It just so happens that just yesterday I saw a meme which alleged that Lemons are not a naturally occurring fruit. It goes on, in fact, to say that they are the result of the crossbreeding of a Bitter Orange and a Citron. And all this of course means that Life never gave us Lemons. We gave the lemons to ourselves.
Yes and no - the fact is that citrus fruit are actually SUPER EXCITED to crossbreed and mutate into new variants. Basically as soon as you have two citrus variants in close proximity, you get new types of citrus as a result. So life gave us lemons, but it did so with a few kind of weird extra steps...
Honestly when i learned that it was a "norse-inspired" book with an MC named Freya and a love interest named Bjorn, i knew it wasn't going to be a story with a lot of effort put in. Glad to hear i wasn't wrong lmao
@haggisa basically yeah lol. I don't know a lot about real Norse naming conventions past the -son and -dottir stuff, but "Bjorn" is (was?) such a common guy name for guy characters in media, i've hearing more than one "Bjorn Bjornson" type of joke, ala "John Johnson". And Freya is the name of the most well-known goddess, so a lottttt of non-norse white people have popularized it into a normal baby name. It feels a bit like having a human character from an ancient greecian-esque setting named Athena or Persephone. Like, you CAN, but its also weird for the worldbuilding. Does that goddess just not exist in this setting? Is there gonna be a Consequence or Theme to her being named that in a way that reflects on the mythos? Oh no, you just googled "Norse baby names girl" and it was the top result, got it lmfao
@@ascontralto Got it, thought as much. I had no clue Freya has become such a popular baby name in (I presume) English speaking countries. Kind of funny. Waiting for westerners to start naming their kids “Ra” or “Kali.” Also, yes, Freya is a little bit strange thing to name your heroine in a fantasy novel. It does break the suspension of disbelief, if you think about it for 0.1 second. 😂
27:50 *what* ???? Fish is so easy to cure for storage, that's literally why gravlax, smoked fish, hákarl, stockfish, lutefisk, pickled fish, brined herring and surströmming exist???? Because you WANT a lot of fish at once
I did not expect to hear about lemon being used as a contraceptive this fine morning but now it's going to haunt me for the next week. Amazing video as always but oh my god
@@Thistlespawn ....thank you, i... really needed to know that. I mean, it's interesting, but also, thats disgusting and horrifying and I am so sorry for all those ancient women's vaginas.
The viking inspirations talk a lot like windowdressing around what the author actually wanted to do. The mythology, the prophecies and the magic system all have nothing to do with norse mythology. It feels like she came up with them first and then decided to put them in a vaguely norse setting by saying rune, jarl and shieldmaiden.
Agreed; it is doubly unfortunate because there are so many weird things that come up in the sagas & other Old Norse literature that could help create a unique setting.
I actually looked into the history of lemons and citrus for a uni paper - we first get lemons and oranges in europe with mediaeval Arab Sicily and Spain, they do not really enter the region before that LET ALONE NORTHERN EUROPE OR SCANDINAVIA. we only get lemon 'mead' in nordic countries commonly in the 18th century. but very sour berries such as the lingonberry and cranberry do exist up in arctic conditions.
Sometimes I think, these authors don't know how to use Google. I recently read a HISTORICAL (events take place during the regency period) paranormal romance where the main character received a bouquet of BLACK roses full of BLACK WIDOWS. It was an ARC, so I wrote to the author a detailed review on the topic of breeding dark varieties of roses (black (or rather, dark red) roses were first successfully bred only in the 30s of the 20th century), and why it was quite difficult to get black widows in an English village, especially given the unfolding Napoleonic War in Europe. Clarifying these facts took me less than ten minutes, but, apparently, I was more concerned about the book's historical accuracy than the author herself.
Even today, the climate is too cool for lemon trees to grow outside year-round in England or Scandinavia. Someone in that fantasy setting would need to have lemons shipped from the Mediterranean, taking weeks to reach their fjord.
King Louis XV had brilliant gardeners who figured out how to keep orange trees alive and blooming year round in France. They would get moved indoors for winter where the gardeners would burn fires to keep them warm.
@robertborland5083 Given the fresh produce problem is still unresolved today in northern Manitoba fly-in communities (as in much of the Canadian north, the price is NO, the availability without mould is the same), the idea they pulled it off so long ago AND DIDN'T MISS THE MISSING LEMONS is unhinged.
It's easier to watch all the roast videos because I usually don't plan to read those books anyway and it's interesting to hear you talk about story building etc. But I haven't watched all 'books you've liked' videos because those are books I plan to read before watching.
Wrogi (in the exact way you pronounced it) in Polish means "hostile" which while listening to how you describe the character makes me think it was made on purpose to be even more on the nose XD
It would be more interesting if The yarl tried to keep her around , by engaging his son to her. Which could him being controlling and have even a love triangle and the son could learn to support her as friend, and make the yarl a schemer and try to, like "daughter, can you help out your family" and be motre sceming and less blunt. And an arranged marriaged, not to him but his son i think has more nuance to explore.
OOH, finished the video, and I would LOVE to explain one of the reasons why a lot of people heard about A Fate Inked in Blood. So the book and author were one of the people who were affected by what Cait Corrain did when she made a lot of fake goodreads accounts to review bomb other debut authors while boosting her own debut book with those accounts; that's how I heard about this book. When people talked about Cait Corrain, they included a list of the authors/books she attacked and A Fate Inked in Blood were in those lists. The book side of twitter, youtube, and tiktok were constantly talking about it, and articles were also talking about what happened, and they all included the list of victims.
Desperately trying to understand the plot but when Will is not around Katie interrupts the plot recap so ofter (trust me I do the same when I want to discuss something with a friend, so no shade at all) that I do not understand what's going on in the book at all ahah
I'm very glad I only read the sample chapters. Your review was much more entertaining than the rest of the book would have been. I read a different book by the author (The Bridge Kingdom) and ended up being very disappointed by it. It had a strong beginning and I loved the setting. Unfortunately at some point, it seemed like the author started taking the wrong turn every chance she got. It had a lot of potential, but it was like she dismantled everything interesting about it. Tension, nuance, conflict... just disappeared. I was very frustrated with it because it could have been so much better so easily.
Love this cast! I hope my book gets praise from you guys, and I hope you can laugh at the sometimes "pretentious" and hyper detailed work I put in. (I swear if I make another grammar mistake I'm gonna say very mean things to myself)
I finished this and was disappointed. Everyone hyped this up I felt like I missed something. Your video breaking it down and tearing it apart matched all of my thoughts. Thank you!!
I am Norwegian, but I'm not an expert on agricultural history (or agriculture in general), but as far as I know, oranges were not possible to grow in Norway due to weather conditions and it being too cold until we developed more modern versions of greenhouses, so that should apply to other citrus fruits as well. If this book takes place in "Norway" during the viking time (and it's meant to be even remotely historically acurate), then I believe they would have to import lemons
I like watching your roast videos because good books are simillar in being well plotted, well executed, but bad books can be crazy in all sorts of stupid ways.
"Instant smut and slow romance" sounds like code for "I skipped to the sex scenes, then read really slow because I keep having to hide that I'm reading porn."
I'm so happy you guys had the same reactions as me. I think a lot of positive reviews come from pity as well, since the author was one of the victims who was attacked by a petty author who reviewbombed a bunch of upcoming authors like Jensen. People also love sex and loads of cursing, too. Yeah, since Fourth Wing is insanely popular, the author and publisher probably got the idea to copy a lot of the same elements from it and ACOTAR (c'mon, Freya?). I'm sick of instant lust and immature characters. I couldn't believe the part where I'm supposed to be in fear of Freya's life while she fought B that they were making sex jokes in the background (and even the same one!). It took me out of it. Especially between her and her husband, who she doesn't want to be with. So much for high stakes. At least you finished the book. I feel bad the author was attacked, but I can't just lie and pretend to like it when I didn't. I did give the book a shot to support Jensen, though.
Not sure if you all have watched Blue Eye Samurai yet, but it's a fantastic series I think you would enjoy, and has a number of the story beats you wished had've been in this book (it's super grusome and has a bunch of nakedy moments in case that's not your jam).
Listening at work and you have me wanting to look up the history of lemons' use as a historical contraceptive (it's okay, my work does family planning stuff so it's an appropriate use of my time if you squint)
yeah lemon juice was used as contraceptive in mediteranian region by soaking sponge in it and then inserting them but i suppose its not how it is in the book? also that its nordic setting also makes it wierder
I'm sorry I thought you said Scotland, and I immediately went 'HUH?' as a Scot I thought she just took basic Norse names, myths and went 'uuuuhhhh Scoland. Sure.'
The cover nearly got me…. Good thing I didn’t add it to any of my lists. Could you guess cover When the Moon Hatched? I’m interested but not sure if it’s good or worth it.
I read the sample and immediately noticed it missed the mark with the set up. There was no setup why do we care about her family we never meet them, it moves immediately from intro to inciting incident. We only meet her brother for two seconds and he throws her under the bus with her abusive husband i was screaming at my phone screen for her to say fk you and run. Butthe cover art was amazing.
19:20 Is it Njörðr? (A trivia fact; Tacticus's mention of a "Nerthus" in Germanic mythology -- albeit as a goddess, not a god -- makes Njörðr one of the oldest attested figures in Norse mythology.)
So, I've heard about that lemon thing, I don't know whether it was something that people in the past actually did or it was an urban legend about what people did in the past though.
Did not think I would be googling lemons as contraception on a fine Friday morning 😂. I am surprised to find that it's true as women were using lemons as contraception going as far back as the 1700s with women using lemon rine like a cervical cap. The real Casenova used the cervical cap lemon rine method to prevent having babies by all the women that he...took to bed. Women also mixed lemon juice and water to soak a sponge in and use the sponge to clean out the swimmers. On that note, maybe the yarl didnt notice the smell because they are in a fishing village. Im sure there would have been a lingering aroma that might fool even the smartest of the men in that village?
I finished this book a couple days ago and had a lot of fun with it. I'm new to reading and it's my first romantasy haha Despite liking the book, I did have so some issues with it: the book not going deep into the culture and the gods, which was a waste, and Freya not having any female friends and the ones that she did consider on good terms ended up dying which SUCKS. I love hearing y'all opinions on the book
Oh, noooo on the lemon juice front! That just sounds painful tbh but I did hear women used to shove stuff up there tampon-style although I have no idea if it was at all effective. My only takeaway was that desperate people try any weird (and potentially harmful) thing. On the actual book, I swear it sounds like a big nothing-burger. I can barely recall most of the plot except for their first meeting cause your intro with "settle down Nora Roberts" made me wheeze. Also, yet another reason why I'd rather go to ao3 for this kind of content. Why are books in this genre so bad?!?
Offering to the algorithm gods. Also I lose continued faith in the general readership for how much they applaud mid to terrible books. I rely on people like yall to restore sanity. Like its one thing to like something while acknowledging its faults, but the amount of people who think some very shitty books are actually good is truly horrifying
lol I saw the lemon thing used also in the showThe Great, and I thought it was so silly. I don't know if it's historically accurate, but why lemons? They had so many other methods back then. And if this story has magic why not come up with something new? It's not actual historical fiction.
24:48 yeah i'm fairly lemons don't grow in scandinavia, but indeed the vikings traded a LOT ; still impossible though considering how long it would take and these would NEVER arrive still good
Rocking the haircut, Maria! Also, what does Katie’s shirt say? I lost a bit of time squinting at it and had to rewind to where I got distracted. Edited to add: I seem to remember reading about lemon halves being used as diaphragms with the added bonus of the juice acting as a spermicide, but that doesn’t lesson your concern about yeast infections one bit. Also it was the eighteenth century.
Also I have to say I can't believe the laziness of these names, Frejah and Bjørn? Like the most common Norwegian/Nordic names? Really? And the fact that the other realm is called Nordeland? Which is basically just the actual Norwegian county of Nordland, meaning northern land, like Nordmenn, another name for Norwegians meaning northern people.
To me it felt very obvious that the author really loves Bjorn as a character and just made up all the other shit around this fantasy she had of him and that's why all the other characters are throw-aways with zero effort
I think it is also odd how the jarl character is linked to Týr; the character is not particularly important in the existing mythology, pretty much only showing up in the Fenrir & Ragnarok stories. While there are attestations of association with the thing assembly & etymological ties to the celestial/divine *deywós Proto-Indo-European root, the textual evidence is pretty scant.
Please keep in mind that the actual mythology was more than medieval icelandic histories. The worship of tyr, freyr, njörd or other 'irrelevant' gods was much more important and widespread in mainland scandinavia if we trust toponymy.
24:00 Ok, the lemon thing is real-ish. Lemon *juice* was not used straight, it was usually diluted and mixed. Unrelatedly, half of a lemon peel would be used as a diaphragm, with the trace acids and oils having a contraceptive effect. If you're morbidly currious, there are dozens of alleged medieval contraception methods- Avicenna lists twenty, and there were plenty more- most of which either don't work (magic amulets) or do work but are obviously insane (honey and *lead salts*).
LMFAO There’s just no original ideas anymore when it comes to these “Romantasy” books. They’re all the same garbage elements even if the plot is told in different ways SMH can’t wait for you to read The Stars Are Dying by Chloe C. Penaranda XD it’s the worst of the worst, plagiarism allegations aside LOL and When the Moon Hatched, which was dubbed as “the next Fourth Wing”.
@@missallisnow which is in northern america ??? Point being, anglophone authors rarely have any real interest in iron age scandinavian and baltic history, and as someone who does love that depth and breadth of cultural contacts and variety in beliefs, it tends to always be a disappointment that big media products sidestep it entirely for the ubermensch fairy lore variety.
took one for the team and googled it-Health Professionals Do NOT Recommend Lemoning Your Slickened Core (sorry)
OOOH, the way I shuddered! 😫
It’s good to know but also, something I feel like everyone should already kind of know.
WHY would anyone stick an acidic item up there
@@mikanchan322 technically it is slightly acidic up there BUT DONT STICK THINFS UP THERE
@@universal_stupidity i mean its not as acidic as lemon juice right?? 😭😭
It just so happens that just yesterday I saw a meme which alleged that Lemons are not a naturally occurring fruit. It goes on, in fact, to say that they are the result of the crossbreeding of a Bitter Orange and a Citron. And all this of course means that Life never gave us Lemons. We gave the lemons to ourselves.
Yes and no - the fact is that citrus fruit are actually SUPER EXCITED to crossbreed and mutate into new variants. Basically as soon as you have two citrus variants in close proximity, you get new types of citrus as a result. So life gave us lemons, but it did so with a few kind of weird extra steps...
@@jasminv8653are you saying a meme lied to me? That I’ve been had?! Well this is an outrage I’m going to do nothing about!
@@TheAdarkerglowyes we brought lemons upon ourselves 😢
I’m willing to blame Yarros for anything.
Sarah J Mass did it first
They can share a cell in author jail
Hard same lol
Felt that fr lol
Seconding this!
Honestly when i learned that it was a "norse-inspired" book with an MC named Freya and a love interest named Bjorn, i knew it wasn't going to be a story with a lot of effort put in. Glad to hear i wasn't wrong lmao
This is interesting. Why do those name suggest the author didn’t put the effort in? Because they’re too stereotypically Norse?
@haggisa basically yeah lol. I don't know a lot about real Norse naming conventions past the -son and -dottir stuff, but "Bjorn" is (was?) such a common guy name for guy characters in media, i've hearing more than one "Bjorn Bjornson" type of joke, ala "John Johnson". And Freya is the name of the most well-known goddess, so a lottttt of non-norse white people have popularized it into a normal baby name. It feels a bit like having a human character from an ancient greecian-esque setting named Athena or Persephone. Like, you CAN, but its also weird for the worldbuilding. Does that goddess just not exist in this setting? Is there gonna be a Consequence or Theme to her being named that in a way that reflects on the mythos? Oh no, you just googled "Norse baby names girl" and it was the top result, got it lmfao
@@ascontralto Got it, thought as much. I had no clue Freya has become such a popular baby name in (I presume) English speaking countries. Kind of funny. Waiting for westerners to start naming their kids “Ra” or “Kali.”
Also, yes, Freya is a little bit strange thing to name your heroine in a fantasy novel. It does break the suspension of disbelief, if you think about it for 0.1 second. 😂
27:50 *what* ???? Fish is so easy to cure for storage, that's literally why gravlax, smoked fish, hákarl, stockfish, lutefisk, pickled fish, brined herring and surströmming exist???? Because you WANT a lot of fish at once
Came for the roast, stayed for the historically accurate lemon research.
That cover art… Tis good, but like… if someone told me that’s a Sarah J Mass book, I would believe them
You can tell how long you guys have been friends by the way you guys cut each other off and continue the others thoughts. It’s amazing.
“They’re everywhere! You could throw a rock and hit one!” Maria…your words bring me so much joy. Please never change.
I love how the dog leaves when they start to retell the plot.
Animals always know when trouble is afoot
I did not expect to hear about lemon being used as a contraceptive this fine morning but now it's going to haunt me for the next week.
Amazing video as always but oh my god
I'm gonna make your day worse: it's actually historically accurate (though not for Vikings)
@@Thistlespawn ....thank you, i... really needed to know that. I mean, it's interesting, but also, thats disgusting and horrifying and I am so sorry for all those ancient women's vaginas.
The viking inspirations talk a lot like windowdressing around what the author actually wanted to do. The mythology, the prophecies and the magic system all have nothing to do with norse mythology. It feels like she came up with them first and then decided to put them in a vaguely norse setting by saying rune, jarl and shieldmaiden.
Agreed; it is doubly unfortunate because there are so many weird things that come up in the sagas & other Old Norse literature that could help create a unique setting.
That's also true for the fantasy aspects in practically any romantasy novel
Voting “It’s just two dragons” being the new literary term for when the character just gets all the options in power 😂
I keep hearing 'scotland' for the name of the country and honestly if this plot was more of a macbeth i think it would be more interesting
I’m glad I’m not the only one who kept hearing that
I actually looked into the history of lemons and citrus for a uni paper - we first get lemons and oranges in europe with mediaeval Arab Sicily and Spain, they do not really enter the region before that LET ALONE NORTHERN EUROPE OR SCANDINAVIA. we only get lemon 'mead' in nordic countries commonly in the 18th century. but very sour berries such as the lingonberry and cranberry do exist up in arctic conditions.
Sometimes I think, these authors don't know how to use Google. I recently read a HISTORICAL (events take place during the regency period) paranormal romance where the main character received a bouquet of BLACK roses full of BLACK WIDOWS. It was an ARC, so I wrote to the author a detailed review on the topic of breeding dark varieties of roses (black (or rather, dark red) roses were first successfully bred only in the 30s of the 20th century), and why it was quite difficult to get black widows in an English village, especially given the unfolding Napoleonic War in Europe. Clarifying these facts took me less than ten minutes, but, apparently, I was more concerned about the book's historical accuracy than the author herself.
@@MrGreyseptember ah yes, the place famously filled with venomous spiders, england 😂
Even today, the climate is too cool for lemon trees to grow outside year-round in England or Scandinavia. Someone in that fantasy setting would need to have lemons shipped from the Mediterranean, taking weeks to reach their fjord.
King Louis XV had brilliant gardeners who figured out how to keep orange trees alive and blooming year round in France. They would get moved indoors for winter where the gardeners would burn fires to keep them warm.
@robertborland5083 Given the fresh produce problem is still unresolved today in northern Manitoba fly-in communities (as in much of the Canadian north, the price is NO, the availability without mould is the same), the idea they pulled it off so long ago AND DIDN'T MISS THE MISSING LEMONS is unhinged.
"I had to cut so much about lemons." - Will 🤣🤣🤣🤣 1:52:57
I'd watch a director's cut...or wedge, if you prefer.
👍👍👍👍👍👌👌
Release the citrus cut! Let the lemons live! Peel it off, Will!
Ok, I’m done now.
It's easier to watch all the roast videos because I usually don't plan to read those books anyway and it's interesting to hear you talk about story building etc. But I haven't watched all 'books you've liked' videos because those are books I plan to read before watching.
I love the unhinged sentence swapping and rage of a combined katie & maria in person together
The narrator is Nina Yndis and is credited as narrating 24 books on audible.
Woah good to know
Wrogi (in the exact way you pronounced it) in Polish means "hostile" which while listening to how you describe the character makes me think it was made on purpose to be even more on the nose XD
Totally off topic, but I love that wallpaper.
It would be more interesting if The yarl tried to keep her around , by engaging his son to her. Which could him being controlling and have even a love triangle and the son could learn to support her as friend, and make the yarl a schemer and try to, like "daughter, can you help out your family" and be motre sceming and less blunt.
And an arranged marriaged, not to him but his son i think has more nuance to explore.
OOH, finished the video, and I would LOVE to explain one of the reasons why a lot of people heard about A Fate Inked in Blood. So the book and author were one of the people who were affected by what Cait Corrain did when she made a lot of fake goodreads accounts to review bomb other debut authors while boosting her own debut book with those accounts; that's how I heard about this book. When people talked about Cait Corrain, they included a list of the authors/books she attacked and A Fate Inked in Blood were in those lists. The book side of twitter, youtube, and tiktok were constantly talking about it, and articles were also talking about what happened, and they all included the list of victims.
Once I have drafts, I’m soooo using this community to do story revisions… no longer a collage student, now I can work on my stories!
I watched this 4 times now, it is definitively my new comfort video
I will be cringing at the idea of using lemon juice like that for the next week.
Oooo. The bookcover is by an artist I really respect. Idk about the book but it's so cool to see.
Desperately trying to understand the plot but when Will is not around Katie interrupts the plot recap so ofter (trust me I do the same when I want to discuss something with a friend, so no shade at all) that I do not understand what's going on in the book at all ahah
I'm very glad I only read the sample chapters. Your review was much more entertaining than the rest of the book would have been.
I read a different book by the author (The Bridge Kingdom) and ended up being very disappointed by it. It had a strong beginning and I loved the setting. Unfortunately at some point, it seemed like the author started taking the wrong turn every chance she got. It had a lot of potential, but it was like she dismantled everything interesting about it. Tension, nuance, conflict... just disappeared. I was very frustrated with it because it could have been so much better so easily.
24:40 - 25:00 --> I adore this little ranty stress walk with the punctuating squat so much!!! 🤣I do this too!
Yayyyy I’m so excited to listen to this on my two hour drive todayyy! Love the content.
Also, Maria?! Haircut?! Looking amazing.
Love this cast! I hope my book gets praise from you guys, and I hope you can laugh at the sometimes "pretentious" and hyper detailed work I put in. (I swear if I make another grammar mistake I'm gonna say very mean things to myself)
Maria's hair!!!!!❤❤❤❤
Omg it’s so great to see Maria back!!!!!!! ❤❤
I finished this and was disappointed. Everyone hyped this up I felt like I missed something. Your video breaking it down and tearing it apart matched all of my thoughts. Thank you!!
I am Norwegian, but I'm not an expert on agricultural history (or agriculture in general), but as far as I know, oranges were not possible to grow in Norway due to weather conditions and it being too cold until we developed more modern versions of greenhouses, so that should apply to other citrus fruits as well. If this book takes place in "Norway" during the viking time (and it's meant to be even remotely historically acurate), then I believe they would have to import lemons
I like watching your roast videos because good books are simillar in being well plotted, well executed, but bad books can be crazy in all sorts of stupid ways.
"Instant smut and slow romance" sounds like code for "I skipped to the sex scenes, then read really slow because I keep having to hide that I'm reading porn."
I'm so happy you guys had the same reactions as me. I think a lot of positive reviews come from pity as well, since the author was one of the victims who was attacked by a petty author who reviewbombed a bunch of upcoming authors like Jensen. People also love sex and loads of cursing, too. Yeah, since Fourth Wing is insanely popular, the author and publisher probably got the idea to copy a lot of the same elements from it and ACOTAR (c'mon, Freya?).
I'm sick of instant lust and immature characters. I couldn't believe the part where I'm supposed to be in fear of Freya's life while she fought B that they were making sex jokes in the background (and even the same one!). It took me out of it. Especially between her and her husband, who she doesn't want to be with. So much for high stakes. At least you finished the book.
I feel bad the author was attacked, but I can't just lie and pretend to like it when I didn't. I did give the book a shot to support Jensen, though.
7:57 "norse mythology"... i could only sigh as a scandinavian
Seeing this video go up during my finals week is feeding my soul
Having come back to this video after reading the book, oh my god does it feel like Fourth Wing fanfic, especially the last chapter or two
Hold on, I need the details on Katie's tshirt 😭
really enjoyed this video, however i feel its super important to note that i have that same little cat bowl in blue!
Katie that shirt is wild
Points to Maria for pronouncing gif correctly ❤
Not sure if you all have watched Blue Eye Samurai yet, but it's a fantastic series I think you would enjoy, and has a number of the story beats you wished had've been in this book (it's super grusome and has a bunch of nakedy moments in case that's not your jam).
We both have! I love all the terentino references and my god Mizu is so complicated I love it -Kt
Listening at work and you have me wanting to look up the history of lemons' use as a historical contraceptive (it's okay, my work does family planning stuff so it's an appropriate use of my time if you squint)
yeah lemon juice was used as contraceptive in mediteranian region by soaking sponge in it and then inserting them but i suppose its not how it is in the book? also that its nordic setting also makes it wierder
definetly massive health risk but girls did what they had to do tbh would make more sense if she used honey or lace seed lorewise
I was about to start Worldbuilding my story, so this podcast episode post was perfect timing.
I'm sorry I thought you said Scotland, and I immediately went 'HUH?' as a Scot I thought she just took basic Norse names, myths and went 'uuuuhhhh Scoland. Sure.'
The cover nearly got me…. Good thing I didn’t add it to any of my lists. Could you guess cover When the Moon Hatched? I’m interested but not sure if it’s good or worth it.
At least I know that for all the lemon-related horror this inflicted, Will was there to keep it from being worse.
Why lemons when vinegar would be right there?
I read the sample and immediately noticed it missed the mark with the set up. There was no setup why do we care about her family we never meet them, it moves immediately from intro to inciting incident. We only meet her brother for two seconds and he throws her under the bus with her abusive husband i was screaming at my phone screen for her to say fk you and run. Butthe cover art was amazing.
19:20 Is it Njörðr? (A trivia fact; Tacticus's mention of a "Nerthus" in Germanic mythology -- albeit as a goddess, not a god -- makes Njörðr one of the oldest attested figures in Norse mythology.)
There is a pretty nice book called "Freya" by Matthew Laurence. I couldn't stop remembering it, given how fun it was.
Y'all "nyeh nyeh-ing" careless whisper made my entire day
I love Jensen's Malediction Trilogy. Shame this didn't turn out as good ☹️
So, I've heard about that lemon thing, I don't know whether it was something that people in the past actually did or it was an urban legend about what people did in the past though.
Giving Magnus Chase a little Norse mythology love here 😂💕
i just borrowed this book from the library purely because of the coverart, very interested in this as the beginning wasn't super drawing me in
What a great way to start my morning.
I don’t remember watching this stream. I thought I’d seen them all 😮
I don’t think it was a stream, just a video they recorded
Did not think I would be googling lemons as contraception on a fine Friday morning 😂. I am surprised to find that it's true as women were using lemons as contraception going as far back as the 1700s with women using lemon rine like a cervical cap. The real Casenova used the cervical cap lemon rine method to prevent having babies by all the women that he...took to bed. Women also mixed lemon juice and water to soak a sponge in and use the sponge to clean out the swimmers. On that note, maybe the yarl didnt notice the smell because they are in a fishing village. Im sure there would have been a lingering aroma that might fool even the smartest of the men in that village?
I finished this book a couple days ago and had a lot of fun with it. I'm new to reading and it's my first romantasy haha Despite liking the book, I did have so some issues with it: the book not going deep into the culture and the gods, which was a waste, and Freya not having any female friends and the ones that she did consider on good terms ended up dying which SUCKS. I love hearing y'all opinions on the book
Spin by Rebecca Caprara. It's a beautiful retelling of the myth of Ariadne.
Oh, noooo on the lemon juice front! That just sounds painful tbh but I did hear women used to shove stuff up there tampon-style although I have no idea if it was at all effective. My only takeaway was that desperate people try any weird (and potentially harmful) thing.
On the actual book, I swear it sounds like a big nothing-burger. I can barely recall most of the plot except for their first meeting cause your intro with "settle down Nora Roberts" made me wheeze. Also, yet another reason why I'd rather go to ao3 for this kind of content. Why are books in this genre so bad?!?
Wow, that’s one wild ride of a story
Offering to the algorithm gods. Also I lose continued faith in the general readership for how much they applaud mid to terrible books. I rely on people like yall to restore sanity. Like its one thing to like something while acknowledging its faults, but the amount of people who think some very shitty books are actually good is truly horrifying
lol I saw the lemon thing used also in the showThe Great, and I thought it was so silly. I don't know if it's historically accurate, but why lemons? They had so many other methods back then. And if this story has magic why not come up with something new? It's not actual historical fiction.
24:34 it’s is a thing, sex workers used to soak a small piece of sponge in either lemon juice or vinegar and err insert it to avoid pregnancy.
But it's been proven to be 1. Not work as contraceptive and 2. Really irritating for the vagina
24:48 yeah i'm fairly lemons don't grow in scandinavia, but indeed the vikings traded a LOT ; still impossible though considering how long it would take and these would NEVER arrive still good
Rocking the haircut, Maria! Also, what does Katie’s shirt say? I lost a bit of time squinting at it and had to rewind to where I got distracted.
Edited to add: I seem to remember reading about lemon halves being used as diaphragms with the added bonus of the juice acting as a spermicide, but that doesn’t lesson your concern about yeast infections one bit. Also it was the eighteenth century.
lol, it reads as follows: Does a bumblebee fall in love with every flower he f**ks. 🐝 -Kt
Also I have to say I can't believe the laziness of these names, Frejah and Bjørn? Like the most common Norwegian/Nordic names? Really? And the fact that the other realm is called Nordeland? Which is basically just the actual Norwegian county of Nordland, meaning northern land, like Nordmenn, another name for Norwegians meaning northern people.
Alexander Dreymon is the last kingdom guy coming out of the water 😉
Commenting for the algorithm
Check out “Curse of the Fae Prince” by TJ Weeks. There’s good and bad but I fell in love with the Prince.
Petition to send lemons to Norway. One like equals 10 lemons.
Why is the left one complacent as the other looks to the stars for answers?
To me it felt very obvious that the author really loves Bjorn as a character and just made up all the other shit around this fantasy she had of him and that's why all the other characters are throw-aways with zero effort
Algorithm bump!
Damn right before i read it
Can you guys consider yourselves influencers if you’re influencing people about which books NOT to waste time reading? 😂 #existentialthoughtsat4am
I think it is also odd how the jarl character is linked to Týr; the character is not particularly important in the existing mythology, pretty much only showing up in the Fenrir & Ragnarok stories. While there are attestations of association with the thing assembly & etymological ties to the celestial/divine *deywós Proto-Indo-European root, the textual evidence is pretty scant.
Please keep in mind that the actual mythology was more than medieval icelandic histories. The worship of tyr, freyr, njörd or other 'irrelevant' gods was much more important and widespread in mainland scandinavia if we trust toponymy.
I think we've moved past the need for mythology retellings. Please, no more mythology retellings.
24:00 Ok, the lemon thing is real-ish. Lemon *juice* was not used straight, it was usually diluted and mixed. Unrelatedly, half of a lemon peel would be used as a diaphragm, with the trace acids and oils having a contraceptive effect.
If you're morbidly currious, there are dozens of alleged medieval contraception methods- Avicenna lists twenty, and there were plenty more- most of which either don't work (magic amulets) or do work but are obviously insane (honey and *lead salts*).
LMFAO There’s just no original ideas anymore when it comes to these “Romantasy” books. They’re all the same garbage elements even if the plot is told in different ways SMH can’t wait for you to read The Stars Are Dying by Chloe C. Penaranda XD it’s the worst of the worst, plagiarism allegations aside LOL and When the Moon Hatched, which was dubbed as “the next Fourth Wing”.
Whenever american authors go 'norse' i cry 😂 this is so awful......
She's Canadian.
@@missallisnow which is in northern america ??? Point being, anglophone authors rarely have any real interest in iron age scandinavian and baltic history, and as someone who does love that depth and breadth of cultural contacts and variety in beliefs, it tends to always be a disappointment that big media products sidestep it entirely for the ubermensch fairy lore variety.
@@jasminv8653 welcome to lazy fantasy world building.
@@missallisnow which is exactly my point
Her family name is Jensen, which originates from scandinavia, so she might have parents or grandparents who live or have lived there.
Sounds like a hot mess