#but the game made him a son of ivaldi for some reason

[arleniansdoodles]

How much is calliope able to tell sindri of the Greek world?

So far, she hasn't really told him a lot about Greece, except that she's from Sparta, and a bit about the creation of humans in Greek mythology XDD I think Sindri's spent more time telling her stories about Midgard, specifically dwarf legends and his memories of Faye!

Speaking of, it's been a while since I shared a snippet of the fic, hasn't it? Below is a little piece of Sindri and Calliope sharing stories; for context, they're at Sindri's hideout in Svartalfheim, and Calliope's been visiting him at his forge just to chat and spend time together :D

“I thought of an old dwarf legend to tell you,” he offered. “Want to hear it?”

“Yes!” Calliope piped. “What kind of story is it?”

He smiled slightly. “It’s about the first ruler of the dwarves …”

Sindri went on to tell her about Durinn, the first dwarf ever created, and how he founded many great kingdoms and wielded the strongest of all hammers. Durinn made many manikins out of the earth, which were given life by the gods, becoming humans. Other dwarves evolved from the maggots that ate the first Giant’s flesh, and they all formed Durinn’s clan.

“Maggots!” Calliope repeated, failing to repress a shudder. “I wouldn’t want to come from a maggot!”

“Then what would you come from?” Sindri asked, amused. “Would you rather be made from the earth?”

“That’s what we say in my homeland,” Calliope said. “The first humans were made from clay. At least with clay, you can sculpt it any way you want!”

That was true. And at one point, Sindri had been just as disgusted by the maggot legend as she was.

He told her a few other stories, having thought up a very short list of all the happy ones, or at least those that didn’t end badly. Calliope hung on his every word, asking questions and poking for more details. Like, what did Durinn do in his leisure time? Did he make weapons like Sindri? Or did he build other things? And the famous alchemist Ivaldi, wasn’t he ever worried about making a mess with his experiments? Did he ever take a break? If his sons were always helping him, maybe that was their idea of family time!

Her chattering drudged up memories of the past – Atreus, around Calliope’s height, pestering Sindri with questions of dwarven history. Sindri saw him in his mind’s eye, perched on the edge of the worktable, idly swinging his feet.

I really wanna see Svartalfheim someday, Atreus chattered on. If its tower ever opens up, will you show me around? I wanna meet all the dwarves and learn their stories!

Sindri shook himself. That time was long past. Atreus finally got around to seeing Svartalfheim, though Sindri wasn’t able to give him a tour. Even if he could, there wasn’t much to show, or many dwarves to meet, given how they’d all shunned him at the time.

Then again … Maybe Calliope wouldn’t mind seeing more of Svartalfheim. She certainly seemed interested in Niðavellir, far below the mountain they stood on. One day, perhaps, Sindri could show her around there.

Calliope eventually grew bored of engraving practice and helped Sindri around the forge instead. Once he finished his current project (a very sturdy shield), she offered to sing the Thrymskviða for him.

Calliope’s music was an entirely different experience from listening to dwarf music. Hel, Sindri was tempted to put it on Faye’s level, and he considered Faye’s voice to be high art in itself. Calliope’s voice was pure and clear, like water from a mountain spring, or the snow glistening on Midgard’s peaks. Her magic lay just beneath the surface, waiting to be used, but she didn’t need it; the story of the Thrymskviða unfolded in his mind like painted murals moving on wooden panels. He saw King Thrym stealing Mjölnir while Thor slept, followed by Thor’s rage, and the Aesir’s meeting to discuss solutions … And the song ended.

Sindri blinked, coming out of his daze. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

“Yes, but I haven’t practiced the next verses as much,” Calliope said, embarrassed. “I didn’t want to mess them up here.”

“Even if you did, I’m sure you’d still sound great. You, uh, you really have a voice.”

Calliope’s cheeks flushed red. “Thank you.”

[fe8meta]

The Sacred Twins and their Mythos

Anyone who looks into the names of FE8′s Sacred Twins will know that all but two of them have basis in Norse mythology. The two outliers, Latona and Excalibur, have basis in Roman and Arthurian legend, respectively. Why? Because they can.

Mind you, even I can’t make much sense behind the names of these Sacred Twins. The only one that makes a margin of sense without heavy extrapolation and theorizing, is a margin of sense that people blow out of proportion in favor of a certain pairing, so that’ll be discussed at the very end of this meta. (Yes, I’m talking about Sieglinde and Siegmund, but the reference is most likely only a surface-deep reference to them being twins and nothing more.)

Excalibur, as many people probably know, is the sword of the legendary King Arthur, after which legends surrounding him are named after. In the Fire Emblem series, FE8 included, Excalibur is... a wind tome. FE8 at least grants it the epithet “wind blade Excalibur” to acknowledge the whole sword part of its original namesake. I don’t know why FE8 reused the name Excalibur, considering it was technically only used in the Archanea games and Gaiden before that; FE7′s Excalibur was named Gigascalibur in the Japanese version.

Latona, meanwhile, is the Roman name for the Greek goddess Leto. For some reason, the writers of FE8 really couldn’t find a Norse name to use for them, I guess. It’s especially odd when one background character, Saaga (the court troubador who inspired L’Arachel to go on her journey), shares the Japanese spelling of their name with Sága... a Norse goddess.

All I’m really gathering, from what I can find about (Roman) Latona, is that (Magvel) Latona was probably foreign to Magvel, and that’s why their name isn’t rooted in Norse mythology. We really can’t even say that Latona was a woman, despite the name’s female origins. The Japanese script didn’t assign Latona a gender, but used 司祭 to talk about Latona. (The word translates to “priest,” specifically Christian priests, who have traditionally been men.) The English script referred to Latona as Rausten’s “most holy father” due to that. There aren’t any references or possible ties to Roman Latona other than the name, so...

For the next several I will talk about, I have come up with a wholly self-indulgent explanation for their names. It probably doesn’t make complete sense, but it's more than the game’s nonexistent reason for the references. The Sacred Twins in question are Nidhogg, Vidofnir, Garm, and Audhulma.

They’re all from Norse mythology, and more specifically, creatures from Norse mythology. My explanation behind their names is that the weapons were used to defeat especially powerful monsters created by the Demon King, then had parts of those monsters forged into those weapons.

(As it so happens, Shadows of Valentia did something similar, with the Blessed weapons being able to be forged into Regalia. I didn’t notice this parallel until after I came up with this explanation, though.)

Nidhogg, the Serpent Bow. In Norse mythology, Nidhogg is indeed recognized as a serpent or dragon. (On that note, the word for “dragon” comes from, at its furthest root, the Greek drakon, which means “serpent.” Dragons were also originally depicted as serpentine creatures before gaining legs and becoming more lizard-like, at least in Western media.) In FE8, dragons gained a weakness to bows. (In the Elibe games, dragons had no such weakness.) So it would be appropriate for the bow that slew Nidhogg to become known as the Serpent (Slaying) Bow. It could also explain why it belongs to Frelia, the country with pegasi—pegasus knights could take the battle to the skies instead of having to remain rooted to the ground the whole while, making the battle against the great monster easier. (FE14 introduced Kinshi Knights, fliers who can use Lances and Bows. Like FE15, it’s giving me some precedence to support my theory.)

As for Vidofnir, it is a rooster in Norse mythology that sits atop Mímameiðr  (often taken to be the same as Yggdrasil, the tree whose roots Nidhogg gnaws on). Vidofnir is referred to as the “tree snake,” harking back to serpent symbolism. By stealing Vidofnir’s tail feathers, the giantess Sinmora will grant a person the sword Laevateinn, which can then be used to slay Vidofnir. After doing so, one can take its two wings and serve them to Odin’s hounds, Geri and Freki, to sneak past them. In-game, Vidofnir is referred to as the Winged Lance.

Garm, the Black Axe, is named after the hound that guards Hel’s gate. Garm’s howling heralds the coming of Ragnarok; after Garm’s first howl, Fimbulvetr (the great winter) puts an end to life on earth. (Fimbulvetr, in FE, is a tome that attacks the enemy with a blizzard. Already more accurate to its source than the rest of the Sacred Twins.)

Finally, Audhulma, the Ice Blade. In Norse mythology, Audhulma is a primeval cow who licked an ice block until she unfroze a man named Buri. I have no idea what this means for the FE8 weapon, as Audhulma is not capable of summoning a Fimbulvetr-like attack and only grants a Res boost. It’s further proof that whoever picked out these names probably just skimmed a Japanese book on Norse mythology and went “oh look, there’s an element referenced here, let’s use it.” I mean, the best thing I can say for “why a sword” is that Audhulma was a cow, so the blade was... a glorified butcher knife, I guess?

(When I was discussing this theory with someone else, they mentioned that some of FE8′s monsters could also, at least loosely, tie back to the respective creatures. Necrodragons for Nidhogg, Gargoyles for Vidofnir, Mauthe Doogs for Garm, and Tarvos for Audhulma.)

For some more “shit that just works,” we have the Dark Tome Gleipnir. It’s also from Norse mythology, but it is neither a person nor a creature. Rather, it is the chain that binds Fenrir until Ragnarok. As it so happens, Fenrir is a tome in the game: specifically, it’s used by Lyon in Chapter 17. So there’s a bit of symbolism in Gleipnir being the tome left behind by Lyon, which is then acquired by the heroes in their attempt to stop him and the Demon King.

(As for Naglfar, while I’m at it: in Norse mythology, it’s a boat made by the fingernails and toenails of the dead. Commanded by Loki, it carries the undead on their assault on the gods. As for “why fingernails and toenails,” apparently some Indo-European beliefs state that improperly disposing of hair and nails will “threaten the well-being of” the cosmos. Make of this what you will.)

As for Ivaldi, I genuinely have no clue how its legend is supposed to inspire it. In fact, the character Ivaldi himself is barely referenced in Norse mythology itself, as his name is referenced through his sons, who crafted some cool stuff for Freyr, Odin, and Sif. The closest thing I can dig up regarding Ivaldi’s in-game epithet as the “Glorious Light” is the fact that the Sons of Ivaldi made... golden hair to replace the hair Sif lost to Loki.

Finally, the notorious use of Siegmund and Sieglinde as Renais’ Sacred Twins. In all honesty, they were probably only used because those two characters are twins in Norse mythology, nothing more. I’ve seen claims that the incest between the twins at one point in the legends is “proof” that Eirika/Ephraim is basically canon, but said “evidence” runs into problems.

The first issue is the fact Siegmund and Sieglinde in-game have zero similarities to their legendary selves outside of their names. In lore, Siegmund used a sword, and there is no association with him to fire whatsoever. So how it becomes the Flame Lance in FE8 is a mystery. In fact, fire would be associated more with Sieglinde—who kills herself by burning to death with her husband, Siggeir, as penance for making Siegmund murder her own children and tricking him into an incestuous affair for the sake of revenge. Sieglinde in legend isn’t depicted using a weapon ever, and has absolutely no association with thunder. So her name being attached to the Thunder Sword came out of IntSys’ booty.

The second issue is the implication that the writers actually knew the contents of the legends they were referencing. If they knew what they were doing, they wouldn’t be using Excalibur, Latona, or Ivaldi. Considering that I just came up with my theory for Nidhogg, Vidofnir, Garm, and Audhulma, and there’s no actual in-game basis to suggest any of it, those names may as well have been picked out of a hat too. As mentioned above, IntSys completely made up the Flame Lance and Thunder Sword epithets, and they have no ties whatsoever to Sieglinde or Siegmund’s tale. So there’s no reason to assume that the writers knew, or cared about, any part of the legend outside of “they’re twins.”

Considering all the other Norse references in FE8, the reference to Siegmund and Sieglinde would also be rooted in Norse mythology more than Wagner’s Die Walküre. The Norse version of their story makes the incest a lot less consensual than Wagner’s version; Sieglinde tricks Siegmund into sleeping with her by disguising herself as someone else. Siegmund doesn’t find out until he and their son kill Siggeir. It is then that Sieglinde reveals the truth, and walks into the fire to burn to death as penance for her deeds. Then Siegmund goes and marries another woman. Oh, and before Sieglinde had her affair with Siegmund, she had Siegmund kill the “unworthy sons” she had with Siggeir since they didn’t prove themselves strong enough for the revenge she wanted. It’s because Siegmund refused to keep killing innocent children that she gets desperate enough to sleep with him. Eugenics, I guess. So the whole “Siegmund and Sieglinde are incestuous twins” thing is a lot more complicated than just that.

TL;DR: The names behind Magvel’s Sacred Twins basically have no connection to their namesakes at all.