Rationalizations, Part 2

Divine sibling marriage is a common feature found in the pantheons of virtually all ancient mythologies. Egyptian, Greek, Roman -- all of them were rife with it. Personally, I think divine sibling marriage was a mythopoetic device used to demonstrate equality of status between Gods and Goddesses at a time when women were treated as inferior to men.

In Norse mythology, there are two striking examples of divine sibling marriage. The deities Frey ("Lord") and Freya ("Lady") were twins whose coupling ensured the fertility of all things -- at least while they were members of the original Vanir pantheon. When they were brought forward into the newer Aesir pantheon, they continued to be twins but were provided with other spouses. Odin frowned on the old tradition of incestuous marriage among deities.

However, two of Odin's own many semi-divine children became sexually entangled in the Völsunga Saga -- Sigmund and his twin sister Signy. They subsequently reappeared (renamed Siegmund and Sieglinde) as central characters in Wagner's opera The Valkyrie. Betrayed by Odin (who was being a crappy father as usual), Siegmund and Sieglinde together produced a son, the hero Siegfried.

So the modern phenomenon of Thorki can be placed squarely in this tradition of Norse mythology. And quite frankly, that's good enough for me. I can live with the mythologically-based rationalization!

Besides, if Richard Bloody Wagner can feature incestuous Norse siblings in his Ring Cycle (one of opera's greatest artistic masterpieces) and nobody blinks a goddamn eye, then why the hell can't people ship Thorki today?

Precisely.

[by belladonna]