-... Sagor och Sägner och Sånt Som Man Hör...-
Look, I found an awesome online edition of Hávamál in Swedish, Icelandic and English. This is why I love Google.
First day of Christmas break = awesome. I promised myself to do nothing today, and I haven't. Just lazed around, taken a long hot bath, watched television and eaten pizza. And sat in front of the computer, translating some more sägner.
This time, there are stories from Sweden's two island provinces, and the western part of Skåneland. The source is as before, Herman Hofberg's Svenska Folksägner from 1882.
And like before, here's a map of the Swedish provinces.
The Kinnare of Lummelunda - Gotland.
One night a couple of fishermen had taken shelter in a cottage on the beach by a fishing village on the north-western coast of the island. All of a sudden as they lay there, they saw a beautiful woman’s white hand reach inside through the door. As they understood that it was “the Sea Lady”, who wanted to bring them their misery, they lay unmoving and pretended not to notice her enticement.
The following day their fishing team was increased by a new comrade, a young, cheerful and newly-wed man from Kinnare in Lummelunda. When they told him about last night’s adventure, he mocked their cowardice for not taking a beautiful woman’s hand, and added, that if he’d been with them, he wouldn’t have denied the offered grasp.
In the night, when they lay in the same cottage, the door was opened again, and a white, rounded woman’s arm with the prettiest hand reached in over the sleeping ones.
The Kinnare, who wasn’t afraid but maybe also ashamed of not being able to keep his word, stood up, approached the door and grabbed the outstretched arm. In the same moment his comrades saw how he was slowly pulled through the door, which silently closed behind him. They thought that he’d come back, but when morning arrived and he couldn’t be seen they went out to search for him. But no matter how and where they searched for him, the Kinnare was nowhere to be found - he was and remained gone.
Three years passed by without a word from the disappeared one. His young wife, who’d mourned him as dead all this time, finally agreed to remarry. In the evening of the wedding day, when the dancing reached its peak, a stranger stepped forth in the hall. On closer inspection someone claimed to recognize the bride’s former husband, and there was endless stir and confusion.
When the present party asked him where he came from and where he’d been, he told them, that it was the Sea Lady whose hand he’d taken, when he stepped out of the fishermen’s cottage, and that she’d dragged him into the deep sea. In her halls of pearl he’d forgotten wife, parents, and everything that had been dear to him, until she on the morning of the wedding uttered the words: “Today smoke rises from Kinnare”. Then his memory returned and he asked: “Then it is my wife who is the bride?” The Sea Lady answered yes. On his stubborn demand, she allowed him to come up and see his wife as bride, on the condition that he, when he came home, wouldn’t “enter beneath the beam of the ceiling”. But when he came to the house of the wedding and saw the bride in wreath and crown, he couldn’t resist the desire to enter his old home. Then a wind came and swept away half the rood of the house, and the man fell sick and died three days later.
I had problems translating the Sea Lady's line about smoke, since the original saying... Truly does not make any sense. The verb's meaning is either dialectal, dead, or most likely both. The meanings I found where either to smoke, to smell or to run, but I couldn't really tell how any of them are connected to marriage...
"The Sea Lady", or Havsfrun, Sjörået, and many other names she's called by, is a "rådare"; a ruler and caretaker of a certain element. She's a beautiful woman, often dressed in fine garments who lives at the bottom of the ocean in a palace made of pearl and gold, accoridng to many. She has great power over not only water but the weather in general, and she was very important to fishermen as she could control that and the creatures of the sea. Also, she was rather fond of menfolk, as is typical for her kind.
"Kinnare" is, as mentioned, the name of a farm in Lummelunda on Gotland. The man is referred to as "a Kinnare", as it wasn't unusual to refer to people by their estate's name, throughout the story in Swedish, which was untranslateable in English, so I went with that.
The Bridge Over Kalmarsund - Öland
North of the village Vi in Källa parish there is a great rock, called Sekiel’s rock, after the giantess Sekiel, who’s supposed to have lived on Borgehaga in Högo parish.
The same giantess had a sister, who was married to the giant Skägge and lived in Ryssby parish in Småland. To be able to meet each other more often, the giant sisters agreed to build a stone bridge over Kalmarsund: one from Ryssby shore and the other from Öland.
The giantess from Småland first began her work. Each day she came with great armfuls of rocks and filled the lake, so that she finally had the land hold of the bridge done, the so-called Skägganäs, that stretches a quarter of a mile out in the sea. The female giant on Öland was also about to start building, but when she came with the first load of rocks in her apron, she was shot through the abdomen by a farm lad with a quarrel. Overcome by pain she sat down to rest on aforementioned Sekiel’s rock, and as a result the top of it has the shape of a shallow bowl.
When she’d recovered, she began to walk anew but didn’t get farther than to Persnäs, when thunder arrived and the lightning killed her. The moment she fell, she dropped the rocks in her apron, and they lie there to this day on the great slopes of Persnäs.
This was the only story from Öland in the book. Sad, as it's not the most exciting one, but I guess it's a pretty typical illustration of a legend about natural phenomenons. Also, I found all the places mentioned on the map but sadly no pictures. :(
The Forest of Elestorp - Halland
During Queen Margaret’s war with Albrekt of Mecklenburg both of their armies had met in southern Halland. The queen’s people had pitched camp on Tjärby mader, half a mile north of Laholm, while the duke’s troops were placed in the region around Veinge church.
One morning the queen went to by habit recite her morning prayer in Tjärby church, but had guards placed around the so-called “Queen’s mountain” before that.
While she was deep in prayer, a messenger arrived and told her that a few soldiers could be seen.
“There’s no danger yet”, the brave woman said and continued to kneel by the altar.
In a while a new messenger arrived and could proclaim that at least a hundred soldiers could be seen, but the queen ordered her people to stay still. She assured them that there was no danger yet. Finally a messenger came and said that the entire forest of Elestorp seemed to move and head towards Tjärby.
“Now, my children, a harsh battle will be fought, but God shall give us victory”, the queen said, mounted her horse and rode before her warriors towards the enemy.
They had made use of a stratagem, in that each man carried a bunch of sprigs in front of them to pass unnoticed to surprise the queen’s people. But Margaret saw through this and won a brilliant victory. Out of gratitude for God she had the old Tjärby church rebuilt, but in the forest of Elestorp there grow no birch taller than a man’s height from that time.
... I don't know if I chose this story because it's queen Margaret, or because the ending, once I realized what it meant, freaked me the fuck out.
The war between Queen Margaret of Denmark and Albert of Sweden (Albrekt of Mecklenburg in actual Sweden, as there's no way in Hell he was acknowledged as king of this country back in the days since he fucked up so badly XD) led to the establishment of the infamous Kalmar Union in the 1300s.
Halland was a part of Denmark back then. It is therefore not that surprising that this story features Margaret in a positive light... Despite portraying her as a sorceress from Hell, good God my respect for that woman just continues to grow across the centuries. And I don't even believe in the tales about her, huh.
First day of Christmas break = awesome. I promised myself to do nothing today, and I haven't. Just lazed around, taken a long hot bath, watched television and eaten pizza. And sat in front of the computer, translating some more sägner.
This time, there are stories from Sweden's two island provinces, and the western part of Skåneland. The source is as before, Herman Hofberg's Svenska Folksägner from 1882.
And like before, here's a map of the Swedish provinces.
The Kinnare of Lummelunda - Gotland.
One night a couple of fishermen had taken shelter in a cottage on the beach by a fishing village on the north-western coast of the island. All of a sudden as they lay there, they saw a beautiful woman’s white hand reach inside through the door. As they understood that it was “the Sea Lady”, who wanted to bring them their misery, they lay unmoving and pretended not to notice her enticement.
The following day their fishing team was increased by a new comrade, a young, cheerful and newly-wed man from Kinnare in Lummelunda. When they told him about last night’s adventure, he mocked their cowardice for not taking a beautiful woman’s hand, and added, that if he’d been with them, he wouldn’t have denied the offered grasp.
In the night, when they lay in the same cottage, the door was opened again, and a white, rounded woman’s arm with the prettiest hand reached in over the sleeping ones.
The Kinnare, who wasn’t afraid but maybe also ashamed of not being able to keep his word, stood up, approached the door and grabbed the outstretched arm. In the same moment his comrades saw how he was slowly pulled through the door, which silently closed behind him. They thought that he’d come back, but when morning arrived and he couldn’t be seen they went out to search for him. But no matter how and where they searched for him, the Kinnare was nowhere to be found - he was and remained gone.
Three years passed by without a word from the disappeared one. His young wife, who’d mourned him as dead all this time, finally agreed to remarry. In the evening of the wedding day, when the dancing reached its peak, a stranger stepped forth in the hall. On closer inspection someone claimed to recognize the bride’s former husband, and there was endless stir and confusion.
When the present party asked him where he came from and where he’d been, he told them, that it was the Sea Lady whose hand he’d taken, when he stepped out of the fishermen’s cottage, and that she’d dragged him into the deep sea. In her halls of pearl he’d forgotten wife, parents, and everything that had been dear to him, until she on the morning of the wedding uttered the words: “Today smoke rises from Kinnare”. Then his memory returned and he asked: “Then it is my wife who is the bride?” The Sea Lady answered yes. On his stubborn demand, she allowed him to come up and see his wife as bride, on the condition that he, when he came home, wouldn’t “enter beneath the beam of the ceiling”. But when he came to the house of the wedding and saw the bride in wreath and crown, he couldn’t resist the desire to enter his old home. Then a wind came and swept away half the rood of the house, and the man fell sick and died three days later.
I had problems translating the Sea Lady's line about smoke, since the original saying... Truly does not make any sense. The verb's meaning is either dialectal, dead, or most likely both. The meanings I found where either to smoke, to smell or to run, but I couldn't really tell how any of them are connected to marriage...
"The Sea Lady", or Havsfrun, Sjörået, and many other names she's called by, is a "rådare"; a ruler and caretaker of a certain element. She's a beautiful woman, often dressed in fine garments who lives at the bottom of the ocean in a palace made of pearl and gold, accoridng to many. She has great power over not only water but the weather in general, and she was very important to fishermen as she could control that and the creatures of the sea. Also, she was rather fond of menfolk, as is typical for her kind.
"Kinnare" is, as mentioned, the name of a farm in Lummelunda on Gotland. The man is referred to as "a Kinnare", as it wasn't unusual to refer to people by their estate's name, throughout the story in Swedish, which was untranslateable in English, so I went with that.
The Bridge Over Kalmarsund - Öland
North of the village Vi in Källa parish there is a great rock, called Sekiel’s rock, after the giantess Sekiel, who’s supposed to have lived on Borgehaga in Högo parish.
The same giantess had a sister, who was married to the giant Skägge and lived in Ryssby parish in Småland. To be able to meet each other more often, the giant sisters agreed to build a stone bridge over Kalmarsund: one from Ryssby shore and the other from Öland.
The giantess from Småland first began her work. Each day she came with great armfuls of rocks and filled the lake, so that she finally had the land hold of the bridge done, the so-called Skägganäs, that stretches a quarter of a mile out in the sea. The female giant on Öland was also about to start building, but when she came with the first load of rocks in her apron, she was shot through the abdomen by a farm lad with a quarrel. Overcome by pain she sat down to rest on aforementioned Sekiel’s rock, and as a result the top of it has the shape of a shallow bowl.
When she’d recovered, she began to walk anew but didn’t get farther than to Persnäs, when thunder arrived and the lightning killed her. The moment she fell, she dropped the rocks in her apron, and they lie there to this day on the great slopes of Persnäs.
This was the only story from Öland in the book. Sad, as it's not the most exciting one, but I guess it's a pretty typical illustration of a legend about natural phenomenons. Also, I found all the places mentioned on the map but sadly no pictures. :(
The Forest of Elestorp - Halland
During Queen Margaret’s war with Albrekt of Mecklenburg both of their armies had met in southern Halland. The queen’s people had pitched camp on Tjärby mader, half a mile north of Laholm, while the duke’s troops were placed in the region around Veinge church.
One morning the queen went to by habit recite her morning prayer in Tjärby church, but had guards placed around the so-called “Queen’s mountain” before that.
While she was deep in prayer, a messenger arrived and told her that a few soldiers could be seen.
“There’s no danger yet”, the brave woman said and continued to kneel by the altar.
In a while a new messenger arrived and could proclaim that at least a hundred soldiers could be seen, but the queen ordered her people to stay still. She assured them that there was no danger yet. Finally a messenger came and said that the entire forest of Elestorp seemed to move and head towards Tjärby.
“Now, my children, a harsh battle will be fought, but God shall give us victory”, the queen said, mounted her horse and rode before her warriors towards the enemy.
They had made use of a stratagem, in that each man carried a bunch of sprigs in front of them to pass unnoticed to surprise the queen’s people. But Margaret saw through this and won a brilliant victory. Out of gratitude for God she had the old Tjärby church rebuilt, but in the forest of Elestorp there grow no birch taller than a man’s height from that time.
... I don't know if I chose this story because it's queen Margaret, or because the ending, once I realized what it meant, freaked me the fuck out.
The war between Queen Margaret of Denmark and Albert of Sweden (Albrekt of Mecklenburg in actual Sweden, as there's no way in Hell he was acknowledged as king of this country back in the days since he fucked up so badly XD) led to the establishment of the infamous Kalmar Union in the 1300s.
Halland was a part of Denmark back then. It is therefore not that surprising that this story features Margaret in a positive light... Despite portraying her as a sorceress from Hell, good God my respect for that woman just continues to grow across the centuries. And I don't even believe in the tales about her, huh.