RJ mixed elements from various mythic traditions and put them into his characters - Edit 1
Before modification by RugbyPlayingAshaman at 01/12/2010 03:36:56 PM
i have to say that i hope RJ wrote that scene because i will lose the little respect i have for BS if he came up with naming perrin's hammer the old tongue equivalent of mjollnir 
bad enough to make the comparison in the first place, but if it was left in from RJ's notes then i can at least forgive it out of respect for the author's wishes.
so, if perrin is most like thor, does that make mat loki? and when did thor find his way into the arthurian mythos? i always thought WoT was an arthurian saga, but i guess there's a little room for other pantheons when the author feels like making some...
bad enough to make the comparison in the first place, but if it was left in from RJ's notes then i can at least forgive it out of respect for the author's wishes.so, if perrin is most like thor, does that make mat loki? and when did thor find his way into the arthurian mythos? i always thought WoT was an arthurian saga, but i guess there's a little room for other pantheons when the author feels like making some...
I wouldn't worry about trying to find specific character parallels. Each character is very much a gestalt of various themes, traits and antecedents. Elayne, for example, could be considered closer to Gwenevere than Egwene could, since she is a Queen, rules Caemlyn (which might be Camelot) and has been kidnapped multiple times, yet Egwene also could be considered a version of Gwenevere since she is a High Queen (since the Amyrlin Seat could be considered to outrank Queens), was trained in Tar Valon (which could be Avalon, and according to many of the myths that existed before Mallory, Gwenevere and Lancelot were allies that were raised and trained in Avalon together) and has the most similar name.