Lately I’ve felt called to recognize Hel, and I’d like to know what others in the pagan community think of her. When I first started learning about Norse paganism, most everything I read or saw really demonized Hel and her father Loki, within an obviously lingering Christian sense. I believed this for a while and tried to avoid both, but eventually it really felt like judging a book by its cover, and quite harshly at that.
It’s still difficult to find many positive resources on Hel (or even neutral) which is why I’m interesting in gauging how pagan tumblr users feel. Personally, I’m interested in recognizing Hel as one of the Æsir I regularly work with, even if she’s not technically counted as one in any of the texts. I just have this gut feeling to hear her out and try to understand her, to sympathize with her.
And to Hel, Queen of the Dead, I am sorry for judging you before getting to know you <3
please comment if you know who created these works so I can post credit!
So, my brother is saying that the name Persephone is derived from Persimmon. Keep in mind that I have been obsessed with Greek mythology for *nine years* and Persephone in particular for the past four years. I have researched this extensively and have never found any connection with persimmons. My brother keeps suggesting that she ate persimmon seeds, not pomegranate seeds, which is blatantly false. I have tried to explain this, but he refuses to listen and presents no sources. This is driving me mad; can you guys help me prove once and for all that Persephone has no connection to persimmons.
In The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Iambe managed to cheer Demeter up "with her jokes and many jests". In the Orphic version of the story the woman is called Baubo, and she makes Demeter laugh by lifting her robe and exposing her genitals. In my version I made Iambe and Baubo the same person.
I read some ancient Greek jokes and a couple of comedies by Aristophanes, but I still had a hard time to come up with a joke that would lead to Iambe showing her genitals. I might redraw this page later if I come up with anything better.
My publisher was okay with me dividing Queen of the Dead into two parts. All I need now is an illustration for the back cover. I think something like this will do.
So many people hated on Nesta both before and after A Court of Silver Flames. However when we got a full view of her in A Court of Silver Flames it was easy to see we never really knew her, nor what she had gone through. Sure we had seen it the way Feyre did but her few was hindered by anger and sadness.
Nesta deals with so much trauma and it’s so real. Even the way she ends up healing from it is magical because it is represented really well. There was no shying away or fade to black of the darker issues. From the lose of her dad, her forced transformation which ended up having her being used in a war, from being the cause of Cassians injuries, to her childhood - all of it was so real that you could practically imagine it happening to yourself or a friend.
Nesta in my opinion is one of if not the strongest characters from this series and she deserves less hate.