Happy birthday to harmonious-relations!
A n g r b o d a & S i g y n
The stories tell it like this: Angrboda was the second love of Loki, mother of the terrible children Jormundandr, Fenrir and Hel. What they sometimes failed to elaborate upon was that she was the chieftess of a band of Jotnar and of the Iron Wood. Sigyn was the daughter of Iwaldi and Freya, daughter of Asgard and Vanaheim, third love of Loki and mother of Narvi and Vali.
Another thing they failed to mention was their friendship.
When Sigyn crossed between the nine realms to journey to Jotunheim, she was met with frost and steel. Their leader was a tall, fierce and beautiful giantess, with eyes like winter and hair dark as night that could burn like fire when she revealed her true form of blue skin and crimson eyes.
They did not immediately talk over the one thing they held most in common: Loki. Instead they talked of their homes, their childhoods, the way they were both trained in combat and eventually, how they came to know of the Jotun prince. Angrboda had been raised in sorcery and flesh and blood and ice. Sigyn had been raised in sorcery and steel and the power of words.
One cold night, Angrboda challenged Sigyn to a duel. They circled and danced in the desolate bleak cold, where Sigyn quickly learned to avoid the chieftess’ hard swings by feinting and throwing out illusions to deceive her whenever she could. But the wolf-mother knew her tricks well, and soon it became a game of steel on ice that eventually culminated in a draw. Sigyn offered to teach Angrboda more about the magic of the Aesir, and in exchange, Angrboda gave the Victory Bringer a spear of ice that could perform dangerous enchantments in combat. Both also granted one another safe passage and hospitality if they wished to visit the other’s realms.
As the years passed, Asgard grew used to the visiting of a Jotun chieftess. Although there were countless occasions where soldiers had been secretly ordered to draw their blades against the frost woman, Sigyn retaliated with her own fierce means. If the Aesir were to kill the woman warrior, this would ignite the sparks to a terrible war between the Jotuns and the Asgardians once again, and it would only end in bloodshed and terror. With some hardship, Odin gave the command that the chieftess was not to be harmed, and so she was allowed to wander the forests, spar with those willing on the training grounds and wander the libraries with Sigyn and Loki and share in the secrets of sorcery.
In turn, Sigyn journeyed to the cold ream, where she was met with vicious words and icy threats that were all stayed by Angrboda’s authority. There, Sigyn befriended the great wolf Fenrir, who soon took to walking by her side as a silent guardian, and eventually Hel upon one journey to Niflheim. They took up forms of disguise when they used one of Loki’s secret pathways between the realms to visit Midgard, and there Angrboda reunited with Jormundgandr, who that day let the seas roll calm and granted the mortals blessed voyages.
But then came the day when Odin broke his promise, and with it came the breaking of a trust that had gradually been forged between two races. He bound Fenrir in great chains and enslaved the world serpent to the seas of earth, forever to encompass the seas and never to see his blood again. Hel was banished to stay in the realm of the dead to ferry the souls, never to leave again, while Loki was tied beneath a serpent that dripped poison that burned like fire. Vali was changed into a wolf, and under the torment of such a terrible transformation without the proper practise of magic, was set upon his brother Narvi.
Sigyn’s anguish soon bled into fury, and Angrboda’s icy wrath joined with hers to create two warriors filled with vengeance, and mothers of mourning turned to hatred. On one howling night, Sigyn took up her spear of ice, and met with Angrboda in the eye of a snowstorm in order to utter the words that would cloaked her fellow Jotun warriors in an impenetrable glamour. Then together, they crossed the realms to bring about the dawn of a terrible war that would not cease until the worlds tore apart and every last Aesir felt the fire of their grief.
Disclaimer: Gifs are not mine.
