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experimentjr · 1 year

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Sigrún’s Backstory

Since I haven’t made any backstory for Eir yet, It’s time for Sigrún, The Smith

Sigrún’s Backstory

her story begins before her birth, with her uncles Dvalinn, Alfrik, Berlingr and Grer, four of the greatest artisans and blacksmiths of all kingdoms, who decided to present the queen of giants with an item to strengthen the bonds between giants and dwarves, so they forged a necklace for the queen made of the finest materials. The purest metal and the most beautiful jewels from Svartalfheim were used to forge an amulet of immeasurable beauty, the Brísingamen necklace. The giantess, out of gratitude, spent a night with each of the dwarves, bearing them children. The years that passed seemed like peace between dwarves and giants until none other than Freyja herself demanded that the dwarves steal the necklace from the giantess for her, for only the goddess of love and beauty could have a necklace that matched it.

As ignoring the demand of a goddess of Freyja's caliber was more than stupid, the dwarves had only one thing to do: steal the queen of the giants, but how were they going to end the entire relationship the two races had just because the greatest of the goddesses, wife of allfather Odin, master of half of the warriors who died in battle, progenitor of magic and known for her cruelty were demanding? Well, it actually seemed like the best option. This left the dwarven brothers at an impasse: steal the giant's necklace and start a war or ignore Freyja and receive her wrath. It was then that they had the idea to ask for the fifth brother, Móðsognir, who wasn’t the King of the Dwarves at the time.

With his blacksmith skill that surpassed that of his four brothers combined, the dwarf created an even more beautiful necklace for the goddess Freyja, but as he was a smart man, he had a plan in mind that would pass his genes on, so he made a deal with the goddess where, if she agreed to have a child with him, she could have the necklace. Only one other being had tried to take Freyja as a lover and it ended in a massacre on their wedding day by Thor, so Móðsognir was treading on dangerous ground, but the dwarf was smart and only needed one night with her to impregnate her before presenting her with the necklace.

The months passed and a girl of night skin and ember hair was born to the queen of Asgard. Never before had Freyja seen a baby as beautiful as she was, and as she turned her back, she noticed a birthmark that would become the reason for her name: The Mark of Týr, the rune of victory shining in the middle of her back like red-hot metal, vibrant orange. Freyja decided to name her Sigrún.

The goddess of love wanted to create Sigrún among the Æsir as a goddess, leaving Móðsognir unknown to her, but Odin, who was livid that a descendant of Ivaldi lived among them, decided to banish her from Asgard at just 10 years old. Freyja stormed her husband's hall and gave him an ultimatum to bring her back. Odin, wise and High as he was, said that there wouldn't be anyone good enough in Asgard to train her in the art of being a smith, so he sent her out of the realm with reason: she would have to do a legendary quest in each realm to acquire enough skill. Freyja, after a few minutes, accepted Odin's excuse, but as the goddess knew of her husband's motives, she secretly began to help the girl who was now in Midgard do her first quest: forge the weapon that would take a peasant to the rank of king. Odin, however, knew what his wife had plotted and that was already in his meticulous plan.

At 10 years old, she didn't even know where she was, much less how to survive alone and, as she was averse to the Sun, she couldn't walk on sunny mornings, so she spent days (or mostly nights) walking throughout the land. With her feet bleeding from walking, the sun cooking her back and starving, the girl thought about giving up and would die in a short time if it wasn't for Freyja, who, with her witch magic, made Sigrún finally arrive in a small village, where she blacked out. She woke up inside a blacksmith's house, her feet bandaged and a bowl full of hot soup beside her bed, the smell of freshly prepared dish disturbing her and making her feel immensely happy as she began to eat with such avidity that startled the man and his two children that the girl only now noticed them facing her bed.

His name was Hǫgni and he was a big strong boy for his only ten winters. He helped his father in the blacksmith shop even though he was very young because of his big size but due to that, he had no friends, only his older brother Heðinn, weak and mute and, due to the small accident with Sigrún, that gave Hǫgni the opportunity to make friends with her. In the time she recovered, the two got to know each other well, with Sigrún having a hard time making Hǫgni believe that she lived in Asgard and that her mother was the queen of the Æsir, and with Hǫgni explaining to her what their lives were like, the war between the kingdoms of Götaland and some kingdoms of Svealand sucking the energy of all its inhabitants, widowing several women and orphaning countless children and even leaving his brother traumatized, who weakened like a poor dog in the cold and mute. They had to work to feed three mouths but with only Hǫgni to help and, being smiths, they worked day and night for the soldiers. Sigrún was listening attentively to the family's busy life, but she still hadn't heard about his mother, who hadn't been present all these days. It was a bad idea. The mere mention of his mother made the boy change his expression and ignore her, returning to his forge. His father explained to her shortly afterward that his wife had been killed by some soldiers from the kingdom of Östergötland and that made himself displeased when he forged for his king's warriors. This intrigued her as she felt that Hǫgni could help her with her divine quest. After she got better, she asked her friend's father to teach her how to forge.

Never had he seen anyone wield metal with such care, only in fairy tales where the dwarves, the fathers of the forge, appeared. The girl worked with aptitude and ease in such a way that she alone could complete the tasks of father and son, but her real mission was just beginning. Before, however, something strange was about to happen to Hǫgni's brother: one night, Sigrún woke up in a jump, where she noticed that Heðinn was out of bed. When she went out of the house, she was startled to see that Heðinn had just kissed Sváva, one of the Valkyries, and was even more scared when she heard him speak for the first time. Even his strength had returned. Sigrún did not know, but Sváva had been sent by Freyja to look after her daughter, so she went back to sleep as if nothing had happened. The next morning, she heard from Heðinn that he would have to leave the house because he had been called by a Valkyrie and, even though his father had refused, the man disappeared the next night.

In the years that her name had flown through the mouths of those who knew her skill, many eyes had turned to the now great village of Sigrún, which had helped get the economy going, but some of those eyes were full of avidity and wanted the girl's hands just to them, which led to a tragic episode, where soldiers from the kingdom of Östergötland surrounded the house and kidnapped Sigrún and, even though Hǫgni's father tried to protect them, it ended with the man's death and the imprisonment of Hǫgni, since Sigrún agreed to forge for the king as long as they take Hǫgni with them.

The years they both spent inside Östergötland Castle were terrible for both of them, but Hǫgni suffered the most as a prisoner and that needed to change. Ever since she received a message from her mother in a dream, the girl, now at 15/16 years old, was willing to create a sword that could cut anyone the wielder wanted and used Hǫgni's endless wrath as fire to forge it. Secretly, for half the years she spent as a prisoner, Sigrún used the finest minerals she was given to forge a perfect weapon and used it to release her friend, who was ready to test the sword that would cut anyone with his revenge on the king that ruined his life. The sword's naming came shortly after its crimson bath with the king: Hefna, the sword of vengeance, blessed by Viðarr and forged by the flame of wrath.

Her first questconcluded a few years later, with Hǫgni's victory over the other kingdoms and the rise of the kingdom of Östergötland to what would become one of the most powerful kingdoms in Götaland, but not before the girl, with her 17/18, conceive twins: a boy named Hildur and his sister, Hilda with their childhood friend and current king, Hǫgni. Her happiness, however, only lasted a few years when Odin appeared to her in a dream and sent her another quest: to steal the legendary hammer of Jötunsmiðr, the equally legendary giant blacksmith of giants. Days were spent with the girl finding ways to tell them why she would leave her new family behind, but at the last dinner she had, she couldn't find the strength to tell them, so she just enjoyed the best dinner she'd ever had.

That same night, while everyone was sleeping, Sigrún went to her children's room and called them for a quick conversation, explaining that she would have to leave them because she was called by the great allfather she talked so much about. She’d never had so much trouble saying goodbye to someone as she did now in front of her weeping children who begged her to stay. Still, her quest was more important, wasn't it? At last, she tried to say goodbye to her husband, but she didn't have the strength to bear another farewell, so she decided to leave without saying a word, just a farewell letter on her childhood friend's bedside. Without looking back, she started walking through the rainy night towards the mountain realm: Jötunheim.

The perilous path to Jotünheim was but a taste of what she would find in the giants' realm itself. A place that bordered on insane for its amount of wild creatures and violent, highly changeable weather, but luckily, she found labyrinths of caves that made her walk through the mountains without worrying about the weather or the sun, even if the creatures didn't make the path to the kingdom easier. Even so, she managed to reach the volcano where the giant made his home: Eldfjallasmiðja. Inside it, the intense heat that would kill anyone who felt it on one’s skin, made Sigrún feel at home, as if her place were among the heat, inside a forge, working steel, iron, gold…

She was welcomed by the guards and taken to Jötunsmiðr's throne room, where he spent his days forging different items. From a ring that fit the finger of the smallest elf to the largest giant, to a tongue that made up the best of sagas and flytings. The giant had already heard of a smith from Midgard with "quite acceptable" gifts for a race as weak and unimpressive as humans. Sigrún said that she was only half-human and that to show him how capable humans were, the girl proposed to him a duel: breaking one of Jötunsmiðr's anvils whilst forging items. At first the giant refused because "it would be too easy and there would be no fun," but Sigrún knew where to hurt: his ego. It didn't take much for the giant to accept her duel soon after Sigrún doubted his masculinity and courage, he then gave the girl a day to prepare for the duel.

Now he was inside the realm, so her mission was already half done, but she knew she wouldn't be able to defeat him, so she thought of a "penalty" for herself that would help her in the long run. The next day, the girl stipulated a price for whoever won: if she managed to defeat him, she would keep his hammer. If not, she would work for him until she made the hammer's value. The giant accepted and even mocked her, saying that she would die before even paying for the splinters of the handle and showed her the two giant anvils that they would have to break. The duel, despite being quick, was impressive as Sigrún managed to crack her anvil with half of his opponent's items, the problem was that Jötunsmiðr managed to break his anvil faster and, because of that, he won the duel. The giant said he was planning on eating her if she lost, but as she showed unparalleled skill, he agreed to let her work for him until she paid the hammer. Happy, she accepted. The more she trained under someone as good as him, the better.

She spent the next few years until around her 24th winter working for him and learning even more about the way the giants forged and how they used the realm’s metals and materials. Her items were just as amazing as his master's, which made him jealous of the girl and decided that he would kill her after making her craft an item for a dangerous giant and hinder her so that she couldn't deliver. Freyja found out about it and went to the violent giant, saying that the one who would forge the item would be Jötunsmiðr himself. What happened next would help the girl in concluding her quest: After sending the item to the giant, he returned to the kingdom of Jötunsmiðr to kill the smith of giants. This gave Sigrún enough time to steal the giant's hammer with a gauntlet she had forged herself (which would make any weapon she wield change size into the wielder's hand) and flee Eldfjallasmiðja amid screams and swords.

She was able to put some days of distance between her and the kingdom but she was extremely tired so she went into a cave and lay down, when Odin appeared in her dream and gave her the other quests: forge a paper where all the elves of Alfheim should sign, something she did with some ease since Freyja (who, besides her brother, knew how to go to Alfheim) helped her make up the mind of Klieser, mother of the elves; steal the magical furnace from the dwarf smith of the Vanir, Alvíss, aided by Freyja who courted the dwarf and lured him out of the forge; build a ship to plow through the realm of Gefheim, made with praise and using Alvíss's furnace; a bag of air to breathe in the realm of Rán, made with the help of Gef, who gave her the ability to forge air; clothes to keep warm in Helheim's endless winter, made with Jötunsmiðr's hot hammer; create stars so that Dellingr could fill his night sky, this one in particular gave her some difficulty due to the amount of stars she had to make, but still done without major problems and Dellingr, grateful for his night sky, presented Sigrún with the anvil of time, said to heat the metal while hammering it, but also to cool the metal once done.

Finally, only three realms left: Muspelheim, realm of fire and heat; Svartalfheim, realm of the dwarves and the forge; Niflheim, realm of darkness. It would finally end after several, several years of walking the realms and finishing her legendary quests, so she would have to go through Midgard to enter the realm of Muspel, but since life is funny... on her trip to the gates of fire, the girl met a man and king of the Finns who stole her heart. Only one other had done the same and that was Hǫgni, who had long since passed away and she herself had thought she would never feel the same feeling again. They got to know each other better and Sigrún decided to stay with him longer, until their love for each other generated three boys: Vǫlundr, Slagfiðr and Ægil. She really thought she would stay with them forever but Freyja appeared in her dreams and out of fear of never seeing her daughter again in Asgard, demanded that she finish her quests, or she would put an end to her husband and children. For fear of what would happen to them, Sigrún left for Muspelheim, where she would have her quest: Forge wind to cool the realm. Even with the anvil of time, the hammer of Jötunsmiðr and the forge of Alvíss, it was difficult to make the wind because she had her family still in her head, another one that she left for the quest, and this resulted in a wind that only cooled Muspelheim for only nine seconds (seconds that made the river Leiptr to cool down and that would help her a lot in the future). Odin didn't want to give her the completion of the quest, but Freyja made him rethink and, on second thought, she had cooled the realm in the end, just had never stipulated a time, so she sent her her next quest: to create a cloak made of mist and Niðhöggr's electrical breath, however, she had to go to Niflheim via Helheim.

She thought it was odd but she didn't confront the allfather, who knew she wouldn't get out of there. Upon falling through Niflhel, she found herself in the mist realm and started working with it, but something was strange: she couldn't hold the mist and even with the clothes made in Hel she couldn't stand the coldness of the place. She then went to Niðhöggr's lair to try her luck with his lightning attack. She had made a cape capable of drawing electricity into its threads that would have even worked had the dragon not chosen to use his poisonous breath to melt her only means of obtaining the ingredient. She even tried to forge another cloak, with the screams of an albino magmavore mole, the fearful look of a stone-eating worm and the wind of an icy crusher, but nothing would stop the giant creature and his overwhelming attacks. More and more combinations were made and more and more she learned that Niflheim didn't have any items that could stand the wyvern’s strength, so she gave up.

It is not known how long she spent in Niflheim, but she knew that her mother would not help her there, as no being who entered Niflheim came out. For her to stay sane, she created a house made of knives, swords and axes to live in and forge. Making weapons and items was her passion and what kept her sane in this vile place, forging everything from swords to rings, from boots to helmets, she did everything, even feelings and concepts like love and time. She spent what seemed like thousands of years just forging and forging and forging… when she finally found something that made her come to her senses, or rather something found her. As she was returning with weapons and armor to her home, she found several diminutive beings surveying her creations with such amazement that they could easily be mistaken for a cult of weapons. She ran to them, but it wasn't necessary as seconds later they would be chasing after her with ropes and shackles to secure her. She didn't know where they were taking her, only that she was passing through Niðhöggr's lair, but… what magnificent passage was that? How has she never noticed a door so well ornate in this empty and bland place? How did the dragon himself not know this in his own lair? That she would think another time, for now she was being taken to Svartalfheim, realm of the dwarves, to face her sentence for having caused "the great flood of knives" which led to the deaths of thousands of dwarves.

She stood before none other than Móðsognir, king of the dwarves, to suffer her sentence, but something about him was familiar. Sigrún rose to her feet, towering several feet above the dwarves (and even then, tiny compared to the throne room) and begged him to work for them instead. The dwarf gave her an hour to prove her worth and talent to him and gave her access to the castle's forge, telling her that if she missed even a hit with the hammer, she would be bathed in molten metal and used as a mold for a liar statue. Time was running just like Sleipnir and quickly the hours passed, along with Sigrún's work when she handed the king a small coin which, at first, didn't look the least bit impressive until it was tossed up. When it spun the first three times, three coins came out of it; in the next three, six coins came out and finally, three more times, nine coins emerged from the main one, all spinning and giving the same as the main coin. It didn't take long for the hall of Móðsognir to be flooded with coins and more coins of the purest metal, startling the dwarf who had never seen such magic before and drawing a weeping sigh from him, who came close to the girl and pulled her by the cheeks before give him a kiss on the forehead.

Without understanding anything, Sigrún asked why he had done this and had the most shocking news of her life: her father, the one who always thought was a human, was actually the king of the dwarves, Móðsognir. The girl was half goddess and half dwarf, so that’s why she'd always found it easy to forge. The news shook her structure to such an extent that she completely forgot about her quest, even more so with the dwarf wanting to show her the whole kingdom and she wanting to know everything about him. The two were able to catch up and Móðsognir couldn't help but feel sorry for his daughter and anger for Odin and disappointment that her own mother had let this happen. He also said that he, her own father, would never send his own daughter away from his arms and asked if she would want to stay here with him. Without a doubt, the girl accepted, for now she could learn from the best how to forge nature itself at will, turning her back once and for all on Asgard and Odin.

More years passed and her mastery with the forge was such that she envied all the other dwarves, with the exception of her father, who saw her as the one who would surpass him and have the title of best blacksmith in the world, which was inconceivable to the dwarves, mainly to her uncles Dvalinn, Alfrik, Berlingr and Grer, who decided to send a message to Odin. The Allfather could not see only 6 of the 14 known realms: Alfheim, Gefheim, Ránarheim, Helheim, Niflheim and Svartalfheim, so since Niflheim, neither Sigrún nor Odin could contact each other, until the brothers taught the king of Asgard how to navigate the endless labyrinths of Svartalfheim so he could talk to her. The dream she had about Odin came like a nightmare the very next night, warning her of the danger that hung over not only Svartalfheim, but all realms: another war between Vanir and Æsir would break out because of her and she had to complete her last two quests before Freyja's patience ran out, but as she had already made the coin in Svartalfheim, she only needed the cloak made of mist and lightning. She fell out of her bed and went straight to the forge, she already had something on her mind and couldn't afford to waste any time, now with her current strength, dexterity and skill, she was able to create the cloak and was just about to go back to Niflheim to test it when her father showed up, standing in front of the gates of Niflheim. Upon being questioned why’s that, the father told him that Odin had passed through Svartalfheim's defenses and he knew that the one eyed man had convinced the girl to something, so he begged her to think better about what she was going to do and how Odin was not a simple-minded man as he knew his plan had something deeper than just making her a better smith. Sigrún knew that the crow feeder was not to be trusted, but if she didn't finish her quest, she would blame herself for the wars she would cause for her deviation, so she asked her father to understand what she should do and to get out of her way. Móðsognir sighed sadly and would only get out of the way if she defeated him in one last duel.

With the new knowledge the Freyjadottir acquired, it wasn't even a fair duel. The girl had already surpassed her father but the forge looked cold and lifeless as before when she took the red-hot metal with her hands and shaped it with ease. She thought about giving up with each hammer blow, but there was in her mind deep in her consciousness, a voice telling her to keep going, like a crow preying on her from afar, waiting for a sign of weakness to feast on her body. Sigrún showed a spear capable of always hitting the target, while her father made nothing more than a simple hammer and a chisel, both of the colors of his armor and red hair and, when he accepted defeat, he gave them to her as a parting gift. The departure was sad for both sides, a third and final time she would bid farewell to a loved one for her meaningless quest.

Already in the mist realm and at the dragon's lair, the girl once again faced the wyvern beast with his electric breath as a prize, a prize that Niðhöggr was keen to give her, but now she was prepared and with her cloak, channeled the attack and made it her own, using it to distance herself as much as she could from Niðhöggr, then used the magnetic properties of lightning to condense the mist and make it part of the cape. With that, she finally finished all her quests and should get back to Asgard as soon as possible before her mother does something she regrets. She ran through Svartalf, Muspel, Midgard and thus arrived in Asgard, where all the Vanir were trying to bring down the walls of Asgard. Luckily, she managed to convince her mother to stop the war and once again, she was able to return to Asgard, now crowned the best smith of all, a Valkyrie for her dedication and the goddess of the forge, but her head was still on the people she loved: Hǫgni, Hildur and Hilda, the king of the Finns and her sons Vǫlundr, Slagfiðr and Ægil and her father Móðsognir.

Already a well-known Valkyrie and goddess, Sigrún was responsible for most of the other Valkyries' weapons and was very prestigious for it, so much so that she knows several of her friends' secrets due to spending most time alone with them, which led her to one last event. while forging for the daughters of Helgeisten, he heard from the Valkyries Hervör Alvitr, Hlaðguðr svanhvít and Ölrún (lovers of her three sons Vǫlundr, Slagfiðr and Ægil) that her son Vǫlundr had had a child from the rape with Böðvildr, a princess of the Njars. Her unhappiness arose when she discovered right after that he would kill him. The smith then went to Midgard and made a ultimatum to her son to accept him as a Vǫlundarson or he would face the consequences.

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