Someone should start making Viking Fiction Memes
You find a piece of Viking fiction that looks quite good. It's got shieldmaidens. It's got magicians.
Then you discover that the magician are all male - not a völva, not a spækona, not a wife doing simple protection spells with a spindle. And the male magicians and seers aren't even a tiny bit effemminate or even just rumored to be gay. Also, no ( Read more... )
Then you discover that the magician are all male - not a völva, not a spækona, not a wife doing simple protection spells with a spindle. And the male magicians and seers aren't even a tiny bit effemminate or even just rumored to be gay. Also, no ( Read more... )
Comments 66
We few, we happy few... [cit.]
Reply
You know what annoys me the most? The fact that Viking Era/Norse Mythology-based fiction has just so much potential and could make SJWs and witty meta!posts writers from the whole wide world scream in fangirl-ish joy ... yet nobody ever bothers to do it properly, to look into all the deliciously complicated stuff.
Seriously, the myths and sagas offer just so much material to work with. Talking about women, there's the king who marries his daughter off because OMG POLITICS NO TIME TO THINK ABOUT THE PUNY WOMEN and the one who actually asks her what she thinks about it ('cause he's afraid she will murder everyone in revenge if she's not happy with her husband), the wife who puts up with all her husband's crap and lovers and whatnot and the one who just goes "screw this, I want a divorce and half of everything you own and I want it RIGHT NOW", the witch who is invited to all feasts by the richest farmers and the one who is avoided by everybody because she is soo obviously evil. And if we look at the goddesses, there's ( ... )
Reply
Anyway, you know what I think the problem is, at least one of the many many problems? We - meaning fans and common folks who just know a bit of Norse lore - tend to ignore the distinction. Worse still, we tend to make tha assumption that Norse = Vikings and that there was nothing else there at the time (or before & soon after, for all that matters). No one else.
It's just that Vikings got more famous, I guess, 'cause we certainly study very little about 'em too, but at least they're mentioned in our text books. And since not everybody is curious enough (like you are, for example, and judging by that I dare say you'd make a wonderful scholar) to go looking for answers about historical accuracy, especially when writing some little piece of fiction put together mainly for fun - well, you get the picture ( ... )
Reply
Alas, you're right. We only learn a few things, and then we think that's all that there is to it because nobody ever bothers to tell us otherwise. It's kinda depressing, thinking about the kind of stuff we're missing out on everyday.
Still, one would think that people writing fiction about ancient societies should have the most fun researching on them and getting them right. But that's probably just me having too much faith in mankind again ... *sigh*
You know, Vikings started fascinating me in the first place because it seemed like there was just so little about them. I mean, it was like we had Greeks and Romans handed to us on a silver platter, and there was something about Egyptians too in our textbooks ... but what about them ( ... )
Reply
Leave a comment