From: helgi@wam.umd.edu (Helgi Torleif Dagsson)
Subject: Re: The creation of Eve
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 19:12:48 GMT

In article <1992Aug13.173151.17738@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> scls_ss@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Eric Scoles) writes:
>In <1992Aug11.200435.21094@lunatix.uucp> lmollett@lunatix.uucp (Laura
>Mollett) writes: 

... much deleted ..

>
>The Norse has plenty of other interesting things.  The palace at Asgard was
>built by giants, who did their work in the form of stallions.  The
>"Asgardians" had hired them on the understanding that Loki, descrbied I
>think by Snorri as "blood-brother" or "half-brother" (can't remember exactly
>which) to Odin, would somehow swidle them into breach of contract (the Norse
>were obsessed with the notion of the binding contract -- Iceland was
>governed by lawsuit for hundreds of years).  Loki, in his last-ditch gambit,
>turned himself into a mare and lured the giants away into the woods, so they
>didn't finish the job on time.  There was a product of that union, but I
	The contracts was for the Giant (there was only one, that I heard of),
who had wanted to marry Freja -- and the Giant's horse was doing most of
the work.  Loki had been the one to suggest hiring the Giant, who if he had
finished, wanted to marry Freja.  When it appeared that the Giant was almost
ready, the Gods basically issued an ultimatium to Loki to not let this happen:
so Loki became a mare to distract the Giant's stallion.  The offspring of 
this union was Odhinn's stead, Sleipnir (the eight legged horse, who some
have said represents a coffin being carried by the pall-bearers.  That 
would make sense as Odhinn is a pyschopomp, but I have no sources for it
at the moment.)  

>don't remember what it was.
>
>On the subject of Loki's famous children:  I read _one_ account in a book I
>cannot remember the name or author of, that suggested a circuitously
>parthenogenetic origin for the Children of Loki (Hel, Fenris, and
>Jormungandr).  Snorri establishes a mother for the kids -- can't remember
>her name, but she is of the race of Giants.  Apparently, though, some
>scholars (my memory again may be faulty, but I seem to remember one of them
>being Dumezil) thought that she was an alter-ego of Loki himself -- ergo
>parthenogenesis.  But the really interesting theory was the one I started to
>tell, which is based on a small fragment from a source I can't reemmber
>except that it _wasn't_ Saxo Grammaticus or the Elder Edda, which describes
>a certain giantess (none other than the one named as Loki's wife) bursting
>into the great hall at Asgard, and being killed and burned for her rudeness. 
>All was destroyed except her heart, which Loki found among the ashes and
>ate -- thus becoming pregnant with hsi children, the monsters of Ragnorak.
>
>There's lots of shape and gender changing in the Norse.  I can't clearly
>recall any other good ones, but they are there.  Fun stuff.

	How about Freja's cloak, which allows here to take the shape of I
believe it is a hawk?
	And as for the thread on gender bending, what about the story of 
Thor going in drag, pretending to be Freja, to be "married" to a giant,
and the giants though that Freja was a bit unfeminine becuase "she" ate
*huge* amounts and drank *huge* amounts.  I would think that the thick
red beard would be, perhaps, a slight clue that all was not as it was
made out to be. :-) :-).

>-- 
>Eric Scoles			: <<insert witty, pithy comment 
>scls_ss@uhura.cc.rochester.edu  :    here >>
>University of Rochester --------:
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
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-- 
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------\
!Intolerance of ambiguity is the mark of an athoritarian personality -- Adorno!
!                                                                             !
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