The Wild World of Tricksters

Today is April Fools' Day!

This year, instead of an actual April Fools' joke, I present this gathering of tricksters from myths and legends all over the world.

Of course, as with my Mythology Worlds drawings in general, they are my own creative interpretations.

Of course, no special on mythical tricksters is complete without Loki, the Norse god of mischief and Father of Lies.

Look how sly he is!

Apparently, he escaped his confinement under the venom-drooling snake!

Did he, by chance, shape-shift into a fly or a cloud of mist to get out?

The Hare/Rabbit character is my own amalgam of various hare and rabbit tricksters around the world.

(and also anticipation for Easter)

Hare is a notable trickster in African myths.

His stories were brought to America by enslaved Africans (who had been captured in raids by African rulers to sell to European slavers). In the U.S.A., they mixed with Southeastern Native American stories of the trickster Rabbit (Some Native American nations had African slaves, including the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes".) and evolved into the tales of Br'er Rabbit, compiled by Joel Chandler Harris in his Uncle Remus books.

Nanabozho, the Great Hare, is the trickster of Native American myths of the Great Lakes region of North America.

He also assisted Kichi Manitou, the Great Spirit of the Algonquian peoples (whose traditional homelands are in the Great Lakes region as well as the Northeastern U.S.A. and eastern Canada, and including the Tsistsista/Cheyenne people of Wyoming), with creating the world and introduced culture to humanity.

Other Native American tricksters represented here are:

Coyote

of the Southwest, the Great Plains, the Mountain West, and California

Raven

of the Pacific Northwest

(soaring above the other tricksters, thinking up a clever ploy)

Iktomi

of the northern Great Plains

(As a man with spider attributes, he is depicted with spiderweb-inspired face paint and swinging from a web, a la the Marvel superhero Spiderman.)

Anansi, the spider trickster from the Akan mythology of Ghana (a country in West Africa), seems to be plotting something as he descends from his web.

Other African tricksters represented here are:

Tortoise

Standing mighty and proud

Eshu, a.k.a. Legba

of the Yoruba and Fon mythologies of Nigeria and Benin

(He speaks every language, meaning that he would make an excellent interpreter for the United Nations!)

The tanuki of Japanese mythology appears to be plotting something!

He is represented with an enormous loincloth to cover up his unnaturally large...um..."coin pouch".

Saci-Perere, a devious one-legged sprite from Brazilian folklore, is jumping for joy!

Lutin, a persnickety fey from northern France, looks to be hatching a plan!

Watch out for this devious sprite the next time you're in France!

(or if you already live there)

His clothes are colored a la the French flag.

🇫🇷

Happy April Fools' Day!

And Happy Easter too.