#lindwormposting

i love king lindworm as a story and get so frustrated with so many modern attempts to retell it because like they're good stories but they're not This story. is king lindworm a story about love? not really. is it a story about justice? revenge? not really. king lindworm is a story about being born a monster and knowing from birth that you are something repulsive and unwanted. the lindworm desires not to be human but to be wed before its younger brother. the lindworm wants to at least be granted the birthright of its seniority if it can have nothing else. his intended wives find him too monstrous to love and the maiden who comes after them does not do it out of love. she does not trick him out of his skin because she wants to love him but because she wants the monster gone. there are few versions where the lindworm wants to be human, few stories where the lindworm has a choice. would the lindworm still be wed without his humanity? can the lindworm still be loved? does the blame rest heavier on the shoulders of the unwanted son than it does on those who brought him into the world and loathed him for being in it? i am feeling normal about the lindworm.