just as I promised in one of the previous posts, this is somewhat of a relaxation project where I don’t go into too much details, just having lots of fun.
here’s a Cerberus, he’s a good boy(s) :p
here’s some of Hades/Persephone chemistry, like I stated on twitter, this is why I can’t write romance. I just can’t help myself not to make silly jokes XDDD
Artemis: *lounging by a spring on piles of deerskin surrounded by three dozen naked girls with a dead pan expression* Virginity.
“Heracles, they’re lesbians”.
Note that the concept of “virginity” in Ancient times merely meant “unmarried”, and had nothing to do with sexual activity. Some priestesses were “virgins” because they chose (or were committed to) a life of worship, but it was merely a question of social status, not of personal choice or practice. Of course, one can suppose that this lifestyle would be rather attractive for lesbians.
So when Artemis is said to be the Goddess of Virgins, it is meant to be understood as “Goddess of Unmarried Women”, or, quite possibly literally, of lesbians.
(It’s only Christianity that reframed the concept of virginity to mean “never had sex”. Many ancient religions has “Virgin goddesses”, which symbolized feminine power, and in this case too it meant “untied to a man”, or “whole for herself”)
I actually like the “throwing clothes at it” better cause now I’m picturing Grandma stomping out of the house at 3 AM in her slippers, arms full of clothes and facing down this horrible, snarling beast.
And then she just starts flinging clothes at it like “GODDAMN IT JEFFERY IT IS THREE IN THE FUCKING MORNING YOU GET YOUR PANTS ON AND COME BACK INSIDE RIGHT THIS MINUTE”
the legend of the Bakeneko is important to fully understand this!! The legend says that if a cat lives a very very long life, its tail will slowly split into two, and it will reach the status of a minor god!! … the downside is that its spirit will inevitably outlive its owners, whose spirits will move on to the afterlife, and without anyone to leave food offerings for it, it will become an angry and vengeful beast that haunts its home.
This man has two bakeneko following him. two cats that were well cared for and lived long lives, who now watch over him.
I wasn’t familiar with this particular myth, it’s really fucking cool!
We don’t much remember that Freyr, the Norse god of harvest, also had the unique property that women couldn’t be harmed near him. Not because he would attack those who wanted them harm, but because it was like a magic shield was put on them. Weapons would literally break on impact with women’s skin if he was around.
Gerd is the only jotun woman romantically involved with the gods who is consistently depicted as big, and often fat. That’s because in the story about Freyr falling in love with her he especially admires her “big, white arms”. It also makes sense that a god of harvest and plenty would love a woman embodying that. Freyr, his sister Freya and their father Njord (who also married a jotun btw) are all gods of fertility in each their own way, so I like to depict them as overweight too, though not as big as Gerd.
I also like depicting Freyr as something of a classic romantic hero because of how hopelessly and dramatically he falls in love with Gerd. He longs for her and cries when he thinks he can’t be with her, and gets depressed because he has to wait a whole week to meet her in person. Also, the reason why he doesn’t have a sword is because he gave it to Gerd as a present.
And Gerd is a tough lady. Freyr’s servant threaten her with death (without Freyr knowing) and she doesn’t give a shit. He had to threatened her with bad luck for the rest of her life before she agreed to meet Freyr.
Her father is the sea jotun Ægir which is why I tend to give her a sea inspired look.
I’ve seen a lot of non-Scandinavian heathen women say they feel like they can’t worship Freyr because of how he treated Gerd which I always thought was a strange thing to say. Freyr never wanted to hurt Gerd. He gave Skrinir gold and apples to give to her. It was Skrinir who insisted on bringing the sword and later used it to threaten her. Besides it would be straight up illegal by Norse standards to force a woman to marry. Odin got kicked out of Asgard for 10 years for raping a jotun woman once, so if Gerd didn’t like Freyr she could easily divorce him. In some versions of the text Skrinir doesn’t even threaten Gerd.
Anyway, Norse mythology is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, like most other religions that had to make way for Christianity. The few stories we have left were written down by monks who didn’t care that much, so a lot of information is given that we don’t know the backstory to. Gerd is worried about “the man who killed her brother” but we never hear about her brother dying, who did it or even who he is. Freyr kills a jotun named Beli with an antler because he no longer has his sword so some speculate that Beli is Gerd’s brother, but the timeline doesn’t match unless it happened between Skinir leaving Freyr and getting to Gerd’s house.
The reason why Freyr is sometimes considered protector of queer people is because in one story he is worshipped by men who move like women, dance and ring bells in his honor. His house might even be filled with such people depending on how you read the text.
All in all, this is just one theory about what exactly is going on with Freyr and Gerd. We know Freyr was super important and probably had hundreds of stories told about him because so many places are named after him and worship of him is mentioned in texts from other countries, but the story of how he fell in love with Gerd is the only one we have left where he is the main character.
Trolls and gnomes making Rygeost, Danish smoked cheese.
Rygeost is the only cheese that is purely Danish, and what’s really cool about it is that people make it at home in the summer. All you need is milk, smoke and time. You can of course buy it in stores too if you so please. I’m personally a huge fan. It sorta tastes like smoked fish without the fishy taste. That probably doesn’t make any sense if you haven’t tasted it…
I think the gnomes and trolls agreed to make cheese, so the gnomes brought milk from the farm where they live, and the trolls made the fire. Teamwork!
A gnome collector. I know that thanks to those old cartoons people think trolls eat gnomes but there’s nothing like that in folklore. If anything gnomes tend to have the upper hand over trolls. There’s stories about gnomes chasing trolls away from houses and churches with the use of magic, so these little guys can fend for themselves if they want.
In one story a man goes to visit Freyr for a few weeks but leaves after only a few days because Freyr’s house is filled with gay men which makes the guy super uncomfortable, so it’s absolutely a valid interpretation that Freyr is god of queer men and bisexual himself, considering that he falls head over heels in love with the jotun woman Gerd.
Odin is said to be Tyr’s father in one text, but in another text its Hymer. Neither Odin’s wife Frigg or Hymer’s wife Hrodr are said to me his mother. When Loki is accused of being slutty and sleeping with a bunch of men in one story, Loki says Odin used to do that too. Jotun men can get pregnant, and if you put all that together you can absolutely make a case for Tyr having the manliest family tree ever.
In Lokasenna Tyr and Freyr appears to be close, and you can see why.
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