Re: OT: RE: [norse_course] "Vit tvau"

>Well, the "sexuality of the Gods" is probably far
>OOT - I was just noticing that the discussion of
>the Saga so far on this lists assumes that Loki
>used the neutral dual pronoun because he was
>indicating one of them was female and one was
>male (and the discussion ensued concerning which
>traveller he spoke of as female and which as
>male). As the Saga makes clear they *both* wore
>women's clothes to Jotunheimr, I think it's more
>likely he was calling both himself and Thunar
>hermaphrodites (thus the dual being for two
>neutrals, rather than being for one male and one
>female).

I don't think that's at all probable. Trying to use
a neuter declension to indicate "lack of sex" is lost
on my ears.

If you don't want to think of them as male and female
then the only other possibility I can think of is if some
neuter noun had been omitted.

"vit tvau [goð] skulum aka"

I think that's very unlikely.

In my opinion Loki is referring to Þórr - and teasing him
for being dressed up. We know from earlier on in the poem
that Þórr would be sensitive to that:

"mik munu Æsir
argan kalla" (the Æsir will call me perverse)

Adding to this; Þórr's woman costume is described with some
detail but Loki's is not (he just says: "I'll come with you and be
your (female) slave").

Regards,
Haukur