Breaking Fenrir’s Chains

Wilde Grace, non-binary, they/them mostly a blog of my experiences working with Loki and his family — I had to start writing it down somewhere (

[pinewhisky]

Punch Nazis and anyone who defends them.

[erribeka]

The sixth Arcana - the Lovers. Loki and Sigyn

[strwbrypoptart]

I don't think it's Loki's fault I just think the mistletoe was pissed off for being underestimated and decided to be petty about it

[the-witch-without-wisdom]

Devotional Acts to Loki that I don’t see around much:

Wearing mismatched socks

Rearranging your altar (or room/space) sporadically

Taking note every time you see a pride flag— especially if you live in a more conservative area

Deleting photos of things you don’t need memories of

Learning how to hold a snake

Visiting a graveyard and remembering Hel

Taking note of wolf-like dogs you see

Giving attention to a horse

Drinking a cup of very hot tea

Taking (or making) a small dare or bet

Having a bonfire with friends

Attempting the Hot Chip challenge

Visiting a circus

Making gingerbread men— or just cookies in general

Making a dirty joke (although why stop at one? 👀)

Doing something fun for yourself, and only yourself

Eat breakfast for dinner or lunch for breakfast or— you get it

Playing pranks

Pinpointing when someone is lying and not allowing their words to affect you

Shadow Work Shadow Work Shadow Work Sh—

[see-arcane]

Loki and Children

I have been having some thoughts about the original mythological Loki and the thought that has been on my mind most is this:

Loki is

1. Surprisingly great with kids

2. Is addicted to parenthood

Let me explain.

As to the first bit, well, yeah, it’s surprising. Or it should be at first glance. Because, seriously, this is fucking Loki. Standing in close proximity to him for longer than a minute is bound to result in theft, arson, a splash of bloodshed for color, and at least one confused party waking up in bed with the fucker. He’s a chaotic, manic, and generally hazardous force to be reckoned with.

To us. That is, adults.

Mortals, gods, giants, trolls, dwarves, et cetera–but only those who are mature.* *Read: there is Something to be Gained from conning, seducing, or otherwise messing with us. Whether it’s to save his own skin, or to get some sweet petty vengeance, or to steal a bauble, or to satisfy some carnal itch, or to just fuck up somebody’s day for the Hel of it, Loki only ever targets those he can take something worthwhile from. 

And what is there to take from kids? 

Plenty of folks on his extremely extensive Enemies List have children, of course. No one in the Norse mythos was especially mindful of dropping their seed. So. Children.

Children–easy to fool, easy to make a hostage, easy to charm and siphon their parents’ secrets and treasures from–should be great big bullseyes to the God of Mischief and Trickery and Assorted Other Unscrupulous Things. Yet there isn’t a single Edda or snippet of lore in which Loki makes cruel use of them. Not once. 

But what’s the big deal? Most of the rude and/or villainous characters in Norse mythology don’t bother with harassing kids either. Except in the case of stories like Loka Táttur.

Loka Táttur is a tale about how a farmer loses a bet with a vicious troll who swears to kill the farmer’s little boy. The farmer calls upon three gods in turn. Odin, Hoenir, and Loki. Odin and Hoenir both disguise the boy and hide him away, but the troll is too clever and each time manages to sniff out the boy’s hiding place. Ultimately it is Loki who hides the kid–pulling an Idunn-in-a-Nutshell gag and hiding him as a speck on the eye of a flounder in the water–and then, rather than stepping back as Odin and Hoenir did from their work, he sits in his boat and lets the troll see him.

The troll, being suspicious, asks what Loki’s business is. Only fishing, obviously. The troll demands to join him. Lo and behold, they bring up a wealth of flounders, including the one where the boy’s hidden. Loki manages to change the boy back to his true shape and hide the kid behind his back without the troll noticing. As Loki brings the boat back to shore, and to the farmer’s boathouse with the latter’s doors open, Loki tells the boy to run through the boathouse. He goes, the troll gives chase, and the troll becomes wedged in the entryway. 

At which point Loki proceeds to chop off the troll’s legs and stick an iron stake in the bastard’s skull. Then he walks the kid back home. The grand payoff for Loki after all this? 

The boy is safe. The troll is dead. The End.

Huh.

Now, much as Loki may have been the catalyst for a lot of corpses pre-Ragnarok–see his business with Thor getting his hammer back and leading more than one giant into a death trap–Loki is actually very rarely, if ever, one to get his hands dirty by killing a victim himself. Even Baldr was done in by an arrow he aimed with blind Hod’s fingers. So why did Loki personally orchestrate this plan in such a grisly way? For what gain?

What, other than the satisfaction of personally slaughtering the would-be child-killing prick troll?

In a less bloody narrative, we see his hand in getting Thialfi and Roskva, a pair of mortal siblings, taken into Thor’s service. While the exact ages of the two aren’t mentioned, they are young enough to still be in the care of their parents. When Thor and Loki are travelling it’s their father who invites them under their roof. Thor’s goats are slaughtered for the evening meal and–in some tellings–it is Loki who entices the son, Thialfi, into breaking a leg bone to taste the marrow. When morning comes and Thor resurrects his goats, one has a broken leg.

Thor’s visibly pissed—never ever a good thing–and so the family offers to make some compensation.

Loki, coughing through his hand: ThialfibroketheboneheshouldpledgeservicetoThor

Thialfi: Uh–

Loki, clearing his throat: Alsotakethesistertwoforonedeal

Rosvka: But I didn’t do anything—

Loki, en sotto voce: Kids, consider your options. Teensy mortal lifetime of toil on Midgard, harvesting dirt and snow on one hand. Potentially immortal lifetime, I don’t know, scrubbing giant blood off Mjolnir in Thor’s hall on Asgard on the other. Verdict?

Both: Sold.

Loki: Excellent! Really, Thor, you’re a master dealmaker, a born barterer, I’m in awe.

Thor: Wh—

Loki: AND WE’RE BACK TREKKING LETS GO

Cue laugh track.

Point being, Loki has been shown to purposefully go out of his way to help kids because…because. Yet how does this translate to the idea of him being good with kids?

I ask this purely hypothetically and am trying not to laugh as I do, because really. Really. How in the hell is a kid not going to be entertained by the Norse god of revelry and recreation?

Oh yeah, that bit’s often left off the résumé.

Loki, God of Mischief, is also God of Recreation. Play, in other words. Because playtime is a thing that is Chaotic rather than a product of Order, and so Loki is naturally all over it. There are some who even credit him with having added that trait to the first humans, Ask and Embla, while Odin, Vili, and Vé were carving them and breathing character into their souls.

On top of that, he’s also the god of flyting—poetic shit-talking.

So we have a shapeshifting, storytelling, magic-wielding, game-spinning, trickster god who can also teach young ears every bad word they could ever hope to learn, and he’s expected not to be a hit with kids? This is all without even mentioning the fact that Loki is a bit of a hyperactive attention hog all on his own. What better audience for him than a gaggle of credulous little onlookers who are too young to sneer at his antics rather than take delight in them? Children are wee balls of mischief themselves, muddled in with imagination and wonder and an eagerness to be wowed or made to laugh themselves into weeping.

All of which brings me to point number two:

Loki is a kidaholic.

Like, even though a lot of his and/or her sleeping around the Realms can be chalked up to an insane libido, there’s also just the sheer number of kids they’ve produced to factor in. Maybe more than even Odin or Thor could boast. At least half being born from Loki herself. Not because Loki was helpless against the workings of nature—it’s impossible to believe that Loki wasn’t smart enough or powerful enough to get around producing new Lokisons and Lokisdottirs with every other bedmate—but because Loki wants more kids. There will never be enough kids.

The guy’s got a case of severe paternal/maternal hoarding going on. I mean

Loki: I need another one.

Odin: You really don’t.

Loki: You’re right. I need two other ones.

Odin: I am positive that you do not.

Loki: Three. Triplets. Need them. Right now.

Odin: Loki.

Loki: Four? Four. Definitely four.

Odin: Loki, please.

Loki: Yeah, let’s go with four. I can give or get. I’ll flip a coin.

Odin: Loki, as Allfather, I am expressly forbidding you to impregnate or be impregnated for at least a century.

Loki: Fine.

Odin: …

Loki: …I’ll settle for three.

Odin: What did I just say?

Loki: Three’s a good number, isn’t it? All good things come in threes. You and your brothers—

Odin, fighting an aneurysm: You and your brothers—

Loki: So you agree!

Odin: I did not—

Loki: Three it is!

Odin: Loki—

Loki: Be back when I feel like it

Odin: Loki—

Loki: Give my love to Sleipnir

Odin: LOKI—

Loki, pantsless, vaulting over the wall, cartwheeling towards Jötunheimr’s Ironwood forest: Bye

It’s in that Ironwood that he meets Angrboda and fathers a giant wolf, a giant snake, and the literal corpse-faced queen-goddess of the dead by her. Being that Loki’s scope of attractiveness/aesthetic acceptability is elastic enough to let all sorts of species between his legs, I find it hard to believe that his kids’ unique looks would repulse or even faze him. They’re his children. Therefore they’re great.

And we all know how that happy family ended up. Ditto his second family with Sigyn and his two little twin boys.

Enter Ragnarok, warfare, general Bad Times, and so on.

Anyway.

Comical as it is to envision a Loki who cringes at the notion of parenthood and/or fears his more monstrous children, I just don’t believe it lines up with what we know of the Loki of myth.

Myth Loki is a god who would spend hours entertaining a child, simply entertained that the child is entertained.

Myth Loki is also a god who would hunt down and methodically dismember whichever idiot thought it would be okay to make a child cry within said god’s earshot.

[breakingfenrirschains]

This tracks with my mythos and UPG. Loki has adopted one of my little cousins. A precocious and comically pretentious and more than a bit annoying 12-year-old girl who’s going through her bi awakening. Sounds just about right.

[lokahjarta]

“I said to the sun, ‘Tell me about the big bang.’ The sun said, ‘it hurts to become.”

— Andrea Gibson, I Sing the Body Electric, Especially When My Power’s Out (via wordsnquotes)

[paganalia]

Food Chains by Rachel Ignotofsky

https://www.rachelignotofskydesign.com/food-chain

[breathing-chaos]

Have you tried... Loki?

🖤💚🖤❤🖤

[going-to-superhell]

My deities looking at my severely mentally ill and traumatized ass: Bitch, you need to do some shadow work Me eating a bag of doritos while crying at 3am: Nah, i'm good

[renthony]

The Nine Noble Virtues were created by literal fascists.

Not everyone knows this, but the “Nine Noble Virtues,” or “NNV,” are not set down and codified anywhere in the lore. They were first created by members of the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists, the Odinic Rite, and the Asatru Folk Assembly.

All three of these organizations are made up of fascists and white supremacists.

When someone tells you that the NNV are a big red flag for racist heathenry, that’s why.

[deerhoofandrabbitsfoot-deactiva]

…Well today I learned something that seems pretty important…

[nebris]

Clearly, these are values to reclaim from Fascists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Noble_Virtues

[systlin]

There’s no reclaiming.

They were invented by racist fascists in an effort to mirror the Ten Commandments and make their practice closer to Christianity. They are a new invention, made by fascists, to further fascist values. Just throw them in the trash with the fascists where they belong.

If you look into them, those innocent-seeming values were carefully chosen to support the whole ‘traditionalist’ fascist ideal. There’s nothing wrong with courage or hospitality, of course, but the visions of courage and hospitality projected into the NNV are a twisted and corrupted vision of it, and the whole concept of the NNV is poisoned.

If you read the modern versions, in that very link you gave, you’ll see the racism creeping in hard.

For example, “Hospitality”, for the people who made the NNV, really means

To succor the friendless but to put no faith in the pledged word of a stranger people.

AKA “Not people who are different from us.”

Screw the Nine Noble Virtues.

[fornsidramerica]

This is actually why Forn Sidr of America created its own 7 tenets. The NNV and offshoots are based on ableist and exclusive norms instead of values that are attainable by everyone. 

Just some examples of how the NNV aren’t accessible to everyone: 

Courage - Not everyone is capable of being courageous at all times. Especially when people have very real oppression they may suffer under. 

Fidelity - Fidelity in any list of values should be concerning. It’s the kind of thing that’s used in mafia and gangs. If requiring unwavering unquestioning loyalty to people and causes sounds culty, that’s because it is. Most white nationalist groups depend upon a group of people being shamed for asking questions or speaking up when things are wrong. 

Self-Reliance - This is a big ableist one and frankly goes against how society works. Holding self-reliance as a virtue/tenet brings shame feelings of failure to people who need accessibility services, guardianship, hospice, in-home care, crisis services, mental health services, or financial help from family or from tax-paid assistance programs. Bonus points: what a great way to keep people isolated from a support system outside of the cult. 

Industriousness - This one assumes that everyone can become proficient in a tactile trade or craft and has the capability of producing a good work ethic. Holding this as a tenet measures a person’s worth based on their productivity and contribution to society rather than recognizing the inherent worth of a person. Sound familiar? It should, it was added to the list by Nazis who brought Odinism to the US in 1939.

Perseverance - Another ableist assumption that everyone is capable of pushing through overwhelming and disabling situations. Having tenacity is one thing, but this has undertones that people can and should keep going in horrible situations even when they shouldn’t for their health. And it’s often used like that in the AFA and in other groups that push the white nationalist agenda. 

Now, does aspiring for these qualities make someone a Nazi? Of course not. These may be good qualities to aspire to as an individual, but when they’re promoted as the requirements to be a part of a religious group, that’s when things get creepy. Tenets of a Faith need to be accessible and attainable by all its members. If it isn’t, the message is one of exclusion and elitism. 

When we created out Tenets we were determined to create values that could uphold the best in humanity and were attainable by all. For more information on our tenets visit our website, Facebook, and Tumblr. 

[killer-mistletoe]

“Slut is a term of endearment.” -Loki probably

[depsidase]

[breakingfenrirschains]

Ope

[zivyx-deactivated20200628]

You become what you work with, ergo you should seek out that which you wish to become.

In other words, your interest is just as important. You don't need to wait for some divine omen or sign or initial acceptance. Chase.

[crazycatsiren]

There are times when thinking about how many youngsters/newcomers have been fearmongered away from practicing certain religions or worshipping certain deities by "not safe for beginners" and "trickster spirits" baloney horsefeathers makes me want to burn down the internet.

[breakingfenrirschains]

Sounds familiar

[dank-art]

comic book Sigyn giving a surprise tender kiss to her Loki’s for she loves all of them in any form

for she is the wife of a shapeshifter after all ❤️

[dank-art]

for Sigyn appreciation week day 3 : favourite artwork

a person who messaged me asking if they could borrow one of my Sigyn designs for inspiration to commission an artist on instagram to complete a piece for a fanfic of theirs , this is the finished product they sent me

the artist was @inezwandita on instagram

[dank-art]

* drops mythology Loki & Sigyn blended with the my MCU costumes on them & runs *