual humans desire for their chosen one/many to be real.
However, like Artemis, Njordr and Ereshkigal, even the Abrahamic pagan deities will fade from history given enough time.
Because nothing we humans create will last forever.
@@HuntressCarolina8DI like the design, it is really creepy.
Fun fact: if Luke reacted at the store, it is very likely that he would get beaten to death too, since a bat has longer reach than a (averagely breakable) bottle, also you can't really sneak up on people that are highly alert (like aggressive robbers). One more reason I wouldnt blame him.
Sprint charging seems to be a better option in this case not gonna lie
Fun fact: A liquid-filled glass bottle makes an excellent projectile weapon, and the liquor store is full of them. You should blame Luke, unquestionably.
@@peculiar Are you legitimately considering a bottle over a gun in a 2v1? 🤔
@@marxdc9657 No guns were involved.
@@peculiar They had knives. the only person to blame for the death was the friend which wouldn’t give up the ring. literally the first thing ANYONE will tell you when in a robbery is to comply. Absolutely nobody that cares about your life will tell you to fight back if you can get out of the situation by letting them rob you.
As an actual Swede, some input for context:
-In Norse mythology, what constitutes a "god" vs some other supernatural being is somewhat subjective: The jötnar (usually translated as "frost giants", though I think this probably borrows too much from Roman mythology) were distinct from the Aesir gods, but could apparently still intermarry and procreate with them. (Some accounts specifically involve a jötun marrying or trying to marry/rape an Aesir.) Occasionally, full-blood jötunns where counted among Aesir as equals and worshiped as legit deities. Notably Loki, Skaði and Gerðr were all jötunn who married into or - in the case of Loki - was adopted as Aesir. So, apparently they weren't vastly different in the physiological sense. One should probably think of this as less a matter of different species and more a matter of different cultural _tribe._ (See also the Vanir, who were "other" gods apparently indistinguishable from the Aesir.)
-Also in Norse mythology, shapeshifting was a relatively common ability. Some individuals could change their _hamn_ (physical shape) and therefore simply turn themselves into animals, and this was regarded as normal. Loki, specifically, is very known for this ability - even managing to be the _mother_ of Sleipnir after turning himself into a mare. Loki's three other known children were a huge wolf, a gargantuan snake and a goddess who was half corpse split down the middle. (Fenrir/Fenris, Jörmungandr and Hel, respectively.) Since the mother of the three (Angrboða) was also a jötunn, all three of Loki's children by her were full-blood jötnar. A personal theory of mine is that they at least partly inherited the shape-shifting ability of their father and simply appeared in the form they felt was most comfortable or natural. The implication, it seems, is that jötnar can naturally change their _hamn,_ or shape. Assuming, of course, that Loki wasn't just very special that way. (The guy is incredibly vague given what little we know of him, and of the mythology in general.)
So, basically, the difference between a jötunn and a god was mainly a matter of context, and it seems they could often look like whatever the heck they wanted. Appearances aren't much to go by, at least when it comes to the jötnar.
And no, I don't think there are any surviving pagan communities around here. The old religion has been very thoroughly extinguished by Christianity over the last two thousands years or so. Frankly, it would be more interesting if it wasn't. If you do come across some insane cult in a remote part of Sweden, most likely they'll be some variety of Christian.
As a non Swede who has casually read on the subject and wants some clarification:
I read in a wikipedia citation that led to a history of the etymology of jottun is that they were viewed as fairly neutral and over time began being viewed as more of monsters and ugly giant trolls. I assume probably as christianity kept spreading.
Anyways, the stuff I researched backs up what you said about them being just like another tribe, but there are no surving stories that have the beast ones like Fenrir every shapeshifting. Also I don't recall Aesir shapeshifting either unless they were specifically magical like Odin? So I get the feeling that Loki was indeed special because he could and other could not. But you say that they are all sorta viewed as able to do it? Are there examples of Jotunn (besides Loki) taking other forms I missed?
@@bluecanine3374 Well, the jotunn could be called "neutral" in the sense that they apparently weren't considered evil by definition, nor _necessarily_ hostile towards the gods. They were often portrayed as _antagonistic_ towards Asgard, but more in the sense of being a rival tribe with a whole lot of grudges. Individual giants would still trade and make deals with the gods (with the Aesir usually trying to screw the giants over) and as I said they married each other on occasion.
Regarding the shapeshifting, first of all I didn't mean that Loki's children were strictly speaking shapeshifters themselves, but I do think Loki's ability would be a neat explanation for why they all had the shapes of _very_ different beings despite having the same parents, both of whom were jotunn. Anyway, it's just a personal theory of mine and I don't have anything to back it up.
Secondly, I meant that shapeshifters were common in that running into one wasn't too unusual. Like, a myth might mention a guy who likes turning into an otter sometimes without elaborating further and everyone just accepts it. This one dwarf transformed into a dragon, because that's apparently something that can happen. (That said, Loki does seem to have been special in that he could turn himself into whatever the heck he wanted whenever he felt like it, which I don't think was common at all.)
I'm not completely sure any of the Aesir aside from Loki and maybe Odin had that ability. It simply doesn't seem to be a trait associated with them. Freya did own a cloak that let her turn into a falcon, but that implies she couldn't transform on her own.
There are several "pagan" communities here in Sweden which are incredibly easy to find
One example is "Foteviken" down in Skåne which is a re-constructed viking village built on the foundation of the original one and the people who live there lives as they did in the old days
And there are dozen of socities who get together for celebrations so...
From your statement its obvious you have never even bothered to look
Also the Aesir did not marry with the jotun they married with the Vanir which was the other pantheon from which Odin hailed...he formed the aesir though and the two families married to maintain peace
Also "skifta hamn" that is a Christian thing...so I dont know what your sources are but...yeah seems like you are mixing everythinh together
@@theangryswede5521 calm down
Great comment! Check out the band Black Messiah for some really great songs about Norse mythology if you like symphonic metal. I recommend the songs played in this order The Ritual, Kvasir, Call to Battle.
Also if you want a more free interpretation of Norse Mythology the God of War 4 game is absolutely fantastic. I've had campfires in the woods multiple times and listened to God of War 4 Mimir Boat stories around the fire. Check that out too!
Amon Amarth is a good viking metal band too, and a few others
I absolutely love the design of Moder and is one of my most iconic creature designs in recent media. I watched the movie just bc of it's silhouette in a Netflix promo.
This might be very specific but when I first saw this monster it really reminded me of this bizarre freaky game called They Breathe where these weird jellyfish things took your frog friends bodies and they basically looked like a cartoonish-cow head at first glance but it’s actually y’know, dead frog body.
My dad works in the movie business and I’m gonna ask him to ask the creature designer for an autograph for me
Funny story, I was searching this channel swearing Roanoke already had a "The Ritual" video, turns out I watched Nerd Explains video like a year ago when I started watching Roanoke. Anywho, glad to see this movie getting analyzed, keep up the good work my man.
He’s just that good
Holy fuck I did the exact same thing with Film Herald. I was certain this was a repost
Same! I was so confused with today's episode.
Lmfao same
Oh dude I did the same thing XD Did it with Deadmeat too like oh wait wrong channel
I think you did address this towards the end, but - Moder kept pushing the main character to the ground at the end because she was trying to make him kneel before her in worship like the cultists did. She might gain sustenance from worship and as such, she doesn't want to kill the last person around to give her power after killing all of her cult.
Also, damn, you're pretty hard on the main dude 🤣. It's like you say in the beginning - some people just have an intense Freeze response. He clearly felt horrible guilt over the incident in the store and still did what he could when he was in the forest to save his friends.
I love the shot at 29:08. Showing the monster simply looming with no buildup is really effective and making it genuinely scary. The director’s cut of Alien also does something like this and it’s my favourite scene in that movie, no musical buildup either. It’s just there.
I can't really dunk on the guy for freezing when his friend was in trouble. 1) Definitely because who knows what any of us would do in that situation. 2) Narratively, gives us an arc for the character.
Right he didn't run away or push his friend in front of the criminals that would be messed up. He was actually smart enough to react quickly and hide. His friends blaming him was very unfair. The criminals are the only ones to blame
Yeah 1v2 when one of them has a knife and your drunk you wouldn't stand a chance. Especially against criminals ready to kill you for no real reason. His friends sucks ass for for blaming him.
I think in that situation, where he was outnumbered 2 to 1 and they had knives, he made the 100% right decision staying hidden as helping would've only gotten them both killed, seeing as his character was not a krav maga or jujitsu expert.
The friend was a moron for refusing to give his ring, but the only ones who should be blamed are the criminals who did it.
"Before he met his untimely end, at the hand of British crackheads, also known, standardly, as Londoners"
As a Brit, can confirm
As far as whether paganism is considered witchcraft, not inherently. However, the concept of witchcraft predates Wicca by several thousand years as Wicca was made up by Gerald Gardner in 1954. Germanic/Norse Pagan mythology actually has it own version of witchcraft called seidr. It actually largely informed the concept of witchcraft in Christian Europe. As far as semantics go, I think it would be accurate to call it witchcraft as long as the wicker man was intended to cause some sort of magical effect.
To your question of whether humans were said to be descended from Jotunn, nope, though it is a very logical guess. In the creation myth of Germanic/Norse Paganism, Odin and his two brothers Vili and Vé were walking down a beach and found two logs washed ashore, one of ash and the other of elm. Odin gave the logs spirit and life, Ve gave them movement, mind and intelligence and Vili gave them shape, speech, feelings, and the five senses. The logs then became the first humans, Ask and Embla.
Doesn’t matter to me, get the stakes!
Thank you or the information, I've been practicing Asatru for he past few years, and so many things are either lost in Christian "interpretation" or from lack of so many things not having been properly written down. I knew most of what you said, accept what they called "witchcraft"
The christian understanding of witchcraft more pertains to sorcerery in general and the KJV mentions witches and that thing is pretty old. So the idea of a witch predates wicca
@@skeletonnoise6178 How rude. You know people still practice paganism today right?
@@Blue_snapdragons where could i find these persons who practice paganism asking for a friend? Also where could i buy stakes?
Fun fact, there are actuslly FOUR fear responses. The Most commonly known are Fight and Flight. Lesser known is freeze, the fourth is one nobody really talks about, and that is Fawn. I doubt Fawning would do much good in this scenario, but essentially, to fawn is to, say, tell a human serial killer or whatever that it's super impressive how he killed your friends or family, and just keep flattering, complimenting and being charming with them. Whatever buys you more time, right, best case scenario the killer decides you're entertaining enough to keep alive and he kidnaps you instead of killing you. With any luck the killer is pretty dumb and you'll be able to get a passerby to take notice and get rescued within a day or two. But yeah, that is how fawning works as one of the four fear responses.
I always thought that if somebody is trying to kill me i would ask to join them instead of being killed because "actually I've always wanted to be a killer too" and then whenever we are caught by the police plead that i was forced into it (of which i basically was) and then get a lighter sentencing and survive
Damn, is that a real instinctual response? I would think it needs more thought put into it than the other three but it is fascinating if it is
@@atimidbirbyes, it is! And its mostly seen in women and children who are trapped in abusive situations. For example, if youre being physically abused by a partner or parent, you may try to be as kind, accommodating, and loving as possible to avoid another beating. Especially if you’re a kid who has a sibling, you may fawn and cater to your abuser so YOU become the favorite and the other kid takes the brunt of the abuse
If it wasn't such a big part of the movie, I wouldn't even have paid attention to Luke's "choice." There's a much bigger moral quandary in play:
Rob refused to give up a material possession because of sentimental value knowing full well it would likely cost him his life. I don't recall recall his backstory, but if his wife (and children?) are still alive, do you think they're going to applaud his bravery? She's now a single mother because Rob knowingly chose to die (and still lose the ring) than to live, buy another one--and spend the rest of his life being a good husband and being in his children's lives.
And that's not all! Let's pretend I'm Rob and you're Luke. Are you the bad friend for not helping me attack 2 armed thugs who seemingly only want money OR am I the bad friend for expecting you to willingly risk your own life because I selfishly refused to give up a material possession?
I would never ask such a thing of my friends. I've been a lifelong boxer and I'll tell ya right now the bottle Luke had wouldn't have meant a damn thing, doubly so from the distance he was at. Even more so if he was not mentally experienced for violence.
I can already hear people saying, "NAH DAWG, I'D TOSS THAT BOTTLE AND BUST HIS NOSE." Let me preemptively help save you from a future mistake:
1) Aside from a firearm, a knife might be the worst possible weapon to come up against. I could talk at length about that, but there's tons of videos explaining why I'm sure. They're bad news. BAD.
2) If you haven't been in--or conditioned to be in--these kind of violence situations, let me please share a vital tip: you plan for what could go wrong, not for how badass you're going to be. It's not "I'll throw the bottle and destroy him!" You want to win? You better have 3 follow-up plans just as good for when you miss that throw because your hands are shaking like a leaf and you aren't exactly the Kobe Bryant of bottles. Then what? Fists? More bottles? Okay. They get to you after braining Rob anyway.
The only person at fault here was Rob, and shame on him and anyone questioning Luke for choosing life over a circle made of metal.
Why does this only have 14 likes but these other rather stupid comments have hundreds?
+Jauphrey - I agree with you 100%. That said, I'd point out that Norse deities like Moder see any form of surrender as a sign of weakness. Only the warriors who fall in battle are considered worthy of ascending to Valhalla. Rob giving up his ring would essentially indicate his surrender. If that happened and these friends happened to visit the forest after that, Rob would likely be picked to serve the Jotunn, while Luke would be impaled on a tree like a deer! On a side note, the reason Moder let Luke go in the end was that he struck her with the axe. That showed he was no longer a coward at heart, and consequently, of no use to the Jotunn.
@@GoofyManMF Because Moder dictates it! :D
You will survive the longest out of these smucks. Buts that's fine the weak minded will fall.
I completely agree with you. I've seen some comments from tough guys talking a lot of smack behind their keyboards about how they'd never back down in a fight and have their friends' back. A little disagreement that turns into a fight is different from having your life threatened by some junkies for your stuff, especially when they're armed, and you're not. That bottle would have only helped Luke win this fight if he was somehow able to take one of the guys out with it before they even saw him coming.
I've been threatened at knife-point in a mugging on two separate occasions, once when alone, and once when with my girlfriend. In hindsight, you think of all the things you *could* have done. The ways you could have escaped or fought back. However, in the heat of the moment, when you haven't had time to mentally prepare and your back is suddenly up against a wall, you do what you have to to survive and get somewhere safe. In a situation like a mugging, that almost always requires giving them what they want. Your life isn't worth the contents of your wallet and your phone. Choosing to fight someone that's armed when you are not, isn't a risk that most mentally stable or rational people would make, especially not people that don't have experience in violent situations.
If Luke had come out from where he was hiding and confronted the muggers, all because Rob was refusing to comply, they probably both would have just been murdered for nothing. They aren't fighters. They aren't hopped up on whatever substances the robbers were. They would have lost.
And all the comments that trash-talk Luke's decision to keep himself safe don't know what they're talking about.
So glad that he asked to cover more myth like creatures in movies! This was the first thing that came to mind!
Fun Fact: if this thing was discovered it would probably be studied by whoever got the rights to the woods instead of being killed.
Curiousity > Survival
"can we weaponize this?"
@@Gloomdrake "Can we monetize this?"
Bro just described the SCP foundation
How the hell would you plan on killing that thing it's a freaking Norse god
@@draciskullz1245 the foundation is more focused on containment than actual academic research. Any research they do conduct is done to find ways to contain the entity in question.
They might throw in a few D class personnel to gain some insights into the entity's behaviour, do some study on the runes and stuff then just built a huge fence around the whole damned forest.
''spooky forest'' heh you mean my backyard? (i live on a forest covered island in Sweden) also yes were doing fine up here, its actually really easy to live in peace with these things, you just need to put up a proper sacrifice on the lynch tree every Sunday at around midnight, they are quite polite when fed.
Excuse me what xD
See, I'd befriend some Ravens. Have them tell the All-Father to help!
@@brandondavis7777 My name is Odin so um What you need bro?
@@SlimThief knowledge. Do I gotta hang from a tree, or impale myself? Lol
Kul att se fler svenskar
I'm already really freaked out by supernatural beings but holy CRAP this thing scares me to hell and back. Whenever I see it's little glowing eyes and glimpses of it just casually standing in the open I get chills. Idk why, but glowing eyes scare the snot out of me + this thing is so powerful and intelligent that it doesn't feel the need to hide and yet still it remains mostly unseen because humans are very good at not seeing what they don't want to. By the time you've realized it's targeted you, you're basically dead.
So anyways, uh, I'm never camping again; BYE
nice to see roanoke going for the "simply annihilate the elk demon's sacred ground" approach, highly efficient and very respectable
Scorched earth baby 😎
@@RoanokeGaming God bless
@@RoanokeGaming It worked for the crusaders of old and Russia in times of war. Surely it'll work again yeehaw
@@RoanokeGaming get some agent orange, a plane, and a tape with fortunate son on it
You're god damn right
ruclips.net/video/ec0XKhAHR5I/видео.html
Loved this movie. And dear god the scene where he's looking off into the distance into the trees and it suddenly moves gave me literal chills.
That scene is so good
deer god
The monster was so cool, I decided to read this book, but I had to stop half-way through. Everyone told me the second half was when it got good, but even though Adam Nevill is an excellent writer, he has this little problem called "not getting the fuck on with it". He can't describe something in a single paragraph- he needs eight pages. And if he describes it once, he needs to describe it half a dozen times. You can only read about how dark and gloomy and damp the forest is a certain number of times before you just can't take it anymore.
You wont enjoy Stephen King, then. Lol
@@TheWhills I liked Dreamcatcher a lot.
I quit reading novels altogether as almost every story starts off with "So and so was a writer/author/publisher who was..."
@@TheWhills Stephen King had most of his career as a horrid Young Adult novelist but nothing more, he had a few years as a halfway good novelist with the help of booze and cocaine but he dove to deep into those 'aids' and got the mental bends and couldn't resurface.
@@chinabluewho "Well that's just like..your opinion, man." - The Dude
So, some people have pointed parts of this out, but I'll go into a bit more. Moeder (or Moeter or Moetr, could be spelled many different ways and I just don't know the proper nordic) is as you said a Jotunn. But it gets a bit more complicated the further you go in. In the grander Norse mythos there are many realms all connected to the world tree, Yggdrasil. Of which most realms are home to a group of humanoid races. For example, the realm we inhabit is called Midgard. Midgard is meant to be a sort of interconnecting point and the home of mortals. From there you have Asgard, Vanaheim, Jotunheim, and so on until you have nine realms in total.
Since Midgard is often meant to be the intersection of most of these realms, a lot of stuff tends to make it's way TO midgard. Hence why we have this creature that is a child of Loki. Loki is a half giant who had a child with Angrboda, who is either a full giant or also half giant. They had a number of children, but we're focusing on this one. Now jotunn aren't typically . . . gods in most cases. They are remembered and memorialized, sure, but they typically are not beings that are actively worshipped. Which makes this creature interesting due to the fact that it WANTS to be worshipped.
Now when it comes to ancient rituals it gets a bit murky. This is mostly due to christianity putting a torch to old traditions. So I am pretty sure this creature is pretty much taking the "express" route to worship. Hence the gratuitous sacrifice. Now what is more interesting is the act of how it accepts tribute. Instead of say "devouring" or so on, it seems to take the tribute and toss it onto the trees in a visceral display. This could be taken many ways, but I think it's a bit of an old blood ritual. By tossing tribute onto the trees, it lets the blood feed the roots. This strengthens the trees which have runes carved into them. So from what I think I can gather the trees are acting as wards or a barrier. A way to keep either vengeful gods or creatures from other realms from entering. I'm pretty sure it was more tame in the past, but again I think it's taking the Express way.
Probably due to either panic or just not knowing how to properly do things. As you said the forest used to be far more vast. Which meant more places to roam, more villages for tribute and probably a bigger buffer to keep the eyes of Odin off of her back. But it's just an idea really.
Geralt: "Forest monster, scaring and killing people. Goat antlers. Sounds like a Leshen."
24:22 In Norse mythology the first two humans were made from ash and elm flotsam by the gods Odin, Vili, and Ve, one shape their bodies, one gave them minds, and the other gave them souls. So it's actually that humans were made in the image of the gods.
And the sky is a jotunn's skull, the trees are his hair, streams and rivers his blood. And the clouds are his brain...
Edit: might've got some of that wrong, but that's basically the jist of it.
@@brandondavis7777 basically, yes, but the giant's name was Ymir or Aurgelmir,
@@Solstice261 I always get Ymir and Mimir confused, so I try to avoid using their names when I'm not sure.
@@brandondavis7777 fair enough
I remember that a comment on another review of that movie had a pretty good idea to survive that thing: since it's apparently the son/daughter of Loki, it kind of proves that the north Gods are a thing, at least to some extends, so trying to call on the help of some of the more helpful one (like Thor or Odin) could potentially be a good way to get some help.
I love the idea of one of these guys calling on Thor because its the only god they can think of and Moder just gets a lightning bolt to the head and explodes and the credits roll
Maybe Ragnarök has already happened and this thing just survived the apocalypse in some cosmic bubble? In that case you've only got Balder and Vidar.
This was actually a good horror movie and the Monster was always in the background hidden really well and really it was really in the background a lot when pointed out lol
The suggestion to burn the forest down made me remember a quote from "The conjuring" which is: "Sometimes its better to keep the genie inside the bottle". If something is bound to a particular area, you might just want to leave it be instead of taking a risk and accidentally setting it loose
24:25 in Norse Mythology humans were actually created from wood so we're not really related to the gods in that way. Askr and Embla made from an Ash tree and an Elm tree
Or was it that we were found in ice, gathered by giants, pulled from a river by Odin himself, they had more creation myths for humans than I care to count, seeing as each tribe/ village used the same gods, and gave different stories, and all of them are historically accurate to believe for that faith, they were a rural religion, we can't codify them that easily
God means Source so that means everything always comes from the Gods in some way.
Roanoke, it wasn’t a parachute they found, it was the family’s tent. Not criticizing, I know it was an honest mistake. Like the video, keep up the great content.
Interesting, that makes more sense tho lol
The creature in this movie doesn't force all the group to recall traumatic events. Luke is the only member of the group with an event traumatic enough for Moder to consider him fit for purpose and fit for worship. It's confirmed by the movie itself - Dom before he is sacrificed - that the nightmares the other men were having were visions of their own death. They aren't terrified because they're being forced to relive bad memories, and they are instead terrified because they've been shown how Moder intends to kill them.
As for the woods, it's hard to say whether or not Moder is forcibly kept in the woods by the many runic inscriptions we see, or whether it is simply tied to forested areas and has chosen that specific area to make its own "territory" for the purpose of hunting and gathering worshippers. Because we cannot precisely define whether the Jotun is trapped within that sector of forest, or conversely chose that sector of forest for itself, we can't rightly say that burning the entire forest would actually destroy the Jotun inside. It certainly might - but only if Moder is truly trapped to that specific sector of forest regardless of the runic inscriptions.
If the runic inscriptions are keeping Moder there, for example, then you will burn what are in effect guardian trees before you burn Moder, and at that point Moder is free. Conversely, if Moder has simply chosen to live in that location and the inscriptions are its own, then there's nothing necessarily stopping it from fleeing the burning forest and at that point you've just made an incredibly powerful creature incredibly angry. Burning followers is one thing, as followers are inevitably replaceable. Burning down an entire forest? Not sure that's the way to go, chief.
I don't care how supernatural this thing is, if it tries to make home in a densely populated place then it'll learn how we are on the top without all that fancy god stuff.
My counterpoint to your paragraph: Napalm
Ik this is a year old but i LOVE this creature design! Id love more monster movies where the creature has prey characteristics because its just super unsettling to me! Like when i hear about chronic wasting disease or zombie deer i get real creeped out. A prey animal behaving strangely is unsettling! So when a monster has obvious prey characteristics, there is just a deep sense of wrongness it brings. And personally i feel deer/elk etc specifically have that potential to make scary monsters due to how they are viewed as harmless prey irl. Side note dont ever underestimate the damage a prey animal can do when its terrified or provoked lol
I like to think that Luke grew a spine (aka character development/redemption) over the course of the movie, as he didn't ditch his other friend when he was in need and learned how to fight back, both against his trauma and the 'person' assaulting him. But that's just me "shrugs"
Completely different creatures being part of the same “race” or “specie” is a very common thing in mythology, especially Norse. Just look at Loki and his sons, Loki is a giant who has a fairly human look and his four offsprings are: a ginormous snake that wraps around the world, a giant wolf with basically infinite strength, a height legged horse who can run at absurd speeds and a half dead half alive woman who rules the underworld
Aye. Not many people know old Sleipnir is the son of Loki, which surprised me when I found out.
Not to mention that he's had three of those children with a fellow Jotun, so they should have been Jotun themselves...
He also has more "human" looking children, no? With Sigyn
@@decorouscobra8177 Yes, two sons.
@@cayreet5992 depends on the version, there's some where each one has its own parent, with each one being related to the creature that resulted, Norse paganism is very difficult, each village shared the names of God's, then made up their own stories, so there's 4 different creation myths for humans that I know of off the top of my head for just Norse, no matter what you say about them, it's probably not far from some actual historical version, just translate back through time
"Luke raises Man's Answer"
That's such a powerful description for a gun.
As a Belgian, I can confirm no one comes here by choice and we are being kept here by force, send help!
No
So that's what the germans have been doing...
If you send me chocolates I shall rescue you.
@@AirQuotes Deal.
Belgium exists to keep Belgians contained for their own safety.
Please do not feed the Belgians.
The entire situation sucks for Luke- from the mugging, his friend's death, to him being blamed for it, especially since it seems like that blaming didn't occur only under the duress of the events.
As for dealing with Modir... honestly, I'd say "keep mouth shut" may be the best policy. *Maybe,* set up shop and keep people out, or otherwise keep it from getting more worshippers on the off chance that it does gain strength from them. Elsewise, start talking to every single specialist in Norse Mythos and get their opinion on the runes and some of the lower level effects of the monster. Then work up to "Well, let's say that the hypothetical monster *is* a Jotun. How could you guarantee killing it in a way that it can't cause anymore harm?"
Say that you are writing a book or something. Authors are always asking weird questions and hypothetical scenarios.
However, if this is, indeed, a Jotun, then there is the possibility that *Odin* exists. So the more expedient idea- or at least a worthwhile back up plan- may be to, well.
Start fucking praying to Odin and asking him to, _"Please,_ fulfill [his] oath to eliminate the Jotun." Or find someone else who already worships him to page him about the Jotun that he missed.
A fun thing I like to think the reason she didn’t leave the treeline to chase him is (well the more speculative biology reason but anyway) that it could be that she’s used to predators (be it other gods or Joten or the like) she avoids due to not being able to handle them on her own or the predators having an advantage outside forests because she has less chances to hide or fight them off due to how different the terrain is. She doesn’t realize they’re all likely gone or corralled into little pockets of forests or rivers and lakes like she is and that it would be safe for her to continue running down prey or moving from town to town for new worship. Or it’s magic.
Please do more supernatural creatures and entities on your channel! There’s just something interesting and fascinating about a science-minded individual covering creatures and entities that are, by nature, supernatural.
9:44 it was a parachute? i always thought it was the tent of the family from the photo, that went camping out there. eventually the family was also chased to the village where only the mother or daughter survived bc she was marked, becoming the nicer younger woman (bc of the whole everlasting life thing) that checks on them
I love this movie. I wish more people would talk about it. Maybe the build up is cheesy for some, but I love it so much. The emotion and guilt the MC feels really went to me.
16:35 I choose to imagine that in an alternate world the thing just starts throwing rocks at him. Not even big ones like it intends to unalive him but like small rocks that will just really freaking hurt.
He's doing his little scream at it and in return it just started pelting them with rocks. A moment that could be rather funny similar to and I believe it was dog soldiers the guy just hammering the werewolves hand.
What I find really interesting is that this movie also implies that more of Moders kind exist. Meaning they could make sequels of other Yotun hunting people.
The ᛟ Rune is called Ophala meaning "Heritage, Home".
The other hung next to it ᛉ is Algiz (algirsh) meaning "Defense, Elk"
Most (not all) Norse runes are more round than the Proto-German progenitor runes which are jagged like these.
The Norse probably did use Old Futhark Runes when they still stoke a dialect of Proto-Germanic however, their changing language (Old Norse) forced them to alter the Futhark to meet the linguistic changes.
most runes if written upright are positive. blessings and such. if written upside down they are called "merkstaves" which reverse their positive meaning. For instance in proto-germanics:
Fehu ᚠ : Wealth
Sôwilô ᛋ : Strength
there are runes whose name alone are negative
Naudiz ᚾ : Peril, Emergency
Kaun(an) ᚲ : Blister, Ulcer
btw: i see later in the vid the runes are more curved which is very much norse.
What makes curving a rune worse? I thought it's only the placement and color?
Very interesting, what resources do u you use to study these things?
@@RyuusanFT86 Norse not "worse".
I suspect its a cultural thing, you must understand the first runes were a - what is now - northern german to danish invention. as the tribe (proto-germans) expanded northwards to what is now sweden and denmark they were not only cut off from their continental european friends by the north- and baltic sea, but the half-life of information changed their language and ultimately their runes by which they communed with their gods with.
this trend can be seen in most germanic people, all these unique germanics invented their own spin on the revered runes.
All the proto-german runes are rather geometric and jagged in shape (all runes being made of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines) whereas the more refined norse runes featured rounds.
They are more articulated in a way and you must consider that these are what must be considered an improvement to the classical elder-futhark.
you must understand that these are not just letters like ABCDEFG but they are symbols they used secondarily for communication and primarily for religious means.
with them they communed with their gods, carved them into weapons to be blessed in battle and undertook rituals to appease a plethora of gods.
to consecrate a runes they (sometimes but not always) "bound it" by staining the ridges of it with blood.
and like i said: the placement is important as this is not a simple letter but everything about anything has religious significance to some degree. like i said: spelling the rune upside down meant the meaning was reversed.
however, i don't know the significance of spelling runes on their side.
@@jrodriguez1374 a PG dictionary, a phonetic PG dictionary and plenty of free time.
@@JHenryEden Ive seen examples of futhark runes written sideways on rune stones and graffiti so I assume that it's largely a stylistic choice rather than a ceremonial one, though it could be a case where different cultures had different contexts for example the Frisians, early Anglo-saxons, and proto-norse couldve had different meanings . Though admittedly I am no expert and given that the traditions of using runes largely fell to the wayside up until fascination with ancient cultures during the 19th century brought back interest it may just be a matter of lost context.
Choosing Witcher 3 OST for the background (specially The Crones' theme) was a great choice, fits well with this movie's aesthetic :D
It's actually guanter odimm's theme
When a humble bard...
I knew I heard it right!
I was like I noticed this movie sounds familiar I didn't realize fondflix had did a review on this but I'm still super interested to hear the breakdown of everything how you do
The reason I remembered it was cus of the big beast like creature on the thumbnail!
I love Foundflix! Because of the way my brain works, or doesn't as it were, his breakdowns help me understand things I may have missed. Roanoke fills the other side of backstory, history and science.
I think you mentioned making videos about Cryptids.
It would be pretty cool to see cryptids and other fantasy creatures.
I know it can get pretty crazy with all the different backgrounds and sources, but you do a really good job breaking down all of those options.
I have been going through your older videos, so seeing you add supernatural creatures and lore discussion is super awesome! I love your movie recaps man, you are the best creator for these! I haven't been able to find your gaming videos, but I will someday!
I'm a big fan of the original book and I was quite pleased to see how the movie turned out, though I could have sworn there was a short prequel story written by the author but I can't seem to find any record of it. From what I remember it was about a writer or painter in the late 19th/early 20th century who came to visit the village back when it was actually a village to get some peace and quiet while he worked on some new material, the story is told through his perspective via diary and he learns a lot about the people who once lived in the village and their strange religious practices.
I gotta say, I actually like that you're branching out to more fantastical or otherwise supernatural things. Me being a fan of fantasy and folklore as well as a man of science, I like to entertain myself with ideas about how supernatural and mythological beings from fantasy and folklore would function in the real world if they existed, or how science could be applied to a fantastical/mythological world.
What in the seven shades of hell is that thing?! Nightmare fuel, god
That's Loki's son, Modor.
One of lokis many, many kids.
Moder or you could call her jötuun
Great video. I love the monster in this. So amazing and otherworldly. And the forests looks quite similar to the forests of northern Sweden, even though it's filmed in Romania. I think our forests are a lot bigger though. It still covers a lot more land than much of mainland Europe does. Probably because we have a pretty low population density.
I'd just like to say, that Moder is probably based on a moose and not an elk. There are no elk in Europe, so the Jötunn would have no reason to take that shape. Elk only live in North America and some parts of Asia.
One of my favorite takes on this film comes from a guy who said that if this monster really is the son of Loki, then it implies Loki is real. So is his step nephew (not brother) Thor. All you gotta do is invoke his name and watch the lightning show as Mr Hammer lays the smack down
I liked this, glad to see supernatural stuff is being considered now there are so many different ways things can go. I'd love to see a video on orcs from LoTR or something similar.
Bullets work on it too. It flinches when Luke shoots it. It shrugs it off pretty easy, but one hunting rifle round is like a single bee sting to something that big. Some guy with an AK47 would be more like a swarm of wasps which is absolutely lethal. A few soldiers could probably mulch it without much issue to say nothing of things like tanks or artillery.
Also Jotun is pretty much a catch all term for non-god supernatural entities. Usually they have to also be at least kind of intelligent too.
a elephant gun might work
It flinches because of transfer of momentum, not because it's being hurt or feeling it.
@@brandondavis7777 Given the likely caliber of that rifle and the sheer size of the target that's pretty ridiculous a thought honestly. The way it moved is also not how a bullet would transfer energy. It was pretty obviously a full body flinch. Possibly reflexive, but it felt that hit regardless. It didn't do much more then piss it off, but if it felt a dinky little rifle like that it would more then feel someone opening up on it with 7.62 AP rounds.
He hurt it with a fucking axe for gods sake, a bullet is vastly more powerful then that. It's obviously not invincible no matter how supernatural it is.
@@dragoon3219 bullets are lead, the axe of iron.
I get that everybody would probably say Hey I would have done this this and that but you truly don't know what you would do in those situations until they present themselves!
We would all like to think we would be the hero but it doesn't always work out that way!
They really couldn't do much because of the injured frien unless they left him behind.
@Yoshikage Kira you must not have watched the video. All I heard was him bashing the guy for not saving his friend in the store.
@Yoshikage Kira and what is it you think he said. I can’t recall him saying anything the commenter said. The exact opposite actually.
@Yoshikage Kira you’re the one who made a statement telling this guy something that was wrong, so why don’t you? Nothing was repeated from this comment.
You’re also replying with haste, so I doubt I’m wasting much of anything on your end.
@@unclecreed2986 walking through the woods would've been even worse though
The SCP Foundation has a creature similar to this in containment. They keep it contained through a very complex and horrendous ritual. Oddly enough, the way the ritual works against that SCP is by essentially tricking it into thinking it's helpless.
which scp is it?
I really like that you can see the monster stalking these guys. Like in 0:56 to the left of the main tree you see it start to walk away.
*Moder!*
*The Jötunn!*
One of my favorite monsters EVER. 😵
Roanoke is the type of guy in the horror movie who knows how to avoid getting gobbled by skinwalkers, but he gets unlucky and everyone dies without his advice.
I like this movie for the human element of the movie. Luke is hinted to be an alcoholic, and its perfectly human to freeze when attacked. Combine the two, he's not gonna stick his neck out.
Each of the friends treats Luke differently about it, which would 100% be the case. Every friend you have would likely feel differently about it. But in the end, he didn't do anything wrong (in my opinion). Him not reacting doesn't mean he killed his friend. It was all wrong place wrong time. Which is the same with the friends in the forest. Wrong place, wrong time.
Then you have to wonder what's going to happen after this? He went on a trip to the forest with friends and all those friends died. The police would suspect the hell out of him, not to mention Dom likely had told Gayle his opinion of Luke, so she wouldn't be on his side. His life is a cluster fluck after this. And that sucks balls. 😕
In the book there's no dead friend, he's just grown apart and become estranged from them because they lead different lives. He also ends up wandering away into the distance (naked except for a flower crown I think? Frock maybe included?) And has been away far longer, grown a beard, covered in dirt, bleeding from the head, So when he gets found/gets to town he's getting put in lockup and questioned for sure
19:04 In the US, replacement trees are only planted for logging purposes. This doesn't cover trees being cut down to put in housing tracts, strips malls, farms, and many other reasons relating to human expansion.
I'm really into supernatural creatures, and while I love the more biology focused videos you do, I absolutely adore that you're going into more mystical movies.
"It's England. Lead won't be flying."
Any American that thinks that Europe is save from force multiplication in any regard should seriously consider this:
Criminals usually don't care if something is illegal, don't step in, don't argue with criminals
Hehe Luty, 3D printed parts, and smuggling goes brrrr
I'm not European, but I'm certain you're right about that
@@rafaelalodio5116 EU is attached to Russia/middle East/asia by landmasses. It's much easier for people to smuggle force multipliers. Most of them are older ones from Eastern Europe though.
Some are also just new ones bought legally but stolen or used by some questionable individuals.
We still allow you to purchase force multipliers over here after all. Idk about the UK but all I know is that a tunnel and thin strip of water connects the mainland of Europe and the UK. If criminals want something they can get it
@@Gio98art Yeah I imagine so, if drugs can get there, so can guns.
@@rafaelalodio5116 drugs are just made here lmao
"Or as we just call them standardly, Londoners"
My sides
Loki is depicted in Norse Mythology has neither male or female generically. He shapeshifts both into male, female, and animals forms, and yes he does various things as a horse in the mythology. So Moder "Mother" by comparison could possibly be neither male or female aswell. Though I don't know hardly anything about Moder in general.
“Well, if there's anything that I know about philosophers it's that they love to agree with each other all the time...”
-Bilbo Baggins
That's smart...
This movie not having an after the credits scene where the guy is buying an RPG and Grenades is the worst choice in film in years
I decided to try translating the runes in the movie based off what you're showing, as I've not seen the movie myself. As a Norse Pagan, I've looked into this kind of stuff a lot, It looks like Elder Futhark, which, fun fact, the Norse used Younger Futhark, not Elder. I'm also writing this as I'm watching the video, so maybe you've already translated it all at the end, I don't know.
6:19 Looks to say œnn (they fucked up the grammar, you don't double up runes in Futhark). I couldn't find any direct translations, but the closest ones I could find were related to greenery and nature, so that makes sense, given the forest.
6:39 So, one interesting thing about Futhark runes, is they can make words when put together, but they can also mean something specific if used just on their own. Here, the one on the left means "ancestral/hereditary land", and the one on the right is a protection rune associated with elks.
8:18 I can only fully make out the symbols on the closest tree. I initially thought these were words, but when I tried to translate them, I came up with nothing. Instead, I'll treat them like the ones hanging in the cabin. The bottom one is another "ancestral land" rune, while the top two relate to "trees/fertility" and "wealth" respectively.
8:21 Again, can only make out the upfront stuff. The top one is another land rune (I'm seeing a trend), the one below it means "sun/victory", and the very bottom one means "ice/freeze". Weirdly enough, the one in the middle doesn't actually exist. The closest equivalent I could find is ᛃ, which means "good harvest", but that's a bit of a stretch.
13:07 Another protection rune. Fitting.
13:21 There's the ancestral land rune again. Why it's carved into their chests, I have no idea.
Alright, that's all the runes I could see. A lot of ancestral land and protection runes. I also wanted to talk about some of the things you brought up. First, Moder (actually spelt Móðir, with the "ð" being pronounced like a "th") isn't an actual Goddess in Norse Paganism, she was just made up for the movie. Second, a jötunn, or the plural jötnar, is just the general term for beings of chaos, or enemies of the Gods. For example, one of the Gods of the seas, Ægir, was a jötunn. Then he married the Goddess Rán and became a God in his own right. On the topic of how the Gods created man, Odin and his brothers (yes, the old man has brothers), Vili and Vé, supposedly crafted man from ash wood after creating Midgard (I think it was ash wood).
And finally, DO NOT BURN THE FOREST! Based on all the protection runes carved everywhere, the forest is likely keeping her contained, so destroying it would only serve to set her free. And considering she's supposedly a Godess, fire probably wouldn't even kill her, at least not permanently.
I get too happy when I see new uploads lol I love watching these with my kids. It’s cool laughing and learning together. Keep up the great work!!
Well, since you asked: In Norse mythology, Odin and his brothers created Earth from the remains of the Father of all Giants and created us humans. Let's just say there's been bad blood between Aesirs (including us humans) and Jotuns, because, c'mon, how would you feel if your parent was chopped up and used to make a world that gave birth to tiny creatures? You might be pissed off and want to kill every Aesir, Vanir, and Human you see, or if you're a Child of Loki, have humanity worship. However, you should also teach them a lesson by being cruel to them. Let's just say, if you want a Jotun who is kind to humanity, consult with Loki or his sons, Jormangandr or Fenrir, but not his daughter Hel. She deals with the Dead and gives them peace in the afterlife. Other Jotuns are pretty much spiteful towards Humanity, Fire Giants are much worse.
As far as I know, killing a Jotun is pretty straightforward: Just aim for the ankles and hope you bring it down to its knees so you can deliver the fatal blow. It worked for Thor, and all he needed was the world's heaviest hammer. Also, be sure to choose the right Runes for the job.
As Tyr showed us, don't be afraid of a bit of sacrifice either. It's for the good of everyone, after all.
One of the things I found interesting about this creature in the movie is how its design bears similarities to the wendigo of popular culture.
I like the idea of overcoming and slaying a god and keeping the axe that’s been dipped in its blood as sort of like a dragon slayer kind of weapon from berserk, making the axe much more powerful than it would’ve been. This also opens the idea of maybe a godslayer storyline. Idk just some cool thoughts.
Omg berserk reference. I’m actively berking out rn (right now)
Thor: what did you sleep with loki
Loki: I was drunk and doing magic
I love how you don't notice it stalking them on the initial watch so your main monster/disease/starting at the feet expert makes a video on it (which was amazing by the by) and now you have 2 reasons to re-watch
"When you forest when you should mountain you're going to have a bad time."
I hate it when I misplay my mana.
I know im sooooo late but ive been binge watching since i found this channel. Love the south park reference right off the bat "if you forest when you shouldve mountained, youre gonna have a bad time" you are hilarious dude
Odin is called the allfather. He's said to have blown life into mankind by carving a man and a woman out of Ash wood and elm wood to his likeness. The first couple was named Ask and Embla. Norse mythology by Neil gaiman is pretty cool if your looking for some easy to read info and it being a tad humorous.
Idk if you'll read this, but I've always loved your content and I am so stoked you've started covering supernatural creatures! Thank you for the change and please don't revert lol