often with love-associated, beautiful goddesses like Freja, I see such a push among followers to strive towards conventional beauty under the guise of devotional acts.
I love growing out my body hair and leaving my eyebrows unplucked. I love cutting my own hair (even when it looks bad) and even shaving it all off. I love gaining muscle and feeling stronger when I work out, I don't just want to look toned. I love my bare face and messy makeup. I love body modification. I have no desire to conform to a rigid standard of what beauty looks like in the same of a goddess who is beauty in every form.
Angus Og, God of Love and Courtesy, Putting a Spell of Summer Calm on the Sea, by John Duncan, 1908.
John Duncan's Angus Og is a delicate beauty, wrapped in a golden ribbon. His skin and hair look soft to the touch; his voice and manner must be equally pleasant. If this was a contemporary painting it would be considered too scandalous today, we modernlings are decidedly more prudish than the Edwardian British intelligencia. There are some clashing view points in this image itself; Edwardian British society considered the body of a young man as asexual; young men could swim nude in public or go skinny dipping in rivers and no one thought anything of it, while women and girls were forbidden to act this way. However the subject is an ancient male god of love, beauty and fertility, the Celtic equivalent of Frej. Frej, much to my disappointment, is regularly depicted as roided and bearded, despite him representing the beauty of Scandinavian men like Bjorn Andresen and Olaf Andersen. Where are the long, white limbs and thick, golden curls of European youths to be found in contemporary media? Gods and symbols of male desire have become too aggressive and harsh for my tastes, if not erased altogether. Frej is just as important a god as Thor and Odin, but he is hardly present in modern adaptations of Germanic Myth. Even his sister, Freja, now, is increasingly absent or treated with contempt.
When you're a little bit out of the age range intended for Legoland Billund, you have to make your own adult fun.
Drabble Collection on Ao3
Ship: DenNor (+ Friends)
Human AU/Organized Crime AU
As far as dates went, Lukas couldn’t explain. Sure, it wasn’t exactly a date, since they had their four friends at tow. And it was at Legoland Billund, but the last time he had seen Mathias had been at the fishery of Freyja’s older brother in Iceland. Any time spent together that wasn’t strictly for work reasons was precious and hard to come by these months.
“We’ll go into the haunted house, first thing,” Mathias had promised him last night unprompted. “I think you’ll like that.”
“Hoping that I’ll jump into your arms?” Lukas had asked with a raised eyebrow and the hint of a smile on his lips.
“Psssht.” Mathias snorted. “I just know you like the vibe. But you can of course jump into my arms, should something scare you.”
Right now, Mathias showed him a catalogue of the customizeable minifigure parts one could buy at the store here. He had circled the latest pieces he wanted for his collection.
Out of the corner of his eyes and at the edge of his hearing, he caught a conversation between the rest.
“Don’t you think that we‘re all a little … too old for this?” Ráfi asked.
“Oh Ráfi, relaaax,” Freja said with a smile. “It’s fine to have fun.”
“It’s good even!” Frej backed his sister up. “Not every single day in life has to be spent doing something ‘worthwhile’. A day of kicking back is healthy!” Lukas didn’t know who showed more skin between the two on this summer day.
“I can have fun, thank you very much,” Ráfi said with a small smile. “I didn’t know you like it that much.”
“It’s the best place to pick up single parents,” Freja said and Ráfi’s face fell.
“Wait, is that why you kept going on that dragon ride?”
Lukas looked to Mathias, who was still flipping through the book to find a particular hairstyle piece. The sun brought the freckles in his face out.
“Of course it is!” Freja chuckled and Frej grinned.
“It’s like it is with hunting – you’ve got to know what an animal likes, got to know what personality you’re looking for,” Frej said. “The dads with the primary school kids are about the best, but the safest bets with moms are when they’ve got at least one teenager in there – “
“I’ve grasped the concept, thank you.” Ráfi looked to Trygve. “And you? Enjoying people watching?”
“Immensely.” They looked at them, eyes hidden behind their sunglasses. “But I know that you like a spot of friendly competition, so let’s find a place that engages that, hm?”
Ráfi smiled at their friendly smile.
“Hey Mads!” Freja called. “You’re coming with us?”
“The both of you,” Frej added while his sister rolled her eyes.
“Mads!”
“Huh?” Mathias looked up from the catalogue. “What’s up?”
“Are you two coming with us?” Trygve asked. “Not sure where we’re going yet, but I’m in a mood for a friendly competition.”
“Oh! Cool!” Mads said and looked at Lukas. “I mean …”
“Is this about the Haunted House thing?” he asked him.
“Oh, wanted to go to the haunted house?” Frej asked. “For some dark magic?”
“You can go without us,” Ráfi said and pointedly ignored his comment, as did Lukas. “And we’ll meet later again.”
“But it’s the most fun with everyone!” Freja argued. “We can do one of the pirate things, us against the Norwegians. Doesn’t that sound fun, Mads?”
“Or we can try other teams!” Frej said.
“I mean, it does.” Mathias laughed but looked to Lukas again. “But … I’ve kind of made a promise last night about doing something with Lukas …”
“You’ve sat around the entire morning in the café, I’m sure he can survive not being at your side for fifteen minutes,” Freja said and spared Lukas a sweet, but completely joyless smile.
And no matter how much telling Mathias that the Haunted House thing really wasn’t this big of a deal would play into her hands, he wasn’t playing her game in the first place. And it wasn’t a big deal.
“Isn’t there a thing where you can build your own boat?” Trygve asked, a frown between their brows – what peaked through the blonde curls anyways.
“Dunno?” Frej said.
“Yeah!” Mathias had lit up. “It’s over in the Polar Land, if you mean the one where you build a boat and then race others.”
“I think I mean that one,” Trygve replied.
“You want to play that against Mister Masterbuilder over there?” Freja asked, with a look of disbelief that her brother mirrored.
“I mean, at least that’s a challenge,” Lukas said and glanced at Mathias for a second, to see if the other picked up the compliment.
The corners of his mouth twitched into a smile at Mathias’ beam that tried – and failed – to fake some humility on top of it.
“Of course not!” Trygve replied. “Mathias, you’re not coming. That’s no fair competition and I quite like fair competition.”
Ráfi couldn’t help but chuckle. “Oh, do you now?”
“Certainly, you know me! So, you can’t come, Mathias. Terribly sorry, maybe later.”
“And I don’t think it’s much fun for you to watch,” Ráfi said. “Nor very fair if you came along and helped someone, either.”
“I … I suppose?” Mathias said.
“It’s fine,” Lukas said and grabbed Mathias’ hand. “I’m taking him to the Haunted House while you do that. No big deal.”
