Winter solstice!

We call it "vintersolverv" or "solsnu" in Norwegian; the longest night & the shortest day of the year. The beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and the beginning of summer in the Eastern Hemisphere. I guess we can call it all Yule, as mentioned in my last post, considering the length and meaning of it all. The date of this day varies from the 21st to the 23rd, according to Wikipedia. Winter solstice has been celebrated differently in many cultures since the ancient times, and the old yule-tide is probably one of them. Animals were slaughtered so that they wouldn't need to be fed during the winter, and people had enough meat, mead and wine to celebrate the coming year and pray to the Mother for good crops, the sun and life.

Wardruna - Jara

Soli har venda,
i haustinga ligg håpet.
Solrik sumar
og allgroande åkre.

Til norne tri,
vi ber dei spinna liv
i åker og i eng,
i barm og i bringa.

Er ár og friðar,
når kornet stig or jordi.
Om vordane lokka sin lokkesong.

På tidleg sådd åker
kan ikkje nokon lite.
For mangt veit eg om vålyndt vêr.

Gro gro, lisle spire,
dager gryr og mørket svinner.
Sól har snudd
og hjulet det har venda.

Sola vendar hausten sendar
graset gulnar, blada fell
lyse dagar er på hell.

Til vordar og vettar,
vi takk gjev med vår song
for ár og friðar.

Ár og friðar.

The Swamp Thing by Michael Zulli

Artist's name's coming right up!

Anyway, almost done stressing with presents and stuff now ^^ We'll be taking a bus to go to Stavanger tomorrow, where Rein will pick us up. Looking forward to seeing them. We'll be drinking lots of ale and eat lots of good food, yey!

God Jul! 

Jól

Two days with snow.

/.../ I forgave it in my desperate gaze
Upon the crazy-paving surface,
That sealed in the black-chill temperature,
Where at bottom, something nithered
Still survived.

(A Winter Pond - Mark R Slaughter, 2010)

Exams over. I'm once again a free bird. ...Till monday, when a new week starts, and I'll be off to work again. Back in the crowd. Then christmas will be upon us, with its food, faces, presents and expectations. [Which reminds me I have to read Charles Dickens.] Christmas is a odd phenomenon; happiness is being forced upon us, and "no" is no answer. It bothers me how christmas has become so commercialized and soulless, where all we care about is money. We need to think about how christmas is so very hard on those who are poor and lonely. Don't get me wrong, I do love christmas, but only when I'm satisfied with my life and situation. Last year was good, this year will be. Mum & I will be going to my boyfriend's family to celebrate.

Since I'm writing about christmas, I just need to point out that I'm not a christian (and I certainly don't like the words here well enough to give them their capital-letters). I prefer the Norwegian word, which is Jul. Earlier Jól, which the christian christ-mass originates from. Christianity has stolen many things...;) In England they used to call it Yule, which also works.

Yule is the modern English representative of the Old English words ġéol or ġéohol and ġéola or ġéoli, with the former indicating "(the 12-day festival of) Yule" (later: "Christmastide") and the latter indicating "(the month of) Yule", whereby ǽrra ġéola referred to the period before the Yule festival (December) and æftera ġéola referred to the period after Yule (January). Both words are thought to be derived from Common Germanic *jeχʷla-, and are cognate to Gothic (fruma) jiuleis and Old Norse (Icelandic) jól (Danish and Swedish jul and Norwegian jul or jol) as well as ýlir.[2] The etymological pedigree of the word, however, remains uncertain, though numerous speculative attempts have been made to find Indo-European cognates outside the Germanic group.[3] (Wikipedia 2011)

Hrafnsmál/Haraldskvði:

Úti vill jól drekka,
ef skal einn ráða,
fylkir enn framlyndi,
ok Freys leik heyja;
ungr leiddisk eldvelli
ok inni at sitja,
varma dyngju
eða vǫttu dúns fulla.

 - Þorbjörn Hornklofi

(I might give you a translation some day)

Something I need to mention before I go to bed; the weather! Ugh! We had such nice weather yesterday and the day before, with 15cm of snow, cold and beautiful. Then it all disappears when rain washes it away, the poor snow hardly got to fall down at all. It annoys me, but I'll try not to think about it. Off to bed.

Tom Waits - "Satisfied"