#folktro

Jag bestämde mig idag för att bygga en fin liten blogg dedikerad till det nordiska (främst svenska) folkmusikarvet, samt folktro och hantverk. Det som finnes intressant och passande, helt enkelt.

Gårdstomten som driver denna blogg vill tydliggöra att fascister, nationalister, och andra sorters hatiska ohyror inte hör hemma här, ty folkmusiken tillhöra alla som finner sig intresserade av den.

/

I decided to create a nice little blog dedicated to the nordic (primarily Swedish) folk music heritage, as well as folk tales, handcrafts and whatever other things seem interesting and fitting.

A couple of Swedish folkcostumes!

Nicklas is in a Svärdsjö costume from Dalarna

Ronja has one from Delsbo, Hälsingland

Markus has Bäckadräkten, a new genderneutral folkdress.

Irma has the absolutely amazing Östra Göinge Härda dress from Skåne!

You know that feeling when your just happily crafting along and it’s going fine. The weather is the perfect kind of ambiance that you want (sunny, stormy, pattering if a soft rain idk you do you), the pattern is understandable and you’re generally enjoying yourself.

Then it happens. There’s a knot on your thread.

Now in Swedish folklore there are three (3) kinds of thread knot, depending on the situation.

Number 1: the love knot (kärleksknut).

This is a kind of knot that is easily undone. Usually the thread just went over itself and made a little slip knot that you can just tug the end of. It means someone who likes you is thinking of you and it made your thread tease you about it. Might be slightly bothersome, might also make you think of them back.

Number 2: the envy knot (avundsknut).

Perfection will always attract envy. The lesson is that faults in your work is not only fine, but encouraged. Lest you should draw the gaze of the evil eye, or even worse - the gods.

An envy knot in Swedish folklore is usually caused by humans who are envious of your work. It’s the kind of knot where however you pull it it won’t release and you end up making it tighter until you just cut the thread off to make a new start after it.

Number 3: the troll knot (trollknut)

This is comparable to the other two just a knot that happens on its own. But instead of humans it’s blamed on trolls. The trolls are fickle and you can never really know what they want. But they’re hindering your progress in the project so it’s probably not your best they have in mind. Watch out.

Source: institutet för språk och folkminnen (ISOF)

Gillar du folktro, historia, true crime, eller julkalendrar? 

Då har vi något för dig! 

Vi är några glada historiestudenter som gjort en julkalender fylld med historiska kusligheter! 

and in the section on folk beliefs and how forest finn folk beliefs differ from swedish ones i learned that one of the big ones i grew up with, which if i remember correctly in religious studies terms is called total animism (”even rocks think in their own way” ~my mother), is apparently of forest finn descent, and originating in the old east-finnish religion

I learned about the flower ritual for predicting the future when I was very young, and I wonder if you have heard it too - for us it went something like 'On midsummers eve, pick nine different types of flowers in pairs and lay them under your pillow, and during the night you are guaranteed to dream of the person who will become your partner in the future'. Simple, but clearly folk-magic, with its holy numbers (9), special nights if the year, dreams used to foretell the future, and use of symbolic replacement (the flower-couples representing the human couple).

I also learned of traditional blood-healing, from a friend from Dalarna who firmly believed in it, that his great-grandpa had been one, as well as how to foretell the fate of the family by the cardinal direction from which you hear the first cuckoo of the year. I also knew the location of a healing well close to the village, which I did drink from a few times, Just In Case.