Suppose you meet a woman who's married and has a child, and she's miserable. She's upset for a rather valid reason, like being unable to return home and thus feeling trapped by her situation. Suppose you had a way to help her one wish come true, but doing so would mean she'll abandon her family. What would your course of action be? That's the sort of situation presented in one of the sidequests in the game Heroine's Quest.
The first screenshot I took by myself for this blog!
For those not in the know, Heroine's Quest is a point-and-click Adventure Game by Crystal Shard, in the style of Sierra's Hero's Quest series. You play as a female adventurer whom you can name yourself, as she travels through Midgard and Svartalfheim in an attempt to stop Ragnarok. A game with a heavy Norse theme, with various references to Norse mythology and some clever Easter Eggs. Great game, in my opinion.
One of the side quests in the game involves a character named Hervor. Hervor lives in the town of Fornsigtuna, the biggest town in the game. She is married to the smith Volund, and together they have a child, named Heime. Hervor is in fact the first character the player interacts with, and she is the one to give you the combat tutorial.
Hervor doesn't really affect the plot in any significant way, but the moment you meet her, the way her voice sounds, you can tell something is off about her. She always sounds sad, except for one very telling moment: when her son gets kidnapped. Hervor never sounds happy; only sad. That's something an astute player will figure out from the get go; the question, though, is why is she sad. Other characters in the game that also live in Fornsigtuna will mention that Hervor is not from the city, and that she came when she married her husband. Volund, for his part, does not say where she is from, and whenever other characters start speaking about Hervor in his presence, he will silence them. Hervor herself states that she can never return to where she's from, and that she misses her homeland.
One of the books in the Adventurer's Guild of Fornsigtuna makes quick mention of something called the swan maiden, a swan that takes human form, but can be stuck in that form if her wings are taken away. Certainly just a curious tidbit, correct?
Well, no. Take a look at Hervor. Notice anything? She has feathers in her hair, the sole character to do so. How curious, isn't it? And then, at night, you will often find Volund walking around town and stopping by some crates. Try to speak to him, he'll run away, pretending he didn't see you. (the game makes a point at letting you know that.) When you look at the crates, you will find one of them to be enchanted with runes. If you manage to open it up via magical means, you will find a pair of wings.
Volund kept a pair of wings hidden away in a crate that can not be opened by regular means. If you take a swan maiden's wings away, she stays in human form. Hervor has white feathers in her hair; swan feathers, to be precise. Have you reached the conclusion? If not, spoiler alert: Hervor is a swan maiden.
If you choose to return Hervor's wings, she will turn into a swan and fly away, never to return to Fornsigtuna. If you give the wings to Volund, he will claim them to be his property and he will never give them to Hervor. This speaks terribly of Volund, as he is willingly keeping Hervor from being her true self for the sake of having a beautiful wife.
Honestly, if that were all, there wouldn't be a question of what the right thing would be: giving Hervor her wings back. But there is one element in the equation that upsets this choice: Heime, Hervor and Volund's young son. There is no question that Volund and Hervor love their child unconditionally, and in fact when he goes missing, Hervor is mad with grief.
But Hervor doesn't think twice about becoming a swan and flying away if given the chance. If you giver her back her wings in the presence of her young son, she'll transform right in front of him and fly away, even if Heime cries out for her. It's such a short scene, barely fifteen seconds long, but seeing Heime cry out "mommy!" as his mother flies away, it really gets to you. This one scene is the one that will personally stay with me for a while, and is the reason I'm even writing this entry.
Hervor never really comes back to her family. Even at the end scene, with all the game's characters gathered around and celebrating the heroine's great feats, Hervor is still in swan mode, away from her family. The end credits show Volund and Heime flying with her using artificial wings, like Daedalus and Icarus. If you choose not to return Hervor's wings, she stays with her family, and the end credits show the three having some quality family time, teaching Heime how to use the bow.
So, not giving her back her wings is the right thing, right? Not entirely, no. Hervor might love her son, but it's clear her husband trapped her into this marriage. In mythology, when a man spies a swan maiden, he snatches away the feathered clothing that turns her back into a swan, and forces her to marry him. The game hints that this is precisely what Volund did, and by hint, I mean all but outright states. Volund keeps her wings hidden away from her in a crate, and the only way to find Hervor's wings is to catch him checking up on them in the middle of the night. Like it or not, Hervor did not consent entirely to this marriage, which raises all sorts of questions in regards to how Heime was conceived.
The question is thus: what's more important, a woman's happiness or a family's unity? A rather horrid question, but one difficult to answer. If you choose the woman's happiness, you break up an otherwise happy family. But how terrible that a family is willingly sacrificing the woman's happiness just for the sake of being together! This brings us to the kind of conclusion that sounds so obvious, it ought to be common sense: a woman's happiness and a family's togetherness ought not be mutually exclusive.
But the truth is that sometimes they truly are mutually exclusive. There are times where women AND men have to give up what makes them happy for the sake of their family, particularly the children. And many people enter a marriage because circumstances forced them to, not because they wanted to. Maybe it was an arranged marriage, or maybe they got married because a one night stand led to a pregnancy. In any case, this can lead to the home being more of a cage instead of a sanctuary.
That's why Hervor always sounds so sad: she's a caged bird (literally a bird in this case). Hervor didn't choose to get married, Volund tricked her into it. But Hervor has a family now; a young child who loves her and a dedicated husband. Leaving without a goodbye isn't fair to them, but keeping her wings away isn't fair to her. And it is not fair for one person to sacrifice their happiness for the sake of others.
We're going in circles now; we've yet to reach any substantial conclusion. But maybe that's the point, there is no answer to find here, nothing to put an end to this conundrum once and for all. Or maybe the conclusion is that EVERY member of the family has the right to be happy, and that a family doesn't ask one member to bare the burden of being the unhappy one just for the sake of the other's happiness. A family does what it can to make sure every member is happy. And in a way, Heroine's Quest comes to that conclusion too, as Volund and Heime join Hervor in the sky.
It is not fair for a woman to sacrifice her happiness for the sake of her family, but likewise is it unfair for the woman to abandon her family just for the sake of her happiness. A moral dilemma with no easy answer, presented by a video game. What's your opinion?
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