1) 𝘐 am ride or die for Sigyn, but this short piece boils her down into her little Marvel comics archetypes — goddess of fidelity & victory— & while it acknowledges her journey in a well done, bitter way, it does also say she simps for Loki which... does she? No, fight me: a https://twitter.com/rvkgrapevine/status/1337336468554067971

2) so the only surviving role for Sigyn in extant myth (if, indeed, she had any other roles) is her job as venom bowl-holder, shielding Loki from the big snake hanging overhead. This is generally seen as an act of blind devotion and, yes, the action of a simp. But it isn’t.

3) I’ll quote my master’s thesis here because, hey, if it ain’t broke...

“What this myth should, perhaps, provide readers with is not an impression of Sigyn as doting complement to the infamous trainwreck that is Loki. In Sigyn there is a unique strength, an ability to set-

(4 “aside personal pain for compassion, or even the greater good. In both Eddas Loki’s actions result in the killing and mutilation of Sigyn’s sons. Whatever blame she lays at his feet for this atrocity we are not told. It is a simplistic, androcentric reading to assume that-

5) “Sigyn sits by her husband because she is blindly devoted, lovesick. After all, Vǫluspá tells us Sigyn sits by, ‘þeygi um sinom | ver vel glýioð’ [but about her husband | is not at all gleeful].

The tired theory of the Great Mother Goddess looms large over Ásynjur-

6) “scholarship but scarcely has the importance of motherhood itself been considered. Is it not logical that Sigyn’s grief is multifaceted? It takes greater strength to aid someone who has caused you suffering than to stand by and watch them suffer in turn.”

Sigyn is strong

7) I theorize after that that, since earthquakes are a portend of ragnarøkr, if Snorri’s bit about Loki’s shaking resulting in earthquakes isn’t made up, then perhaps Sigyn’s actions— those we perceive as simping— help keep ragnarøkr at bay. Less earthquakes = more time?

8) just a theory. Regardless, just because the women in our myths tend not to seem very three-dimensional in our sources (written by men), it doesn’t mean that they never were.

Sorry to rant AND quote myself in my own rant, how gauche. If for some reason you’re interested:

9) That paper is here: https://www.academia.edu/43429864/A_Full_a_Roster_Re_addressing_the_%C3%81synjur_in_Snorra_Edda_and_Beyond, and the bits about Sigyn are on pages 50-53, I believe.

I am always ready to throw down in defense of any/all Old Norse goddesses Man, do I miss conferences; I haven't had anyone to talk to about my Ásynjur feels for ages!