#trollkattpost

I am posting this “review” again since Tumblr is stupid and makes the other post look like “put the tail on the donkey” off-dash. I might turn off the off-dash version altogether at some point, but until I make up my mind about that, I’d like for it to look okay and be easy to read. So, here it is again, the “review” of Mary Rustad’s book from 1999, The Black Books of Elverum. I have also corrected my misquoting of two titles from the book.

The American Professor of Norwegian, Kathleen Stokker, says in the Foreword that Mary Rustad’s book “reveals a fascinating and important contribution to our understanding of a little known facet of the Norwegian heritage,” and I have to laugh out loud, because there is hardly a single person in Norway who doesn’t know what a black book is.

Also Mary Rustad herself claims in the Editor’s Note that the black books are a “portion of our history that has been swept under the carpet,” and I have to laugh even harder - what is this? Is there some sort of parallel Norway somewhere out there that they go to for their research?! *lol*

Both the legendary black book from the exaggerated not-even-half-true fireside stories (that is, the black book that can’t be burned, that is written in blood on black parchment, that some of our most famous clergy owned a copy of and used, that was found in a marble coffin, that was originally written by Cyprianus himself, etc., etc. - some of this is even written in the forewords of the actual books) and the actual physical black books, like the ones Mary Rustad found in the attic of Nordre Rustad farm, are staples in the cultural fare that most of us got fed as a matter of course through our “mother’s milk”, as the expression goes. Neither Rustad nor Stokker seem to be aware of this fact.

In the Preface, Ronald Grambo (former professor in folklore at the University of Oslo) says something very important that can’t be emphasised enough - he says:

Magic has to be studied in its various contexts. It is certainly dependent on these factors:

The ecological system

The historical background

The social strata

The frame of reference (the knowledge of tradition)

The emotional attitude (hate, envy, expectations, eagerness, neighborly love, determinedness)

Age

Gender

Profession (the knowledge of magic varies from one profession to another)

The victim (whether the victim is a human being, an animal, or a supranormal being)

Value

The literary influence

Of course, not all forms of magic contain all these factors. There are nevertheless certain constant factors; namely, b, d, and j [made bold in the list by Trollkatt].

I see this all the time when non-Norwegians claim “norwegianness” - and particularly when it comes to magic - that they never get it right because they have no clue about all the cultural contexts. All the self-appointed volver, seidmenn, spåkoner and practitioners of trolldom that are littering this place simply have no idea what they are on about, what those titles and practices actually mean.

There isn’t all that much in the material presented in The Black Books of Elverum that is useful - or recommendable - today. We have all kinds of medicines and remedies these days that are more safe to use and surer to work than the advice and recipes found in these pages, and we don’t rip the tongue out of living creatures any more, just to get into the pants of somebody we fancy.

But, some of it is absolutely worth trying out, either “as is” or in modified form to fit modern life and situations, such as

To cure a fever (colla) p. 19

To make ink which only lasts for twenty-four hours p. 43

If a person haunts after death p. 55

To put the eye out of a thief pp. 73-74

To make birds or animals stand still pp. 95-101

To stop a drifter pp. 103-105

Protection for your cows this year against wolves and bears p. 111

Some “characters” or “runes” are badly transcribed. It doesn’t really matter much, as they also in the originals are pure nonsense compared to what they probably are supposed to look like. But it is rather annoying when you see the original says

and it has been rendered

Also the transcription is incorrect some places. In one instance it says “bligvidt” in the facsimile, which I happen to know is supposed to read “blyhvidt” (blyhvitt) - that is, white lead (also known as basic lead carbonate, which was used as a pigment) - because this is a well-known type of spell found all over Scandinavia, and white lead is what you use (or would use, if it didn’t give you lead poisoning)! Unfortunately, it has been understood as “blegevand” (or something like that) by the transcriber and translated “bleach water” (which wouldn’t be much better health-wise even if it was correct).

In another place has “victriolsolie” (vitriololje) - used to drain boils *shudders* - been translated “iron sulfate” when it actually means sulfuric acid. Seriously not the same.

The word “skarn” (something shed, detached, separated) is mysteriously translated “turd” everywhere - which can be correct in the proper context, but not in any of these cases, where it means anything a burglar or a robber might have happened to leave behind after the deed (or that the victim got a hold of), such as a strand of hair, a torn-off piece of clothing, blood from a cut when breaking a window, spittle in the dusty yard or - most often - foot tracks.

I mean, it certainly makes a funny image, and Norwegians do have some weird rituals - I should know, being one - but what kind of burglar or robber pulls down their trousers and takes a crap before leaving the crime scene!? Especially when they know very well - like everybody knew at the time these books were written - that a turd can be used to track them, catch them and even kill them?

Remember what was said about familiarity with the tradition and knowing the cultural context further up? There you have its importance demonstrated!

The book could also have benefited by another round with a proper proofreader. Or with someone somewhat familiar with the Norwegian language. Or just someone who knows how to use a dictionary, really. Misspellings such as “svartebøka” (for svarteboka), Bjorn (for Bjørn) and Osterdalen (for Østerdalen) don’t make a very good impression.

- in Norwegian/Scandinavian tradition, prompted by this post.

Helpers aren’t to be thanked expressly, because then they will assume their job is done and finished with, and go away. That is, they will take an uttered "thank-you" as payment for their work, and leave (or even assume that you now owe them a favour in return, which binds you to them - but this is more a continental idea).

So, instead of thanking them, you work on creating an ongoing relationship with them of give and take, of exchanging favours. They get attention - food offerings mostly - on specific holidays, particularly those connected to the equinoxes and solstices and in connection to bigger events, and this is in exchange for whatever they do for you. Deals can be struck months ahead. If the spirit does such and such - or don’t do such and such, as the case can be with some of them! - it gets to receive such and such (food and/or drink, usually) at such and such time (a feast day, usually). Here is an example of how such an exchange can happen.

The dead often get praises along with their offerings, but they are never expressly thanked either. Instead of saying something like, “Thank you, auntie, for helping me out with such and such,” you say “Here’s to auntie who was such a helpful person.” And then you present the offering or pour the drink.

A Norwegian survey some years back showed that 350.000 adult Norwegians put out porridge for the nisse every jul. That’s quite an amount for such a small population. An additional 75.000 put out porridge every other jul. I assume these latter are divorced parents who do it when it is their turn to have the children over for the holidays - the tradition is strongest among families with kids. People in Northern Norway are best at thinking of their nisse, and 25% of them put out porridge. In Oslo, “only” 11% do - one in ten. The survey did not ask about other occasions when offerings are made, as it was specifically about jul and porridge (usually rice porridge), which in Norway go hand in hand.

January 1st

In Gudbrandsdalen they say that today will show how the rest of the year will be. If something goes wrong today, all year will go wrong, whereas a good day promises a good year.

In Østerdalen, the valley "next door", they said it was unlucky to get visited by females today, while seeing a dark-haired man brought luck.

In Helgeland up north - or, on Helgeland, as we actually say it in Norwegian - they say if the weather is bad today, the harvest will suffer. Onshore winds will give a good fishing season, but if it blows hard, the whole year will be windy.

In Berlevåg up in Finnmark, our northernmost region, a snowfall today promises a good berry year.

In Bindal in Nordland they say,

New year's night thick and clear will give us all a prosperous year

All over Sør- and Østlandet they say that if there is snow or hoarfrost on the forest today, it promises a good grain harvest.

In Setesdal, it's like this, "Whatever you do today, you'll keep doing all year." So, logically, you'll be best off in 2019 if you make sure you do something pleasant and worthwhile today. Eat well, accept help and gifts, spoil yourself to treats and beauty - well, you know the drill. Don’t overdo anything, though. And, don’t stress.

Primstaven

Hei hei!

I don’t know about Iceland at all, but in Norway it has been custom to have an offering tree, either in the yard or on the burial mounds, often where the ancestral father or the person who cleared the land and built the first farm was buried.

It was customary to take signs from the tree to divine the health and prosperity of the farm and its inhabitants, and as long as it was not harmed in any way, the farm and its people were protected against things like disease and misfortune.

People made offerings by the foot of the tree on many occasions, for instance, for luck with the brewing or to give thanks when a cow had calved or in remembrance of a deceased loved one. Also weekly - or more often - offerings are mentioned, iirc. The most common offering was milk or beer. It was also given food offerings on the bigger holidays, especially jul. During the outdoor spring cleaning, old leaves and other debris were raked to the foot of the tree, where also the used malt after brewing was poured. All this had the natural effect that the offering tree grew bigger and healthier than any other trees.

The most commonly found offering tree in general is a linden, maple, ash, elm or - in the mountains where I’m from and further north - birch or rowan. Occasionally you can also find oak, and even pine has been known as offering tree. The most common words for such a tree - directly translated - are yard-tree, offering-tree, wight-tree, thurs-birch and wight-birch. I’m sure there are a lot more.

The site where I found this pretty image way back in 2006 is long gone, and google doesn’t recognise it, but the caption I used for it in my altar pics collection was this: “St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church in Boulder, Colorado, USA“, so I will assume that’s where the niche with the lovely statue can be found. If you know who the photographer is, please hit me up.

...that nobody seems to know what the various traditional buns actually are called, and call all of them lussekatter - Lussi-cats. Which is wrong.

This is the one that is the easiest to make - and therefore also most often made - and that gets called Lussi-cat by nearly everybody even though it actually is a galt - that is, a male (uncastrated) pig.

This shape is in Italy known as occhi di santa Lucia - Saint Lucy’s eyes.

This one is the katt - the real lussekatt or Lussi-cat! As can be guessed by the shape, the dough is rolled into a sausage that’s thick in the middle and thinning towards the ends which are curled downwards and up, and then crossed and put under the thick parts so they poke out and make the cat’s ears.

Other traditional shapes are

yule-horse (in Norway this shape is known as yule-goat) gold-wagon (also called yule-cross or sun-cross) crown or lussi-crown swaddled-infant (also called boy) bridge church-gate yule-ox hair of the priest lily sowing-cake wreath

I am sure there are many more, these are only those I know of.