Alex wonders about Odin in drag:
> Wasn't that a Thor myth? Or, did they _all_ get up to cross-drssing
> high-jinks, those repressed Asgardian types?!
Both. Thor and Loki cross-dress at Heimdall's suggestion, mimicking Freya
and
her maid as part of the plot to rescue the Thunderer's hammer back from King
Loki of Outgard. Odin disguises himself as a female physician during his
attempted seduction and eventual rape of Rinda/Rindr.
'JUMPING JORMUNGANDER!', shouted Thor, foaming at the mouth. 'VEXATIOUS
VERGELMIR!', Nobody dresses me up as a woman!'
The explanations may fall into several areas, all of which (barring
Dunhamian essentialisms) may be equally applicable to Gloranthan myths.
- Folk enjoy a good story, and gods are distant kin, so they get a good
rubbing once in a while. Yes, though in the case of Scandinavian myth, many
of our sources are late (Eddic) and post-Christian, so the scribes may have
good reason to mock the old gods. (Think how the Irish ('did someone say
Celtic?') gods became fairies and leprechauns.)
- The myths refer partly to rituals unknown. You don't know the full
context or meaning. It has a (nudge nudge) secret meaning known only to the
elect. Now for fifteen lunars and that horse you rode in on....
- The myths contain valid fragments and later embellishments.
- Transvestitism has a particular sacred and mythic power. This is a
widespread belief in historical earthly religions. Cross-dressing and the
liminal power it evokes are special badges of the sacred and gateways to
power. There is a correlation to societies with rigid gender distinctions,
but cross-dressing and other transgenderisms are often associated with
shamans, priests and sacral technicians.
- It was a hilarious joke / bad pun / simple and standard poetic metaphor
in the original language x, but something got lost in translation.
('Wine-dark sea' becomes 'How Eurmal turned the sea to wine').
The Bible is full of this sort of stuff.
- Its a Solar story. Everyone knows that Solar warriors are screaming drag
queens just dying for a bit of paint and satin.
You pays your money and you takes your chances. It all comes out in the
quest...
John