As there is no indication of any temporal or spatial shift between these two stanzas [where Thor discovers Mjollnir is missing and speaks to Loki], the lay’s structural logic purports that Þórr and Loki were sleeping in the same quarters the previous night. Þórr’s address… even hints that Loki was not particularly attentive when Þórr grabbed for his hammer. We can imagine (imagine indeed!) that Þórr needs to awaken his partner to inform him about the latest developments… In view of Þórr’s later concern about being called “argr” [homosexual], it is conceivable thathe loses his masculine identity because he spends a night with Loki, who is notorious for wavering sexual preferences. Their union, then, becomes public … when the thunder god is dressed up as a woman and Loki volunteers to join him as a bond-maid.
Jón Karl Helgason, ’“Þegi Þú, Þórr!” : Gender, Class, and Discourse in Þrymskviða’ in Cold Counsel: Women in Old Norse Literature and Mythology, pp. 160-161
AKA, that time in Þrymskviða where context heavily implies that Thor and Loki had something going on the night Thor loses Mjollnir. And by something I mean they had sex. The gods, they are queer! I love that this is relevant – central, even! – to my thesis.
(via possiblythreefourthspeahen)
I think when I actually read this article, I was like, ‘pfft, why do academics read sex into everything?’ (this was in my Angry Ace phase), but thinking about it more, it’s pretty…plausible? Like, I think Þrymskviða can be read as at least partly appealing to a queer audience, given how pro-Loki it seems to be, and Þórr/Loki would then be… certainly possible.
Also, at first I was like, ‘But have you seen an Iron Age longhouse? Everyone’s in the same room.’ And I think some people have argued that the author of Þrymskviða (or maybe Þrymlur? I am getting my poems mixed up, maybe) seems to very much be envisioning Icelandic farmsteads in their description of places. But then the Eddas are pretty keen to stress how everyone’s got their own sweet crib (sorry, too much influenced by @loptrcoptr‘s Bróvamál), except Loki. So … where does he sleep at night?
(via sinna-ok-sessa)
I am an ardent fan of the idea that Mjöllnir is standing in here as a morning-wood joke. And I mean Loki is just… right there, so I can’t find anything wrong with the “they be bangin’” theory. So is that just… how Loki rolls? Loki just be out there bouncing from hall to hall at night, making the rounds, popping in on random æsir/ásynjur like “either we bone or i sleep on your couch, which is it gonna be?”
Papa was a rolling stone
(via loptrcoptr)
The Archery Range 