Through 150 telling journal entries, Samantha Craft presents a life of humorous faux pas, profound insights, and the everyday adventures of a female with Asperger’s Syndrome.
Well here we are another Thor’s Day and another 20 min sketch of a Norse mythological character. This time it’s Sigyn the Victorious. Wife of Loki. Member of the Aesir. Eventually Loki is sentenced for his crimes. He’s tied up in one of his and Sigyn’s sons entrails, with a snakes venom dripping into his eyes. It’s Sigyn who would catch the venom in a bowl only stopping to empty it before it would overflow. Which will last till Ragnarok. Sooo good for staying active, but definitely leaves her prone to repetitive stress injuries.
Being a parent with a disability is an incredible experience. And I don’t necessarily mean that in a good way.
Sometimes, it means that your child will see you throw a temper tantrum over toppling a plastic cup. Because that plastic cup falling over was the last thing you needed after waking up too early, not eating enough, changing so many outfits, and putting everything else first.
Sometimes, it means that your child will see you sobbing on the floor for what looks like no reason, and then they will come to your side and offer comfort because they’ve been there too. And they don’t even know that grown-ups should have a ‘better handle’ on crying. They just know that mommy is sad, so let’s hug her and be close because that might make her feel better. Most of the time, it does.
Sometimes, it means that your child will ask you if they can hug you when they see you slump, because they know something’s up before you do. A teeny little hug can make an entire day better, of course.
Sometimes, it means that your child starts to sob hysterically because they’re scared of the machine daddy’s putting on mommy’s back. They don’t know it’s supposed to make mommy better, or that it’s harmless to them. They just know mommy’s plugged into something and it looks weird.
Sometimes it means that you can’t pick up your kids even if you want to, because the physical pain is like torture. Even if it’s not hurting now, it’ll hurt later, and you know it.
Sometimes, it means that you can’t be a parent for a day or two. And you still love your kids, even if they’re consuming more energy than you have to give.
Surprisingly, not much, and not just because Sigyn isn’t on my radar, but because there’s not that much info on her on the lore and the only UPG I’ve seen on the subject is from Raven Kaldera and friends, and they have a bad habit of passing off their UPG as fact. GLE has a post regarding Sigyn’s relationship with Loki and whether or not it was abusive that mentions when Sigyn is referenced in the lore.
Some UPG I have read:
Sigyn was a runaway who was adopted by Njord.
Sigyn is in conflict with Angrboda, who believes Loki should have married into his tribe. (Note that Angrboda is mentioned exactly once in the lore and her exact relationship to Loki is not talked about).
A lot of people (IME) focus on the bowl holder aspect of Sigyn, which makes sense because it’s one of the only times she’s mentioned as doing anything rather than the text just saying “oh, she’s Loki’s wife” but I think, like some of the other goddesses she has a strength to her that many of us moderns don’t see because she isn’t involved in battle or any “interesting” activities (ie. things that men like).
I would like to talk about something that I think is going to piss people off, and that’s the “child-bride” aspect that is in GK and Kaldera’s books (at least, that’s where I first heard it). I can’t help but find this line of thought to be sort of creepy in that it implies a) that Loki is a pedophile/hebephile, and it feels, to me at least, almost like they’re infantilizing her in the same way that mortal women are constantly referred to as “girls” and not given respect as adults. This isn’t the first time Kaldera has written some questionable things about goddesses. I should note that I say this as someone whose deities are frequently incestuous.
She’s not a heathen really but @loptrcoptr / @daysoffuturepasta has some opinions about Sigyn and might be able to point you toward info about her.
As @kaynarune said, I’m not a practicing heathen, so I hope it would not be out of line for me to comment on Sigyn here.
As a non-practicing heathen, I don’t have any UPG to speak of; the closest I come to UPG is a wealth of opinions, based upon Eddic verse/symbolism/etc. As someone on the academic side of Norse religion, my whole world revolves around what the Eddas do, don’t and might say. For instance, there’s nothing in the Eddas about Njord as an adopted daddy figure, or tension and rivalry between Angurboda and Sigyn. Both are fine theories, because hey: make shit up, it’s a free world, have your own opinions. I personally like to think that Angurboda and Sigyn are in rather frequent communication, and that Sigyn’s beef is with Loki for stepping out, not with his “other woman”. This theory is held together by the ever-debated idea of Sigyn’s lineage: what manner of being is Sigyn? Snorri lists her among the Ásynjur present upon Gylfi’s visit in Gylfaginning, but does that really say anything about her lineage? Many of the Æsir gathered brides from among the Jǫtnar (Skadi, Gerd) who are considered Ásynjur, but what’s the number-one scandal in so many of the Eddic lays? a giant asking to marry a goddess. (Think of Freyja snorting so hard that the Brysingamen falls apart. Oh, the indignity.) And so we have to ask ourselves: Loki, though considered one of the Æsir, is still not “relieved” of his Jotunn background and is the only one of the gods who is addressed with a matronymic instead of patronymic (Loki Laufeyjarson), and the Vanir are not addressed with any outstanding funny monikers, so it stands to reason that Loki’s Jotunn heritage is not forgotten by anyone, ever. And no Jotunn has ever been allowed to marry a goddess. So Sigyn, by that logic, cannot be born into the Ásynjur. This is a theory that I ascribe to. But it begs the question, still: what is Sigyn? Surely she cannot be one of the Vanir, who the Æsir hold so near-and-dear, unlike Jotunn pals like Loki and Ægir? Is she a Jotunn, then? That’s my opinion, but we have no concrete proof, naturally. I’m also of the opinion that Nari and Vali are both her sons, and that she was there when they (or one of them) died. But that is entirely speculation, and as close to UPG as I get.
As far as this “child bride” thing is concerned…. I’ll try to react with some semblance of chill, but I find the notion blatantly appalling and crass. First of all, the only god we know to have had a childhood was Freyr, the only other kids we see are the gods’ kids and Thor’s servants, who are not gods. So what is Loki meant to have done, scooped up a little human girl from a happy little Midgard village, or did he rob a Jotunn cradle, is that it? ok, I lied, I can’t be chill about this, it’s idiotic and perverse, and there is zero evidence for it: none of the gods are shown to have child brides, why should Loki? Kaldera can come and fight me. And what is this in reaction to, the long-upheld notion of Sigyn as this figure of “devotion” and “innocence”, thus she must be childlike? Is that it? The Norse pantheon is made up of figures with many, many attributes, and quite a few of these deities even share attributes, yeah? (Freyr and Thor both take care of every-man farmers, etc.) but we know so very little about the Ásynjur (eternal bummer), and what we do know we gleaned largely from Snorri, who himself knew so little about them that he ascribed each woman one attribute alone, and some– like Sigyn– got none at all and remained unmentioned in his list (further proof for my Sigyn-is-a-Jotunn theory, but I digress). So let it be known that the notion of Sigyn as a goddess of fidelity, loyalty, innocence, or faith is an idea not presented in the Eddas, and one that stems largely, I would argue, from popular culture, ie: Marvel’s Sigyn is the “goddess of fidelity”. Viewing Sigyn as this pillar of sweet devotion is by no means wrong: you do you. But it is, I think, it’s own form of UPG, and I believe that we should all be careful when discussing Sigyn if we’re discussing her on an academic or religious platform and make certain we’re not slipping into our own opinions and stating them as fact: there are no facts about Sigyn. Like… really. Let’s look at the actual Sigyn facts:
1. She exists. Arguably.
2. She is cited as Loki’s wife in Lokasenna and in Snorri
3. She does her bowl thing
4. Nari and Vali (or whatever iterations of their names you prefer) are either both her sons, or one of them is
5. Sigyn is present in Gylfaginning
6. And that is literally it
Sigyn is a lacuna. It’s part of what I love about her: Sigyn can be anyone you want her to be. Woohoo! As far as scholarly theories on Sigyn go, there’s the question of her heritage and the possibility of Jotunn lineage, as I mentioned above. Also, it is a popular notion in scholarship (my Old Norse professor, who is extremely well known in the field, holds to this theory) that Sigyn is a late eddic character and not original to the myths. There are two parts to this argument, 1) why should Loki have such a nice wife to help him out? Some believe this is all Christian influence, others cite the influence of romantic epics, which brings us to part 2) the belief that Sigyn is a late influence derived from the character of Sigune in the romance Parzival, an early 13th century German romance. It is hard to hear that Sigyn could be a “late” invention, but that makes her role no less key or her lack of description no less interesting. In fact, the character of Sigune is very central in aiding and guiding Parzival on his journey, even giving him his “true” name (what is more Norse-lit than that)– a guiding soul who helps him out in his hours of need? Sounds like Sigyn to me! Not only that, but the act of name-giving could be used to argue for Sigyn’s role as a Valkyrja, methinks, if that is something that sounds good to you. But when the name-game is done, I have a counter for this theory of Sigyn as a “late” copy of Sigune: 1) find me an Old Norse name prefix more popular than “Sig”, and 2) even if Sigyn’s name could be proved to be a simple copy of Sigune’s, could it not be an equally simple name change? Couldn’t she be an older goddess with a new name attached? Or, to play devil’s advocate, maybe she does directly stem from this romance character and no others, we don’t rightly know. Even if she is “late”, it doesn’t take away from the fact that she is a Norse goddess ta the end of the day. My personal theory regarding her origins as a character is that Sigyn is also related very distantly (by extremely strained etymologies) to Sinthgunt of the second Merseburg charm, aiding Vuolla (Fulla) and Sunna, her sister (possibly Sól), but this is a theory I cannot prove. Yet. >:)
Like @answersfromvanaheim said, I think it’s easy for people to see nothingness, or even weakness, in Sigyn due to her lack of description, action, or agency in the Eddas. But I think it’s important, when looking at Sigyn as a figure and a person with motivations and senses, to wonder about her lone action, the only real glimpse we get of Sigyn: catching hissing venom in a precariously balanced bowl, keeping it from sliding down and melting the face of her husband, a husband who has been unfaithful, who has murdered, who has sown the seeds of anger amongst the gods; a husband who challenged a warrior-woman in cold blood to kill his son. And Sigyn waits there beside him, bowl in hand, as he writhes against chains wrought from her child, and she keeps him alive and holds the end of all things at bay. Why? We don’t know. What seems “weak” and “boring” about a woman like that?
Anyway, I hope adding some scholarly opinions to the pot helped answer the question a little. Maybe. Sorry if I babbled on too much! And @kemetiwitch, if you’re looking for more info/interpretations regarding Sigyn, you’re welcome to join the @sigyndefensesquad: it’s a place for Sigyn lovers and their theories, be they devotees or fans. And if there’s anything I said that was confusing or unclear, i am always around and happy to talk about Sigyn at any time. 🙂
My diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) took a very long or short time depending on the perspective. While all my signs and symptoms tell the tale, my ability to persevere in spite of great challenges along with the ignorance of my local medical community resulted in a 16-year battle, at times desperately seeking a reason behind all the whack-a-mole symptoms my practitioners were chalking up…
My son and I both had rough days yesterday, and right before bedtime,
my wife and I were talking to him about good days and bad days, limits,
and why at a certain point we all start to feel overwhelmed and fall
apart. I considered bringing up spoon theory, but thought it would be a bit too abstract for him. So instead, I started talking about about Captain America’s shield.
Because
in general, every day has good stuff and bad stuff. And just like Cap,
we all have a shield we can use to deflect some of the bad stuff and
keep it from getting to us. But sometimes there’s too much stuff to
block it all, and Cap gets hurt. We all have bad days like that
sometimes, where there’s just too much.
What makes life trickier
is that your shield can change size. If you’re hungry or overtired, your
shield might shrink down to the size of a saucer, which makes it harder
to deflect anything. On the other hand, if you’ve had a good night’s
sleep, gotten some good exercise, and had fun with your friends, you
could end up with a super-shield that’s as big as you are. (Or even a
full suit of Iron Man armor. We went off on a tangent at this point,
wondering why Tony doesn’t go to Wakanda and make an Iron Man suit out
of vibranium.)
As a metaphor, Cap’s shield worked well. We talked
about why something might not bother you one day, but the same thing
might really get to you on another, depending on how big your shield is
that day, and how much else you’ve been trying to deflect. It also
seemed to be a good way of talking about self-care, and ways to
strengthen your shield so it wouldn’t shrink or crack.
Don’t know if it will be helpful to anyone else, but it was a good conversation with my son, so I figured I’d put it out there.
Holding the Bowl 