Gods Of Iceland: Sigyn, Loki’s Ride or Die

Strengths: Her name literally translates to ‘victorious girlfriend’
Weaknesses: She’s lowkey a simp for Loki
Modern analogy: GFOTY, but less cool, like if she was a nurse or something

Sigyn is not exactly a bad bitch, but she tries. Considered by many to be the goddess of victory, she’s also Loki’s wife (or one of them at least). Sigyn is attested in both the Prose and Poetic Eddas. For once, we’re not given much of a description of her appearance which is kind of a nice change, as far as goddesses go. It also means we can imagine her as super hot or gross af, and it doesn’t really matter either way. Personally I’d like to imagine she was a straight 10.

Anyway, this nondescript goddess didn’t get the best deal when she married Loki (I mean, the clue is in the name—Loki the trickster-god? Huge red flag). He found himself in a bit of a shit situation when a series of shenanigans (ok, maybe more like microaggressions?) caught up with him at a feast. We’ve all been to parties that turned ugly, but this get-together got particularly gnarly when pretty much the entirety of the Æsir came for Loki and his sons. Despite Loki attempting to escape via turning into a salmon, he was captured by the Æsir and bound with the entrails of his son Nari. Yikes.

Obviously this situation sucks for Loki and Nari, but it really sucks for our girl Sigyn. She spent 9 months growing those perfectly good entrails in her womb and now the Æsir just rip ‘em out and bind her husband with them? Rude. The Aesir also turned her other son, Narfi, into a wolf. (At this point the disrespect just seems unnecessary, but no, there’s more). The goddess, Skaði, then fastened a poisonous snake to Loki’s face and basically just left it there dripping venom down his throat. Which is all well and good in the divine realm, I guess, but who was left to pick up the pieces? Sigyn.

From what the Eddas tell us, Sigyn sat beside Loki holding a basin to catch the venom in an attempt to lessen his suffering. The story then goes that when the basin was full and needed emptying, the venom would once again hit Loki during the few moments that Sigyn was gone. Loki writhing in pain is apparently what causes earthquakes. It’s a pretty sad life for Sigyn, tbh, and I’d hate to question a goddess but I do wonder if she’s attempted to remove the snake? (Girl—if you’re reading this—maybe give that a try?) Either way, she’s loyal til the end and totally deserves the title of ‘victorious girlfriend’.

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