-... Han Kunde ju Kläda Sig så Grann...-

[regndoft]

Found this interesting little record of south-Swedish folklore in the ethnological study on Näcken and thought I'd share it with you. It was recorded in Skåne in 1881, and is relating to how women who haven't yet been to church after childbirth are extra vulnerable to the menacing watersprite:

"Some wives are, when they have yet to be taken to church, so vulnerable to the Stream man's intrusiveness that they, for protection, when there is nothing between them and the sky, wear one of their husband's clothes; for if they wear as much as his hat, the rascal doesn't have any power over them. In Rebbelberga parish, Bjäre county, the village of Skörpinge, there served a farm maid many years ago now, I knew her very well, who was always so exposed to the Stream man's impudence, that she always walked around dressed in men's clothing and couldn't stand anyone calling her by her real name."

Now, I'm not going to draw any conclusions here. These beliefs are spread by oral tradition; it's impossible to tell if the person who told this snippet on information is really recalling something s/he had personal experience from.

I'm just saying, that from a queer historical point of view, that last sentence is quite intriguing though.

Comments

[stalkerbunny.livejournal.com]

As you can see I'm catching up on posts

*cackle* Oh, how nice. :'D
That is indeed pretty curious from a modern point of view, even if it's impossible to say what her (if the story is true) real motivation was. >3>

Sometimes it's just...strange to think about people in past times, because certainly they were people but their culture also affected them deeply I wonder sometimes how well we can ever understand them. =3=

[taiyou_to_tsuki.livejournal.com]

O rly.

I know. :D

Mm, and we will never know... None the less, it's an interesting way to see it. It's fun to think that someone's secret is safe with us, decades into the future... |D

I suppose so. Sometimes, I don't think we do. I'm often struck by this thing with historical fictional novels, that sometimes it's like... Everybody were the same. Everybody had the same values imposed by religion and folk beliefs, there was a limited amount of professions, of languages...

And in a way I guess that makes sense, because many people did follow the religious and social norms at the time. But when it comes to people as individuals, it still seems like they lack a lot of character. Often, what is remarkable about the main character is that s/he stands our in a homogene crowd. Like most people back then didn't have dreams, ideas, wonderings. Like everybody were simply mindless pawns that sucked up any information given by authority. And, 's just... Something I refuse to accept. :/

[stalkerbunny.livejournal.com]

Isn't it though? ^__^

You mean historical novels that portray a time before when they were written? Because even older novels portraying the present back then give me that impression sometimes (if I understood what you meant correctly, that is). Either bad writing is bad in every age or...characterization styles might have changed too? Dunno. *ponders*
But you're right, that doesn't change the fact that there have always been people who could think on their own, even if it wasn't encouraged by society (is it even today?)