Headcanons welcome

[awanderingbard]

So, I'm working on a Thor fic, and it suddenly occurred to me: how the hell did Odin and Frigga pass off Loki as their son? I mean, clearly Frigga wasn't pregnant, so it must have been a bit dodgey when they just announced 'oh look, we had another baby'. Especially since the view we have of baby!Loki is not of a newborn, so not only did a baby appear, but one at least a few months old. So, did Frigga go-off planet for a while and come back with Loki claiming she gave birth to him while she was away? Because if they presented him as an adopted baby, I really don't think Loki could have lived that many hundreds of years without someone letting it slip, even if the whole of the Nine Realms were asked never to tell him.

Am I thinking too much about this?

Comments

[joyfulfeather.livejournal.com]

My thoughts are basically ~handwavy gods and magic stuff~. Who knows if Asgardian procreation is anything like ours? Maybe there's no outward sign of pregnancy. And they could say they kept the child secret because he was sickly and might not have survived.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

~handwavy gods and magic stuff~.

Ha! I feel like this is a good title for Harry Dresden's autobiography or something.

Who knows if Asgardian procreation is anything like ours? Maybe there's no outward sign of pregnancy. And they could say they kept the child secret because he was sickly and might not have survived.

Hmm, those are good thoughts. I did sort of think of something along those lines. Maybe Frigga has had or could claim she's had unsuccessful pregnancies in the past and didn't want to raise hopes until they were confident. Or that he was sickly, so they took him somewhere special to ensure his good health. Something like that.

[bookblather.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Norse gods tend to turn up in really weird and unexpected ways. Loki himself gave birth to a couple of kids (once as a horse, gj Loki) and somebody got born from the sweat of someone's armpit, and yeah. I expect actual Asgardian childbearing isn't as weird as the sweat of someone's armpit, but the mythology had to come from somewhere.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. The fandom loves Sleipnir. :-P

My Norse mythology isn't very thorough, but I did wonder if it was like Greek Mythology and Odin could just show up with a baby and go 'erm, I gave Frigga an apple and a baby fell out of it, we're going to call him Loki', and everyone would go 'well, at least it's not as weird as when Odin tripped and cut his knee open and Thor crawled out of the wound'.

[bookblather.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. I mean, slightly less weird than Greek mythology. The first humans in Norse mythology were made out of trees, so I assume that Odin could just be like "yeah, we decided Thor should have a baby brother so I found a handy tree and boom! Baby!"

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

"We painted him a bit wrong, that's why he's got the black hair and green eyes."
"Yeah, sounds legit. I see no reason to question it."

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Odin could just show up with a baby and go 'erm, I gave Frigga an apple and a baby fell out of it, we're going to call him Loki', and everyone would go 'well, at least it's not as weird as when Odin tripped and cut his knee open and Thor crawled out of the wound'.
Yes, I'd go with that!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I always assumed it was ~handwavy gods and magic stuff~ like joyfulfeather mentioned, although, if you think about it, Asgardians *aren't* human. Who says they have pregnancies like we do? Maybe after sex if they want a baby the fertilized egg is placed in an incubator to grow? Or if, instead of copulation as we think of it, two consenting adults submerge themselves in a special pool, kiss under water and when they emerge to take a breath a baby is in their arms?

It's mythology, anything goes!

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

An incubator is one of the ideas I had, actually. They are not only gods, but technologically advanced gods, so perhaps they've learned how to have a baby without a woman having to carry it. Or there are women who carry babies as their jobs, voluntarily, and they carry the child for people, like a surrogate. Then you could just say 'we used one of these people off-planet so she wouldn't be in the spotlight here'.

Basically, 'make stuff up' is totally the answer.

Thank you!