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5000 year old “spider stone” from Denmark

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J.R.R. Tolkien, from The Return of the King

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Witches and pagans, which authors do you recommend avoiding?

I was reading “Taking Up the Runes”, but in the process some of the writing rubbed me the wrong way, so I decided to do some research on the author, Diana L. Paxson. After seeing the testimonies made against her, I stopped reading it. Are there any other problematic authors to watch out for? I don’t want to waste my time or money reading from unreliable sources.

[melianisnothere]

you know how an open-toothed smile was originally a show of aggression and threatening behaviour in primates/early humans? baring one’s teeth. ready to bite, poised for the attack. but, somehow, it evolved into an expression of joy — accompanying laughter, mirth, cheerful bliss. is that tension, that threat, still concealed in there somewhere, beneath the friendly veneer? is a smile a show of force? laughter is often cruel. i think joy can be forged into a weapon. it can disarm an opponent. it can act as a glamour spell

a smile evolved to become its own antonym. it encompasses a contradiction. it’s terrifying

that’s Loki

[melianisnothere]

Danish photographer Jim Lyngvild has created a gallery of female Danish public figures and family members dressed as Völva - shamanic Norse women - based on archaeological studies and findings in Viking graves. The headdress of wolf and cubs' skulls is incredible.

[melianisnothere]

Hail to the Old Gods;

The ancient ones, Deities of forest, mountain, and sea, for whom my ancestors poured from their ram horns for.

Hail to the god of emotions, who teaches us when to embrace chaos and when to refrain for the moment.

Hail to the goddess of seiðr, who holds the key of divination in the waves of her golden hair trailing down her breasts.

Hail to the god of strength, guardian of the deer herds, who teaches me when to cry for help and when to stand and gore. Hail to the Allfather, whose unconventional wisdom hurt me greatly in the moment, but saved my soul from perpetual insanity through the binding of runes.

(Thank you all for everything)

Hail to the Old Gods.

[melianisnothere]

I don’t think we are meant to fear the Gods. Not even Gods of storms, death, or war. To believe in them is to accept them as they are. Don’t let anybody convince you that polytheists should fear the Gods. Be awe-struck, be humble before them if it feels right, but in this modern day and age, spirituality shouldn’t feel unsafe.

[melianisnothere]

HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GET IN MY CLASSIC JAPANESE CINEMA, OLD MAN!

Or, Sanjuro as an Odinic figure; a discussion.

Warning for spoilers for Yojimbo (Akiro Kurosawa, 1961)

So. Sanjuro has a number of parallels with portrayals of Odin in Norse Myth, and the plot of Yojimbo contains several points that would not be out of place in a story about Odin.

To begin with, they are both wanderers. Odin has a number of Heiti associated with the role, while when we meet Sanjuro, he is travelling the Japanese countryside alone, with nothing but the clothes on his back and his sword.

They both also, in their wanderings, have a dependence on the hospitality of others. This may, in part, be due to the regions and time periods they are indigenous to having a culture of hospitality, but I would argue that simply strengthens the parallel.

Their treatment of people is also determined by the hospitality they receive.

The Farmer who is Sanjuro's first encounter provides water at Sanjuro's request, but is too busy berating his wife for their son's decision to run off and join the Gamblers to share it with Sanjuro or give him any sort of greeting, and so Sanjuro leaves without a word to him.

The water is repaid, towards the end of the film, when Sanjuro spares the Farmer's son, but they never meet or converse over the course of the film, and Sanjuro mocks and insults the youth before sending him home ("Children should not play with swords.")

The Constable too, approaches Sanjuro upon entrance to the town. He gives information, informing the Samurai of the principle players in the town, and of the opportunities available to an obvious fighting man, but then demands payment. Sanjuro ignores him for most of the duration of the film, only to instruct him to kill himself at the climax.

It is Gonji, who owns the restuarant in town, who shows Sanjuro hospitality, offering rice, water, and sake, and not withdrawing the offer when he learns Sanjuro cannot pay. Instead, he instructs Sanjuro to leave, for his own good, because there is nothing but trouble in the town.

It is this hospitality and concern for a stranger's wellbeing that leads Sanjuro to decide to clean up the town. A clear similiarity to Odin's tendency to wander disguised as a vagabond and reward or punish hosts depending on how they treated him.

Another example of this is his response to overhearing Seibei and Orin plotting to have him killed rather than pay him. It could be argued that he already intended to double-cross them, given that this occurred after he had decided to clean up the town; it is just as likely that he was expecting them to plot against them when he made the offer to work for Seibei. Which would also be a very Odinic move.

Sanjuro's handling of the feud between the two Gamblers and their organisations also mimics Odin's behaviour in various Norse myths. His guidance of the conflict by controlling the information available to both parties (As when he discovers Uchitora's complicity in the murder of the Imperial Inspector, sells the evidence to Seibei and then informs Uchitora that Seibei has the evidence) mirrors Odin's approach to those he chooses to favour temporarily.

And much like Odin's favourites, when Sanjuro withdraws his favour, he does so suddenly, without warning, and makes sure everybody knows about it, before settling in to watch the chaos.

TL:DR, a stranger wanders into town. Decides he is going to repay hospitality in kind, whether the principles want him to or not. Through the magic of lying, cheating, and excessive violence, he resolves circumstances in such a way that those who showed him hospitality are better off, and those who wronged him are dead and suffered the entire time it was happening, without any idea who encompassed their downfall until the very end.

Am I talking about Odin, or Sanjuro? Both? Both. Both is good.

[melianisnothere]

Yes, there is a bouncy castle and a ball pit!

[melianisnothere]

Elf names got more complicated as parents strove to create new ones instead of handling the political whiplash of reusing an old one. So if you meet an elf called ‘silver-river-water-voice’ they’re pretty young, but if some guy says ‘hi I’m Tree’ you best believe that bitch is ancient.

[melianisnothere]

For those that are interested in my attempts to write the Poetic Edda into the so-called haiku meter, I've posted a free to read excerpt of Loki's Haiku Duel to my Ko-Fi page

If there's enough interest, I may consider (read: definitely will) post the full poem to my Ko-Fi page.

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One of my favorite kennings for Loki is "farmr Sigvinjar arma", which translates roughly to "the cargo of Sigyn's arms". Add a little Gustav Klimt to the equation, and you have an idea that's been plaguing me for months.

[melianisnothere]

Queer Heathenry Masterpost

(updated google doc here)

General awareness:

Neo-Nazi Prevention & Dog Whistles White supremacists are misappropriating Norse mythology Dog Whistles in the Gender Critical Movement Guide to Anti-LGBTQ Online Hate and Disinformation What To Do When Racists Try To Hijack Your Religion Inside Asatruism's Fight Against the Co-Opting of Their Religion by White Supremacists

Sources and Sites:

GLBT in the Northern Tradition (site) Vikings are Gay! Podcast (podcast) Academic Research

Excerpts and Essays:

Sex, Status, and Seiðr: Homosexuality and Germanic Religion Sons of Frey Ergi: The Way of the Third Being Ergi The Tale of a Transsexual Norse Pagan Spirit-Worker

Scholarly Articles:

Queer Themes In Old Norse Myth Feminism in Medieval Scandinavia: How Paganism Forged Gender Equality Magic, Genderfluidity, and queer Vikings, ca. 750-1050 Mythical beasts: How queer bodies expand the religious imaginary

Practices:

Rite of Passage for an Ergi Child Honoring Ancestors: Queer Rite of Elevation

Queer-friendly Creators:

Ocean Keltoi (YouTube) Nordic Mythology Podcast (Spotify) The Norse Gods: Loki: An Evil Queer Icon? (YouTube) Storied (YouTube) The Welsh Viking (YouTube) Hearthkvlt (online shop; artist) Lockwood Metaphysical (online shop; artist) Ludvig Levin (online shop; artist)

Queer/queer interpreted passages:

Grettisfærsla  The Birth of Sleipnir  Þrymskviða  Lokasenna

[melianisnothere]

It has become more widely known that jotun men from Norse mythology can give birth and generally people immediately jump to “That has to mean they’re trans men!” but one of the first things we’re told about jotuns is that they’re intersex in a fantastical way where they have both penis and vagina because they are creatures of chaos. Well, some of them.

The first jotun Ymir had both and mated with himself (the text literally say he had both) to create the jotun race. Then there’s King Godmundr who gave birth to nine wolf pups by his wizard werewolf boyfriend, which of course highlights that sometimes jotuns birth animals or monsters, the most famous instance being Angrboða giving birth to Hela, Fenrir and Jörmungandr by Loki.

But it also seems like not all jotun men can give birth naturally, Loki being one of them. Every time he gave birth he had to transform himself into a female form via magic. Most famously he was a mare when he gave birth to Sleipnir, but Odin also tells us Loki has taken the form of a human woman many times so he could sleep with men (and get pregnant) which suggests Loki likes sleeping with men but prefers to do it in the form of a woman (Loki then says Odin has done the same so he has no right to judge). Godmundr for example is called out for “being a man acting like a woman” because he likes to bottom so much but still in his male/intersex form.

And the stories are pretty clear on wether someone is a man, a man transformed into a woman, or a trans person. In one story we’re told Freyr’s house is filled with “men dressed and behaving like women”. Also the fact that Loki use his mother’s name as his last name could mean a million things. Maybe it’s because she was an Æsir goddess so he’d get more respect from the Æsir by taking her name. Maybe his mother was actually his father Fárbauti who gave birth to him. And maybe Loki isn’t intersex because he’s only half jotun.

It’s all just fun speculation but if jotuns were turned into a high fantasy race like elves and dwarves the mythology provides a ton of interesting implications about jotun biology.

[melianisnothere]

The more I examine the Norse Myths, the clearer it becomes which tales likely don't actually reflect the worldviews of the Norse people.

Like...there are a few tells. The first and most obvious is the fact a few stories were added/changed in order to make it seem like they are proto-versions of the stories found in Christian mythology (Ragnarok being analogous to Armageddon, Loki being portrayed as the Norse devil, etc).

But there are subtler things as well.

I'm beginning to notice there's a difference between the way stories present information. The function of some stories is to describe how something happened, whereas the function of others is describe what something is.

For example, it is said that Thor throwing down his hammer mjolnir on the heads of giants is what created the mountains and the valleys.

This is an example of a story that describes how something happened.

This stands in comparison to the story of Loki being bound beneath the earth. It's said earthquakes happen because Loki is writhing from getting snake venom in his eyes.

This is an example of a story that describes what something is (in this case, what an earthquake is).

Now, it's really easy to think of these two stories as being identical, but the "tell" is that first story actually describes an event that can be witnessed: You can watch storms pass through the mountains and strike them with lightning. You cannot, however, see Loki punching and kicking beneath the ground.

Between the two belief systems, Christianity is the one that focuses heavily on describing worldly phenomenon through abstract concepts. We don't actually see this in most of the Norse stories, which are either for entertainment, or are an allegory for a felt experience.

I don't know, I'm just going to keep chipping away at this and see if it gets me anywhere, but I'm fascinated by this perspective so far.

[melianisnothere]

🏳️‍⚧️

[melianisnothere]

To anyone who believes fairy tale romances never happen in real life, may I remind you that JRR and Edith Tolkien met and experienced a forbidden love in their youth, and then were separated for five whole years because of his guardian’s rules that he could not date till he was 21, and she got engaged to someone else only because she assumed he’d forgotten her and lost hope that she could ever be with him, but then on his 21st birthday, he wrote her a letter saying he still loved her and wanted to marry her, she responded basically saying ‘if I’d known you hadn’t left me on the shelf, I would never have said yes to anyone else,’ then a week later she greeted him at the train station and then immediately dumped her fiancé, and they got married and she converted to his religion and danced for him in a flowering field far away from the trenches into which he was drafted, which left such an impression that he crafted an entire story about the most beautiful maiden in the world who danced in the woods and made enormous sacrifices to be with the man she loved, and they had four kids and remained faithful to each other and blissfully grew old together and their gravestones are now marked with the names of that same fictional couple that he created, who broke every rule and overcame every possible obstacle to be together and get a happy ending, who only did all that because he based it all on their own real love story.