Völsungasagan

(The Volsunga saga)

It's an ancient norse tale about The Völsunga clan, who's ancestor was Oden.

The first part of this tale is about King Volsung who held a wedding for his daughter, but falls victim to his treacherous son-Siggeir. Völsungs son Sigmund avenged the deed with Sinfjötli. (Whom btw was Sigmunds son that he has with his own sister.) Not too popular with the gods. The former became a mighty king with the help of Oden's sword Gram, which later Oden dismantled. Sigmund was also the father of Sigurd Fafnesbane.

The tale's second part follows the plot of the Edda poem Niblungs cycle. Another chapter is taken from The Didrik tale, and a third piece is taken from Ragnar Lodbroks story. King Sigmund married Hjördis, but Sigmund died shortly thereafter. The son Sigurd is born after his death, and growing up with foster brother Regin. Regin made ​​a sword for Sigurd from the two parts of Gram. After Sigurd avenged his father, he killed the dragon Fafner and took the gold he guarded. He then also killed Regin, who was suspected of treason.

This is all so very confusing isn't it? But this is how old norse tales go. Many people, many weird names and many weird side stories.

So, let me tell you the story about Fafner.
The man Sigurd Fafnesbane is the son of Sigmund and Hjördis. A descendant of the Völsungas, and a famous Hero amongst the vikings and the Gods. He got his name Fafnesbane because he killed the vicious Dragon Fafner (Fafnir) who guarded a great treasure.

As with all old norse tales there are lots of side stories that needs to be told.
Let's take Fafner for instance. He used to be a Dwarf once, and son of Hreidmar and brother of Regin and Utter. And he turned himself into a dragon to protect the great treasure.

And that treasure was a way to amend for a wrongdoing Loke had made to Hreidmar before. Loke "accidentally" killed Hreimars son Utter. See Utter could, just like Fafner, turn himself into an animal. And as Loke didn't know it was Utter he killed him, and then shared his prey with Oden and Höder.

When Hreidmar found out about the deed he went berserk and kidnapped Oden and Höder and demanded a ransom from Loke.


Hreidmar took Oden and Höder hostage and demanded the fine that Loki would fill the otter skin (Utter) with gold and then cover the gold-filled skin with more gold.
Hreidmar suggested that Loki would steal Andvares fabulous treasure which would surely perform penance. Andvari was a sharp toothed pike which could not be caught with a rod nor regular line. Loki succeeded in using sea giantess Rans nets and entrap the pike and extort him the treasure including a magic ring. The Ring incubated under Andvari a curse that caused violent incidents for their owners.
Loki wanted to keep the ring for himself, but the ring was needed to cover the last whisker of Utter and then perform penance. The ring spread its evil and greed and while Regin was gone and worked with the dwarfs, Fafne decided to kill Hreidmar and claiming the entire treasure. Then Fafne took his dragon shape to better defend his treasure and keep looters away.



Sigurd managed to slay the mighty dragon Fafner and came across a great treasure. That treasure included the magic ring Andvaranaut that made their owners rich. Earlier, however, Loki wrung from dwarf Andvari ring, but he; in retaliation, provided the ring with a curse: the ring might destroy the one who took it. Ring destroyed so first Fafnir father Hreidmar, then Fafner and eventually Sigurd as well.

Thus his name was Sigurd Fafnesbane.


In the German Nibelungenlied Sigurd is called Siegfried.
The main events of the Sigurd Fafnesbanes life depicted on Sigurd Carving and Gökstenen.



See, and I made thing EASY for you.
In these old tales, the side stories are ridiculously many and odd. haha

A must watch

One of the Skarsgård brothers is in this too.
YaY Swedes!

Thale

I just finished watching Thale. A norwegian movie, about a creature from old norse folklores... It was so so. And short. And the creature didn't really look the way folklores describe them. But I guess it was to make them a lil' bit creepier...The creature is what we call 'Skogrå' and the norwegians call it "Huldra"

Oh and someone asked me what Thale means, It's "her" name in the movie.

Oh but for anyone who wished to see this movie, you should probably wait till there's better subs for it. Cause the subs were completely retarded. Didn't make sense at all. Someone who knew nothing about english probably made those. SUCKED BALLS IT DID.

När månen går med långa ben

"Lyssna noga nånting hörs, mörk är natten timman sen.
Allt kan hända om du törs, när månen går med långa ben.


OH MY FUCKING GOD!

This is like... aaah, pure happiness.
I stumbled upon this site by accident and this is the music we grew up to!
När månen går med långa ben! <--- One of the favorites! HOLY SHIT!

Ah! I'm like bouncing of joy hahaha

I love these songs!!
You need to listen to the fourth album on that site. That's the one.
Aaaaaw...
Me, my little sister and Annica used to hide in a dark room and listen to this story and the songs over and over again. By the way, this story was so spooky. And the song Bäckahästen Joik. Holy shit we got so scared cause Bäckahästen was really creepy haha.

• När månen går med långa ben.
• Valurei
• Bäckahästens joik
• valurei

Maybe Xi will like these songs?
I love them :)

http://www.markatta.net/pages/sida_cd.php

Vittror

So.. I'm a wee bit bored.. so I figured I'd tell you about Vittror...

Vittror...they're a swedish entity, sort of like trolls, goblins and gnomes. The same kindred yet they're not...

They're part of "The Invisible race". Unlike gnomes and the such, it is said that Vittror are immortal. But then again, the stories differ depending on where in sweden you are. North and south have their differences. In some parts they age and die just like humans. And they look like humans as well, but their sizes differ... they can be a a few inches high to even taller than humans. But the women are said to be exceptionally beautiful. They're considered to be a rather peaceful race and sometimes vittror can even give you help or a premonition. And if your'e good to them you'll be plenty rewarded, but they rarely make contact with humans. They try to avoid us as best they can. But like any other creature they can get vicious when provoked.

Vittror live under the earth, under the mountains and stones in another dimension from us humans. They have their own trails and roads which they walk upon, and they're called Vitterstråk. And if you ever cross them you'd fall victim to a bunch of misfortune..but if your'e lucky you might accidentally catch a glimpse of their parallel reality in which they live in instead.

There are still some maps of Vitterstråken (their roads and trails) existing in sweden. Kept safe and sound at museums and whatnot. Back in the days the maps were needed to make sure you wouldn't build your house on them or accidentally cross them... On Iceland they still take their Creatures of nature very seriously and they do not build things on their roads. Personally, I think we should treat our entities with as much respect as they do. :)

Well, Misfortune will fall upon the one who builds their house on their trails, cause then you'd have Vittror walk through your house with a giant herd of Vitter-cows and vitter-sheep. Good thing to keep in mind when building a house.

They used to say that Vittror could be heard depending on what season it was. You'd hear them laugh and giggle, and the sound of bells from their Vitter-cows would echo through the woods when they moved each season. And if you ever heard their Vitter hounds bark... You'd know it's a vitter hound cause they bark twice at a time.


Just as they have their own dimension, and their own herds and hounds and whatnot...there's also Vitter sjöar. (Vitter lakes) If you ever wanna know if what you see is a Vitter lake or a normal lake, you can always use a camera. If you take a picture of a lake, and the reflection of the surroundings are crystal clear and you can't tell the difference from the trees or the lake it is a Vitter lake.

The creation of the worlds

well, I figured that I should write about what so many people find interesting.
The beginning of Asatron (the asa faith) as we call it. You all probably know it as Norse mythology. You know, about Oden, Tor, Frej and Freja.

Now this might be a bit weird for you guys since you're probably used to the names of the god given by your own language. I can understand that. But I will call them as they are named. Oh and also, I can't really translate if perfectly considering that this is ancient swedish, and some words simply doesn't exist in english. So some sentences will most likely sound incredibly weird as it does in swedish as well. But it is the way it was written so I will write it as I see fit.

If you read Snorres Edda and Yngligasagan, you will find that before the world of gods were created, there was a giant abyss. Called Ginnungagap. 

Now I will make this "short" because there is a thousand stories on this. And I shall just write the basic stuff. (this isnät short, but it could be a million times longer ;P) haha

According to the book, At first there was  Muspelheim (muspelhem), which is bright and hot and there Surt sat with a flaming sword at the boarder. Then came Nifelheim (Nivelhem) in the north, The world of the Frost., with the well Hvergelme, whereby 11 (or 12) namegiven floods flows from. These are called Elivågor (Eliwaves) and their biting cold waters hardens longre from the source to ice which fills northern Ginnungagap. 
When the heat from Muspelheim met the rimfrost from Nifelheim so that it melt, and when it did, it created a power which the heat sent in the appearance of a man called Ymer or Aurgelmer. From him came Rimtursarna. For when he slept he would sweat and then out from his left armpit grew a man and a woman out. And one of his feet had a son with the other. And then there was, created by the rimfrosts drops the ancient cow (no way to translate urkon) Audhumbla (Ödhumla) and 4 milk rivers flowed from her teats, as food for Ymer.


Audhumbla was fed through licking the salty rimfrost stones. And the frist day, a mans hair came out of those stones. The second day a mans head. The thrid day the entire man was out. His name became Bure. Bure got a son whom he called Bor. And Bor married Bestla, daughter of the giant Böltorn. And they had three sons. Oden, Vile and Ve. Bors three sons slayed Ymer and in his blood the entire rimtursars kin was drowned, except for Bergelmer, who with his wife went on board on a carved log whom the rimtursar later derived from.


Bors sons, whom was considered to be gods carried Ymer to the middle of Ginnungagap and made from his body the earth. His blod became the seas and waters, the meat became earth, the bones created the mountains, and broken bones became stones and pebbles. They used the scull as the sky and put it over the earth with 4 corners. And under each corner they put a dwarf. Austre (the east), Vestra (the west) Nordre (the north) and sudre (the south) And then they took sparks from Muspelheim and put on the sky as sun, moon and stars. Around the earth was the deep sea, and alongside with the shore they gave land to the giants. Within this, they created the castle Midgård made of Ymers eyebrows towrds the giants. And from his brain, they created the clouds.


When Bors sons walked alongside the shore, they found two trees. And thus, they created the humans. One gave spirit and life, the other one gave reason and movement, and the third gave them looks, goals, hearing and sight. The man was named Ask. And the woman was named Embla. These were the first humans to walk the earth. 


They then created the castle Asgård in the middle of the world, where the god and their kinds lived. And in the middle of Asgård was Idavallen, and there they gods made a temple called Glanshem, whereas their 12 thrones stands. They also made Vingolf for the godesses, and they made a lot out of gold, stones and wood until the golden age was suspended by the three norns from jutenheim. (Home of the giants) In swedish it's called Jättehem. The gods then sat down and decided to give reason and human form to the dwarfs who had been given life as maggots in Ymers flesh. The live in the earth and in stones.


And thus, the world had been created.

this is Ymer, milking Audhumbla... and the man growing out from the saltrocks.

Myling

Once again I have a fascinating story for you guys ;)

Hooray more norse mythology!

This story is about mylingar. 

Back in the old days, just as in most other countries as well...it wasn't accepted to have a child if you weren't married. It wasn't uncommon that they would kill the children that were born outside a marriage. Such a child is called a myling. The mothers would kill the baby and hide it. Sometimes even hide under the floor in their cabins just to hide an unwanted birth.

Mylingar are said to be the spirits of those dead babies. Taking the vengeance on their mothers that killed them.

According to the tales of the past, it is told about how the mother was revealed when the myling sings a song about his cruel fate. Mylingar was believed to be buried at places were a young unmarried woman could have hidden a dead child (go figure..) like mires, outhouses, cairns and forest jaws.

From such places, you could often hear child screams and cries in the night.

Sometimes the child could even scream for help. Yelling "help, give me a name!!" You could then save the child by saying "her, you can have mine. My name is ----" You could also help the child by finding it and bury it on holy ground.

The word myling, comes from the old swedish word myrding, from the ancient swedish myrða, (which means murder) In short, mylings simply means murdered.


There's a tale about a myling in Bergslagen here in sweden. An old man was walking home from the pub, late one night. When he was spoken to by a little boy saying "Grandfather, grandfather may I suckle?" "Morfar, morfar, får jag pappa?"  That word, pappa. Is an ancient dialekt in sweden, it means to breast feed basically. (though pappa means father here nowadays just so you know) The old man refused to answer, but as the child kept asking this question he finally answered: "If you have someone to suckle from, then suckle, but thou shall not suckle from me" The little boy then disappeared. When the old man finally came home to his cabin he then found his daughter dead in the pull-out couch with blood flowing from her breasts. The old mans answer to that child gave the boy the possibility to have revenge on his mother, with the tales words: When the boy got permission to suckle, he then knew where to go"  "När pojken hade fått lov te papp' så visste han vart han skulle gå".

well, that's about all about Mylingar.

Troll

Now, I'm quite bored tbfh... and I'm about to take a stroll in the park with Lei Lei and then go grocery shopping. Having the family over for tacos tonight ;D

Anyway, since I'm bored. I'll just pass the time by writing some more norse mythology and such.

I thought I'd tell you about trolls :)
I've always been fascinated by trolls. Honestly, a part of me still believs trolls exists. And don't fucking judge me. How can one not believe in them? :P lawl I once wrote about trolls in a fairytale remember? the tale of the four big trolls and Vill-Vallareman?

Anyway, A troll is a being from the norse folklores...said to descend from the prehistoric ice and fire giants. They differ in both looks, temper and size. There are trolls as big as a mountains (it is said that a sleeping troll could actually BE that mountain.) And they can be tiny as a cat. But the size has nothing to do with their kindness. Some could be kind once in a while, others mischievous and malicious. But all of them were tricksters. They may be slow witted, but not stupid.  There's also many dfferent kinds of trolls. We have skogstroll (forrest trolls) grott troll (cave trolls) and bergatroll (mountain trolls) and also stentroll (stone trolls <--- they're said to MADE out of stone.) Here's the thing, some believe that forrest trolls, as well as stone trolls and tree trolls can actually handle sunlight. (?) But cavetrolls, and mointain trolls can't. The stone trolls can do it only because they turn themselves into stone before sunrise. While in norway it's mostly believed that they can't handle sun at all. Hmm, what else... ah, All of them are incredibly fast. They can run like the wind. And take a step big as 7 miles.
Well, nowadays trolls, alongside with giants are believed to be extinct. Some say that they simple hidd deeper in our forrest since they felt that sweden became too "christian" and the christianity took over sweden. Also, they can become veeeery old. Several hundred years old. So why would'nt some of them still be lurking in the dark forrest of Svearike huh? Everyone knows that trolls used to stay hidden deep inside our forrests. Fearing the sunlight as they might turn into stone if their bodies meets the sunlight. THAT is what i was told as a kid. And THAT is what I believe. They'd die from sunlight, unless they turned themselves into stone before the sun rises :D

Not only do they come in different shapes and sizes, but their looks differ just as much as us humans do. But there's a few things they all have in common. The troll tail, the pointy ears, the broad nose and peering eyes that glows like burning charcoal in the night . Many of them have beards as well :) Some can look just as we think a troll looks like, and some can actually be considered beautiful.  They love glittery sparkling things and always wear big heavy jewelry. On the other hand, troll ladies are considered pretty. And with their shaggy tail they could easily be mixed up with skogsrået.

Now trolls were rarely seen since they only move around after sunset, and some say that they can move around while being invisible. They used their invisibillities to steal food from the humans and do mischievous acts. Ooooh And switch their troll babies with a human baby.  See, a trollmor (trollmother) would very much like their children to get a human upbringing since humans (usually) treats their children so well, and educate them and dress them and feed them and so on. So the mother would switch the children. If a family suspected to have a changeling in the house, they could threaten to throw the child into the oven. And then trollmor would come running fast as fuck and save the baby. Despite how trolls may seem, they love their family and protects them as well as they can. Unlike many swedish entitys and spirits etc...trolls actually live in packs. With their "families".They have many friends and they're very social and loud in their own crowd.

And back in the old days, a few hundred years ago... people really did believe in these things and they were very affraid of trolls and skogrået and all the other beings that we have here ;) But it's the same as the famous With hunt we had here hundred of years ago. it was horrible. And so easy to point out a poor girl and accuse her of witchcraft. They'd burn all of them, and sometimes drown them.
So, if a child was accused of being a troll changeling..their lives could easily be ruined forever. Some could even get abandonned by their families and thrown into an orphanage or into the streets. :/ But, the best thing to do would be to baptise the child as fast as they could. Trolls hate everything that has anything to do with christianity. They also feared churchbells, and Tor and his hammer Mjölner.  It is also known that trolls are very greedy and they collect all the gold and silver they can get their hand on. Hence, the saying "rich as a troll" :) haha



And many people utside the north, have no idea what a real troll looks like. You've all been mesmerized by world of warcraft, lord of the rings, and such fantasy bullcrap. THAT IS NOT HOW TROLLS LOOK. After all, that's fantasy. This is real :P Swedish folklores and mythology is not fantasy at all. It's a part of history and a part of our ancestors beliefs.

This is what a real troll looks like.
these are swedish trolls though. But as I've said before, finland,norway,denmark...we all share our mythology :3

oh btw, there are still people that say that trolls aren't bad beings. On the contrary, quite kind. They are the balance of nature. And the humans have blamed the trolls for their own mistakes and failures. Using the trolls as a scapegoat. Sound logical enough if you ask me. Same as the witch hunts. If there was someone you were jealous of or didn't like. Just accuse them of being a witch. problem solved. Such cunts really. Doing such mean acts.

I myself think that it totally depends on what troll you may stumble upon :P




well, this does it for today. :D

more norse mythology

Sooooo today I figured I'd write about Näcken and Bäckahästen.

Näcken is a male water spirit. Or entity if you may call it that.
He lives in dark waters, like small rivers, creeks and ponds.
He is said to play the most beautiful music on his violin. He would be seen sitting on a rock in the middle of the streams playing it... luring people down into the depths of his waterfalls drowning them.

Some say he could be willing to teach his arts of the violing to streetmusicians in exchange for three drops of blood. They would then play for an entire night and by the morning the streetmusician would be amazing at playing the violin. Now he was a very sly sprite... Extremelly wicked. He would try and lure the musicians down in the depths. But if they managed to not get lured away by him, they would become excellent violinist. But there was also risks with making a contract with Näcken. The musicians could end up playing the music and never being able to stop it, till the go insane. And the same goes for the people listening to it. They would dance till they all went insane. Unless someone involved in that act realised what was happening and cut of the cords on the violin with a certain knife.

Now people say that he's also a shapeshifter. So there's many different describings about his looks. The most common one is that he's seen naked in the waters, with long golden brown hair. A very youthful and good looking man. Others say they saw him with only one eye in the middle of the forehead. And some say his eyes are shaped like two crescent moons. Many also claim that his legs are those of a horse, with hooves on them. On one of the sites I was checking it actually said that Näcken is rarely seen naked. BUT as a child I always heard that he would be sitting in the river naked. I never heard about him wearing clothes O___O

Ah, needless to say, he was a very attractive and seductive man. And he definitely enjoyed enticing young women. So women back in the days were very careful with crossing a stream or a bridge over a river. 

And here's the wonderful part, one of Näckens most important characters is  The horse. It's light grey in it's colour.

 (pictures from google yeah...)

Now some say that that horse would be Bäckahästen. And that Bäckahästen and Näcken are two completely different beings. While others claim that they are one and the same.

But you can get your own opinion about that. They're characteristics are quite different from each others if you ask me.

Bäckahästen (literally means The creek horse) is said to be a vicious and malicious water spirit. And he lured little children to jump up on his back and then he runs down into the depths of his creek and drowns them. And Bäckahästen back could hold any number of children. As many as he'd like. Cause his back would only get longer and longer for each child that sat on it.

When I search about Bäckahästen on google nothing about his song will come up. But as a child, I often heard stories about Bäckahästen singing. Making the children get captivated by his song. Hypnotized actually. I was scared a fuck of Bäckahästen as a kid btw. Honestly. While I really wanted to catch a glimpse of Näcken, I'd never wanna run across Bäckahästen.

It is also said that on the botton of the creek/pond where Bäckahästen lives it would be filled with skeletons and skulls  O___O
ah, but you could break his spell by saying a christian word. Or even throwing an object made of steel between the horse and the creek. Then he would'nt be able to walk that way.

So yeah, that's about it with the Näcken and Bäckahästen :D

Swedish /north mythology

Well, I've noticed that there's quite a few of you that are instrested in norse mythology, especially swedish. Let me tell you, that since sweden, norway and denmark all used to be one big country our myths and creatures are all the same but different names.

So, I'll tell you about a few.
Skogsrået. Ramon was intrested in hearing about her so here we go.
(technically, she's probably know to the world as siren of the woods...) But she's not a siren. She's a troll entity.

Skogrået has many names, Huldra, Elverpigen, mosekonen, or even Vittra in other parts of sweden. But she's mostly knows as Skogrået. She lives deep in the dark forests. She is said to be the most fairest of women, But also the most repulsive one. Depends on what her mood is. Her back on the other hand is hollow, and looks like a rotten tree trunk and she has a tail. Which she is very ashamed of having (for some odd reason, personally I find a tail AWESOME but hey..) In some parts of sweden, especially up north and other pasture fields it is said that her tail looks like a fox's tail. What I've heard from old people (and many of my old patients) is that she had dark dark hair, sometimes even green.

Some say that if a man made love to her, he would stop speaking. Cause his soul would remain with her. She lured men into the deep forests and if she liked them she'd seduce them, and if she didn't like them she'd mislead them, making them get lost and disappear in the dark woods.

In some parts, mainly Svealand (where I come from) and southern Norrland, She is said to have cattle in the forest whom she herded. She would also have a dog there.

She could be kind to those who had shown kindness to her though. As a hunter, it was very important to stay on Skogsråets good side. She would then bring you good hunting fortune. She would blow down the riffle barrel making the weapon unable to miss it's aim. BUT she would also make it so it could'nt shoot one of her own riding mooses. She would also help little chaletgirls wth their cattle...


According to old stories from the northic mythology,  Oden held a grudge against Skogrået and he would hunt her like she was a prey.

Despite Skogrået being a solitary entity,  she might've belonged to (hard to translate this) the colletive entitys similar to the southern swedish trolls.

 

well, I think that it turned into a long blogpost so this will have to do for now :D haha
Next time, I think I'll write about Näcken :D Mesa mesa like Näcken!