Read several books about Loki and Sigyn, which were marked with hashtag ‘justice for sigyn’. All of them are written by really talented people (I’m often baffled by situations when fans write better stories than professional writers – why do the latter get their money?). After reading I can’t agree on some specific points in these books that rubbed me wrong.
Contains spoilers!
Cat Rector ‘The Goddess of Nothing at all’ – the story is strong. A well-written book, pleasure to read. But. Even here, on Tumblr, I read lots of meta and criticism ‘Angrboda wasn’t Loki’s mistress! She was his wife before Sigyn!’. And the author goes this standard way ‘Angrboda is Loki’s mistress’. It works for this story, but it’s in lots and lots of books about Norse myths! Why NOT make her a mistress? Why go a typical way? The ending – I loved the ending. A new All-mother Sigyn – chef’s kiss.
Nicki Chapelway ‘The Harbinger of the end’ (1st book) – an interesting take on Volsung saga, the adventures were really engaging. But, frankly, I didn’t understand why Sigyn fell in love with Loki. I mean, they never had any meaningful conversations or actions between two of them to start love. She just decides ‘I’m a wife, I must love him, and also he’s handsome’. That’s it! Next morning she acts as if she’s deeply in love with him. It seemed as if the author wanted to go into slowburn, but didn’t manage to pull it off and just jumped to the moment when they’re already in love.
Lyra Wolf ‘Truth and other lies’ – again, where’s Sigyn as the Goddess of Victory? So much for all these cries in the internet and on Tumblr specifically ‘but she’s not the Goddess of Fidelity! Marvel just made it up!’. Then WHY use this trope? Not saying it’s a bad idea in and on itself, but it’s so established in general public’s mind. Why not change it? Why not at least combine these two elements – fidelity AND victory?
Surprisingly, only Melvin Burgess writes Sigyn as the Goddess of Victory. Burgess! It was the single thing I liked in this book. Of course, he didn’t give justice to her, but at least he named her title right.
Of course, I guess, nothing can beat the Marvel comics – they’re the first to blame for this Fidelity mess and general treatment of Sigyn. Lots of nowadays popular books are based on comics portrayal. I believe fan books should go as far from these typical Logyn tropes as possible.
I am done. I drawed my own version of Sigyn, how she should look in the Marvel-Comics. I gave her a long skirt, but more practicable and not so long she falls over her feed while fighting. I´ll use her to draw my own Comic, an Marvel-Alternative, where she get toegether with Loki. Her Hair is darker, curly und she´s frekles. But she keep her blonde hair, because her Mythology origin has blonde hair and not black. I tried to make her an outfit that looks like a Valkyrie. I hope you guys like it.
Chapters: 19/?
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Loki/Sigyn (Marvel), Wanda Maximoff/Vision, Loki & Thor (Marvel)
Characters: Sigyn (Marvel), Loki (Marvel), Thor (Marvel), Brunnhilde | Valkyrie (Marvel), Wanda Maximoff, Stephen Strange, Wong (Marvel)
Additional Tags: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Corruption, The Darkhold (Marvel), Brotherly Bonding, Family Drama, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Loki Lives (Marvel), Loki Needs a Hug (Marvel), Minor Wanda Maximoff/Vision, Grief/Mourning, Wanda Maximoff Needs a Hug, BAMF Sigyn (Marvel), Thor is trying his best, Odin's A+ Parenting (Marvel), Family Loss
Summary:
After Ragnarök, Sigyn is left with nothing but her grief and memories. When she gets a chance to move on, she takes it. But will she ever be free from her pain? Or is she destined to succumb to it?
I know I said I was going to make my MCU Sigyn Alternate Universe master post soon, but the end of the university is overwhelming, so I give you this abstract on her name and family
Sigyn Sælldóttir
Sigyn is a name formed of the Norse words Sigr - meaning victory and Vina - meaning friend. Her name hence means "the friend of victory" or "victorious girl friend"
As for her last name, I was inspired by another Norse word related to victory, Sigrsæll - meaning victorious
Considering that names relating to victory in battle could be a family tradition and also considering Asgard as a military culture, I decided the name of her father could be Sæll - meaning fortunate and happy, and because of its part in the forming of the word Sigrsæll.
(Also I followed the sources that place her as part of the Æsir, while I love the headcanons of Sigyn as a Vanir, it just worked for the ideas I had)
Hence, her name is Sigyn Sæelldóttir
As for her mother, I was inspired by one of Sigyn's kenning, the Incantation Fetter. That kenning also inspired the way I see her specific style of seidr, and how she uses it to bind or unbind, for example. (It will be elaborated in another post I promise)
Since seidr is seen as more of a feminine attribute even in MCU Asgard (see Frigga and Eir), this type of seidr that Sigyn has is inherited from her mother, whose name relates to it as well.
The Norse adjective fjǫtra, meaning bind or fetter is my base, from which I made the name Fjǫtra (yeah, not so creative but hey)
So this is the little lore behind Sigyn Sælldòttir, daughter of Æsir diplomats Sæll and Fjǫtra