It runs in the family I: Finding your (possible) roots in deep time

My mom (AnS) and her sister (MB), our aunt, have been digging deep into the genealogical online mines of Swedish historical documents and found some amazing tracks back in time.  As you go back in time you of course have more and more ancestors, and if you are lucky some of these were historically important enough to have been part of the record-keeping for centuries.  First AnS e-mailed me and told us that, in fact, we had royal blood in the family down there in the medieval 1400s.  “1400s!” That was before Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ the Caribbean, Galileo, and da Vinci (well, Leonardo was born 1452).

A few days later and a new e-mail from mom revealed lineages even deeper in time – now back in time from a princess of Sweden in the early 1200s (Brigida Haraldsdotter).  From her, the old histories and folktales lead the genealogy of our family far back in time into Viking Age (which was approximately during years 700-1100).  Not only that, the old Icelandic sagas and other historical documents trace the family lineages of these famous Vikings all the way back to, you guessed it, the Nordic Gods. 

These mythological and folktale texts, poems, and documents (often called Sagas) provide genealogies like the Bible, but more exact with birth and death dates, which of course might be wrong.  But so far, mom and MB have traced our family back to Yngvi Frej Odinson Tyrkjekonung (year 125-214), son of Odin and Freja, two of the Gods in Nordic mythology.  How is that for amazing genealogy?  It is like being able to trace your family back to Abraham in the Bible.  Do you think the Mormons would be jealous of us?  For Mormons genealogy is very important for religious reasons, while I just think it is interesting and curious, and it roots you in a place and time.

So, we can trace our family nearly 1900 years back in time, and so can probably most Nordic people, since nearly everybody is at least distantly related to some old royal nobleman.  In our case these relationships are directly back in time, based on direct bloodlines not some 'third cousin twice removed' or anything.

In a little series here on the blog we will highlight some of the ancestral people of the family, directly related to us even if their DNA by this time is pretty diluted, maybe 25-50 generations later. This is based on historical documents and who knows who really slept with who (which undoubtedly sometimes led to pregnancies outside of marriage), and it doesn’t help that sometimes kids got adopted, two children could have the same name, cousins married cousins over and over, and so on. It is often unclear who the mother was, and that was less important since only the sons inherited the father, and mothers and daughters were less important (except as marriage material).  It is a tangled but interesting web of stories, people, and places. 

 And, for Stamp of the Day, some viking stamps from Isle of Man.

Tjärnen

Tjärnen, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

One of the most beautiful, manmade places I have seen is 'Skogens Trädgård" (Forest Garden) at Wij Garden in Ockelbo, Sweden. The designer of this garden used Swedish nature as inspiration to create rooms and feelings related to Swedish landscapes, such as this little black-water lake in a dark spruce forest. A lot of mythology surrounds places like this, from bouldery trolls and goldenhaired young maidens (Tuvstarr) to whispy elfs in the fog, from softness and calm solitude to to darkness and fear. There are many more photos in my Flickr photostream from this place, and I will soon write more about it here on the blog.

Ice and fire in the time of volcanism

When you have gotten tired of your too colorful and contrasty screen background and need something black to rest your eyes on, try one of these.  I love the one with the black labrador and the waterdrop on the chrysantemum petal. I know some readers of this blog probably would pick the black LEGOs :)
This one called leafage is by (matt) on Flickr (creative commons license).

 The volcano on Iceland is still spewing out ash and probably soon more lava, they say.  Can you imagine the first vikings that settled Iceland from Norway over a thousand years ago.  They came from a solid-rock country of granite and gneiss and limestone, billion year old rocks carved by ice ages, and were faced with a living breathing geologic living thing.  The earth moved and trembled, spewed out lava, ash, and rocks, sulfuric water boiled in hot pools, and whole mountains exploded and cracked open.  If you were a viking that had never heard of such things, what would you have thought?  I wonder how much of these experiences influenced the old Norse mythology and especially Ragnarök, their Doomsday.  I am sure it provided vivid imaginary of hell, except Old Norse didn't have hell and heaven (well, they did have hel, but that had a slightly different meaning than the home of the devil), they had Muspelheim and Valhalla. I find it kind of ironic that a hot place like this island was named Iceland ("Island"), and not Fireland ("Eldslandet").  (In 1947 Hekla, another one of the larger volcanoes erupted, see today's stamp from Iceland). Was it just wishful thinking from the vikings?

OK snapshot: Art by Stina Wirsén

Click for larger images of Swedish folklore. Snapshots by OK.

Witches' import

Seen at the local supermarket here in New Jersey - handcrafted Witches' Broomsticks made in Estonia from birch branches being sold for Halloween. If these made it here, in container ships I bet, I wonder how many are being sold and how much of the Estonian forest that is cut down. Not very sustainable to shop these across the world. At least it is not plastic. And you even get a pilot license when you buy one!

A solution to lost socks?

If it´s a very small black hole the sock might stay in the washing machine with this device... If you search for sock clips you find a huge variety, it´s a widespread phenomenom!

Or as Robert N commented on Flickr;

" Its not the black hole in the washer. Oh there is a black hole, I found that, but thats not where the socks go. I know because I looked and there weren't any socks in it. So I staked it out and found out where they went. A sock eating Gremlin (actually more of a Grendel, but whos counting) lives in it and shows himself only when he smells socks. When I caught up with him, with his hand on one of my socks, I asked him why only one sock at a time and he told me that he figured if he ate too many we'd stop putting them in there. So I banged him over the head, knocked him out and dropped him off at my friends house the next time I was over. I'm watching to make sure another one doesn't move in. " Source: http://flickr.com/photos/ansy/2166823563

Have fun with sock clips! I myself have a gnome eating out the soles of my socks, but he likes my husband's better...

By EH

Relics

The relics of a sea beast washed ashore...

Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides: above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages and will lie
Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

"The Kraken" by Tennyson.

/O.K., with assistance of C.R.A.P.™

BIONICLE Mask Of Life

In the time before time, the great beings created the bionicle universe from a location known only as the world that feeds the world.
They created Artahka, Karzahni, Mata nui and Makuta.
And from the world that feeds the world, the matoran of light and the av-matoran were created. They are the matoran destined to become Toa, guardians of the universe. Mata nui created the matoran, the sky, the earth and the water. Makuta created weaker duplicates of himself, creating the brotherhood of Makuta (although there are female members of the brotherhood). Artahka and Karzahni were always bickering about who was a better craftsman. They had a contest, and Artahka won with his creation known as the staff of Artahka, which can re-create any object even from the smallest fragment of the object. But Karzahni vanished into his realm, never to emerge until nearly 100,000 years later. The great beings created the hand of Artahka, also known as the order of Mata nui, whose job was to protect Mata nui. In Artahka (the name of Artahka's realm) the order created the Toa Mata , whose job was to retrieve the staff of Artahka if it was ever stolen. The great beings then created the mask of life, commonly known as Kanohi Ignika. The mask was created to save Mata nui's life if it was ever in danger (because if Mata nui died so did the universe). A prophecy came with it as well, inscribed on the inside of the mask:

Where evil's afloat,
A secret brings hope.

Where a world has gone under,
Comes lightning and thunder.

What darkness divides,
A cut will unite.

Ignite the flame of the heart,
For the future to start.

Nearly every single villain in the bionicle history craves that mask. Not only does it have the ability to give life, but also to take it away.

Getting ready for Christmas?

Make your own gnome (tomte) cookie cutter, or any shape you like!

Pretty cool!

But what I really want is a cookie cutter shaped like an amoeba!

älvdans i Yellowstone

(Title: The dance of the elves in Yellowstone)

When I was a child in Sweden, we were entertained with folklore stories about elves, gnomes, giants, and other mythological creatures. Some people even believed in them. I always loved the elves, which in Sweden are female, fog-like and wispy creatures that dance over meadows at dusk and dawn. If you breath in their fog, you can wish for something dear.

When I was in Yellowstone I was reminded of the Swedish 'älvor' at several occasions. Not only do the hot springs and fumaroles (steam vents) create foggy clouds night and day, but there are also chilly nights perfect for 'älvdans' (dance of the elves) over lakes and meadows. One night when we drove back late to the hotel the road was covered in fog in the moonlight - the steam vents in the geyser basins helped to create low mist that covered all valleys. We had to drive really slow, in case a bison had decided to take a nap on the road, and a car ahead of us actually hit an animal and had to be towed. We were luckier. Here are some steamy, foggy shots to show you the dance of the elves in Yellowstone. Enjoy!

Daytime steam at Grand Prismatic Spring. The orange in the foreground are microbial mats of heat-tolerant microorganisms, among the oldest bacteria on Earth.

Steam vents at Norris geyser basin, early morning. About 3 miles (4 km) under us is molten magma, and you can feel it!

More steam at Norris geyser basin. This place has the hottest geysers and hot springs, many boil all the time.

Early, early morning, before sunset at Mammoth Hot Springs, with terraces of sediments and a hot spring in the background. It was beautiful, mystical and eerie all at the same time.

Stamp of the Day: Kraken

Kraken is a mythical giant squid off the coasts of Iceland and Norway, and LA is really the expert on this subject, not me. This fierce ocean beast has been shown on at least two stamps. One features Disney's animated movie of Jules Verne's Twenty thousand leagues under the sea. I guess this is one of those cases where the myth actually might be real, since there really are giant, giant squids down deep in the oceans.

A whole movie on YouTube?

Lord of the Rings anyone? Watch it on youtube to see all 3 wonderful movies! :D

YOUTUBE

Gods of Vikings- where are they now?

Do you ever wonder what the ancient Gods of the vikings do today? I know, because I have seen them in work many times. They still affect their surrondings, they shuffle, they heave, they lift, they push, and sometimes I´ve seen them clutter together like having a "ting", a viking meeting.

They now go under the name of AGV, and the one to look out for extra is Loke, of course. He is unpredictable, and been seen running people down. AGV stands for something like Automatic Ground Vehicle, they all run around in the great factory buildings of AstraZeneca in Södertälje transporting goods. And they are automatic or...powered by Gods. Idun, Brage, Frej, Balder, Tyr, Freja, even Oden and Tor, the two most powerful gods have ended up there!

What is your future destiny?