L is for Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid (Den Lille Havfrue) is a fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen.

The original tale of the Little Mermaid is rather different to Disney's adaptation. Rather than becoming human to get the prince to love her, the Little Mermaid desires a human soul. This is because mermaids live for 300 years but turn into sea foam when they die. Humans live for a much shorter time, but they get to go to heaven when they die. 

The story differs vastly from Disney's and is really quite dark. Instead of giving up her voice, the Sea Witch cuts out the Little Mermaid's tongue. And when she gets her human legs it is extremely painful for her to walk on them. She does have to get true loves kiss, but this is because it's the only way to obtain a human soul. However, the prince is already in love with a temple girl and they get married. The Little Mermaid is heartbroken and turns to her sisters who tell her that to become a mermaid once again she must stab the prince and let his blood drip onto her feet. Her sisters had exchanged their hair for a knife from the Witch. The Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to murder the prince, and instead throws herself overboard and turns into foam. But suddenly she feels herself being lifted and discovers she has become a 'daughter of the air'. She is told that she has been rewarded for her efforts and that if she does good deeds she will eventually gain access to heaven. 

The Little Mermaid has her own statue in the sea in Copenhagen. I'd love so much to visit her one day.

Have a beautiful Monday and a wonderful week ahead, everyone!

the little nordic cabin

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K is for Karlsson på Taket

Karlsson på Taket (Karlsson on the roof) is a book by Astrid Lindgren.

Karlsson is a mischievous little man who often visits Lillebror (a kid called little brother) and gets him into trouble. He lives in the apartment block and everything seems completely ordinary. But Karlsson has this little button on his belly and when he pushes it a little propellor appears on his back, allowing him to fly around. 

Here is a little clip from the animated series:

I think it's really cute. I like the way it's animated too :) Had you heard of this story? It's one of Lindgren's more well known stories but I've never actually read it. 

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J is for Jomfruen på glassberget

Jomfruen på glassberget is a Norwegian fairytale. It's title in English is The Princess on the Glass Hill. It was one of the many fairytales collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe and is the story of a princess who is rescued by a man riding a magical horse. 

The rescuer was the youngest of three sons, often teased for sitting around poking the ashes. (Oh hey, remember Askeladden? I told you he pops up everywhere!) One day he hears a horse whinnying and he manages to tame it. With the horse is a brass suit of armour. He doesn't tell anyone about the horse and the next year a suit of silver armour appears. He still doesn't tell anybody and finally on the third year a suit of golden armour appears. 

Meanwhile, a king had set his daughter high up on a glass hill and given her three apples to hold. It was said that the only person allowed to marry her would be the one who managed to reach the top of the hill and take the apples from her. All of the other princes and knights had failed to reach her, but one night a knight rode 1/3 of the way up the hill and the princess threw him an apple. He rode off immediately, taking the apple with him. The next day a silver-clad rider appears and manages to get 2/3 of the way up the hill. The same thing happens, he is thrown and apple before riding off. On the third day a rider appears, wearing golden armour, and rides all the way to the top where the princess gives him the final apple. He then rides away. (I know, men...)

The king then calls a meeting to find the man that has won his daughter. Our hero shows up but his brothers say that he was at home the whole time, poking about, doing his Askeladden business, etc. But luckily he remembered to bring the apples with him and then they all live happily ever after. 

You might have noticed that this isn't my favourite fairy tale. It feels a bit like someone has sat down and thought, ok there needs to be 'three' of stuff, three apples, three brothers, ok that'll do. Now we need something impossible - a glass hill? Perfect! Now lets throw in some random details that don't add anything to the plot of the story. Oh and someone call that Askeladden and get him to show up, he's always good for a laugh! No, but really, it's a nice example of a traditional Norwegian fairytale. I'm just bitter because, as everyone knows, J is a dark horse when it comes to impossible letters of the alphabet :)

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I is for Ice-Maiden

Finally it's time to introduce you to a Danish character! The Ice-Maiden is a story by Hans Christian Andersen, which, I believe was written fairly late in his life. 

It's quite a morbid tale, which is normal for this author. Tales like the Little Mermaid and Thumbellina are not as sweet and mild as the later versions that we read as children. The original versions tend to be rather sinister. The Ice-Maiden is no exception to this, it is the tale of a young boy whose mother falls into an icy ravine and dies. She was holding her little boy, but he survives due to a kiss from the Ice-Maiden. The Ice-Maiden then goes on to haunt him throughout his life before drowning him on his wedding night. 

My boyfriend's cabin is in a place called Funäsdalen, where these beautiful mountains can be found. In the summer we went hiking and passed a ravine where it is said a Sami woman fell down whilst travelling in her reindeer-drawn sled and died in the snow below. Seeing that ravine was an eerie reminder of this tale.

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H is for Heðin Brú

Heðin Brú was a Faroese writer, translator and spectacular wearer of glasses and tweed suits. I love his hair. He looks like such a gentleman!

I've picked him for my letter 'H' today because it's rare that I get to write about anything Faroese since, like Greenland, it's one of the Nordic countries I'm less familiar with. Which is odd considering I spent a year learning the language. But anyways... 

Heðin Brú is a really important figure in Faroese literature. He started out as a fisherman, then turned to agriculture and spent some time studying in Denmark. When he returned to the Faroe Islands he travelled around meeting people and gaining inspiration for his novels. 

He is considered important because of his extensive work as a translator, translating works of world literature into Faroese. Examples are the tales of Brothers Grimm, Emily Brontë, William Shakespeare and Henrik Ibsen. 

Have you read anything from the Faroe Islands? Have you been there? Are you one of those people who heard "Faroe Islands" and immediately thought "pharaoh" and mentally placed the islands somewhere near Egypt? ;)

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G is for Grýla

I'm getting a little behind with these posts, aren't I? I'm having one of those crazy weeks full of sleeping and essay writing and marshmallows and reading and more writing and sleeping and lollipops. I've hit that stage where I'm not sure whether I've had too much coffee, or not enough. 

I've decided to take a little break from it all to tell you about a certain horrid Icelandic giantess, Grýla.

Believe it or not, this terrifying witch of a woman is a Christmas character from Icelandic mythology. If I was an Icelandic child, I think Christmas would be a horrifying time of year for me. Grýla's favourite food is naughty children and she is never full. During the Christmas period she leaves her home in the mountains and hunts for naughty children, which she likes to boil into stew. She became linked to Christmas in the 17th century but her character dates back to at least the 13th century. During the 17th century it actually became prohibited to tell tales of Grýla because it was just too scary for the children. 

Here is a folksong about her, it's a nice example of the beautiful Icelandic language, just be thankful you can't understand it or you might not be able to sleep tonight!

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F is for Filifjonkan

Filifjonkan, (Fillyjonk in English) is a character from the Moomin tales, created by Tove Jansson. The Fillyjonk looks like a sort of cross between a rodent and a human and has a desire for freedom from worries and to not have to be tied down to anything. We meet Filifjonkan when she accompanies Snorkmaiden on a trip to a wishing well, where we learn of her preoccupation with disaster. She believes strongly in tradition and due to the fact that she clings to these sorts of thoughts, she is unable to experience the freedom or happiness that the Moomin family have. 

I've loved this character ever since I heard my boyfriend's sister in law call her tiny little daughter (the cutest little girl in the world) 'Filifjonkan' whilst affectionately tickling her. The name always reminds me of that little girls delightful squeals :)

Whilst Filifjonkan is a relatively minor character, I think that in terms of psychology she is one that many of us can relate to. The ties we have to our own minds and the thoughts that prevent true freedom are something that is explored within this character. I think we're all secretly striving for the happiness and freedom of thought found within the Moomin family. 

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E is for Erik the Red

Good evening my dears, how are you all? I quite miss talking directly to you, rather than just typing information here! I'm sorry I've been slow with commenting, I have deadlines coming up at the end of April so I'm feeling a little frantic! 

Anyways, lets talk about Erik the Red, the guy who founded the first settlement in Greenland!

We know about Erik the Red from the Icelandic Sagas, texts that were passed down from oral tradition during the viking age. It is said that Erik had to leave Norway because he had committed manslaughter there. He moved to Iceland but then he killed a bunch of people and ended up getting himself outlawed. Smart, huh? 

I've always liked the story that when Iceland was discovered, the explorers named it Iceland because it was so cold, but on discovering Greenland afterwards, realised that they should have reserved the name for that place instead. However, according to the sagas (/wikipedia, where I've just learned this) it was Erik who named it Greenland, having returned to Iceland after he'd served his time away, because he wanted to give it a more appealing name than Iceland had. Either way, I've always thought how the names Iceland and Greenland were kind of mixed up :)

Have you ever read any of the Icelandic sagas? I really do recommend them - I find it really fascinating that they had been passed down orally for so long before finally being written. I love the Chinese Whispers effect that they got, since they began as historical tales but as they were passed on, certain details were changed, leaving us with stories of beserkers and witches and magic. They're wonderful!

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D is for Danny the Champion of the World

Did you guys know that Roald Dahl was Norwegian? I didn't know that until I began my degree four years ago. He moved to Cardiff when he was young, but he loved Norway and spent many of his summer holidays there with his Grandmother. 

Last year I did a project on Roald Dahl and gave a presentation on how his Norwegian heritage influenced his work. You might have noticed the huge Norwegian influence in his book, The Witches, for example. There are lots of hidden clues to his love of Norway throughout his books, the funniest of which is how all his mean characters are typically English farmers, whilst the sweet grandmothers, teachers and little children are the positive (and, sometimes Norwegian characters). 

Danny the Champion of the World isn't one of my favourite books, but is an example of the negative, sterotypical English character. Danny and his father poach pheasants from a rich man's estate and are threatened by him. Danny is labeled champion of the world when he comes up with a plan to trick the antagonist, by drugging all the pheasants and stealing them whilst they're sleeping!

I like the fact that the stories of Roald Dahl are English, written in the English language and read by English children who have no idea about Roald Dahl's heritage. If it wasn't for Norway and the magic that the country gave to him in terms of imagination, I doubt we'd have these wonderful stories today. 

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C is for Captain Longstocking

Ok, so fun fact about the Nordic languages: They don't really have the letter "C". Swedish does, but after searching my brainbox all day, I couldn't come up with anyone. So please forgive my cheating, "captain" begins with a "k" in Swedish, but we're speaking English over here, so I think it's ok :)

Captain Longstocking is Pippi Longstocking's father. He is the only person who is as strong as Pippi and it is from him that she inherited her knowledge and sense. He went missing and was feared dead, but actually he had washed up on an island and became a chief there. Despite Pippi's love for life aboard ship, when her father returned she decided to stay in the house he gave her as the stable life that he had intended for her was something that she had become attached to. On one trip to the island where her father was chief, Pippi was renamed Princess Pippilotta. She had always imagined that while he was missing he had become king of the land somewhere, so it is fitting that Captain Longstocking's little daughter should become 'princess'. 

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B is for Bjartur

Bjartur of Summerhouses is the protagonist of Icelandic Author, Halldor Laxness' book Sjálfstætt Fólk (Independent People). This was the first novel I've ever read by a Nordic author and if I wasn't already in love enough with Iceland, this pushed my obsession over the edge. 

His daughter, Asta Sollilja describes him better than I ever could: “She peeped out from under the blanket, and there he was, still sitting on the edge of his bed, when all the others had gone to sleep, mending some implement or other. No one stirred any longer, the living-room fast asleep; he alone was awake, alone was chanting, sitting there in his shirt, thickset and high-shouldered, with strong arms and tangled hair. His eyebrows were shaggy, steep and beetling like the crags in the mountain, but on his thick throat there was a soft place under the roots of his beard. She watched him awhile without his knowing: the strongest man in the world and the greatest poet, knew the answer to everything, understood all ballads, was afraid of nothing and nobody, fought all of them on a distant strand, independent and free, one against all.”

I highly recommend Independent People, the rich landscape and cultural descriptions begin on the very first page and there is nobody more equipped to introduce you to this magical country than Bjartur himself. 

thelittlenordiccabin

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A is for Askeladden

Happy 1st April everyone! If you are new here, welcome! I'm so pleased to meet you :)

My A - Z theme is Characters from Nordic Literature ☆

Today, I'd like to introduce you to Askeladden.

Askeladden can be found in quite a few Norwegian folktales. His name would be 'Ash Lad' in English,  and I think this comes from his tendency to sit and daydream whilst poking at the ashes in the fire whilst his older brothers display how they are going to succeed in life. You could therefore say that Askeladden is the typical unsuspected hero of these tales. 

The story that I'm most familiar with is called "Askeladden som kappåt med trollet". In this story, Askeladden meets a troll in the forest, while he is chopping down trees. The troll is angry, but Askeladden tricks him into helping him. Afterwards, Askeladden is taken back to the trolls house. Askeladden tricks the troll by challenging him to an eating competition. While the troll is spooning food into his mouth, Askeladden is sneaking it into a bag that he has tied to his front. The troll complains that he is full and cannot eat any more, but Askeladden tells him that if he cuts a hole in his stomach, then he can make room and eat as much as he likes. Askeladden shows him: he takes a knife and slits the bag that he has been putting the food in, telling the troll that it is his stomach that he is slitting. The troll copies him, but instead slits his stomach open and dies.

If you follow this link you can find a short video of the story.

I can't wait to read what you have all come up with for the letter A! Have a beautiful Monday, everyone.

the little nordic cabin

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A - Z theme reveal...

And the winner is, from a vote held in my very own brainbox...

The A - Z of Nordic literary characters!

By literary characters, I mean any characters found in books by Nordic authors, including the Icelandic Sagas and Norse mythology. I will do my best to include as much variety as possible, but you all know how I love my Scandinavian children's literature!

If there are any characters that you know and love and would like to see in my A - Z, please just let me know and I'll see what I can do. 

Have you guys thought of a theme yet? Have you signed up for the A - Z? Click here to find out everything you need to know. And then sign up because it's really the very most bestest and fun way to spend April!

the little nordic cabin

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A to Z Challenge: Reflections

I found out about the challenge in mid-February this year and about a week later I signed up. I loved this challenge so very much and am so grateful for having been given the chance to take part.

I met so many wonderful people through the challenge that there is simply no room to list them all. If you go to my followers, on the right hand side of this page, and look through them, the majority of them are dear friends that I have made during the challenge. During the weekend I usually put up a list of fun links to visit, so I'm sure if you stick with me, you will get to meet many of these wonderful bloggers very soon ☆

The only problem I had during this challenge was finding the time to reply to comments. Unfortunately I'm usually busy with essays and exams during April and had less time than expected to work on the challenge. I'm happy to say that I managed to write a post for each letter, but I would have loved to have been able to visit my wonderful commenters more often. I'm doing that in my free time these days though :)

One thing that really helped was the little calendar that I made. I wrote down each letter and each day on a piece of paper and filled it in with lots of possible topics. That means that I was able to find something for each letter and that you can expect many more Nordic-themed posts in the future, since I have many left over topics! 

Taken in March, note the typical cookie I'm halfway through eating...

That's it really, for reflections. I just want to say a great big sparkly thank you to all of you who visited me, supported me, commented me, followed me and encouraged me throughout the challenge. I really value each and everyone of you, my dear friends, and I'm so glad I decided to take part in the challenge in the end. Even if I don't always have time to comment, you can be sure I'm spending minutes with you, here and there, reading about your days and sending you wishes. I'd like to give each and every one of you a warm, squishy hug!

(PS: You can find all of my challenge posts right here :)

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Z is for Zookeeper's Boy

Here is another song for you. This time it's by another Danish band called Mew. They have a lot of nice songs, so if you like this one you should look them up :)

I can't believe the challenge is over! It went by so quickly. I'm going to go to the fruit market now to buy some lovely fruit for the picnic we're planning to have. It's my birthday tomorrow so we're going to take a boat to an island called Hovedøya, it's my favourite place in the whole of Oslo and have a little picnic there, as long as it doesn't rain :)

Have a lovely day and congratulations to all of you who made it to the end of the challenge. Thank you so much for your wonderful comments and your amazing support! 

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Y is for Little Miss Y

There is a girl I know, on the other side of the ocean, who I'm just going to call Miss Y during this post. I don’t usually talk about very personal things here, you might have noticed how I’ve kept my posts strictly away from the current news stories from Norway, for example, and I don’t like to talk much about emotions or private matters. But Miss Y is special to me and I would like to share a little bit of her with you.

Things in Oslo started to go downhill for me around mid-September. I had a lot of (after reading what some of you have been through, I’m going to say extremely mild) health problems and some other troubles. Miss Y responded to a post I had written, asking if anyone was in the same position as I was, since I needed someone to talk to, and we became extremely close friends over the next months. It seems that she is my long lost twin, we share so much in common and are so much alike.

Isn’t it funny that with the way technology is these days - we can all find each other, no matter where we are in the world and connect and influence each others lives? For example, I value each of you, my readers, you share my love of Scandinavia and I share your love of writing, fantasy, fairytales, art, literature, travel, science, everything and yet we have never met. I spend hours here and there with you, sitting in my little flat with a cup of coffee and sharing little pieces of my life with you.

Miss Y does the same. She found me when I was feeling lost and she helps me to feel better every single day with her kind words. She is the most creative and talented person I know and she has the kindest heart. I couldn’t be more grateful for the friend she has been to me and she absolutely deserves to have one of my challenge posts dedicated to her. 

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X is for Kisses From Me

X is difficult! And it's Friday! So instead of worrying about what to write about, make yourself a nice drink and sit here for a while and have a look at these links I've collected for you over the last couple of weeks:

Lisa went for a walk one day in London and took some lovely photos

Dana wrote a post about a sweet coffee tradition

This was such a cute story and even made me tear up a little!

I found this sweet wedding idea

Laura has been very busy writing these wonderful posts about fairytales all month

I've been listening to this pretty song on repeat all month

Chocolate planets!!

This place looks beautiful

For fellow penguin lovers

What do you have planned for the weekend? My friend has lent me some films so I think I'm going to have a cozy weekend in the flat. It's very grey and rainy in Oslo at the moment, so I'm going to stay tucked up, warm and toasty, in my little room :)

Here are some kisses, lots of little x's which means I didn't technically cheat!

x x x x x mwahhh!

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W is for The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils was the first Swedish book I ever bought. It's Swedish title is Nils Hogerssons underbara resa genom Sverige, which means Nils Holgersson's wonderful journey across Sweden. 

It was written by Selma Lagerlöf and published in 1906. She was commissioned to write it as a geography book for schools and it is said that one of the reasons for this was that at the time there was a big migration from Sweden to the US and they wanted to help the Swedes fall in love with their country again. 

It certainly made me fall in love with Sweden. It's an exciting story and through Lagerlöf's beautiful writing, you are taken on a -wonderful- adventure through Sweden with Nils, the mischievous protagonist, who has been shrunk by a 'tomte' (a kind of little dwarf) as a result of his bad behaviour. 

The illustrations are absolutely stunning too! I wish I could find some examples for you but I've searched and I can't find anything!

Nils can be found on the back of Swedish 20kr notes. Actually, this story was the very first thing Björn and I talked about, the evening we met. He showed me one of these notes and was surprised to hear that I know and love the book :)

Have you ever read this story? I think it's quite famous outside of Sweden too. Can you believe we're already at 'W'? Just three letters left now and then my birthday!

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V is for Viggo Mortensen

I'm allowed to talk about Viggo Mortensen because he is half-Danish, which means semi-Nordic, which means yes please and I'm not cheating on this challenge :)

My favourite is when he is Aragorn, but it's not necessarily essential. The Aragorn thing really appeals to my inner nerd but the very best thing would be Aragorn-plus-a-little-less-beard-plus-a-little-more-regularity-when-it-comes-to-brushing-his-teeth. Mmm.  

Do you have a favourite Scandinavian actor? I considered writing a post about Alexander Skarsgård before doing some googling and realising that I'm actually in love with the majority of his family. Maybe S should have been for 'Skarsgård family' but that's kind of creepy...

(pictures lovingly taken from here and here)

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U is for Ulv

Ulv is the Norwegian word for wolf. Those of you who have been reading my blog since I began will know of my ever-increasing fear of wolves. Sometimes I hear the word ''ulv'' on the radio while I'm having breakfast and it sends shivers down my spine while I dream up all of the horrible things that might have happened, even though it usually turns out that it's just a report on how few wolves are left in the forest, therefore making my fear quite unnecessary. 

Have you ever played 'What's the Time Mr Wolf'? It's a truly horrific game that mean kids often make you play at birthday parties. 'Mr Wolf' faces the other way and answers with a number when you ask him the time. If he says 5 o'clock, you take 5 steps towards him, 2 o'clock you take 2 and so on until at one particularly terrifying point you ask him the time and he spins around and shouts "DINNER TIME!!" It's appalling.

When I was little I was friends with this little boy who used to tell me that wolves only ate little girls called Nikki. Somehow I didn't get suspicious that thieves, pirates, monsters and, oddly, smugglers also liked to kill little girls called Nikki...

What do you think about wolves? Are there any animals that you are afraid of? I know most people are scared of spiders and that the chance of a wolf getting to me in a second-floor flat (I refused a ground-floor flat because I'm not stupid and someone told me once that a wolf can jump 6 metres in the air and although that sounds kind of ridiculous, I am not taking any chances) are pretty slim, but for some reason they terrify me! 

I know this post is more 'W' than 'U' but before you complain, chances are I just taught you your first Norwegian word, so there you go. I win :)

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