Fenrir Greyback, Geeky Moments, And No Plugs Whatsoever; Really!

Sometimes, I just want to take HTML by the ear and beat it against the wall repeatedly. And laugh. However, since HTML has no ears to be found, this isn't going to happen any time soon. I'm holding out for some alternate universe somewhere, though. (Yes. I changed The Layout. Because having to do all those bloody breaks to make my posts legible was driving me mad.)

And now, a Somewhat Topical Post. I'll get back to the lists eventually; if I haven't done yours, I still love you insanely, I'm just saving it for a rainy day being my usual procrastinating, inspirationless self.

One of the most fun things, for me, about reading Harr Potter--besides the fact that they're excellent stories with fantastically vivid characters--is the host of geeky mythology things I keep picking up on. It's mainly in names, but I can tell that Rowling knows her mythology pretty well. (Now, if it's Gaelic mythology, I'm missing it completely; I am decently familiar with almost nothing futher West than Scandanavia.) I grinned at Narcissa--Narcissus was the bloke in Greek mythology who was so obsessed with his own reflection that he stared at it forever and died of severe malnutrition--and I picked up on Remus straightaway--Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers who were raised by a wolf, decided to found a city or some such thing, and had a spat over it which ended with Romulus murdering Remus and Banui shrieking "ACK! NO! Oh, wait, I don't care about the other Remus" and Rome getting built--but the topper had to have been Fenrir. I actually did my happy geek dance over that one.

I know, really, Fenrir the bloodthirsty werewolf ringleader; lovely bloke to do the happy geek dance over--but as things would have it, the name Fenrir was part of my very first geeky moment. Or the first one that I can remember, at least. I was about six and had recently come into my obsession with the Chronicles of Narnia. At that time, I was studying ancient world history, along with a load of mythology because I fell in love with that as well. In the older editions of the Chronicles, the wolf Captain of the Secret Police in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe went by the name Fenris Ulf. Later, in my forays into Norse mythology, I discovered Fenrir, the wolf-child of Loki. (Loki was a weird bloke, but I still have no idea how he and his wife managed to have a wolf--or a gigantic serpent, for that matter--or it might have been with that other woman, the evil one, but that still doesn't explain cross-species offpsring. Those gods, they think they can do everything.) He was somewhat unfriendly, and the gods decided that they needed to bind him, so they persuaded the dwarves to make some kind of fetter out of the beards of women and the teeth of birds and other such things. Amazingly, the dwarves did. Fenrir said, "Oy, if you're going to tie me up like that, you're going to have to stick somebody's hand in my mouth" (um, yeah, it's been a while since I've read this one), and they did, because they were somewhat thick, I suppose. So Tiw thrust his hand in Fenrir's mouth, and the gods tied up Fenrir, and Fenrir bit off Tiw's hand, and somehow, we got Tuesday out of that, presumably because getting your hand bitten off by a demon wolf ought to ensure you some vague fame amidst the future generations. Also, as lady_moriel reminded me, Our Dear Fenrir will also aid in bringing about Ragnarok, which is basically the end of the world. It's got something to do with Balder, who is freakishly naive, and a jealous holly plant, and lots of revenge all happening at once. As I said, it's been a while since I brushed up properly on my mythology.

And I, this precocious and slightly twisted little six-year-old, had my very first geeky SQUEEEEE!!!! moment over this link between. And so the name Fenrir has filled me with a slightly disturbed sort of fondness ever since.

So Totally Not A Plug: tuesday_skyline has got a new bit up involving--dun dun dun--Character Death. And the subway. All subway experiences are drawn from real life, except I don't think I ever actually fell asleep on one. The only time I might have been tired enough (Friday the thirteenth of June, 2003, coming home from seeing Solas live at Harvard), I had to stand through most of the ride, and I am not a horse.