#Norse mythology valentines

[loptrcoptr]

Ten years ago, a little baby loptrcoptr (then under the username daysoffuturepasta), freshly in love with Norse mythology, decided to make a few Norse-myth-meme valentines. I did seven rounds of these things (technically 6 and 1/2) for a total of seven years and I had a lot of fun. Even made some for my grad department to put around the place, and once shoved them into friends’ pockets on a night out to see how long it took them to find each one.

Now, in honor of the tenth anniversary of these trashy little things, have one more!

(Also totally message me to tell me which ones were your faves!)

[dionysianivy]

𝐃𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 ᡣ𐭩

Aphrodite: Goddess of love, beauty, romance, pleasure (Greek)

Bastet: Goddess of dance, music, fertility, love, joy (Egyptian)

Freyja: Goddess of fertility, beauty, love, glory, magic, sex (Norse)

Eros: God of love, beauty, youth, desire, sexuality (Greek)

Oshun: Goddess of wealth, beauty, love, water, divination (Yoruba)

Yue Lao: God of marriage, love, moon (Chinese)

Brigid: Goddess of poetry, fire, love, spring, fertility (Irish)

Hera: Goddess of marriage, women, fidelity, love, family, childbirth (Greek)

Hathor: Goddess of women, fertility, love, dance, perfume, joy (Egyptian)

Branwen: Goddess of love, beauty, sovereignty, kindness (Celtic)

Venus: Goddess of sex, love, beauty, victory, fertility (Roman)

Bes: God of love, music, merriment, childbirth, humor (Egyptian)

Parvati: Goddess of marriage, family, beauty, fertility, the arts, dancing, love (Hindu)

Aengus: God of youth, love, poetry, summer (Irish)

Benzaiten/Benten: Goddess of arts, love, music, wealth, wisdom, fortune, water (Japanese)

Frigg: Goddess of marriage, love, childbirth, divination, fertility (Norse)

Xochiquetzal: Goddess of flowers, love, sex, fertility, beauty, pleasure (Aztec)

Cupid: God of love, affection, attraction, desire (Roman)

Aisyt: Goddess of love, beauty, childbirth (Yakut)

Ōkuninushi no Mikoto: God of happiness, love, wisdom, earth (Japanese)

Živa: Goddess of love, fertility, life, grace, gratitude (Slavic)

Áine: Goddess of fairies, fertility, love, beauty, wealth, summer, protection (Irish)

Ishtar: Goddess of sexuality, love, fertility, war (Mesopotamiam)

Rati: Goddess of desire, passion, love, sexual pleasure, beauty (Hindu)

Inanna: Goddess of love, sensuality, fertility, procreation, war (Sumarian)

Prende: Goddess of women, health, dawn, love, beauty (Albanian)

Siebog: God of love, marriage (Slavic)

Kamadeva: God of sensual desire, love, pleasure, beauty (Hindu)

Sjöfn: Goddess of affection, love, friendship, protector of children (Norse)

Juno: Goddess of love, marriage, women's health, childbirth, fertility (Roman)

Turan: Goddess of fertility, love, vitality, beauty (Etruscan)

Lada: Goddess of love, family, marriage, children, beauty, spring, fertility, protection (Slavic)

Lilith: Goddess of rage, lust, love, femininity, darkness, freedom, mothehood, independence (Mesopotamian)

[getvalentined]

Haven't seen folks talking about this over here, but I'm in love with the detail, so I'm gonna talk about the mythology used in the new Ever Crisis event.

For those confused that Vincent's right arm is weird in his new Odin-bestowed gear, it's because it's based on Týr! Implied occasionally to be one of Odin's sons, Týr placed his right hand into Fenrir's mouth, eventually allowing him to bite it off entirely, so the other gods could bind him—hence the chains.

Fenrir usually represents Cloud in the series, which one could assume doesn't mean anything—except that Sephiroth's Odin-bestowed gear is based on Jörmungandr, the world serpent, who is one of Loki's monster children just like Fenrir.

Taking this into account, Odin appears to have cast Jenova as either Loki or Angrboða—but I'm assuming Loki, for reasons I'll explain in a minute.

So Vincent is cast as one of Odin's sons, one who threw himself into the literal jaws of the beast in order to keep the world safe, and was permanently changed as a result. Týr is also destined to be consumed by Garmr, the hound who guards the gates of Hel, at the end of the world—it should surprise no one to know that generally, Garmr is accepted as the Norse mythological analog of the Greek Cerberus.

Týr's fate comes to call all when Jörmungandr stops biting his own tail and rises up from the sea that covers the world, which will in turn free Loki from his bonds. Sort of like Vincent throwing himself into the fray when Sephiroth rises up from the Lifestream and allows Jenova to wreak havoc against the planet.

The reason I think Loki is the role being given to Jenova is because of Angeal's gear. We haven't gotten a good look at it yet, but the fur ruff leads me to assume he's being cast as one of the handful of canids in Norse mythology: either one half of the pair that is Hati and Sköll, or (more likely) Váli.

Hati or Sköll are probable enough because they're wolves, specifically Loki's grandchildren, making them one generation removed from the source, and they're a set of two—like how Angeal and Genesis are one step removed from Jenova via Gillian, and are a set of two. They chase the moon and the sun, and will consume both at the end of the world. I don't think this is quite right, though, because they're Fenrir's children, and Fenrir is very clearly associated with Cloud elsewhere in the series.

Váli, however, is one of Loki's children who wasn't born a monster. He's mentioned once, is occasionally confused with one of Odin's children, and was turned into a monster wolf before being driven to kill his brother—who also was not born a monster, and whose remains were used to bind their father. This is strikingly analogous to Angeal being brought up as a normal person, discovering that he's actually a monster, and being driven by his own honor to (attempt to) kill Genesis in order to end his Jenova-fueled war against Shinra. This would even explain the horns on Angeal's gear, because Váli is often mistaken for one of Odin's sons of the same name, and Odin also has gold horns.

TLDR: Odin has cast Vincent as his most doomed son (one permanently bound to at least one of Loki's monster children), Sephiroth as one of his weird monster nephews (the one whose return heralds the end of the world), and (hopefully, I'll be disappointed otherwise) Angeal as a different, less weird nephew who almost nobody remembers and turned into a monster at the end of his life for the express purpose of killing someone he loved.

Oh, and Tifa is...some kind of sexily underdressed gijinka version of one of the cats that pull Odin's heavenly counterpart's carriage. For some reason.

Still not sure about the thought process behind that one.

[illustratus]

Odin, the Northern God of War by Valentine Cameron Prinsep

[vinjaryou]

Okay, so. I mentioned earlier that I feel like Vincent relates more to Hel and Tifa to Fenrir for this new Ever Crisis event, and now here is the first part of my ramble regarding it. This is just my opinion, nothing more, and I'm not claiming it as canon, just my own thoughts on it all.

So let's take Vincent into consideration (also because I love him a very normal amount, he gets to go first).

Personality-wise, he already coincides more with Hel, as she is often described as having a gloomy, downcast appearance, and being half-alive half-dead. Vincent - when we meet him, as we don't have too much insight to his personality when he was alive other than his naivety toward Lucrecia and the Jenova Project, but that's an entirely new ramble, lol - is a quiet loner with a downcast appearance, choosing to stand in the shadows away from the others, and to cover himself entirely in leather and a floor-length cape with a collar that rises enough to hide the lower half of his face. Also, due to the experimentation done to his body after Hojo initially murdered him (half-dead) by both Hojo and Lucrecia, Vincent lives again, in an immortalized, unaging body (half-alive).

Hel - though she rules over the underworld - is also rather indifferent to the concerns of the living or dead. Vincent (again) is a loner, who chooses his words carefully and has a cold demeanor at first, demanding to be left alone (attacking violently when provoked), and choosing to stand off and away from the others for the most part. It takes him quite a while to warm up to the others, defending them out of necessity at first more than anything.

Let's also take into thought where we find Vincent - in the basement of Shinra Manor (aka Shinra Mansion in the OG), a rather large building with a locking gate to keep people out. Hel is an old Norse word that also means 'hidden,' in relation to the underworld and the dead being buried underground/hidden. Vincent Valentine is a wholly optional character in the original Final Fantasy VII, sleeping in a coffin in the basement of the mansion, of which you can only get to if you acquire the key after opening a safe and defeating the monster inside (Lost Number, aka Forgotten Specimen in Rebirth).

And what's the summon materia you receive upon defeating the monster and acquiring the Basement Room Key?

Odin.

You also discover Vincent in Nibelheim - and where does Hel rule? Niflheim, where Odin gives her huge mansions with high walls and large gates... with icy rivers surrounding them. Vincent's Gun of the Worthy? Has an ice-based major attack.

Taking it back to the Anniversary Event - when Odin faces Vincent and Tifa initially and deems Vincent ("the one with the crimson mantle") worthy, he then throws them all into a new area, with Vincent waking up first... in Mt. Nibel, Nibelheim.

Odin... threw Hel into Niflheim.

Finally, his Limit Breaks are literal monstrosities that he transforms into - Galian Beast, Death Gigas, Hellmasker, and finally Chaos. Hel embodies the themes of transformation (the Limit Breaks) and also renew - this links back to Dirge of Cerberus (HELL YES I WAS GOING TO BRING THIS MASTERPIECE* IN) in a sense, as for Ragnarök, Hel was to unleash an army of the dead and join Loki in battle against the gods... aka Vincent (Chaos) against Omega (the Gods themselves).

Hell (haha), you could say this was hinted at with the weapon Vincent received during the winter holiday event, as Hel is often depicted with Garmr/Garm, the Norse Cerberus. Nevermind that Vincent's default gun in Advent Children and DoC is called Cerberus, but what's the name of his winter event gun?

Holiday Garm~

*yes I know peoples' opinions on Dirge of Cerberus but goddammit I love that fucking game so much, lol

[sigyn-foxyposts]

Happy Valentine’s Day from your captain!

CAPTAIN, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE!! 🥺💕🫶

[selkies-world]

Cerberus had a puppy & he just wanted to tell you you're cute as hel, and to ask if you'd be his this Valentine's Day (and maybe for all eternity, because who could say no to those lil faces????)

✨️ If you wanna see an earlier sketch of this lil pupper, head on over to my Patreon & click for the Royalty Tier ✨️

[the-poets-are-screaming]

To Loki

Who graces his presence;

His beauty,

His tricks,

Oh how bewitched i am with his antics;

He who made my hands act with mischief,

Who picked the shards of my heart and constructed a weapon of love and trickery.

Loki,

Praise be, for i worship you with the weapon you’ve constructed for me.

[protemporescitor]

Fenrisúlfr

From the wiki: "In Norse mythology, Fenrir is a monstrous wolf. Fenrir is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, Fenrir is the father of the wolves Sköll and Hati Hróðvitnisson, and is a son of Loki."

"Upon the coming of Ragnarök, along with his sons devouring the moon and the sun, Fenrir is said to destroy the planet, his lower jaw reaching the earth, his upper jaw reaching the skies. It is foretold to kill the god Odin during Ragnarök, but will in turn be killed by Odin's son Víðarr."

"The name 'Fenrir' refers to the giant wolf 'Fenrisúlfr' in Norse mythology, who is bound by silk chains and is destined to devour Odin at Ragnarok. Fenrir is considered by many to be a hellhound due to his link to the guardian of Hel, Garmr. This leads to an interesting set of coincidences, as it means Cloud, represented by Fenrir, hails from Nibelheim, named for the land of the dead, where Odin is found in Final Fantasy VII."

"Cloud being represented by the hellhound who devours a god may be a deliberate distinction with Sephiroth, who wishes to achieve godhood, but is repeatedly defeated by Cloud. In another interesting coincidence, Cerberus, a hellhound of Greek mythology, shares its name with Vincent Valentine's gun."

[sereonhardware]

Valentines days art dump i’ve been saving for this day… But there will be more following cuz I just really like this holiday ok leave me alone

I am the ceo of never having a consistent coloring/shading/rendering style ever

Also here’s the wip for the first piece I showed cuz I need to choke both of them out violently

[fjorn-the-skald]

Valentine’s Day Special: ‘Viking’ Love Stories (Podcast)

Happy Valentine’s Day! To celebrate, we’re going to share some ‘Viking’ love stories. And by that I mean Freyja with her ferocious cats, cringy suitors, tear-inducing bear curses, tragic love triangles, and unethical magic spells! Lovey dovey stuff, I assure you.

[piratespacex]

Freyja is too depressed for Valentine’s Day. Condolences for humanity this year.

[amphibifish]

english class valentine's day doodles

[simple-persica]

HEY! Just a reminder that this stream is tomorrow! The way I like to do these streams is very request heavy! So yes, I'm designing the character, but it's with everyone's input! I'm really excited! I'll post a link tomorrow ten minutes before start time!

Heya! I mentioned it a good while ago, but I want to get back into doing character designing streams so this weekend we're going back to it!

So this saturday at 1:00PM EST I'm going to be streaming on my Youtube and I'm gonna be drawing some norse gods I haven't got to yet like Freyr, Tyr, and maybe just...more Heimdall tbh

[lilderitter]

Endings are Hard. But so are Beginnings.

Hi all!

I'm Lil. I'm showing up on tumblr under my own name for once because I was one of the writers for Blades of Light & Shadow 2 and 3 as well as being the designated lorekeeper. (I also worked on Cursed Heart 2 (and was the facial reference for the Fae version of Longclaw, hence the icon), as well as Kiss of Death and Murder at Homecoming, and I was the lead writer on Villainous Valentines and the Blades Tabletop Guide.

I was one of the many people who were laid off by Pixelberry when the Cursed Heart team was dissolved over a year ago now. But my final contribution to PB canon, Blades of Light and Shadow 3, officially finishes its wide release today. The layoff was traumatic for a lot of reasons, but it did offer me the strange silver lining of getting to be on both the brainstorm team for Blades 3 and being the person who wrote the initial drafts of the book. I was not the book lead, to be clear, but I'm honored to have gotten to work for Emi and to have been gifted the absolute privilege to act as an archaeologist in the world of Morella and beyond in Blades 2 & 3. I especially loved writing the lore tablets and found objects like Nifara's letter, Kade and Tyril's poetry and songs (and Kade and Bakshi in general, my beautiful bards), the Old Gods, Mal and Tyril's romance routes, and both Mal and Raine's mental health journeys.

Since I wasn't the lead, not everything I wrote made it in, and there's some stuff that even ended up on my own personal cutting room floor for Blades 3 (mostly due to length). I got nostalgic over the weekend, and found a longer version of one of Tyril's poems that I thought y'all might like to see, so I've included it below as thanks for everything y'all have given the Blades team. You are what made the sequels happen, especially Blades 3.

Because I figure you might be looking for more stuff like Blades now that we've come to what I dearly hope is a bittersweet but satisfying end, I did want to shout out the art I was consuming when we were working on Blades 3:

Not Another D&D Podcast - If you're a fan of Dimension 20 (and who isn't?), you know the brilliant work of Emily Axford and Brian Murphy, but Jake Hurwitz's hilarious and heartfelt himbo fighter Hardwon from Campaign One was my direct inspiration for the voice of Nithrax. (Wanda Maximoff was Midys's, if ya couldn't tell. An autistic queen.) But truly pick any of NADDPOD's campaigns (or Dungeon Court), and you'll have a great, hilarious, and surprisingly poignant time.

Transplanar RPG "The Second Stranger" Show and Podcast - Mercer? Lee Mulligan? Iyengar? You know them, you love them, but I guarantee you've never heard someone like Transplanar's Dungeon Master Connie Chang. His work is poetic, visceral, and wickedly funny in a way that is, might I say, otherworldly, and her cast is magnificent. "The Second Stranger" is an all trans, POC led actual play show about a group of misfits who have to save their world's gods before they can save the world. It is also shippy (and gay) as fuck. Truly, if you wanted the Blades gang to be a polycule, this is the show for you.

Baldur's Gate 3 and The Dungeons & Dragons Movie - the new and worthy additions to the canon. If you haven't tried 'em please do.

Anyway. The poetry is below the cut (please be nice. Tyril is a baby writer.) and I'm feeling some kind of way so if you have lore questions (or questions in general), feel free to drop 'em in my inbox and I can try to answer them. They'll be non canon answers and I can't talk about PB's internal processes in detail, obvi, but I did hang around with the fire with Kade a fair time so I know a thing or two. (And if you like any of my recommendations, I'm always up for chatting about them!) P.S. Don't worry about me. I actually work at Chapters now, and my first book was high fantasy as well (primarily Norse and Celtic mythology). I'm also working on a new indie game with some other Pixelberry layoff casualties including some incredible artists, the head writer of the Cursed Heart, The Crown and the Flame, and It Lives series. (They are the same person can you imagine???), and the writer who gave us that scene at Joaquin's apartment in LoA2. (You know the one.) We hope to be able to tell y'all more about it soon.

Thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart. It has truly an honor and a privilege to work for these characters. And for you.

[A behind the scenes note, I always told myself that translated Morellan Elven/Elvish tends to lack the full poetry of the original because they have more words for things than the human tongue does. Part of this is just that we were working with only a few references from Book 1 and added as we went, but i also liked the idea that a culture this old (and a culture partially founded by a storyteller) would be difficult to translate to a younger language like Morellan. So if the poetry's bad, I blame the imaginary translation.]

This was originally going to take place in Tyril's second 30 diamond premium (when they're resting in the Elements.) MC has just asked Tyril for another poem.

--

Tyril: I have one other that is somewhat presentable. But Kade said the scansion was simple.

Raine: Kade... has opinions. And bar tabs. If he wants me to tolerate one, he needs to manage the other.

Raine: He also may have meant it as a compliment. He's a translator, remember? He appreciates ease.

Tyril: But he's correct. It is simple.

Raine: There's nothing wrong with simplicity, Tyril. Simplicity can be elegant.

Raine: The stars, the sun, all of nature is simple. Would you blame them for what they are?

Tyril: You're better at this than me.

Raine: Maybe you're just inspiring me.

Narration: You bring Tyril's hand to yours, kissing each pale blue fingertip.

Raine: Tyril. Read it to me. Please.

Narration: But he doesn't read. He doesn't have to. Every word is a whispered caress along your shining skin.

Like blood and water (s/he) is Eternal and ephemeral. A mystery few can solve, a puzzle box to be opened. How like a statue s/he stands, too proud and too strong to let the cracks show. Let me be your mason, O great Light, great Patron I will honor your wounds, fill them with pearls from the Sea and diamonds from beneath the earth. That hallowed earth Yawning wide to call me to your quiet, cold embrace. Give me but a word and I will follow. I wait And wait And wait And hear Nothing. This time interminable, this torture endless I search for you everywhere but the undiscovered country Hope is a fragile, dangerous thing, a candle in a tempest. I find the flame in each new face, each new question, begging Have you seen (her/him)? They ask me to describe you, your hair, your skin, your frame But the words turn to dust on my tongue. There is nothing. Nothing to define the wonder of you. You are not copper nor marble, clay nor precious gold. You are a river, an island, a forest ever growing beyond my reach. Lungs burning, limbs aching, I pursue. Begging the stars to return their (daughter/son) to me. Forgive me, my Uluin, my world, my love. Forgive me.

Narration: Tyril pauses, his bright eyes sliding to the floor.

Tyril: See? Simple. Unfinished.

Raine: Yes. Exactly. Simple. Perfect. Even when unfinished. Because that means there's more story to tell.

Narration: You gently bring his gaze to yours, soft and clear like first snow.

Raine: There is nothing to forgive, Tyril. Nothing I haven't done myself.

Narration: As promised, he kisses every scar, every fear you've ever had. They do not disappear of course. That was not his aim.

Narration: Instead they are immortalized, perfect and true in the night sky of your love.

[sigyn-foxyposts]

"Happy valentines 💝"

From modern AU Loki & Sigyn!