> 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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