Sunday, July 26, 2015

Icelandic Legends Activity Book

Having returned from Iceland less than 48 hours ago, I am brimming with inspiration and excitement for new projects.  I am very happy that my newest effort is now complete and available on Amazon.  This started out as a simple coloring book focused on the Yule Lads,  with fantastic original drawings by Jessica Krumaluf.

I then added a few games and puzzles, then decided to include four short stories.  These stories introduce new Icelandic mythology and characters.  Only The Guardians is an full Icelandic legend, the rest are original short stories inspired by Icelandic mythology.

I am very excited to be able to offer this new collection!  More stories are coming soon and be on the lookout in coming months for The Icelandic Sagas for Children.  I think the Viking Agnarr may have a talent for narration!

Yule Lads & Other Legends Coloring Book: Icelandic Legends Activity Book.  Buy it from Amazon HERE

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Gryla Found! and More


We've been here in Iceland for 6 days...three more before we leave for home.  We have explored a glacier and downtown Reykjavik, shopped and eaten more tasty treats than I can count, and have met fantastic people!

I met and made peace with Gryla!  We've visited the awesome Settlement Center, the Golden Circle, and of course, the Troll Garden.  We still have horseback riding, paragliding, and our training at Elf School to complete!

Until next time!!  We're off to find the Hidden Folk!

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Happily Ever After


I came across something today that may just inspire a Viking love story. 

It may be my first happily every after children's fairy tale from a Viking.  Most of the stories I write are based on legends and mythology from Iceland and Scandinavia.  The majority teach a lesson or have a warning to avoid danger or trouble.  Very few I have come across have the "happily ever after" that many of the "traditional" fairy tales contain.  That just might change for me as I can't seem to stop daydreaming about stories behind a weaving knife found in Sweden a few years ago.
The item itself is quite beautiful.  It is currently on display at the Field Museum in Chicago.  The ancient knife has a runic inscription that reads: "Think of me, I think of you. Love me, I love you."

Monday, July 13, 2015

Research Trip To Iceland


Well, we are now 48 hours from our trip to Iceland, which is nearly becoming an annual event.  Last year's trek included visits to Erik the Red's farmstead, the archaeological dig of the original settlement under Reykjavik, the Saga museum (Vikings!) and Reykholt, the home of Snorri Sturlson (Icelandic author of the Sagas), among other places.

This year, we have planned an investigative trip to Lake Lagarfljót in Egilsstaðir to attempt a sighting of the Monster Worm!   If you are unfamiliar with the Monster Worm, he is a dragon-like creature rumored to live  in Lagarfljót.  He is often be sighted raising its back as he swims around.  His home is a freshwater, glacial-fed lake that lies below sea level and is very murky and difficult to see into.  The monster worm is has been described as longer than a bus, or 39 feet (12 m), and has occasionally been reported outside the water, lying coiled up or slithering into the trees.  It is a "many humps" and seems to have a striking likeness to the Loch Ness Monster
According to Wikipedia:  “The Lagarfljót Worm has been sighted several times in modern times, including in 1963 by the head of the Icelandic National Forest Service, Sigurður Blöndal, and in 1998 by a teacher and students at Hallormsstaðir School.  In 1983, contractors laying a telephone cable measured a large shifting mass near the eastern shore when performing preliminary depth measurements, and when they later retrieved the non-functional cable, found that it was broken where it had lain over the anomaly:  "This cable that was specially engineered so it wouldn’t kink was wound in several places and badly torn and damaged in 22 different places . . . . I believe we dragged the cable directly over the belly of the beast. Unless it was through its mouth." "

We are also very excited about the opportunity to attend Elf School to find more stories to bring you!  The Icelandic Elf School, known as Álfaskólinn, is a school in Reykjavik, Iceland that teaches students and visitors about Icelandic folklore.  The school has a certificate curriculum that covers topics about the hidden people and the 13 different kinds of elves that legend says inhabit the country.  Since opening in 1991, over 9,000 people have attended to learn about the mythology!
The school also publishes texts on hidden people, and performs ongoing research on the elves and hidden people of Iceland.   They also collects stories about trolls, fairies, dwarves, and gnomes for the purpose of preservation.  The five hour long educational excursions for visitors finishes with coffee and pancakes at the school and if you’ve ever had these Icelandic goodies, you know that’s something to look forward to!  
I'll come back with all new stories and will be working on several new projects!

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Terrifying Ogress or Hoax?



In mythology, Norse magic was inherently a woman's art, however, the sagas do record men as well as women practicing magic.  The woman of the Viking Age often had a magic spindle and distaff, and she would weave special clothing for her family.  She would create thread laced with magic spells and then use it to make her cloth.  This inspired me to think of Grýla and wonder perhaps this is where part of her power came from - the ability to terrorize generations and have such an evil and terrifying reputation. 

What if instead of concealing the truth, she used her spindle and wove a magic spell that made people just think they were seeing something horrifying when in reality she was just an average ugly trollwife?  How fun if she was a seið-witch and just used her impressive magical talent to create the image of a hideous visage?  And, what might have happened that she lost so much power to terrify?  It made a wonderful inspiration for a new short story!

A specific type of magic is used to affect the mind, called seiðr .  Typical symptoms include forgetfulness, delusion, illusion, or fear.  In mythology, a sudden mental or even a physical fog is a common attribute of this type of magic.  This type of magic is called sjónhverfing, a  delusion or "deceiving of the sight" where the victim cannot see things as they truly are, but instead sees what the seið-witch wants them to see.    In Jón Árnason's writings of the Icelandic folk stories, his description of Grýla is hideous:  “Grýla has three heads and three eyes in each head ... Horribly long, curved fingernails, icy blue eyes at the back of the head and horns like a goat, her ears dangle down to her shoulders and are attached to the nose in front. She has a beard on her chin that is like knotted yarn on a weave with tangles hanging from it, while her teeth are like burnt rocks in a grate.”

The sagas have many stories where a seið-witch uses a magical illusion to conceal a person or confuse a pursuer.  The Viking Answer Lady (http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/seidhr.shtml) has a wonderful account of such a story: 

Eyrbyggja saga (ch. 20) uses this idea. A woman called Katla, skilled in seiðr, wished to save her son Odd from a band of men determined to kill him. As the men approached the house, Katla told Odd to sit beside her without moving, while she sat spinning yarn. Arnkell and his men searched the house, but saw nothing beside Katla but a distaff. They returned a second time, to find Katla in the porch; she was combing Odd's hair, but it seemed to them that she was grooming her goat. The third time Odd was lying in a heap of ashes, and they thought it was Katla's boar sleeping there.

Each time they left the house they realized that a trick had been played on them, or ‘a goatskin waved round our heads,' as Arnkell put it, so that Katla could not try the same deception twice. Finally Geirríðr, another woman skilled in seiðr and a bitter enemy of Katla came with the men to help them cut through the deceptions. When Katla saw the rival seið-kona's blue cloak through her window, she knew that sjónhverfing or illusion would no longer work. She hid Odd inside the dais, but Geirríðr popped a sealskin bag over Katla's head, negating her spell casting abilities, and both Odd and Katla were taken and killed.


An essential portion of this technique seems to have involved wrapping an enchanted goatskin around the head of the victim (Reykdoela saga, ch. 14), or over the witch's own head (Njáls saga, ch. 12). A related magic was the magical technique called thehuliðshjálmr, the helmet of hiding or invisibility. The method for invoking the huliðshjálmrvaried, from placing hands atop the head of the person to be concealed, to throwing magical powders over them or other means (Ellis-Davidson, 21-24). In another instance, the special hood worn by the seið-witch was used to render another person invisible while wearing it (Vatnsdoela saga, ch 44).