(no subject)

[haptalaon]

Found a lovely polyamory myth that I'm going to wind into Fencraft for sure:

Aillen and Aine were the son and daughter of a fairy king. Aine has correspondences of being a water nymph, and also associated with older fertility legends. Aine fell in love with Mannanan Mac Lir, greatest of mariners - king of the Tuatha de Dannan, and Lord of a bright shining country across the sea. Aillen, meanwhile, had fallen in love with Fand - Mannanan's fairy bride.

Aine went to Mannanan and asked if they could not come to some sort of arrangement, and although the author of my 1911 book expresses it in coy terms, it seems like Mannanan and Fand agreed that at least one evening of swinging where each could be with someone else was fine.

Divinities having sex with other divinities is so often mythologised as a transferrance of power - the union of two powers, the birth of a new power, kidnap and rape, or having affairs. I'm not sure I know of another myth in which consensual open relationships are so portrayed, but I'm going to meditate on this one and try and pull it into the mythos.

Another one is the story of Heimdall father of humanity, in the Norse legends. Heimdall comes to a poorly appointed house, where a man and a woman in deep poverty nevertheless give the traveller shelter and a simple board. "The god spoke honeyed words, as he knew well how, and in no time had won the best position, in the middle of the bed, with Ai on one side of him, Edda on the other. For three nights the god stayed with Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother". From this, their son Thrall is born - and then the story repeats twice more, one for each social class in Viking society. My heathen husband is delightingly confident that this myth of humanity's creation is indeed a series of monogamish pansexual three-ways.

Incidentally, when my husband and I had our "how do we define monogamy in our relationship" chat, we did discuss the status of fae creatures, Powers and other Mighty ones...I doubt either of us would be fast to throw a honey-tongued divinity out of bed.

Comments

[ilthit]

I recently listened to the Poetic Edda and yeah that's entirely what it sounded like, Heimdall slept with three pairs of couples, who begat from him the classes of society. I never assumed it was otherwise. The Edda is--I think I can at least say this--aware of same-sex relations.

[haptalaon]

There's a lot of queer content in the Eddas which can be reclaimed in a positive light fairly easily. Even though what it reveals abour actual Viking society is more ambivalent, and like, ideas like Odin Allfather having bisexual behavior or learning both women and men's magic probably says less about "queerness was ok because their top god did it" and more like "queerness was a source of anxiety and unsettlingness and that's why it's associated with a god whose remit is otherworldly". Like, we know these things about Odin from moments in the Edda where he's being insulted for being a queer. So there's a tension there which is interesting as a historian. Though as a modern queer person, there's so much to love as well.

[ilthit]

It's impossible to recreate something so ancient in its original context because we are simply not in its original context, so I figure it's entirely valid to take what there is to love and leave what isn't. You have to do that anyway.