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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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Skippy said:
Feels like this might be a very derogatory way of referring to one of the Gods?

"Friend to the unmanly" could mean a friend of Odin, since Odin practiced Seidr, something he gets frequently called out on/disparaged for during flyting matches with other gods and giants. "Strongest man" also feels a lot like Thor, but I don't know what "lying island" refers to.

"Doing Crime for Crime sees me wave goodbye" feels a lot like it might be the Jotnar's perspective on how the Aesir behaved in a famous myth, where the Aesir once again manage to wriggle out of the consequences of Loki's their actions.

Oooh, wait... could "the lying island" be that group of giants who were related to Loki who he and Thor visited one time, who deceived them both? (Tricking Thor into drinking the sea, hitting mountains, etc..) They left after their deception was revealed, never to be found again, so that might also sorta fit? Did they live on an island?
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That would be utgard loki


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9I5bYOJlvI
 
Yeah, as I recall it that Loki lives in a forest. That said, according to Wikipedia there's another Utgard Loki who seems to have an association with sailing.
 
Fucking hell though, I don't even know where to begin here.

Fortunately. "Norse Mythology" is apparently the key word here. So it's probably very much stretching the Myth aspect.
 
thamuzz said:
Could be reference to Gretir the Strong
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Hmmm...that timeline also seems off, if perhaps not as strongly.

alexthealright said:
I think IF has Said that that he thought that the utgard loki was an adaptation from another culture
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That's not impossible, but I'm not sure there's an island connection there. Or the crime. And how is he the friend of the unmanly?

Alectai said:
Fucking hell though, I don't even know where to begin here.
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If we get too stuck, a Reward Die for a hint is an option. Not one we want to use, obviously, but an option.
 
Brainstorming...
Imperial Fister said:
Strongest man of the Lying Island, I be
Friend of the unmanly, you see
Doing Crime for Crime sees me wave goodbye
So, who will be I?
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"Greenland is icy, Iceland is green" goes the saying, and they have the same names in Icelandic. The fact that it's lying island, not liars island suggests it's something inherent to the place rather than the people, and I don't recall any islands that talk, which makes me think it's the name.

"Friend of the unmanly" looks to me like a sneaky trick: it's meant to make us think friend of the dishonorable, but it's possibly something else like friend of women.

A thing you wave goodbye to when doing crime for crime is "the moral high ground", or less abstractly "the right to vengeance". That right was a very concrete thing in the Icelandic sagas; you could literally sell it as a piece of property. 🤔
 
Presumably, by "Man", we're looking at an actual human in this case, and not "Could be anything", right?
 
Just spitballing, could it be Vidar?

Strongest man of the Lying Island, I be
-He's an Aesir, classically the gods infamous for lying, and is referred to being 'almost' as strong as Thor.

Friend of the unmanly, you see
-Unmanly could be referring to woman, beasts, but also gods/spirits.

Doing Crime for Crime sees me wave goodbye
-Vidar was the god of vengeance, I believe.

So, who will be I?
 
Way out there speculation, mostly for generating further interpretations: can we interpret this as being about Baldr (Balder)? He's the minor Norse god of light and purity and joy.

He's the strongest man (the only god) to be ritually buried on a boat (a false island)
He's so beloved that every plant in the world swore not to harm him (friend of the "unmanly" as in nonhumans)
He died anyway because of Loki's treachery in finding the one plant, mistletoe, that hadn't sworn because it looked harmless, and tricking Hod into shooting Baldr with a mistletoe dart (Crime 1) and then when the other gods plot to get him back from the dead, Loki ruins that too (Crime 2)
So they have to "wave goodbye" to Baldr permanently.
He will be because he's mentioned in a prophecy of the future.
 
But yeah, breakdown by line on Gunnar Hámundarson:

Strongest man of the Lying Island, I be

Gunnar is definitely established as the greatest warrior in Iceland.

Friend of the unmanly, you see

He's best friends with Njal, who is 'unmanly'.

Doing Crime for Crime sees me wave goodbye
So, who will be I?

And he died because he hit his wife after she stole food from a nearby farm during a famine and she refused to help him. It's him.
 
Hmm, spend a reward die to get yes or no on this? It feels right but it's ambiguous enough to be skeptical.

I've also seen reference to an island where Odin learned Seid on, but you're right in that this seems to fit the clues.
 
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