"There are many beautiful places in heaven and everywhere there has divine protection round it."

[larryhammer]

Given the number of stories, the past couple years, with Hades and/or Persephone as protagonist plus the increased mining of Norse mythology for inspiration, I can only hope that soon we'll get Hel as the heroine of her own tale. Maybe not the fluffy romance she deserves, but anything would be good. After all, with a childhood spent as the little sister of Fenris and Jormungand, she deserves to star in a nice wacky comedy.

Though there's other possibilities. From the Glyfaginning section of Snorri's Edda (translated by Anthony Faulkes):

"There stands there one beautiful hall under the ash [Yggdrasil] by the well [in Asgard], and out of this hall come three maidens whose names are Weird [Urd], Verdandi, Skuld. These maidens shape men's lives. We call them norns. There are also other norns who visit everyone when they are born to shape their lives, and these are of divine origin, though others are of the race of elves, and a third group are of the race of dwarves, as it says here:

Of very diverse parentage I think the norns are, they do not have a common ancestry. Some are descended from Æsir, some are descended from elves, some are daughters of Dvalin."

Then spoke Gangleri: "If norns determine the fates of men, they allot terribly unfairly, when some have a good and prosperous life, and some have little success or glory, some a long life, some short."

High said: "Good norns, ones of noble parentage, shape good lives, but as for those people that become the victims of misfortune, it is evil norns who are responsible."

I note that while valkyries are not yet overused in urban fantasy, if you start writing one now, they likely will be by the time it's published -- but no one (outside of Japan) has been using norns. (Not that the distinction is hard-and-fast: the youngest norn, Skuld, rides with two valkyries to help choose who will be slain in battles.)

Just in case anyone was needing inspiration.

---L.

Comments

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

Just in case anyone was needing inspiration.

.....that was just evil. I don't have time for this, I should NOT even consider it, and yet....the pieces for a book I should never write keep falling into place.

If I succumb, it will be all your fault.

[larryhammer]

Feel free to blame me as much as you need to, if it'll get the job done.

---L.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I can only hope that soon we'll get Hel as the heroine of her own tale.

If anybody would by "Serpent, Wolf, and Half-Dead Thing" from me . . .

Though it's, um, not exactly a nice wacky comedy.

<trots out the Hel icon for the occasion>

[daedala.livejournal.com]

I would!

Wait, you mean a publisher.... :)

[larryhammer]

I'd buy it, even without it being a comedy. In the way daedala means, at any rate.

---L.

[sovay]

Given the number of stories, the past couple years, with Hades and/or Persephone as protagonist plus the increased mining of Norse mythology for inspiration, I can only hope that soon we'll get Hel as the heroine of her own tale.

That is something I would approve of.

What do you want to write about her?

[larryhammer]

Hmm -- the only way I can see a successful Hel x Baldur rom-com is by doing a high school AU, and That's Just Wrong. So possibly it'd have to be Hel with a hero -- possibly one that was overlooked for an Einherjar, or got accidentally sent her way, or something. Or maybe with the godling who came down to ask her for Baldur back. A story starting before she takes over/is given/is exiled to Niflheim has more scope, plus keeps the gnarly older brothers in the picture. Would have to include Nidhogg as a cool pet, of course, and all the obscure geography bits. And the All-Important Ash, because there's SOMETHING hinky going on with the three wells, of which we only know anything about the other two.

In short, I haven't a clue.

---L.

[sovay]

Hmm -- the only way I can see a successful Hel x Baldur rom-com is by doing a high school AU, and That's Just Wrong. So possibly it'd have to be Hel with a hero -- possibly one that was overlooked for an Einherjar, or got accidentally sent her way, or something. Or maybe with the godling who came down to ask her for Baldur back.

She may not be designed for romantic comedy. Which does not preclude being the heroine.

[larryhammer]

She may not be.

---L.