So I’ve been looking into some Norse gods, and found some interesting information about one of Sigyn’s best known kennings, “Incantation Fetter”: in that context, ‘fetter’ means either to control or to break, and ‘incantation’ of course refers to magic.
So Sigyn’s name means “Victory Woman” and her most famous nickname basically translates to “Cursebreaker”.
People can spout off all they want about Sigyn being useless, boring, etc etc, but I’d say she must have kicked some serious ass to earn those kind of monikers from a warrior culture like the Norse.
Tag: norse
Sigyn is fire, the fire that keeps you warm in the woods and heats your food and keeps you alive, the fire that lights up your night and guides you in the dark. But you still wouldn’t try to touch it because it would burn.
Sigyn is fire, she is caring and gentle, but she is fire
Sigyn Talks to her Husband
“Faithful” is the only word they allow me.
As if my tears when my son was killed
Ripped by his brother-wolf,
As if his live entrails binding your body
Were nothing.I am nothing to them but faithful
As my hands grip the wooden bowl
Protecting your eyes from dripping venom
Protecting your eyes from the world.The poison drips, adds to the burden
In my bowl. It fills with revenge.
You feel the drops when I leave
To empty the bowl
Falling into your eyes.
Your body shudders, shakes the ground
That you are held to,
Gripped by the last embrace
Of our son.His brother howls, hear the
Lament for his murdered brother.
He does not howl for you.
But I am faithful, holding
time in a fading grasp.Do the gods see that you will break the binds?
Do they know the pain that will make you fight?
Do they care that I am the one who holds Ragnarok away?Oh, Loki, my husband,
My arms are tired.© 1999, 2003 by Laura Gjovaag. All rights reserved.
Who is sigyn?
Sigyn is the wife of Loki. She is not mentioned very often in the Eddas, but she is rather well identified in popular culture because of her connection to Loki. Sigyn is most famous for her role in Loki’s binding.
When Loki is bound to the rock and the snake is hung over his face, his wife Sigyn stays at his side and holds a bowl under the snake’s fangs to keep the venom from dripping into his eyes. Snorri reports that when she has to empty the bowl, venom from the snake’s fangs drips into Loki’s eyes and he thrashes, causing earthquakes.
– Mod M
Why do people think suggesting violence against Loki’s family is funny?
I honestly do not know. What I do know is that a good bit of the folks who would even suggest these things know next to nothing about Loki other than the fact that he’s the “Worldbreaker” and a liar <insert all the bad things people think Loki is here and cover it with the Plague>. They don’t the time to read much about him let alone actually get to know him—or his family.
His family literally never did anything wrong. Like, ever. ((Correct me if I am wrong, please.)) They were pretty much judged as “monsters”, and that’s how people still view them. (As for Sigyn, the fact that she chose his side is apparently enough to warrant the same hatred and suspicion that Loki is looked at with. I really don’t get it.)
How unfortunate these mean people will probably never get to know how awesome he and his family really are.//endrant
Heh. I don’t know that “literally never did anything wrong” is actually accurate, but that depends on your reading of the myths and whether or not you take them literally.
I’m not an apologist for Loki, nor His children. He is much more than the Worldbreaker, or any mud that may be slung at Him, but He’s also not a being of pure light and all of that bullshit. No god really is, in my estimation.
That being said, it specifically bothers me when violence is suggested towards Narfi/Nari, Váli and Sigyn. These are the members of Loki’s family that you can absolutely argue “literally did nothing”. And it was something I saw in reference to them that really upset me this morning because it was such a pointless and disruptive comment.
Holding the Bowl 