#grøde

[hapalopus]

Translation of "Lindormen" from "Æventyrets Dyreverden," Ingvor Bondesen (1887). I have added paragraph breaks for easier online readability, and have added translations/comments in brackets, but have otherwise tried to keep the formatting.

The book is available on Archive.

No animal has been subject of as much fear as the serpent, not even the wolf. From the oldest myths to the youngest folklore, the serpent takes the leading role, and imagination is consistently in motion to provide the serpent with all abilities to evoke fear.

The names change, with time and place: Midgard-serpent, sea serpent, hugormekonge [viper king], and, under all names, venom is its terrible weapon. The horrible giant serpent of the Middle Ages is the lindorm. It lives at the outskirts - in Jylland there is, as such, one in Store Vildmose [a largely impenetrable bog/forest] - and it is of monstrous size. In the folk song, "Didrik af Bern,"[1] it takes the horse under its tongue and snakes into the mountain, where its eleven young lie; it throws the horse to them and bids them taste "den liden Brad" [the little prey].

Mads Povlsen from Fastrup has seen a lindorm-baby as long as a ladder, that is to say 12 cubit [7.5 m/24' 8.5"]. Like the Midgard-serpent was a symbol of the sea's destructive might, the lindorm is similarly a symbol of earth's consuming power, of decay and the awfulness of the grave. When the serpent thus leaves its hill [lindorme are commonly said to live in hills in Danish folklore], its heath [the Danish heath is very inhospitable to humans], its Vildmose, it is with the purpose of finding a churchyard, where it will often encircle the church, gnaw the wooden crosses and foliage, and prevent people from visiting the Lord's House, until it has grown so big that it can topple the church.

In other places, it tunnels beneath the church and eats the corpses, just like the serpent Níðhöggr in Hvergelmir chewed on corpses. And like Níðhöggr laid under Yggdrasil and leeched off its root, so is the lindorm hatched within the root of the linden tree when [the tree] grows old[2]; because Yggdrasil was, in ancient times, a symbol of all Earth's bountifulness and fertile beauty, just like the linden tree later became in the Middle Ages. In the old linden tree in Farum town, there is such a serpent. Every time a century has passed, it roars loudly and, in the end, it will topple the tree, break out, and cause destruction.

Andre Steder borer den sig ned under Kirkerne og æder Ligene, som og Ormen Nidhug i Hvergelmer sugede Lig. Og som Nidhug laa under Ygdrasil og tærede paa dens Rod, saaledes udklækkes der ogsaa en Lindorm i Lindetræets Rod, naar dette bliver meget gammelt t. k.* ; thi Ygdrasil var i Oldtiden Symbolet paa al Jordens Grøde og frugtbare Fagerhed, ligesom Linden senere bliver det i Middelalderen. I det gamle Lindetræ i Farum By er der en saadan Orm. Hver Gang hundrede Aar ere forløbne, brøler den højt, og tilsidst vil den vælte Træet, bryde frem og gjøre Ulykker[3].

The following tale is told in Skåne:

A man lived in a remote forest and earned a living by, among other things, making bark ropes. One day he ordered his half-grown son to crawl up an old tree and loosen the bark. During the work, the boy called down to his father: "Dad, down in the tree there is a sow with her piglets!" The father immediately yelled back for the boy to hurry back down, but it was too late; the lindorm had already grabbed a hold of him and dragged him down through the hollow trunk. The boy screamed and called for help, but the father didn't dare come to his aid; he knew that whoever is taken by the lindorm cannot be saved. "I can't say if this story should be believed or not, but I have later met a man, who must have been born to farmers, but who spent most of his time in cities and among gentlemen, and he spoke of the same, or a similar, story, which had been told in the area between Engelholm and Laholm. His parents, who were wealthy farmers, had, when he was a child, at a market in Engelholm, bought bark rope from a poor man, who told them not to barter, as the ropes had been expensive enough already, as they had cost him the life of his son, which was taken by a lindorm."[4]

The Swedes called it Hvitaormen [the white serpent]; it only shows itself every hundred years, and only in great wilderness areas (see also Hugormekongen). Witches seek it greedily to boil it into soup, and gain insight into all nature's secrets, because, as the serpent in the depths of the earth wraps itself around the roots of mountains and rocks, it is thought to have sucked up the urgrund's secretive powers. Simply just licking the serpent's skin will give you knowledge of all the plants and rocks, and of healing wounds and diseases.[5]

The only effective way to get rid of this wretched beast is to rear a bull on whole milk and wheat bread, which was once done in Tjørnelunde on Zealand, where the lindorm had settled at the outskirts of town and ate the cattle, and whatever else it could catch. When the bull was two years old, they were pitted against each other, but the lindorm was strongest, and the bull was chased off. The year after, the bull had grown as big and strong that it may as well have been a fairytale creature itself, and it was once again pitted against the serpent. The battle was awful, but finally the bull won. After the fight, the bull was so furious that no person could go near it; it tore up the earth with its horns so deep that a great lake area was formed, which can still be found East of the town and is called Hovparken. In the end, the bull was shot; but in a field near Tjørnelunde there is a rock with a deep fissure, which is said to have been made when the lindorm whipped its tail around during the battle.[3]

In Kløv Hill, North of the city of Thisted, lies an enormous lindorm. When doomsday draws near, Denmark will be at war, and the enemy will draw in from the South and lay everything to waste. The last remnant of the Danish Army shall gather at Tids Meadow, where a mighty tree stands. Then the Danish king will arrive on his white horse, bind his horse to the tree, and the battle will start. In the midst of battle, the lindorm will break out and bring an end to both allies and enemies, after which doomsday will begin.[6] In this legend, we have a clear echo of the Ragnarok legend; Tids Meadow is the Vígríðr Field, the tree is Yggdrasil, the king on his white horse is Odin on Sleipnir, the lindorm is the Midgard-serpent, which gets loose, and the enemy from South are not the Germans, but rather the Sons of Muspell.

In the image of the lindorm, as an expression of earth's terrible nature spirit, old features are mixed in to express a passion for earthly things, the brooding serpent of greed. We find this in the legend of the serpent on Gnita Heath, just like the tale of Ragnarr Loðbrók and Þóra borgarhjǫrtr. The earl Herrauðr in Gotland sends his daughter, Þóra a little beautiful serpent as a gift. She keeps it in a box and lays gold around it. It grows with the gold, finally encircling her bower and threatening everyone who draws near, with death and doom. This motif is repeated in later legends.

Near Kingstorp in Skåne lived a man who pretended to be so poor that, when he died, his widow went to the priest to get aid for his burial. But the priest was of the opinion that the man wasn't nearly as poor as the widow thought, as he had been terribly misery. The priest wondered if he had hidden his money somewhere. The widow now remembered that the man enjoyed sitting under a tree near their house; a search was conducted at the place, and they found a rock under which laid a kettle, guarded by a large brooding serpent. The priest ordered the widow to remove the serpent, as she was able to do so. She was scared, but obeyed, and the kettle was lifted. Now the priest told the widow to take a few schilling, put them back in the hold, and lay the serpent on top, as the serpent was the dead man's soul. When this was done, the rock was laid on top once more, and the hole was covered up.[4]

Svend Grundtvig: Danmarks Folkeviser.

Evald Tang Kristensen : Jyske Folkeminder, 4.

J. Kamp: Danske Folkeminder.

Eva Wigstrøm : Folkdiktning m. m. från Skåne, 1.

Afzelius: Svenska folkets sago-håfder, 2.

Svend Grundtvig: Gamle danske Minder, 2.

[scandireader]

Knut Hamsun, Growth of the Soil

[insomunia]

Keep calm and listen Grøde 🤘 Follow 👉 https://www.facebook.com/DenSomLever/and https://vk.com/densomlever #keepcalm #grøde #norway

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Anonymous asked: With all the travel and long hours you do, do you get time to read at all? Do you have reading habits? What books are you currently reading and would you share yourt thoughts on them?

I do work very long hours and I do rack up many air miles as well. I’m not complaining as I do mostly enjoy what I do and I get to travel which is a big part of who I am.

But so is reading. I used to be voracious reader as these habits were ingrained since childhood and all the way through my graduate studies. When you are in your teens or at university you think you have all the time in the world - and of course you don’t. Not until you enter the real world of work and living and relationship commitments do you understand what a precious resource time is. These days I feel like a dunce in comparison.

Time is a gift of course as so many competing things demand one’s attention. One advantage I have is that I already minimise my social media to the barest minimum i.e. no Facebook or Instagram. I use WhatsApp for only family sharing stuff as well as close friends. Tumblr is a guilty pleasure.

I try to set aside time at the weekends exclusively to reading. During the week I steal time to read whenever I can: an hour’s drive to the airport, or the wait in the business class lounge, a ride on the Paris Metro, or a late night in the hotel room. I try and get my work notes out of the way first before I read.

As for reading habits, at home I treat myself to a glass of wine as I read before I go to bed. I make pencil and pen notes in my books and scribble in the margins (only to non-fiction books such as history or biography or specialist articles).

I’m a moderately fast reader and so I can scan the page using some techniques I honed from my student days from long ago. I basically read the middle of the page and use my trained peripheral vision to pick up the words on either margins. I use my scanning finger to direct my reading line by line and I never go back on the text but push on to the end. It’s a good trick to learn to read faster without losing deep understanding. Anyone can learn it with enough with the discipline to try.

I also take hand written notes - writing out a brief synopsis - of what are the main points of what I’ve read and file them away in a folder. There’s no point taking notes on phones as it doesn’t sink into the memory. With hand written notes you give yourself room to cogently think out each thought before you set it out on paper. I find I retain more information that way and it’s an excellent way to cultivate a habit of patience and discipline of critical thinking.

So I have a pile of 15 books or so on my bedside - meaning I dip into each one depending on mood and time. But I really focus on about 5 or so.

I carry at least 2 books in my tote bag because again I’ll dip in one or the other depending on mood. I often surprise myself how quickly I can finish a book and then I find myself having to scramble for another; so I always pack a reserve of books, just in case.

I never ever read books on an electronic device. I just can’t bring myself to read a book this way. I need to touch paper and even smell the words coming of the page. I read online newspapers and articles but not books.

I do ‘read’ the bible as part of my spiritual ‘quiet time’ on a daily basis. I hate to say I read the bible because I don’t. I let the bible read me. That’s the whole point with engaging with the bible for spiritual nourishment. My bible is the King’s James version as it’s one of the most profoundly beautiful texts in the English language. Modern translations are just dumbed down, in effect fast food for the stomach and not the soul.

In the same way I need to read some poetry or Greek or Latin verse to centre me before I start the working day and to end the day (if possible). It’s to remind me that I am flesh and blood and not a corporate machine.

One of the other goals I give myself is to give myself a year to re-read the entire canon of plays by Shakespeare. Last year it was Christopher Marlowe and Tom Stoppard.

There’s no method in my madness so to speak in choosing books. They often fall in my lap through personal recommendations from friends and family or I come across them in book reviews of journals I read. But I try and widen my eclectic tastes from fiction to non-fiction. It’s hard keeping up with the languages I can read and so I try and read something in that language if I can. Some non-fiction books I read knowing I will disagree with its thesis but I’ll read it anyway because I want to be challenged and be open to having my mind changed or it helps me understand where others are coming from as well as sharpening my own arguments as a riposte. The purpose of books is to read with an open mind and an honest heart for no one side has a monopoly on wisdom.

The books I’m curently reading are:

War Music by Christopher Logue (1981) Markens Grøde (Growth of the Soil) by Knut Hamsun (1917) A German Officer in Occupied Paris: The War Journals, 1941-1945 by Ernst Jünger (2019) Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan 1841-2 by Lady Florentia Sale Capital et idéologie (Capital and Ideology) by Thomas Piketty (2019 not in English translation until March 2020)

At a later date I may share my thoughts of each of these books from my notes.

Thanks for your question.

[honey-lets-fucking-run]

Annual book list (yep, that means ”books to reread once in a year”)

”The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway

”Markens Grøde” by Knut Hamsun

”Den stille pige” by Peter Høeg

”Rosmersholm” by Henrik Ibsen

”The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt

”Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

”Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen

”Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte

”Laterna Magica” by Ingmar Bergman

”Tess of the d'Urbervilles“ by Thomas Hardy

”The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov

”The Writing Box” by Milorad Pavic

”Watermark” by Joseph Brodsky ( @iamfirestarter thank you for this one)

[scandiblr]

Today marks the birth of Knut Hamsun (1859 – 1952), a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920 for his monumental work Growth of the Soil (no. Markens Grøde). He is thought to have supported Hitler’s ideas - one proof is the eulogy he wrote, saying “He was a warrior, a warrior for mankind, and a prophet of the gospel of justice for all nations.” At that time he was 86 so many defend his words by saying he was just too old. Hamsun’s political belief is why today there are no statues of him in Norway, nor does any street wear his name. In spite of that he is considered one of the best writers in history. His novels that I personally believe anyone who cares about literature should read are Hunger (no. Sult) and Pan (no. Pan).

[soniafragadias]

A colheita dos temperos,dos ovos para fazer o almoço de sexta-feira! Quem vem comigo. Feliz dia. Muito gente tentando ser magro,mas poucos tentando ser leve. _______________________________________________________________ @skogmesterboligen . . . Follow 👉@soniafragadias👈 . . . skogmesterboligen . Vell over stått?🇳🇴🌿 De siste dagene har inneholdt så mye forskjellig at nå var det godt å bare hente egg og tusle en tur rundt og se om noe har grodd i det siste🌿 Og jada🤗..... løpstikke, gressløk og brennesle skudd var klare for høsting allerede💚🌿 Ble en fin liten « markens grøde» på morgenkvisten det vell?......🤗🌿 . Ha en fin ny uke💚 . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . #innhøsting #løpstikke #gressløk #brennesle #egg #eggs #frahaven #kjøkkenhage #trädgårdsinspiration #hagenmin #kortreist #urter #urtehage #levlandlig @levlandlig #norsklandstil #landligehjem #landliv #lantliv #skogmesterboligen #cottagelifestyle #mycountryhome #lantligthem #landstil #landleben #landlig #livetpålandet #mittlandligehjem #cottagehome #secretsofahostess #soniafragadiasdesigner (em Em Casa) https://www.instagram.com/p/CPH2uC8pVvp/?utm_medium=tumblr

[mortenpape]

Midsommeren er en hellig tid, og midsommernatten er ganske magisk med sit lys, der aldrig helt forsvinder. Jeg tog ud i årets korteste nat - fra solnedgang til solopgang. Læs mere her (betalingsartikel): https://hsfo.dk/artikel/fra-solnedgang-til-solopgang-kom-med-ud-i-den-magiske-sk%C3%A6rsommernat

[einernytt]

Markens grøde på Furuhaugen.

[scandireader]

I see you’re reading a lot of scandi lit. How did your interest for it start? Have you read any norwegian pieces, and if so what has been your favourite so far?

The way I got into Scandinavian literature was I think, honestly, because my parents forcefed me a lot of Astrid Lindgren books when I was a child and I loved them. Things just got rolling from there and after high school I did a BA in Scandinavian languages. 

My main focus has always been on Swedish but I've read quite a lot of Norwegian works both inside and outside of university, and my favourite author without a doubt is Knut Hamsun. 

His work is at that boundary between late romanticism (the celebration of the Norwegian wilderness, for example) and early modernism (in his works, often psychological portraits of people succumbing to their inner chaos, and use of modernist techniques such as stream of consciousness). I love how dark and brutal his work can be - it's very different from much contemporary Scandinavian literature. Knut Hamsun's most well-known novel is Hunger (Norwegian: Sult) but my personal favourites are Pan, Victoria, and Growth of the soil (Norwegian: Markens Grøde). You can find a lot of his work online on Project Gutenberg! 

Another big favourite and a classic is A doll's house by Henrik Ibsen (Norwegian: Et dukkehjem). It's often seen as a very early feminist play & I am all up for that. You can read this on Project Gutenberg as well!

[insomunia]

Time, is almost here... It is with great pleasure we can announce that "Kjød til Jord" will be available as LP and CD, Friday 31.03.2017. The LP will contain the first 9 songs from the album and includes digital download of all 11 songs. We will come back to where you can get these physical goods closer to the release date.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Treat Your S(h)elf

Markens grøde (Growth of the Soil) by Knut Hamsun

Den lange, lange sti over myrene og inn i skogene hvem har trakket opp den? Mannen, mennesket, den første som var her. Det var ingen sti før ham.**

- Knut Hamsun, Markens grøde (Growth of the Soil)

This copy looks like it has been dragged over moors and fjords.

I remember first reading this when it was given to me by a Norwegian aunt when I came back to Norway on a visit from living overseas as a teen. She reminded me not to ever forget our farming roots and attachment to the soil.

**The long, long road over the moors and up into the forest - who trod it into being first of all? Man, a human being, the first that came here. There was no path before he came.

[tarzanol]

Markens grøde

[dzenzel]

Вы живёте вместе с землёй и небом, вы одно целое с ними, одно целое с этой ширью и незыблемостью бытия. Вам не нужен меч в руках, вы идёте по жизни с пустыми руками и непокрытой головой, окружённые великой любовью. Смотри, вот она — природа, она принадлежит тебе и твоим близким! Человек и природа не палят друг в друга из пушек, они воздают друг другу должное, не соперничают, не состязаются ни в чём, они следуют друг за другом.