Orlanth and Eurmal

From: Per.Aspstrom_at_mib.os.gsv.se
Date: Wed, 7 May 97 09:55:29 +0200


Chris B -

> I can even
>envision a funny story told at the fires where in order to sneak into
>such and such God's castle, Orlanth and Eurmal dress up as gals,slip
>into some Solar God's harem and make said God smitten with them.

No wonder you can envision this since it is very close to one of the myths
in the old Viking religion, where the strong thunder god Tor gets his magic
weapon, a hammer, stolen by a giant. The giant will not give it back unless
he gets Freja, the goddess of love and beauty, as his wife. Naturally, Freja refuses this marriage, and it is the cunning Loke - the born trickster! - who suggests that Tor should dress up as the bride-to-be and
he himself as a bridesmaid. Tor rages about this for a while but cannot find another solution, and so off they go, heavily veiled one can assume.
When the hammer is presented to the bride as a wedding gift, Tor immediately kills all the giants who have assembled. This myth would surely
be told as a funny story among the Vikings, imagine the great Tor dressed
up like a woman and so on! (Though admittedly women had a very strong position in the Viking society, there is no way to force Freja into marrying the giant, I have forgotten his name, even if Tor probably would
like to...)

Setta A, via Per Aspström
per.aspstrom_at_mib.os.gsv.se


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