St. Lucia's Day

Happy St. Lucia's Day! Most Americans don't celebrate (or even necessarily know what it is) and I probably wouldn't either if it weren't for my beloved American Girl Doll stories featuring Kirsten, who appealed to me because I'm partly Swedish too.

The celebration involves the stories of St. Lucia, who supposedly gave all her wealth to the poor and was martyred for her faith. It's also a celebration of light, as most celebrations around the Winter Solstice tend to be, and would be especially appreciated in Scandinavia with so little sunlight this time of year. The traditional costume involves a wreath of candles worn on the head, because St. Lucia needed both hands free to bring food and supplies to Christians hiding in the catacombs.

Yet there's a different Lucy character in Scandanavia, Lussi. From Wikipedia: "Lussinatta, the Lussi Night, was marked in Sweden 13 December. Then Lussi, a female being with evil traits, like a female demon or witch, was said to ride through the air with her followers, called Lussiferda. This itself might be an echo of the myth of the Wild Hunt, called Oskoreia in Scandinavia, found across Northern, Western and Central Europe. Between Lussi Night and Yule, trolls and evil spirits, in some accounts also the spirits of the dead, were thought to be active outside. It was believed to be particularly dangerous to be out during Lussi Night. According to tradition, children who had done mischief had to take special care, since Lussi could come down through the chimney and take them away, and certain tasks of work in the preparation for Yule had to be finished, or else the Lussi would come to punish the household. The tradition of Lussevaka – to stay awake through the Lussinatt to guard oneself and the household against evil, has found a modern form through throwing parties until daybreak. Another company of spirits was said to come riding through the night around Yule itself, journeying through the air, over land and water."

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The article later suggests that the folklore of Lussi and the traditions of St. Lucia combined to become the modern festival, but how interesting that there would be two opposite sides to the tradition. Riding through the air and coming down the chimney punishing children, Lussi sounds a lot like a combination of Santa Claus and his many scarier counterparts, such as Krampus. It seems that older traditions recognize the duality of powerful forces more so than our current cultural myths which usually only emphasize the friendly halves (at least in America. Other cultures still observe the punishing figures as well, I'd be curious to learn more about how they're celebrated!)

Merfolk of Scandinavia

Merpeople are such a fascinating study- I've been reading all about different tales and beliefs about the Sea Spirits of Scandinavia in Surlalune's Mermaid Tales From Around the World.

*The children of merpeople are called Marmaeler in Norway. If caught, they can give you knowledge of the future, but it's still best not to seek them out-seeing a Mermaid or Merman is a sign of a coming storm, and harming them is dangerous

*On the other hand, they can also help to protect people who have shown them kindness. There's one story from Norway in which a fisherman saw a merman shivering from cold and gave him his hose to wear-later the same merman warned him of a coming storm and he got to shore just in time.

*The River Spirit is called a Neck. He might sit on the water with a red cap on his head (interesting potential connection to Red Riding Hood??), but may also appear as a centaur, horse, or an old man with a long beard. They might punish cruel humans, such as haughty women who spurn their lovers, but may also themselves fall in love with a human woman and be a kind suitor.

*Necks are also excellent musicians, playing gold harps. It's possible to get lessons from them, if you present them with a black lamb and the promise of salvation.

*Sea creatures seem very concerned about their salvation in Scandinavia. There are multiple tales in which a neck cries and flings away his harp when told he will not be saved, but they cheer up if told that the opposite is true. In one story, a Neck asks a priest if he will have salvation, and the priest replies, "sooner will this cane sprout flowers." However, later on, his cane DOES sprout flowers, so he goes back and tells the Neck. This sheds some light on the motivation of Andersen's Little Mermaid-we often forget that she sacrifices her voice and the pain of her legs not just for the chance of love, but also to gain immortality.

*There is a tale in Sweden with many variations, "The King's Son and Messeria." In it, a Mermaid has power over a young boy, usually because she tricks his parents into promising him to them (using the old "promise me what is under your girdle" trick to a woman who doesn't yet know she's pregnant, "promise me the first thing you meet on land," or just plain old "give me your firstborn or you'll die in this storm at sea.") They attempt to keep the boy away from the Mermaid, either keeping him in a high tower or away from water, but of course he eventually ends up close to the water and she drags him into her underground kingdom.

There, he meets a beautiful young girl, also a captive of the Mermaid, and falls in love. The Mermaid gives him impossible tasks to do. Usually, impossible tasks in fairy tales are made possible because the protagonist was kind to animals along his or her journey, and they help them, so it almost feels like they were really a test of character-anyone who shows kindness will succeed-but these were truly meant to be impossible. Only by his lover helping him with magic, unbeknownst to the Mermaid, does he succeed. Mermaids in these stories are kidnappers; cruel, and unambiguously villains, functioning as a witch would in similar tales. The lovers manage to escape her, and sometimes she dies in spectacular ways-bursting because she tries to drink the sea (because the lovers transformed into ducks) and took in too much water, or splitting in two when she sees the sun.

*There's a creepy Sea Nymph in Sweden whose hand will appear through a door in a fishing hut where the fishers are all asleep for the night. Wise fishers know to ignore the hand, but a boastful man claimed he wasn't afraid; he took the hand and it drew him out, and he disappeared for three years. He returned on the day of his wife's remarriage, for he was presumed dead, but disobeyed the Nymph's warning not to step inside the church, and he died three days later.

Like any creatures, Sea folk can be kind, cruel, or neutral; but their supernatural abilities and elusive nature make them alluring and mysterious. If you happen to be in Scandinavia, especially around the water, watch out for the Sea Nymph, take cover if you spot any merpeople while out on the water, but assure any Necks who ask you that they can indeed have salvation :)

Illustrations by John Bauer

*I have already posted on the Danish mermaid tales found in this book, if you want to read about more Scandinavian sea creatures!

Tatterhood

If you hear noise and clatter this Christmas Eve, it may not be Santa's reindeer, but a band of witches and trolls coming to party:

"One Christmas eve...there arose a frightful noise and clatter in the hallway outside the queen's apartment. Tatterhood asked what it was that was making such a noise outside.

"Oh," said the queen, "it isn't worth asking about."

But Tatterhood wouldn't give in until she found out all about it; and so the queen told her it was a pack of trolls and witches who had come there to celebrate Christmas. So Tatterhood said that she would just go out and drive them away. In spite of all they could say, and however much they begged and asked her to leave the trolls alone, she just had to go out and drive the witches off. She begged the queen to be careful and keep all the doors shut tight, so that not one of them would open the least bit."

-Excerpt from Tatterhood, a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Asbjornsen and Moe. You can read the full text here, which I would highly recommend: it's a tale that features an strong, active heroine who not only saved the castle from the trolls and witches, but then saved her sister who had been turned into a calf, and engineered marriages for both of them. The heroine is also very ugly, but as often happens in the world of fairy tales, transforms at the end into a beautiful bride. It's similar to Cinderella, where objects are one by one turned into gorgeous finery, but in this tale she is the one who transforms herself. Which makes it seem as though she had the power to transform all along, but chose to stay in her ugly state. It's a very empowering tale for girls and women everywhere, especially those who may not conform to society's expectations for desirability, and one that I would love to see become more well known.

Images- John Bauer, Lauren A. Mills

Icelandic Yule Lads

Despite the sensationalized title of the Buzzfeed article, The 13 Horrifying Christmas Trolls of Iceland, I didn't think these trolls were all that horrifying. But I do find the concept interesting-instead of one night in which there is a supernatural visitor who either gifts or punishes, in Iceland there are visitors for 13 nights straight! Unlike the 12 Days of Christmas, which start on Christmas Day and traditionally end before Epiphany on January 6, these lads visit in the nights leading up to Christmas. The article has images of each troll, as well as the night they visit.

The visits begin tonight, with Stekkjarstaur, the Sheep Harasser! Although the Lads aren't nearly as terrifying as Krampus, if children are naughty they will stuff their shoes with rotting potatoes instead of gifts-definitely worse than our American idea of coal! Other Lads to come:

Spoon Licker

Door Slammer

Sausage Swiper

Scary Fairy Tales: The Child Phantom

A Swedish tale, The Child Phantom

******************************************

 "Many years ago there died on the estate of Sundshult, in the parish of Nafverstad, a child of illegitimate birth, which, because of this, was not christened and could not be accorded Christian burial, or a place in heaven, and whose spirit, therefore, was left to wander the earth, disturbing the rest and making night uncomfortable for the people of the neighborhood.

 "One time, just before Christmas, the parish shoemaker, on his rounds, was detained at the house of a patron, and, having much work before him, he was still sewing late into the night, when he was unexpectedly startled from his employment by a little child appearing before him, which said, "Why do you sit there? Move aside."
 "For what?" asked the shoemaker.
 "Because I wish to dance," said the specter.
 "Dance away, then!" said the shoemaker.

 "When the child had danced some time, it disappeared, but returned soon and said, "I will dance again, and I'll dance your light out for you."
 "No," said the shoemaker, "let the light alone. But who are you that you are here in this manner?"
 "I live under the lower stone of the steps to the porch."
"Who put you there?" asked the shoemaker.
 "Watch when it dawns, and you will see my mother coming, wearing a red cap. But help me out of this, and I'll never dance again."

 "This the shoemaker promised to do, and the specter vanished. The next day a servant girl from the neighboring estate came, who wore upon her head a red handkerchief. Digging was begun under the designated step, and in time the skeleton of a child was found, encased in a wooden tub. The body was that day taken to the churchyard, and the mother, who had destroyed her child, turned over to the authorities. Since then the child specter has danced no more."

Elves at Christmas

The notion of elves being toymakers in the North Pole is a relatively recent one; however, there are much older folkloric beliefs concerning elves and their antics around the Christmas season. Elves might use that night to come to your house and have a party, and they might clear a dance floor if the family is out at church and frolic. They might also help themselves to your holiday feast! To get rid of them you can usually just turn on the lights, but be sure to be kind to them-you don't want to get on the bad side of elves, but they just may give you a gift in exchange for a favor! Some households would either leave porridge outside for the tomten (or elves/gnomes), or even leave a feast out on the table for them on Christmas Eve. This ritual is described more in the Christmas Carol at the end of this post.

In Iceland, New Year's Eve is Moving Day for the elves. It would be best to stay out of their way, but the very brave may try to use that as an opportunity to ask them what the future holds or receive treasures. Although, the ritual involves lying on the ground outside all night without falling asleep or moving, so it is often more dangerous than anything.

Encounters with elves can even be deadly at Christmas time, such as in the folktale of Hildur (who in some versions is a fairy queen but sometimes a Queen of the Elves). At her farm, a shepherd turns up dead every Christmas morning, and the cycle is doomed to continue until someone can break the spell.

Illustrations by Erik Forsman

This Swedish Christmas Carol, "The Gnomes' Christmas night", describes some of the actions of the tomten -from here.

Tomtarnas Julnatt

The Gnomes' Christmas Night

Christmas Carol
(English)

Midnight reigns,

It's quiet in the houses,

Quiet in the houses.

Everyone sleeps,

The candles are put out,

Candles put out.

Look, there comes

The gnomes out from the corners,

From the corners,

List'ning, watching,

Sneaking on their toes,

On their toes.

The nice people

Have left the sweet food,

The sweet food,

On the table

For a band of gnomes,

Band of gnomes.

How they frolic,

Skipping between dishes,

Between dishes,

Whisper, murmur¹

"It's good, the Christmas food,

Christmas food."

Porridge, ham,

The little piece of apple,

Piece of apple,

Ah how sweet

It tastes for little Gnomie²,

Little Gnomie².

Now the games!³

Happy laughter sounding,

Laughter sounding,

'Round the tree³

The gang merrily swings,

Merrily swings.

Night is ending.

Soon the friendly gnomes,

Friendly gnomes,

Quickly, neatly,

Putting all in order,

All in order.

Then, back

Into the quiet corners,

Quiet corners,

The gang of gnomes

Sneak on their toes,

On their toes.

Sources-mamalisa.com, The Old Magic of Christmas by Linda Raedisch

Gender roles in two Swedish fairy tales

Again, with feminism and gender roles such a hot topic in fairy tale studies, it's kind of impossible not to read fairy tales without that gender lens. Case in point, two Swedish fairy tales, one which has a male protagonist and one female.

In "The Maiden in the Castle of Rosy Clouds," by Harald Ostenson, a beautiful maiden appears to a poor, travelling worker, telling him that he must find her. The man, who is never named, has no idea how to start. Eventually he came across an old woman who told him of an old poem that tells of the Maiden in the castle of clouds, and the way to find her is to find a certain gray stallion, a red mantle, and a sword named Gull to kill an iron serpent.

Again, the man has no idea how to get these things. He goes about his life, but every few years he comes across a situation where someone else is in trouble. He bravely-sometimes arguably foolishly-attempts to rescue them. And each time he does, he finds himself holding the sword, or wearing the mantle, or riding a horse. But it has taken years and years, and by the time he does come across the castle, he is an old man-but the maiden makes him young and handsome again. 

In "The Queen" by Anna Wahlenberg, there is a beautiful girl named Adelgunda. She has eyes that are so large and expressive that she has twofold abilities-to see inside each person's character, and to express everything she is thinking and feeling without words. She falls in love with a neighboring prince, but knows that if she looks on him, her eyes will reveal her love, and it would be improper for her to love a royal prince. When she is supposed to meet him, she wears a veil to protect her secret. 

But the fact that Adelgunda refused to look on the Prince with her eyes made rumors spread-people assumed there was something wrong with his character she did not want to be made known, and people began to think badly of the Prince. His betrothed called off their engagement, and his own people became suspicious. So finally Adelgunda went to his kingdom to look him in the eyes, and in doing so betrays her feelings for him. But as she is turning to leave in shame, the Prince calls out for her not to leave, for he will make her his queen.

So it is clear that the man and woman do fit into the stereotypes found in many fairy tales-the man does daring feats of bravery and the woman looks beautiful while remaining much less active. But first of all I should point out that, though this image of a knight in shining armor battling dragons has become the typical fairy tale princely image, that is really not often the case-this story is more of an exception. Men are more likely to leave home, but really they don't do all that much more. More often than not they happen to come across magical objects or animal helpers that advise the main character and guide him to a happy ending.

And in "The Queen," Adelgunda's actions really do show bravery-she is willing to suffer humiliation and shame rather than let someone else's reputation get ruined. It's just a quieter form of bravery, but admirable nonetheless. I'm always wary of feminist readings that seem to deem sword weilding types of bravery, or other stereotypically male actions, as "better."

And another thing I've been mulling over is how to stay historically accurate. It sometimes frustrates me that we have all these historical novels in which females go against the grain, taking initiative and sometimes joining men in more athletic pursuits-which in itself is great-but at the end everyone else just accepts it. The love interest actually likes her better for being unique, all is usually forgiven. In most cases that's just our culture interposing our current ideals on history but in a way that oversimplifies things. 

I was thinking of this as Tony and I were rewatching "Mulan" the other night (thank you Netflix instant play!). The ending seemed too perfect and frustratingly unrealistic to me, but then Tony told me it was based on a true story. I did a little digging-it is based on an old Chinese ballad and Mulan may or may not have been an actual woman. Either way, the fact that the culture at large valued this story of a female who dressed as a man and was greatly respected in her twelve years as a soldier speaks volumes.

"Hua Mulan Goes to War"

Yet that isn't true in every culture. The historical equivalent in Western culture, Joan of Arc, obviously did not fare so well-despite being a brave hero, she was burned at the stake. If a Cinderella in certain cultures had refused to do work, she could have been beaten or worse. One of the ways fairy tales are so powerful is their ability to give us hope, but I don't know how I feel about giving young adult fairy tale novels readers such a skewed view of history. The more I learn about history the more I realize how shocking fairy tales really were-if not in their portrayal of women, then for the fact of people marrying outside of their class, or marrying for love. So much of how we understand fairy tales is totally changed when you learn more about the historical context, and mixing eras of history can lead to misunderstanding.

Illustrations by John Bauer

Crow-Cloak: A Swedish Cinderella

Peter Newell

" 'Did you ever hear tell of Crow-Cloak? She was really a woman, though people used to say she was an awful fool.'

All the people of the farm go to church, but Crow-cloak must stay home and is very sad.

A mountain-troll comes to comfort her, dresses her in a white dress, making her very lovely, and sends her to church, where all look at her in amazement. Her horse is outside. She jumps up, saying: 'White before me! Black behind me! Nobody shall see whither I go.' Crow-cloak is sitting in her wonted place when people return to the farm, talking about the beautiful lady.

The next Sunday, lest Crow-cloak should follow, they pour a jug of salt into the ashes, and bid her pick it up. The troll assists and sends her to church in a silver dress and shoes.

On the third Sunday, a bag of peas is thrown into the ashes. The troll sends Crow-cloak to church in a golden dress and shoes. In her hurry to leave, Crow-cloak does not see a trough of tar placed in the church doorway and loses a shoe. Everyone marvels at its small size.

The prince announces he will marry whomsoever the shoe fits. A woman at the farm wants her daughter to be the queen. She chops her daughter's heel and cuts her toe. The shoe is squeezed on, but birds betray the girl on the way to church.

'What meants that singing in the wood?' asks the prince.

'I suppose the birds are warbling.'

The prince is suspicious, and returns to the farm, but finds nobody, the woman having thrust Crow-cloak beneath a water-butt in the courtyard. The prince, supposing his bride spoke the truth, returns to the church, but more loudly still from every bush is heard: 'Chop heel, cut toe. In the courtyard is the girl whom the shoe fits.'

Thither the prince returns, seeks and finds Crow-cloak, and marries her. Neither the woman nor her daughter gets any profit for their pains!"

This tale was originally found in Marian Roalfe Cox's collection of Cinderella tales, but I am reading it from Surlalune's Cinderella Tales from Around the World. I don't travel much for work, but this week I happened to be sent to Nashville. As I was planning for my trip it occured to me that Heidi Anne Heiner of Surlalune happens to live in Nashville, so I emailed her on the offchance she'd be able to/want to meet up with me.

And I'm so glad I did! Heidi was sweet enough not only to meet up with me (despite her very busy schedule), but gifted me some books! In addition to her Cinderella collection I also got the Sleeping Beauties, and another book that isn't from her collection I'll have to write up when I have more time to look at it. It was such a pleasure to meet with someone whose blog, books, and website I have admired for so long. When I first started to do basic internet research on Beauty and the Beast, years ago, I discovered that all internet searches seemed to lead to Surlalune, and it was the best resource. I use it ALL the time for this blog (Peter Newell illustration of Cinderella? Got that from Surlalune's Cinderella Illustrations page).

So Heidi, it was an honor, I hope I wasn't too fangirly! The books are such wonderful resources, I highly recommend them to anyone interested in the history of fairy tales and how they spread around the world!

*Also-this tale variant provides fascinating references to color which fit perfectly with the idea of viewing fairy tales as alchemical stories...

The Barrel Bung: A Swedish Fairy Tale

The people of the Bolinge parish were suffering from famine. All the cows had seemed to run dry, but for the rich, elderly Lady Skinflint and her ugly daughter. Though the old lady and her daughter only had four cows, they had hundreds of cheeses and tubs of butter to sell. The people didn't understand how theirs could be the only house which produced milk, but there was nothing they could do.

Finally, when Star, the wife Jonson's cow stopped giving milk, her eldest son Jerker decided to do something about it. As he went to bed, he left his candle burning, knowing that the tomte, or goblin, would come by to blow it out. When the tomte came, Jerker jumped up and bowed to him, and asked the tomte if he had moved out, since the blessings seemed to have left their house and gone to Lady Skinflint in the manor. The tomte would only tell him that, if he could look into Lady Skinflint's storeroom, there he would find the answers.

So the next morning, Jerker awoke at dawn, and traded his nice Sunday clothes for some rye cakes with butter, and sausages. He went on to the manor and offered his services as a farmhand, giving some of his food to the current farmhand in order to convince him to pretend to be sick, so they would hire him.

Jerker tried to get a glimpse into the storeroom, but it was kept locked. The ugly daughter would hand him cheeses from the storeroom to bring to the larder, but he could not see inside the storeroom. He managed to pretend to hurt himself and steady himself on the door, but secretly stuck a stick inside the lock and broke it off. With the lock broken, the lady and her daughter stood guard in front of the door.

In the evening, Jerker pretended to fall asleep, but then snuck down and waited outside the storeroom until the lady and her daughter came. He watched as the old woman fished in her pocket and brought out a big barrel stopper, or bung, and wedged it in a hole in the wall. The old woman sat down on a milking stool, placing a pail just under the bung, and patted the bung, saying, "Come, Boss. Come, Brindle Bell. Come, all you cows."
"Which one will you milk first today?" asked her daughter.
"I think I'll have the parish clerk's Bean. Come Bean, come Bean," she called.

As Jerker watched a large cow's udder appeared under the bung on the wall. The woman gripped it and sang:
"Cow of gold,
cow of gold,
give as much milk
as the pail will hold."

Milk came from the cow's udder and filled the pail. The old woman did the same to the sheriff's cow, but when she suggested Mother Johnson's cow Star, Jerker decided to put a stop to it.He called,
"Cow of gold,
cow of gold,
knock the hag out,
knock her cold."

Instead of an udder, a cow's leg shot forth from the bung and kicked the hag. Jerker continued to sing the song, and as he did, the cow's leg continued to kick the mother and her daughter. The old lady was angry, but eventually pleaded with Jerker, promising to do anything in order to get him to stop. He told her to bring him all the gold she and her daughter had earned by milking the cows of the village, and he also took the bung.

Jerker woke the manservant, and together they carried the bag of gold back to the village, which they distributed equally to all the villagers. The people were grateful and decided to all give Jerker 10% of their share. Jerker was able to buy a farm and marry the girl he liked. Lady Skinflint and her daughter became poor. The bung he destroyed in a fire so that it would never harm anyone again.

*Story by Anna Wahlenberg, illustration by John Bauer. By the way, interesting article on John Bauer here, that compares him to contemporary fairy tale artists

The Magician's Cape

This would be a good story to use if doing a study of the significance of blonde hair in fairy tales-also note the cleverness and self-sufficiency of the heroine. This is a Swedish tale by Anna Wahlenberg.

Once there was an evil magician who filled his palace with frightened young girls that he had taken from their families. He forced the girls to dance and sing for him, and as soon as one of them displeased him, he would shove her into the forest outside, which was full of bears and wolves, and many of the girls never found their way home again.

Once the magician had gotten rid of one girl, he would don his black flying cape and search the world for a pretty new victim. Once he found a maiden who pleased him, he would spread his cape at her feet, and one she stepped on it, he would have power over her and whisk her away to his palace. During one of his flights, he came across a smith's daughter, Alvida, sitting at a window and combing her yellow hair.

The magician spread his cape before her, claiming that she was too beautiful for her feet to touch the ground. She laughed, although a little frightened at first, and suggested the magician take better care of his cape. The magician followed, and blew a magic whistle to cause a ram to run for Alvida, hoping to force her to step into his cape that way-but Alvida ran behind a pine tree. Alvida tripped over a root, running from the ram, and the magician spread his cape, hoping to trap her, but she fell to the side, and the ram's horns caused a tear in the cape.

Alvida felt sorry that she should be the cause of a tear in such a lovely cape, so she made a needle from two thorns and took one of her golden hairs as a thread and mended the tear. The magician held the cape up to the light, as if to inspect the mend, and as Alvida stood, he lowered the cape to the ground and she stepped in it. The cape turned into a pair of wings and Alvida found herself being carried through the air as the magician's face changed-his eyes into balls of fire, his mouth in a grin full of fangs.

Alvida cried out for help, and as if in answer, the strand of yellow hair caught in the branch of a tree, and wouldn't break, no matter how hard the magician pulled. To free it, he had to let Alvida go, and she slipped down to the ground and ran home as fast as she had ever run in her life.

The magician flew back to the castle full of rage and shut himself up in his room. He lay in bed but could not sleep-he thought at first the moon was shining, but it was the yellow hair Alvida had sewn into his cape, "which shone out as brightly against the black cloth as a good deed shines against an evil one." The magician rolled up the cape so the seam was on the inside, but the radiance filled the room again. Angry, the magician took a knife, cut the seam out, and threw it out the window-but as soon as he closed his eyes, the seam was still in the cape, shining brightly. He tried bringing the cape to his deepest, darkest cellar, but no matter what he did, brightness filled the room.

As he could not sleep for several nights, the magician flew back to Alvida's village. He demanded that she undo the seam, but Alvida remembered that trolls and magicians never dare force their way into Christian homes, so Alvida was still and did not answer the magician. He offered her many wonderful things, to which she did not respond.

The magician thought that giving her a gift would make her grateful, so he picked the most luscious fruits from his garden and planted them all around Alvida's window. When the magician returned to bed, the golden thread only shone faintly, and he could sleep.

Alvida realized the magician was trying to persuade her to rip out her thread. She did not touch any of the fruit herself, but allowed travellers to take the fruit. Every evening the vines were bare, and in the morning they were full again.

The magician still could not sleep in peace, but Alvida would not take out the thread. He was forced to bring gifts to the tired and unhappy to dim the light of the thread. If he dared carry off another maiden, the golden seam shone so blindingly he did not get a moment's peace until he had brought her home where she belonged.

Images by John Bauer

December Liturgy of the Dead

Commenter Heidi shared on my recent post on storytelling at Christmastime the link to the story of the December Liturgy of the Dead. I believe this tale can also be found in Thomas Keightley's Fairy Mythology, but I had no idea it was still in circulation in other parts of the world. So in keeping with my own advice about balancing the warm and fuzzy holiday feelings with some chilling tales from our ancestors, here's the story for you all to enjoy:



Gladys Owen


"The story takes place in Oslo, where there lived a woman, a bit over her prime age. It was Christmas Eve and she had decided to go to church Christmas morning. During the night she woke up, her watch had stopped, so she did not know what time it was. She walked over to the window and looked toward the church. There was light in all the windows. She dressed herself, took the hymn book and went to church. It was empty in the streets and she saw noone. When she arrived the church, she sat down where she used to sit. She looked around and thought the people there looked so pale and strange. There was no one she knew, but there were many she thought she had seen before, she just did not remember quite where. When the priest arrived, he was someone she did not know, though she thought she had seen him before. He was a tall and pale man.

The priest preached beautifully, but it was quiet, and not coughing in the churchroom as she was accustomed to. It was so quiet that she almost got a little scared by it. When they began to sing, a woman, who sat next to her, bent towards her and whispered into her ear: Throw the coat loosely on your shoulders and leave this place. If you stay, this will be your end, because this is time for the dead. The wife was afraid, because when she heard her voice and looked at her, she realized that it was neighbor woman who had died long ago. She was really scared. She put on her coat, like the woman had said and left. As she walked, it was as if they grabbed her. Her legs trembled so that she thought she would fall. When she came out on the stairs, she felt how they hold her back in her coat, so she let go of the coat and she ran home as fast as she could. Back home, she collapsed of the anxiety.

Next morning, when people came to church, they found her coat on the stairs, torn apart into a thousand pieces."

Tell that one at your next Christmas party :)

Peer Gynt

I decided to teach a unit on Peer Gynt this semester, and I had found a copy of the Ibsen play over the summer. The children's versions of the story are all so different from each other I wanted to know what the original was and teach that to my kids.

Well, first of all, I learned that the Ibsen play isn't the original, and I also learned why children's versions are so vastly different from each other. Nothing about the play is child-friendly. Apparantly Ibsen meant it as a critique on Norwegian culture, particularly the life "based on avoidance."

I enjoyed the first part of the play more--probably because I had associations with the scenes I knew from the music, and because I thought Peer would eventually be redeemed. But it starts off with Peer, notoriously lazy and an exaggerater of stories, kidnapping and raping another man's bride and then leaving her. He finds some peasant women out to seduce trolls and says they can seduce him instead. There's the famous In the Hall of the Mountain King scene, but whereas in the children's versions they make the Troll King's daughter out to be the villain and Peer the innocent victim, Peer's really the one taking advantage of the Troll Princess.



Basically the whole rest of the play is Peer going around taking advantage of people. Towards the end it got pretty trippy. From wikipedia: "Ibsen wrote Peer Gynt in deliberate, liberating[neutrality is disputed] disregard of the limitations that the conventional stagecraft of the 19th century imposed on drama.[7] Its 40 scenes move uninhibitedly in time and space and between consciousness and the unconscious, blending folkloric fantasy and unsentimental realism.[8]"

I can't really imagine this play being a hit today, I'm surprised the first edition sold as well as it did in 1867.

What keeps the story known today is the incidental music Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg wrote to accompany it. The music for "In a Morning Mood" is also very famous and pretty but I wanted to share the pieces that are utterly sad and yet so beautiful.

"Solveig's Song"-Solveig left her family and the good graces of her town to stick with Peer, and waited for him her whole life while he was off traveling and seducing other girls. This piece is a perfect picture of her waiting for him to come home, perhaps tormented as she wonders if he ever will...(or WHY she decided to go with him in the first place...)


Aase is Peer's mother. Though he's a grievance to her, Peer does have true affection for his mother. Aase is torn by her mother love for Peer-knowing that part of who he is was because of his drunk father, but also knowing that what he does is wrong. Often, she'll be chastising Peer in the play, and then another character will agree, and she'll get all offensive and "How dare you insult my boy! No son could be better!" (not a direct quote). In fact I think Aase is my favorite character in the play.

Before I read the play I was familiar with Grieg's "Aase's death," so I knew she was going to die. I hate spoilers.


I tried tracking down the "original" story. Supposedly it can be found in the collected Norwegian tales of P.C. Asbjornsen and Jorgen E. Moe, but none of the copies at my library had a story with a character called "Peer Gynt." Which would be pretty unusual--characters in Western fairy tales rarely have names other than those which define their physical traits. Except for Russian tales, where all the men are named Ivan. Ibsen believed Peer Gynt to be a real person, so one person's name probably got attatched to one of the legends.

The original fairy tale involved Peer Gynt saving maidens from a troll. Trolls are pretty common in Norwegian folklore, like evil jealous stepmothers. So there are several fairy tales that could be the predecessor to Peer Gynt--I may do a later post on those.