~June 12
Here’s a story for you: there was a girl who lived
beyond the sea, one of such strength she challenged
all the heroes in the country to compete with her.
She could throw a stone across a field and then,
jumping, make it to the other side before the stone fell.
She said she’d never be with any man who could not
beat her—not once, not twice, but three times in a row.
-Germanic Tales of the Nibelungen
In myth, women compete with men as well as with other women. Many cultures have some variety of the Germanic myth of Brynhild, who demanded that a man show himself to be stronger than she was before she would agree to be his mate. And she did not hold herself back in the competition; she did not fix the game so that a man could win. In this, she acted more honestly than contemporary women who hide their true strength.
Strength is not unfeminine. Strength is a fact of women’s being. Some are strong emotionally, some intellectually, some physically. To pretend to be less than what we are is to insult the universe that has endowed us with gifts. And, in myth, the woman who shows her strength finally finds a partner to match her. Had she hidden her strength, she would always have been aware of her partner’s true weakness in comparison to her. And that, ultimately, would have destroyed their bond.
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