I’m taking this latest wolf baby to my printer today to get scanned. (This was a WIP shot but I finished him up this weekend.) The drawing’s an inch or two larger than mine can handle.
Then I’m framing it for entry into a juried exhibit at Apartment Earth Gallery:)
The birth-mother of Fenrir, Hel, and Jormungandr is, for the most part, said to be Angrboda, with Loki as the father. I disagree with this claim, and believe Loki to be the birth-mother. There is support for both the former and latter, but that point is not made clear enough in our surviving sources to make a proper conclusion.
The idea of Angrboda as mother of the brood has merit in its simplicity. Most people assume the female to be the mother, and the male to be the father. Angrboda is female, Loki is male. The mother/father is not explicitly stated, so perhaps the simplest explanation should be assumed.
This claim also tends to go hand-in-hand with the assertion that Angrboda is Loki’s mistress or other wife in Jotunheimr, but this seems completely unfounded to me. There is really no evidence of a relationship having ever existed between the two, or that they even knew one another. I suppose Loki’s self-professed promiscuity could explain him fathering children with a completely arbitrary woman, but casting Angrboda as Loki’s wife seems to be too lazy an assumption.
The incident on which Loki eats a woman’s heart comes from Hyndluljod, a source more dated than Snorri, in the Poetic Edda; as such, I feel the references therein are more accurate to authentic Norse mythology. The account is incredibly vague, and all that is revealed is that Loki eats the half-cooked heart of an “evil woman” that he takes from the embers. He becomes pregnant from this, and gives birth to “the monsters” (flagð). It is not made clear to which “evil woman” the heart belongs, or to what beings “the monsters” refers.
“The monsters” may refer to Fenrir, Jormungandr, and Hel – they are indeed the most suited for the title, among Loki’s other offspring.
These three “monsters” are usually attributed to the union of Angrboda and Loki, so if it is assumed these three are “the monsters”, then it must also be assumed that the heart belonged to Angrboda. One section of Hyndluljod states that Loki gained the wolf (Fenrir) by Angrboda, which may imply that it was Loki impregnated by Angrboda.
The heart that Loki ate is a mystery all on its own, and its origins should be considered before attributing it to Angrboda. It came from an “evil woman”, Loki took it from the embers, and it was half-cooked. The Voluspa, another entry in the Poetic Edda, mentions the Aesir-Vanir war, which came about when an “evil woman” named Gullveig was thrust with spears and burned by the Aesir in Odin’s hall. We are told she was burnt and reborn three times over, and even that was not enough to destroy her. Perhaps a half-cooked heart remained, and this was the one Loki ate? Angrboda’s heart was said to be frozen like the sea spray, so this may be why the heart did not burn when the rest of the body did. Loki’s reason for eating the heart may have been to prevent further resurrection, which is very similar to Loki’s countless outlandish solutions to unsolvable problems facing the Aesir.
There is a great deal of evidence, although still not fully accepted, that Gullveig and Angrboda are one and the same. I’ll go into Angrboda/Gullveig/Heid in detail in a later post – I need to answer your question first and foremost, and if I start talking about Angrboda, I’ll never get around to it. Angrboda is written as Aurboda in Svipdagsmal, which gives the name the exact same meaning as Gullveig. “Aur” and “Gull” both mean gold, and “boda” and “veig” both refer to a strong alcoholic drink. From the above, although there is no concrete proof, there is a clear possibility that Loki was impregnated by eating Angrboda’s heart, and thus gave birth to his famous monstrous brood.
It is simplest to assume the female Angrboda as the mother, and the male Loki as the father, but we also have evidence to the contrary. There is a bit of confusion on this point, and it seems to be intentional. Angrboda is sometimes called the father, and Loki the mother, and then vice versa. Perhaps this is intended to call attention to the fact that the parentage is different from what is expected. Loki’s androgyny is definitely a theme in many of his myths, and Angrboda’s androgyny is also mentioned at one point (An observer cannot decide if Angrboda is a woman, or a man disguised as a woman). This may be further evidence of their mismatched parental roles.
Furthermore, in Helgakvida Hundingsbane I of the Poetic Edda, two characters are insulting one another by comparing one to Loki, and the other to Angrboda. The character comparing himself to Loki says to his Angrboda-like opponent that they produced the wolf together, and that he was the father. The Angrboda companion corrects him, saying that Loki is not the true father, and that he was emasculated by giving birth to the wolf. If Loki became pregnant by eating Angrboda’s heart, then it was Angrboda’s seed that fertilised Loki, making Angrboda the true father.
So there you go. We don’t know for sure whether the father is Loki or Angrboda, but I believe it was Angrboda, and there is indeed a good deal of support for this idea. There is some more evidence, but it requires a lot more explanation, so I might go into it again once I’ve properly explained Angrboda on this blog.
As for Loki’s banishment/getting bound, it was caused by the events of Lokasenna. For the most part, it seems that the gods bound Loki because they were really angry that he had slandered all of them. Granted, some of the slander was pretty bad, but a lot of it, if not all, was true. Loki knew everybody’s dirty little secrets, and when he revealed them all at the Lokasenna, he got into some trouble. I will write a post on Baldr’s death, and another on Lokasenna as soon as I can – sorry it’s taking so long! I’m pretty busy with university right now, and my major is Chemistry, which is about as far from Norse mythology as you can get…
When Loki gave birth to the wolf Fenrir, it was foretold that Fenrir would kill Odin one day in battle.
Although kept among the gods at Asgard, Fenrir was designated their enemy before he had even opened his eyes. The gods sought to bind Fenrir in such a way that he could never escape, but if they failed, Fenrir would surely attack them for such actions.
As such, the gods bound Fenrir in fetters under the pretence that it was just a game. Fenrir would be bound by the fetters, and he was to try to break free. Fenrir agreed to the game, and was bound as tightly as the gods could manage. However, much to their surprise, Fenrir broke free of his bonds. The gods returned after that with increasingly stronger bonds, hoping to trap Fenrir, but each time Fenrir successfully broke free.
Finally, the gods sought the help of the dvergues, master craftsmen. The dvergues did not disappoint, and created for them an unbreakable fetter called Gleipnir. It was made of the beard of a woman, the breath of a fish, the sinew of a bear, the root of a mountain, the spittle of a bird, and the sound of a cat’s footfall. All of these things, each one supposedly impossible, gave the fetter its indestructibility.
The gods approached Fenrir again, this time with Gleipnir, and asked to play the binding game with him once more. Fenrir was wary about the ribbon-thin fetter they held. The fetters had been increasing in size until now, but given the appearance of this one, it was surely strengthened by magic. It was difficult to miss the gods’ hatred for him, and Fenrir suspected that the gods truly meant to bind him, despite the pretence of a game.
Fenrir agreed to play the game once more, but only on the condition that one of the gods stick his hand in Fenrir’s mouth. He hoped the prospect of losing a hand would keep the gods from foul play. The brave god of war, Tyr, volunteered to comply with Fenrir’s request.
So Fenrir was bound with the unbreakable fetter, with Tyr’s hand in his mouth. Once Fenrir was bound, he struggled to break free, but found that he could not. The gods had indeed tricked him, and they intended to keep him trapped there forever. In anger at the trickery, Fenrir bit off Tyr’s hand.
But the gods had not averted Fenrir’s fate. They had ensured it. In binding Fenrir, they had made Fenrir their enemy. When Fenrir broke free at the outset of Ragnarok, he was filled with anger at the gods who had kept him prisoner his entire life. It had been foretold that Fenrir would kill Odin, and his treatment from the gods was what had driven him to it.
Loki is conspicuously absent on all occasions when the gods attempted to bind Fenrir. Given that Loki plays a prominent role in most myths, and that he was the mother of Fenrir, his absence is somewhat strange. It may have been that Loki was kept from the proceedings, so that he would not interfere for the sake of his son.
Furthermore, it was at this time that the gods began to mistrust Loki, and to see him as an enemy. Loki had always been mischievous, but the gods had considered him an ally until this point. It may have happened simply because of Loki’s relation to the killer of Odin, or perhaps because Loki had protested against Fenrir’s treatment, and they saw anyone who desired Fenrir’s freedom to be an enemy of Asgard. A further possibility is that Loki was entirely guilty of becoming mistrustful, and an enemy of Asgard. Perhaps, after seeing Asgard’s treatment of his son, who had done nothing, Loki could no longer feel loyalty to the Asgard that had once been his home.
7. je fais n'importe quoi. j'ai eu besoin d'une pause mais je vais faire les 31 jours, même si je ne finis pas en octobre. // i don’t know what i’m doing. i needed a break, but even if i don’t finish in october i will do 31 drawings in 31 days.
[ID: A gray banner with white text reading “Those Horrid, Horrid Things” with white line drawings of a wolf head, snake head, and skull to the left of the text. End ID.]
Get ready for some visitors. Chapter 19 of ‘Those Horrid, Horrid Things’ is up!
When Odin prophesizes Loki’s three monstrous children will bring an end to the Aesir, the trickster god decides the only way to keep them safe is to travel through time and space to where no one will find them.
But this new world is different, with its PTO’s and HOA’s and all other manner of strange sigils. Loki’s children have to make some big changes to remain undetected, and the Father of Monsters themself might be in a little over their head.
Because the gods are still out there searching, and they’ll stop at nothing to lock those horrid, horrid things away.
There was a crack like lightning, like something ripping open, like something burning and sizzling.
“Ymir’s droopy, swinging tits!” Loki shouted.
Skadi came running. She had on her hockey jersey and a backpack she was trying to stuff one more sword into.
“What is going on?” she asked.
“Get the kids out through the front,” Loki said. “The Aesir are here.”
Her ice-blue eyes scanned the back door.
“For a battle?” she asked.
Loki looked briefly to the window. All they could make out were line after line of figures.
“They’re here for a show,” they said.
They grabbed their sandwich, the butter knife, and jar of peanut butter, and headed for the porch. The Aesir wanted a show. They’d give them a show.
I may have mentioned previously how excited and nervous I was to write what is essentially the Lokasenna redux. Loki gets to finally speak their mind to Odin and the Aesir, and some big truths are revealed in this chapter.
Also, I get to write my crazed, genderfluid dad/mom holding a butter knife to a cat while in their bathrobe and underwear and announcing they’ve captured a goddess, so that’s fun.
He was the son of the demoniac god Loki and a giantess, Angerboda. Fearing Fenrir’s strength and knowing that only evil could be expected of him, the gods bound him with a magical chain made of the sound of a cat’s footsteps, the beard of a woman, the breath of fish, and other occult elements. When the chain was placed upon him, Fenrir bit off the hand of the god Tyr. He was gagged with a sword and was destined to lie bound to a rock until the Ragnarök (Doomsday), when he will break his bonds and fall upon the gods.
Tattoo Idea
A black wolf bound in chains with a sword pierced through it’s open mouth
New print available in our shop! Hand-pulled screenprint with extremely long lasting eco-friendly inks, available in a variety of colours.
This print is a collaboration with the extremely talented @dyrs_hjarta_art and inspired by the Binding of Fenrir myth: you can see the huge wolf Fenrir right in the centre of the artwork, entangled by the smooth and supple fetter called Gleipnir, and gagged by a sword after he devoured the god Tyr’s hand. On the top the mask of the Allfather, Odin, and the six materials the dwarves required to forge the fetter from Svartalfheim: the sound a cat makes when it moves, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, the sinew of a bear, the breath of a fish, and the spittle of a bird. You can see the gloomy faces of two of those dwarves on both sides of the print. On the bottom, the gods are fastening Gleipnir to the boulder Gjoll and the rock Thviti.
New print in collaboration with @celticartlogo, available as backpatch and t-shirt in a variety of colours. Follow us oninstagram for more updates!
We ship worldwide!
As one of the most puzzling and misinterpreted creature, the wolf has been at the very centre of cults and mythologies throughout history. In ancient times, Roman era, and Greek mythology, to the late Norse age and its depiction of the infamous Fenrir, the wolf has been a key figures in many cultures. Even if it’s not often associated with it, it played a pivotal role in Celtic culture as well. The wolf is not as present as other animals or zoomorphic representations in Celtic art, not like the boar, the eagle or the deer. Even so, there are mentions of the wolf in Celtic lore, particularly the very late one from the Middle-Age. Soon after Cormac mac Airt, the future High King of Ireland, was born, he was carried off and raised by a she-wolf for a period of time in the caves of Kesh, alongside her other cubs. In the tale of Táin Bó Cúailnge, the goddess Mórrígan appears under different shapes to the legendary hero Cú Chulainn, one of these being the shape of a wolf. Interestingly, the wolf plays a key role in the Celtic year cycle as well. It has always been associated with the first part of the year, usually the time around January, in different areas of Scotland and Ireland. Still today, in the Gaelic-speaking Highlands and islands, people refer to the first month of the year as “Faoilleach”, originally associated to a whole period in the Scottish agricultural calendar. The name has a close link to the wolf figure: in fact, “faol” or “faol-chú” means wolf in Gaelic, and it would appear to be a very old term, as wolves have been extinct in Scotland for centuries. In Scotland, the most notable representations of wolves are to be found in the Pictish culture, such as the one majestically engraved on the Ardross stone, 30 miles north of Inverness. This print is a modern reinterpretation of one of the most significant animals celebrated in hundreds of years of lore, legends and stone carvings.
They are HERE and LIVE in the shop now! The StrandedInMidgard Yuletide postcard set for 2021 :)! Here’s my shop link if you want to purchase some! Theres a set and the cards are also sold seperately. Get som for you n your heathen friends <3
…theYule Cards will be available in myshop! I expect it to be early November, so there will be plenty of time to get it before Yule, ya filthy pagans <3
