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Jun. 23rd, 2010 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regndoftToday was boring.
Have some Swedish legends.
The Priest’s Daughter Who Knew Magic – Dalsland
The priest’s wife had died. One day the priest was out walking with his daughter. They passed a field, where seven men were ploughing.
“Dad, do you think I can stop the six ploughs?”
“Who taught you that?” the priest said.
“Mum did”, said the girl.
“Why not the seventh?” asked the priest.
“Firstborns are the horses and firstborn is the man, and rowan wood is in the plough”.
When they came home she asked, if he thought she could milk the precentor’s cows.
“Who taught you that?” asked the priest.
“Mum did”, the lass said.
“Show it to me”, said the priest.
So she put two knives in the wall. Then she started milking them, terribly much. Finally she told her father, that now there’s blood in the milk. “You keep milking”, said the priest. A couple of days later the precentor came to the rectory and said that both his cows had died. But the priest was honest enough to pay him for them.
Another tale that shows that clerks were thought to be all but against the workings of magic, and a kind of... Strange perception of the word "honest".
Firstborns were generally believed to protect and be protected from many kinds of magic. The rowan tree (or mountain ash; I chose the name "rowan" since it's closer to the Swedish "rönn") has been considered a plant with magical qualities ever since pagan times. In the Norse tales, Thor and Loki almost drowned on their way to the giant Geirröd in a river that was being flooded by giantess Gjalp when he is able to grab a branch of the rowan tree and heave himself up again.
In Swedish folklore, the rowan was therefore sometimes called "Torshjälp", Thor's help, and was used to protect from or attract thunder. It was also thought to be able to ward off diseases and magic. The farmers would drill holes in the ploughs and fill them with pieces of rowan wood to ensure a good harvest.
The Farmhand Whose Fingers Were Freezing – Närke
By eastern Sand in Nora parish there lived a man called Anders Perse. Once when he was in the stable, his farmhand came inside and was cold. So he told him to get a good move around to warm himself up. But his fingers were still freezing all the same.
Then the Tomte came in: “You can borrow my mitten, you can borrow my mitten” - and offered him a mitten.
“To hell with your mitten”, cursed the farmhand. But he shouldn’t have said that, because it didn’t take long before he went up and down from floor to ceiling and hurt himself so badly he died on the spot.
Tomten was a tiny man with a temper who helped the peasants with the farm. He was stubborn and easily angered, but as strong as several full-grown men and had good hand with the animals. As long as you treated him with respect and rewarded him, he would be benign towards you.
And you better, because as we can see here, he didn't really know where to draw a line for punishment... ._.
Skogsrået as a Widow – Östergötland
There was a man they called Olle Skytt. He lived there in Hästhagen by Lake Harg, and he was such a good marksman, that one. He just had to blow for a while in the gun pipe, and lots of animals would come and gather together around the cottage. Birds landed and sang on the chimney, and elks and hares would pass right outside the windows.
But when he was dead, the widow sat on the edge of the bed and cried, because she was thinking of herself and her three children, and what would happen to them. A terribly grand lady entered the room, and a long green train dragged behind her. She sat down next to the widow and told her:
“Oh, don’t cry! I have it worse. I have seven children with him, I do”, she said.
Mostly chose this because I find it terribly amusing, to be honest.
Skogsrået or Skogsfrun, the Lady of the Forest, was the ruler of the woods and animals in it. She is mostly described as an amazingly pretty woman, but with a tail or a back like a rotten tree trunk, and her favourite hobby is seducing men working in the forest. Those who fancy her, she can watch over and give good hunting luck. But sometimes this comes with a price, as a man bound to her might never be at peace away from the forest and go mad.
She is often referred to as being the Swedish version of the Norwegian Huldra. I never use this name even if it'd be convenient partly because there are huge similarities, but also differences between the two creature. And despite its popularity in modern culture, the amount of times the name "huldra" is used in Swedish folktales can be counted on one or two hands.
Have some Swedish legends.
The Priest’s Daughter Who Knew Magic – Dalsland
The priest’s wife had died. One day the priest was out walking with his daughter. They passed a field, where seven men were ploughing.
“Dad, do you think I can stop the six ploughs?”
“Who taught you that?” the priest said.
“Mum did”, said the girl.
“Why not the seventh?” asked the priest.
“Firstborns are the horses and firstborn is the man, and rowan wood is in the plough”.
When they came home she asked, if he thought she could milk the precentor’s cows.
“Who taught you that?” asked the priest.
“Mum did”, the lass said.
“Show it to me”, said the priest.
So she put two knives in the wall. Then she started milking them, terribly much. Finally she told her father, that now there’s blood in the milk. “You keep milking”, said the priest. A couple of days later the precentor came to the rectory and said that both his cows had died. But the priest was honest enough to pay him for them.
Another tale that shows that clerks were thought to be all but against the workings of magic, and a kind of... Strange perception of the word "honest".
Firstborns were generally believed to protect and be protected from many kinds of magic. The rowan tree (or mountain ash; I chose the name "rowan" since it's closer to the Swedish "rönn") has been considered a plant with magical qualities ever since pagan times. In the Norse tales, Thor and Loki almost drowned on their way to the giant Geirröd in a river that was being flooded by giantess Gjalp when he is able to grab a branch of the rowan tree and heave himself up again.
In Swedish folklore, the rowan was therefore sometimes called "Torshjälp", Thor's help, and was used to protect from or attract thunder. It was also thought to be able to ward off diseases and magic. The farmers would drill holes in the ploughs and fill them with pieces of rowan wood to ensure a good harvest.
The Farmhand Whose Fingers Were Freezing – Närke
By eastern Sand in Nora parish there lived a man called Anders Perse. Once when he was in the stable, his farmhand came inside and was cold. So he told him to get a good move around to warm himself up. But his fingers were still freezing all the same.
Then the Tomte came in: “You can borrow my mitten, you can borrow my mitten” - and offered him a mitten.
“To hell with your mitten”, cursed the farmhand. But he shouldn’t have said that, because it didn’t take long before he went up and down from floor to ceiling and hurt himself so badly he died on the spot.
Tomten was a tiny man with a temper who helped the peasants with the farm. He was stubborn and easily angered, but as strong as several full-grown men and had good hand with the animals. As long as you treated him with respect and rewarded him, he would be benign towards you.
And you better, because as we can see here, he didn't really know where to draw a line for punishment... ._.
Skogsrået as a Widow – Östergötland
There was a man they called Olle Skytt. He lived there in Hästhagen by Lake Harg, and he was such a good marksman, that one. He just had to blow for a while in the gun pipe, and lots of animals would come and gather together around the cottage. Birds landed and sang on the chimney, and elks and hares would pass right outside the windows.
But when he was dead, the widow sat on the edge of the bed and cried, because she was thinking of herself and her three children, and what would happen to them. A terribly grand lady entered the room, and a long green train dragged behind her. She sat down next to the widow and told her:
“Oh, don’t cry! I have it worse. I have seven children with him, I do”, she said.
Mostly chose this because I find it terribly amusing, to be honest.
Skogsrået or Skogsfrun, the Lady of the Forest, was the ruler of the woods and animals in it. She is mostly described as an amazingly pretty woman, but with a tail or a back like a rotten tree trunk, and her favourite hobby is seducing men working in the forest. Those who fancy her, she can watch over and give good hunting luck. But sometimes this comes with a price, as a man bound to her might never be at peace away from the forest and go mad.
She is often referred to as being the Swedish version of the Norwegian Huldra. I never use this name even if it'd be convenient partly because there are huge similarities, but also differences between the two creature. And despite its popularity in modern culture, the amount of times the name "huldra" is used in Swedish folktales can be counted on one or two hands.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-29 07:55 pm (UTC)Cursing herring being such a serious crime actually makes an awful lot of sense. Herring fed the fishermen. Herring fed the farmers. Herring fed the city people. Herring fed the army. Everybody could afford herring. During some periods in its history, the province Bohuslän paid taxes in the shape of herring. Herring is serious business. :/
Speaking about coasts and priests, it might also be interesting to note that while priests where a natural part of the crew on ships that travelled far from home (see: the trade with the Far East that blossomed in the 1700s), priests aboard fishermen's boats were considered as bad luck as women. If a priest got on board the fishing luck was ruined and once the ship came back to harbour someone had to clean the room where the priest had resided. It's probably a question of boundaries. Women and priests belonged to land, as did horses; you were not supposed to mention horses aboard a ship either.
"Better people" have overall been subjected to the scorn of the peasants since forever. Nobility, priests, doctors, tax collectors... I did translate a folk tale only about that and how it's the poor, stupid farmer who is best off in the end. XD
I like to do that with medieval ballads. Trying to twist them around a bit, seeing if one could write a story about it... I do like to play around with gender roles too, heh. It makes things more interesting - although to be honest I think medieval ballads to that a lot by themselves too. Middle Ages = Not as heteronormative as people would like to think. XD
no subject
Date: 2010-06-29 08:48 pm (UTC)Damn them herrings might be the most important animal in Sweden. (You should change you national animal instead of an elk to the herring)
The little tidbit of herring shaped taxes makes me giggle a bit though.
I knew the tibit about horses and women but I didn't know about the preists. It may be interesting because through out history sailors had their own codes and own styles how to do things. Almost as seen as mysterious figures because one wonders, " what the hell does one do on a boat all day?".
It's sort of like what happens on the boat stays on the boat. (them preists getting all up into the sailors buisness)
((Other tidbit about sailors and is kind off topic but...
It's considered badluck to whistle in a theater because back in the old days when sailors came home an easy job for them to work was being a stagehand for a theater because the fly system of a theather is pretty much like the rigging system on a boat, and since sailors communicated in whistles if you whistled that may mean a scenic drop falling on you head and killing you))
Peasants had to some way fight the power.(through snarky stories)
But I think there's always this feeling of rooting for the underdog, even if he/she isn't nessacrily have all the proper requirements.
Maybe it's because I was hammered down in my acting days to add humanity in everyone. So I tend to try to seek more about certain, "condeemed," characters in folklore.
((personally that's why I Euripdes' Medea because she makes them human...sorry off topic))
Yeah you did that little translation about the woman who dressed in men's clothing and refused to be called by her old name. Now I think they are a lot of stories that do make some allusions to transsexuals, but I noticed Sweden does seem to have a lot of stories of crossdressing, it being let off the hook during times were most countries would hange people. I mean this could come from Norse mythology and the sagas of the day, like when Thor dressed up as Freya, Frotho I dressed up as a sheildmaiden, and my personal favourite Hervor dressing as man to get Tryfing(sp?). I mean then later on in history, especially in the Great Northern war, we see a lot of women dressing up as men usually to fight with their husbands and being let off the hook and even getting medals. I mean Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar is probably the most interesting because she got married and when she was arrested when found out they sort of let her go(Okay 8 days in jail but back then you would expect perhaps life in jail or perhaps execution). Even saying the marriage was, "of the purest, most spiritual kind, a union of virtue". Maybe I'm just noticing it where probably in other cultures they have the same amount of it appearing in legends but might as well say it.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-30 10:17 pm (UTC)I think that goes for all professions that have a bit of an "outside" work in society. In Dalarna the tanners had their own language (which is almost completely incomprehensible), blacksmiths have in many different cultures been associated with magic, and basically everybody who travel (gypsies, beggars, navvies etc etc), regardless if they had a job or not, were considered untrustworthy. Actually, if you weren't in the city and were anything but a farmer, you were probably to be subjected to one prejudice or other. xD
(That... Explains a lot. XD)
Yeah, I think there's always been that tendency to root for those who are seemingly at disadvantage; because those who told those stories were almost always those who were the actual underdog. Farmers, mostly. But we can also see this in how the Norwegian nationalist movement used Askeladden as a way to illustrate Norway's relationship to Sweden and Denmark. In today's society I think it's less usual. Except in children's stories and media aimed at children, because they often feel like the underdog in question, patronised by adults and not taken seriously etc...
I've always liked stories that break norms, especially in folkloristic traditions since they are so dominated by them. It's more interesting and shows a more thoughtful view on matters amongst people who are usually perceived to be so dominated by the church and other superiors nowadays.
I like that story because it is so astoundingly likely from a modern perspective that she was transsexual, changing her own identity rather than someone doing the "crossdressing for my beloved one" schtick that is so usual in legends and modern fiction. X3
I don't know enough about the topic and how it appears in other European countries to say anything about it being a cultural expression specific for Scandinavia, but crossdressing is overall very prominent in Nordic lore, from pagan times to the Middle Ages, to be a bit more downplayed after the Reformation as far as I've noticed. Especially medieval ballads have a lot of examples of crossdressing, not to mention a switch of convenient gender roles when the women have to put on their big girl panties and save their brother/father/fiancé, usually while slaughtering hundreds of men in the process...
(A particularly interesting example is a ballad in which a knight dresses up as a lady to be able to spend time with his beloved, who is a noblewoman in the queen's court where no men are allowed. While there, he helps the pregnant queen to deliver her child. When he later is exposed, he is spared from death because of that favour. This is the Swedish version I have; in a Danish variant he is in fact beheaded. But I don't know if that was because he wore a dress or because he got a wee bit to close to the queen for her comfort. XP)
I went to a seminar at the National Museum of Historical Antiquities here last summer, about the heteronormative view on history. 'Twas really interesting. One instance I remember is when the guide said that while it's a bit iffy if vikings were completely a-okay with homo- and transsexuality, it's possible that crossdressing in fact played an important role in that you didn't dress up in the opposite sex's clothes for kicks, but for a practical purpose; to symbolically change gender and perform a task typically associated with it. I believe the example she used was that Odin was a very powerful magician who used sejdr; magic traditionally performed by women, not men, and that by wearing women's clothes there was an opportunity for men to use it as well. Hence the seminar was called "Odin in Drag". XD
Sadly I can't remember if her examples were pure speculations, likely, or very likely. Or all of them depending on the example. In any case, it was a very interesting seminar. ^^