#Iceland New Year traditions

[ahmadsayrafi14]

Reykjavik Iceland A New Year Under the Northern Lights

Welcome 2025 with Fireworks and Natural Wonders!

Reykjavik offers a magical blend of tradition and nature. Celebrate with locals around community bonfires, which symbolize the burning away of the past year’s hardships. As midnight approaches, watch as fireworks light up the night sky, blending with the ethereal glow of the Northern Lights.

Click here to start your Icelandic adventure!

During the day, explore Iceland’s stunning landscapes—geysers, waterfalls, and glaciers. Don’t miss the chance to soak in the Blue Lagoon, a perfect way to relax and reflect on the year ahead.

Make Reykjavik Your Next Destination!

We offer tailored packages for flights, accommodations, and Northern Lights tours. Click here to start your Icelandic adventure!

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week - June 20, 2023

🐕 - Meet Sheep Farm's Newest Employee: Collie Hired After Ejection from Car!

1. Border Collie ejected from car during Sunday crash found on sheep farm, herding sheep

Tilly, the 2-year-old Border Collie who was ejected from a car Sunday during a crash, has been found. He was found on a sheep farm, where he had apparently taken up the role of sheep herder. 

According to Tilly's owner, he has lost some weight since Sunday's crash and is now drinking lots of water but is otherwise healthy.

2. After 17-Year Absence, White Rhinos Return to the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) recently welcomed the reintroduction of 16 southern white rhinoceroses to Garamba National Park, according to officials. The last wild northern white rhino was poached there in 2006.

The white rhinos were transported to Garamba, which lies in the northeastern part of the country, from a South African private reserve. In the late 19th century, the southern white rhino subspecies was believed to be extinct due to poaching until a population of fewer than 100 was discovered in South Africa in 1895, according to WWF.

3. UK to wipe women’s historic convictions for homosexuality

Women with convictions for some same-sex activity in the United Kingdom can apply for a pardon for the first time, the Home Office has announced.

The Home Office is widening its scheme to wipe historic convictions for homosexual activity more than a decade after the government allowed applications for same-sex activity offences to be disregarded.

It means anyone can apply for a pardon if they have been convicted or cautioned for any same-sex activity offences that have been repealed or abolished.

4. Study shows human tendency to help others is universal

A new study on the human capacity for cooperation suggests that, deep down, people of diverse cultures are more similar than you might expect. The study, published in Scientific Reports, shows that from the towns of England, Italy, Poland, and Russia to the villages of rural Ecuador, Ghana, Laos, and Aboriginal Australia, at the micro scale of our daily interaction, people everywhere tend to help others when needed.

5. In a First, Wind and Solar Generated More Power Than Coal in U.S.

Wind and solar generated more electricity than coal through May, an E&E News review of federal data shows, marking the first time renewables have outpaced the former king of American power over a five-month period.

The milestone illustrates the ongoing transformation of the U.S. power sector as the nation races to install cleaner forms of energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.

6. Iceland becomes latest country to ban conversion therapy

Lawmakers in Iceland on June 9 approved a bill that will ban so-called conversion therapy in the country.

Media reports note 53 members of the Icelandic Parliament voted for the measure, while three MPs abstained. Hanna Katrín Friðriksson, an MP who is a member of the Liberal Reform Party, introduced the bill.

7. The temple feeding 100,000 people a day

Amritsar, the north Indian city known for its Golden Temple and delicious cuisine, is also renowned for its spirit of generosity and selfless service. The city, founded by a Sikh guru, embodies the Sikh tradition of seva, performing voluntary acts of service without expecting anything in return.

This spirit of giving extends beyond the temple walls, as the Sikh community has shown immense compassion during crises, such as delivering oxygen cylinders during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the heart of Amritsar's generosity is the Golden Temple's langar, the world's largest free communal kitchen, serving 100,000 people daily without discrimination. Despite a history marred by tragic events, Amritsar continues to radiate kindness, love, and generosity.

----

That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation:

BUY ME A COFFEE ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog.

[pretentiousgayguyidk]

Hey Hi Hello!

I saw your requests are open so here I am!

I was thinking about Ran, Rindou, Hakkai and Mitsuya with an slavic reader? Male preferably could be gn!

Also could I be the 🥟 anon If your making a list?

Feel free to ignore this!

Pre writing thoughts - Yes!! I absolutely can, I've studied a small amount of Russian and Icelandic - but it probably won't be accurate as I'll have to use Google translate to fill the gaps. I hope you enjoy this 🥟 Anon!

Post writing thoughts- Okay... Well, I wasn't expecting to write so much, so I'll have to make other parts for the other characters 😭 but I hope this is good enough considering how long it took. (Also sorry it wasn't gender neutral, I completely blanked on it)

(Name) stuck out like a sore thumb, having moved to Japan half way into the school year; it wasn't often that foreigners moved to the area. The peculiar student had certainly caught Mitsuya's attention, piquing Takashi's curiosity... Well, (Name)'s caught the eyes of everyone not just Mitsuya.

One thing that stood out was (Name)'s accent, the mix of Japanese words with the addition of deep and throaty annociations strange yet amusing; the rolling of his r's and the emphasis of the ch's and k's pointed towards Slavic origins. That note inspired Mitsuya, and in an attempt to make (Name) more comfortable he started researching traditional Slavic clothing.

"What is that?" Yasuda questioned, her brows furrowed in confusion and slight judgement - as the current piece Mitsuya was working on was out of character for him. The red, black, white, and blue fabric stood out against his usual more casual colour choices - and the sketches of geometric embroidery patterns weren't at all like the usual Kanji he used.

Mitsuya sticks his pencil behind his ear, leaning back in his chair earning satisfying pops from his spine; he had honestly been expecting this question and was expecting it to be asked sooner. He gives Yasuda a tired smile, his arms lax as they hang by his sides.

"It's a uh..." He trails off, unsure how to properly pronounce the word - as it was either Russian or Ukrainian, he couldn't tell the difference even with the little research he did - all he knew was that it was a more traditional Slavic outfit. "Byshibanka?"

He felt a tad guilty, even though the certain Slavic student was nowhere near to hear his horrendous mispronunciation; it felt like a dishonor of sorts. Yasuda raises a brow, her hands on her hips as she looks down at her club captain.

"A what?" She asks, knowing for a fact that - one: Mitsuya mispronounced it - and that two: she would never remember to look it up later when she got home.

Mitsuya sits up, running a hand over his short silver hair; his expression filled with exasperation, not at Yasuda but himself.

"It's this like- traditional Russian or... Whatever... Outfit? I wanted to give it to the new guy." He explains, earning a knowing nod from Yasuda - who knew from her first meeting with Mitsuya that he liked guys... Even if Mitsuya didn't know it himself yet.

"Oh... So you like him?"

Mitsuya shrugs, not getting the implication - as it wasn't exactly the norm for guys to date other guys. He had no idea if he liked the new kid, he just wanted to do something nice... It wasn't like he found (Name) interesting or cute.

"I don't know, he seems like a chill guy - I've never talked to him." The teens nonchalant answer only furthered Yasuda's suspicions, she wasn't going to spell it out for Mitsuya just yet; but she was certainly coming up with a scheme.

"Well, I hope he likes it... And hopefully he's actually Russian... You do know there's other countries like that, right?" She narrows her eyes, doubting that Mitsuya actually did enough research; not surprising, many teenagers weren't all that informed of nations outside of Japan and the major powers.

Takashi's eyes widen, shifting away nervously as he realizes that he completely glossed over the fact that there are other Slavic countries; he didn't bother looking at a map or anything, just looked up some traditional clothing.

"I mean- I..." He trails off, glancing down towards the pile of cloth in front of him; he didn't consider looking beyond Russia, and he didn't even know for a fact that the Vyshyvanka was Russian or not. He shrugs, attempting to wash away his own mild concern over what could be a massive mishap. "I'm sure it'll be fine... Right? Maybe he'll appreciate the sentiment?"

"I'm sure he will... Whatever, I'll leave you to finish your little gift." She states, turning to pay attention to some of the other club members.

Mitsuya felt strangely nervous, holding a box in his lap as he waited for (Name) to enter the school gardens, a place where (Name) often stayed for lunch - since he didn't exactly have many people to talk to. Soon enough, the Slavic man rounded the corner; entering the school gardens, taking his place in the corner with his lunch. (Name) didn't even notice Mitsuya, far too focused on his hunger to realize he wasn't alone like usual.

The Japanese teen finally gains his confidence, standing from his spot on one of the benches. His steps were steady, and his expression showed a lack of interest - or rather calm despite his slight anxiety.

"Hey." Mitsuya calls out casually, causing (Name) to jump as he looks up from his food. It probably wasn't a good idea to interrupt someone in the middle of their lunch, but Mitsuya's mind was oddly scrambled when it came to (Name); his usual calm and collected self thrown out the window.

"Eh? Hi?" (Name) replies, glancing away as he rubs his throat; conscious of how he spoke. His accent has always been a problem, especially with the Japanese language; it's earned more than a few strange looks from locals - as if him being visibly not Japanese wasn't enough to earn strange looks on occasion. Yet, Mitsuya didn't seem to mind his accent, in fact - Mitsuya found it endearing.

"So uh... I just wanted to give this to you." Mitsuya states awkwardly, gesturing down to the thin box in his hands; which had his name written on it, which helped (Name) - as he didn't know Mitsuya's name till reading it on the box.

"Yeah? What's the reason?" The Slavic teen questions, shifting in his seat as he sets aside his lunch box; pulling one leg up in an attempt to seem casual - even though he was very confused and suspicious. Mitsuya glances away nervously, rocking back and forth on his heels; a nervous habit he rarely ever felt the need to do.

"It... It's just a little something I made- I just uh... Wanted to... I don't know-" Mitsuya chokes on his words, feeling his heartbeat speed up as his cheeks warm; he felt strangely embarrassed by his reasoning. "I just wanted to help you feel more welcome."

"Ah... Makes sense... I guess." (Name) mumbles, glancing down to the box as he accepts it; his mind racing for any sort of clue as to what this gift could be.

The silence that falls between them grows more and more awkward and uncomfortable by the minute, neither of them knowing what to say in the moment. Finally, Mitsuya mumbles a small goodbye before turning on his heel to leave the garden.

Once Mitsuya was gone, (Name) hesitantly opened the box - his eyes widening at the sight of familiar clothing. He can't help but smile, setting the lid aside as he runs his hand over the embroidered fabric; he wasn't Ukrainian, but he had childhood friends who were - they always leaned towards traditionalism. They often wore vyshyvankas, and some other clothing that (Name) couldn't remember for the life of him... But either way, the sight of the clothes brought back fond memories.

Lifting the clothing from the box (Name) notices something, there wasn't any sort of tag or label printed onto the fabric... Did Mitsuya make this just for him? There was a note at the bottom of the box, which (Name) quickly turned his attention to.

Hey, I just wanted to make you feel more comfortable and welcome here - we Japanese aren't always the nicest to foreigners or whatever. So I did some research and made you this, I hope you like it.

It was such a simple note, but it made (Name)'s heart skip a beat. It wasn't as if Mitsuya had bought him a gift, which would have been greatly appreciated as well... But the fact that Mitsuya made it - well that was a whole other level.

"I'll have to thank him later..."

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Donald Padgett at The Advocate (12.30.2024):

The director of a Russian travel agency arrested last month on charges of international LGBT extremism died yesterday while in custody in Moscow, OVD-Info reports. Andrei Kotov, 48, was found dead around 4 a.m. on Sunday at the Vodnik pretrial detention center, where he was awaiting trial on charges of supporting an international LGBT extremist terrorist movement. Leisan Mannapova, Kotov’s lawyer, confirmed her client died by suicide. His body was discovered in his cell covered in blood, and “cuts were found” on his body, an internal source told RIA Novosti.

Kotov ran Men Travel, a travel agency reportedly catering to gay men. He had recently concluded a cruise along the Volga River and was planning a trip to Egypt to ring in the New Year at the time of his arrest. Security forces arrested Kotov on Nov. 28 but it was not made public until two days later. Video of the arrest posted to multiple Telegram channels shows the muscled Kotov shirtless with his hands cuffed behind his back. Kotov testified at a court hearing earlier this month that he was beaten and threatened with a stun gun if he did not confess his alleged crimes during the arrest. “About 15 people came to me at night, they beat me, hit me in the face, on the legs, left bruises,” Kotov said at a detention hearing on Dec. 2, Zona Media reported at the time. “I did not offer any resistance. I was extremely surprised by this procedure.”

He told the court he was beaten by two masked men who demanded he confess to LGBT extremism. Kostov said one man punched him in the face while the second man threatened him with a stun gun. When he insisted the tours were not LGBT-centric, Kostov said he was escorted to the kitchen where he was told to say hello to the man’s “brothers in the regiment.”

[...]

Last month,��Putin signed two new laws outlawing the promotion of non-traditional families and the adoption of Russian children by foreign nationals from countries that recognize a person’s right to gender-affirming care.

The adoption law effectively prohibits citizens of Australia, Austria, Argentina, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and other countries from adopting children from Russia or taking guardianship over them. Citizens of the U.S. were banned from adopting Russian children in 2012. The second law bans what it terms “childfree propaganda” that promotes non-traditional families as a positive environment for children. Media companies and social media sites will be required to monitor content to ensure compliance with the law. An exemption would be made for positive portrayals of a monastic life that included celibacy.

In December of 2022, Putin signed a law strengthening a ban on LGBTQ “propaganda” in Russia and making it illegal to promote same-sex sexual relations or suggest non-heterosexual attractions are “normal.” Individuals can be fined up to 400,000 rubles ($6,370) for “LGBT propaganda” and up to 200,000 rubles ($3,185) for “demonstrations of LGBT and information that encourages a change of gender among teenagers.” The fines increase to 5 million rubles ($80,000) and 4 million rubles ($64,000) respectively for legal entities. Last year, Putin directed sexologists in the country to treat homosexuality as a mental illness no different than bestiality and ordered the Ministry of Health to create an institute to study homosexuals at the Serbsky Center for Psychiatry and Narcology. [...] In November of last year, Putin requested that the Russian government officially recognize the “international public LGBT movement” as “extremist” under the law, and his request was granted that same month. Less than two days later, security forces raided at least four LGBTQ+ establishments in Moscow.

Andrei Kotov, who ran Men Travel, died in Russian prison custody earlier this week on charges that he violated Russia's arbitrary laws that baselessly paint the international LGBTQ+ movement as "extremist".

[thoughtportal]

On the outskirts of Oslo, just beyond the point where the city dissolves into forest, one thousand spruce saplings reach feathery green fingers toward the sky. Just over ten years ago this clearing was just another part of Norway’s vast woodlands. Today these trees are destined to become part of a unique library of texts by beloved authors, a century in the making.

Top: A crowd assembles for Valeria Luiselli’s handover ceremony in a spruce forest in Oslo in 2024. Luiselli was the tenth author to contribute to the Future Library. Bottom: The Silent Room, situated on the top floor of a public library in Oslo, contains one hundred drawers built into the walls where the authors’ manuscripts are preserved. (Credit: Vilma Taubo, Einar Aslaksen)

The spruces were planted in 2014 as part of the Future Library, a one-hundred-year art project by Scottish artist Katie Paterson. Every year a different author is invited to write a new piece that will be held, secret and unread, until 2114, when all the works will be published using paper made from the spruces’ then-mature wood. The inspiration for the piece arrived for Paterson during a train journey when she had a sudden vision of trees whose rings held words. Though the particulars evolved, the original idea remains, she says, of “trees being books, books being trees, and libraries being forests in the making.”

At the first handover ceremony, during which inaugural contributor Margaret Atwood presented her manuscript among the saplings, the trees were so small that staff decorated them with red ribbons to prevent attendees from trampling them. Now the trees are gawky adolescents, their ribbons decorative rather than practical—a testament to the project’s first decade and time’s insistent trudge. The Future Library continues to inspire imagination and instill new ideas in writers and readers alike through its abiding belief in a future full of stories.

Some sixteen thousand pieces of wood from trees cut down to make space for the spruce saplings were incorporated into the Silent Room, a chapel-like venue that opened in 2022 in a public library in Oslo, where all one hundred texts will be entombed until 2114. The chamber was designed with longevity in mind, using ultra-simple construction methods and specialty lighting. It is also beautiful: warm, wooden, and womblike, big enough for a few people at a time to sit in shoeless contemplation, just a few feet from manuscripts they will never read.

The chair of the Future Library Trust, Anne Beate Hovind, helped spearhead construction of the Silent Room; she is also the original commissioner of the work, part of a public art initiative connected to the redevelopment of Oslo’s waterfront. Over the years, she has also identified land for the saplings, overseen their planting, and negotiated a century-long contract that ensures their protection and maintenance by municipal foresters. Thus far ten authors from across the globe, including 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang and Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga, have deposited manuscripts there. (This year’s contributor, Tommy Orange, will hand over his manuscript in the summer.) They are invited to do so and paid a flat fee, by a surprisingly small team—including Hovind, Paterson, and the leaders of the city library and three publishing houses. The goal is for the collection of works “to be read as a global project,” Hovind says, so the group works together to generate a long list of candidates, incorporating nominations from interested embassies and past contributors, before coming to a consensus.

For the Icelandic writer Sjòn, who goes by a mononym, the project represents an exquisite metaphor for literature itself—a tradition that binds human beings together across generations. Through literature, he says, “I can have a conversation with someone who has left traces of [themself] three thousand years ago in a poem,” and participating would allow him to engage similarly with future readers.

Still, he found deciding what to write almost impossibly daunting, as did 2022 contributor Judith Schalansky. She obsessed over her contribution, reading the requirements over and over—she even considered submitting hardcore textual pornography as a commentary on the immense possibilities of a no-questions-asked publishing guarantee. In the end, both she and Sjòn took inspiration from the way today’s century-old texts illuminate their era to shape their contributions.

Both authors also found the secrecy to be a particular challenge. “I realized how much I write for the present,” Schalansky says. Meanwhile Sjòn, who had previously believed he wrote solely for himself, was surprised to find the process deeply lonely without the possibility of feedback.

The project’s annual handover ceremonies have become important waypoints marking the library’s age and progress. Each ritual is unique and open to the public: Ocean Vuong’s featured chants by Buddhist monks; Karl Ove Knausgård’s, a recitation of an ancient Norwegian poem; Sjòn’s, a song performed by his wife, with harp accompaniment.

Afterward, walking among the spruces, Sjòn was keenly aware that he was following the same path, quite literally, as writers before and after him, shared custodians of a sacred, multi-millennial storytelling tradition. Much of the work of the Future Library engenders this kind of deep mutual trust across time, Hovind says, in the trustees who will come after her; in the longevity of the rituals and mechanisms she and Paterson have spent years putting into place; in the human beings who will receive the books in an unknown world. That means fighting the impulse to solve or predict every technological, societal, or ecological eventuality of the next ninety years. Paterson adds: “I think taking it decade by decade is all we can do.”

It will be up to future trustees to figure out how to make spruce trees into paper or where to print the books. And, Hovind wonders, what if the forest around the library saplings is developed? How will the trees fare as temperatures rise?

At the project’s start the climate crisis was looming, Paterson says, but its rapid intensification has changed how people engage with the library today. In 2014, she and Hovind were frequently asked if they thought there would still be books in one hundred years. Now in contrast, she observes, “It has turned to, ‘Will there be people?’” In the face of the doom and doubt of the contemporary zeitgeist, the project has become a source of optimism that contributing authors cite year after year, moved by its certainty  that we can still build a literary future.

This hope is not without complexity—after all, the Silent Room was built with trees sacrificed to the cause, and more will fall in ninety years—but it sends a powerful message nonetheless. The Future Library prompts its audience to consider the “good ancestor perspective, how to take future generations into consideration now,” Hovind says, while insisting on the immortality and influence of storytelling: “If you can imagine futures, with strong narratives, you can also create them.”       

Alissa Greenberg is an independent journalist based in Boston and Berkeley, California, who reports at the intersection of science, history, and culture. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, and elsewhere.

[paikothecateater]

How do the nordics celebrate the new years:33??

Denmark: stays up till the new year countdown and does all the new year traditions. On January 1st, he will actually travel to all of the other Nordics' individual houses just to smash plates on their doorstep. Oftentimes, the Nordics spend the new year at his house.

Sweden: having to be the responsible adult because the other three get way too drunk. Has to stop them from causing too much damage while simultaneously trying to make sure they can pass as sober as to not concern the children.

Finland: single-handedly making Sweden's life hell. Broke a table by standing up on it and loudly proclaiming his love for all of them. Heartwarming as it might have been, it quickly went downhill when the table buckled and he fell directly on his ass. Sealand and Ladonia got a good laugh at least.

Norway: being the sad, sappy drunk he is, he will cry to anyone who will listen. Stops Sweden from attempting to restore any order by constantly clinging to his arm and sobbing for no apparent reason.

Iceland: needs to nap for at least 3 hours, so he can function when countdown comes. Ends up napping in Sweden's locked bedroom because Norway wouldn't stop waking him to talk about stuff Iceland honestly can't function enough to think about. Sweden will wake him at least half an hour before countdown.

[naileadevoras]

zarayna + luciano : your love is all i wanna know .

ship headcanon ideas for @pcrtrait based on this post !

how   did   your   muses   meet   ?

i'm now realizing how much of a throwback this ask meme is going to be bc omg ? i can't believe they met through his father ... & we all know how much of a mess that era was 👀 like , from zara just being an assistant to them now married im ... yeah <3

how   long   have   your   muses   known   each   other   ?

pleaseee i know it's only been about 3 years since we first started writing them but like , they've gone through so much together ( they are literally married hello ) & i genuinely think they've lived so many different lives together too ?? surely they've been together for more than five years now ... & a billion more to go ? they find each other in every lifetime type vibe ? yes .

have   your   muses   ever   traveled   together   ?

yes !! aside from their yearly holiday with the group , i can see zara attending almost every show he has bc that's our supportive queen ,,, catch her in the vip section every time yup 😌 & lucio would most def. surprise her with cute trips abroad as a date :') he'd be like ' wake up babe , we're going to morocco today '

what   was   the   last   place   your   muses   went   to   together   ?

i feel like it would be somewhere lucio would've performed at ; like , them trying out a new restaurant in every country they visit . so they'd be somewhere like reykjavik , iceland & even though lucio would b a bit tired from performing , he'd still insist on going out w zara & they'd prolly have a cute lil sushi date at night im so :(

what   was   the   last   movie   your   muses   watched   together   ?

okay so zara's definitely the type to love old romcom / coming of age movies from the 90s ,,, & she has made it her mission to re - watch all of her favorite ones w lucio . so every time both of them have a few hours of free time , she's setting up the living room with cute pillows + soft blankets ( maybe even building a fort ?? ) for them to watch on ,, & tonight's movie of choice would be sixteen candles !

do   your   muses   have   playlists   made   for   each   other   ?

why yes 🤭 like , it's absolutely canon that lucio will sneak in some of his own songs he's written about zara in the playlist & she secretly loves it LMAO . as for zarayna , she's totally the type to make a playlist for every major / minor event in her life so she'd have a specific playlist for that time they went to london ... or that time they cooked breakfast together at germany ... or that time they got lost in bora bora , & etc etc .

what   was   the   last   gift   your   muses   got   for   each   other   ?

i also think it's canon that these two will just give each other cute trinkets & random gifts that remind them of the other ; there doesn't have to be a special occasion for them to be giving each other gifts yk ? so zara could be shopping & she'll see a hoodie that would look so good on him ,,, next thing you know she's walking out with five sets of outfits for lucio i'm 💀 also , they def. still continue their tradition of luca giving zara a new teddy bear for every country he tours at <3

does   your   muses   have   a   '   place   '   that's   just   for   the   two   of   them   ?

i'm sticking w the touring theme here but yk how in paris they have that love lock bridge ? i feel like zara & lucio would have a place similar to that , but it wouldn't be a popular tourist destination ... they would've found out about this ' secret ' place during one of their date nights ( of course it HAS to be in a country where they dont live smh ) & now every time they visit that country , it's another cute tradition for them to visit that place only the two of them know abt !

does   your   muses   want   children   ?

i had to giggle with this one bc we've both talked abt them & their future kids 48304830 times now 😭 i just knooow these two wanna build a soccer team so bad with how many kids they want omfg ... like u said , they'd probably end up having five kids ! so they better start trying rn because the clock is ticking ... cough cough

do   your   muses   want   to   get   married   ?

[ stares into the camera like im in the office ] ... do i have to answer this bc ? bff they are HAPPILY married & in love & we are manifesting that no more drama or scandals come their way !!! ( very unlikely but we can dream ofc ) sigh their wedding day must've been sooo fun though omg it definitely ended with them + the guests all jumping in the massive pool to end the night :')

do   your   muses   have   any   pets   together   ?

i'm aware they have rambo ( im a rambo stan btw ) & zara has the cats she left back in sweden ,,, although i feel like she would've brought them with her once she moved in w lucio , but i highly doubt they would adopt more right now esp. since they're never really home anyway ? so maybe they can have more pets once they've settled in & are ready to start a family .

what   do   your   muses   do   for   fun   together   ?

not my mind suddenly swerving to an nsfw answer i'm ... lock me up , goodbye !!! but i'm being so fr , they are always so busy & are constantly travelling that having days where they're just in a hotel room in their robes , in bed all day ordering room service must be incredibly fun for them 🥹 just wrapped up in each others arms , living their best life with no distractions yup ! they be having 30 minute intervals to rest before they're going at it again smh no decorum !

did   your   muses   take   each others   virginity   ?

i- well ... knowing zarayna's history with luca's father ? & him being for the streets before he met her ? the answer is definitely a no 😑 but we don't talk abt that anymore !! i refuse to speak about it ... although one drunken night , she would deffo share the embarrassing & awkward story of when she lost hers at 17 or smthn ,, just for the laffs xx

when   did   your   muses   realize they   had   fallen   for   each   other   ?

it's the way we've probably written this exact scenario back in our indies ... right before they both found out about the affair </3 i simply cannot think abt it or else i will actually go through the five stages of grief ... although for zara i'm pretty sure it was during one of their many dates <33 when he asked her to be his gf <333 she was like yuuup i have fallen for this man & i do Not want to get up .

which one of your muses is more affectionate ?

this is hard bc they show their affection in different ways , yk ? i feel like luca is the type of person who would see a puddle & offer to place his jacket over it just so zara wont have to step on it and get her heels dirty , while zarayna would be the type to notice the tiny details & would care for him , like bringing luca a glass of water when she notices he hasn't been drinking much all day , or giving him a forehead smooch & reminding him it's time for bed when she can clearly see he's been up all night writing song lyrics or smthn !

who's   most   likely   to   apologize   first   after   an   argument   ?

ooo , it depends on who started the argument ; whoever is in the wrong would more than likely apologize first . idk why but out of every one in our group , i can see these two being the most level - headed ones when it comes to disagreements ? ( ezra & rom can't relate btw ) it's like u can just tell they rarely ever argue because they're so good at communicating their thoughts and feelings w each other . we love the character development wow it's giving stable & healthy iktr !

what   was   your   muses   first   impressions   of   each   other   ?

i wanna say it was infatuation at first sight . bc bestie , lucio was sooo flirty with her when they first met i bet zarayna thought all he wanted from her was to be hook up buddies & yet she was like , ' how can u say no to him wtf he has such a pretty face ... & a nice body ... ' she did NOT stand on business and it showed 💀

what   is   one   word   that   would   describe   your   muses   relationship   ?

adventurous ♡

do   your   muses   have   a   '   song   '   that's   just   for   them   ?

bff we have an entire playlist for them !!! ( somehow i still cant add anymore songs to the list & im sad abt it ) but i rlly do love be honest by jorja smith though ,,, however , in their universe i can imagine luca writing a song just for zara . like a song / ep / mini album of unreleased songs just for her :((( ok let me go cry now ....

what   is   your   muse's   sex   life   like   ?   how   frequent   ?   what   are   they   into   ?

oh ok ending the ask meme with a spicy question i see ... i meaaan we both know they're 100% obsessed w each other & simply cannot keep their hands off each other for more than 5 seconds or else they'll go insane 💀 however , i just feel like zarayna is such a vanilla girlie ,, she likes to keep it sweet & simple yk ! but would also be willing to try anything lucio suggests bc she trusts that man w her entire soul fr <3 if he wants her to dress up as a sexy teacher ? hell yeah !! handcuffs in the bed room ? she's down !! she's out here doing tricks & twists for that man yup give that girl an award ,,,

wow what a ride ... the way i developed carpal tunnel from typing all of this was so worth it idk !!! i love them bad <333 KEJWKJDS hope u enjoyed <33

[mariacallous]

You have heard of the wandering Jew, but have you heard of the wandering Jewish cookie?

As Jews move from country to country, they pick up recipes, spices, and dishes along the way. Sometimes, even after a Jewish community is no more, their food remains, an echo of a world that once was. Such is the case of the “Jewish cookie” from Iceland.

Recently, I learned of a cookbook, The Culinary Saga of New Iceland, Recipes From the Shores of Lake Winnipeg compiled by Kristin Olafson Jenkyns, a writer with forbearers from Iceland. Her book documents the history and culinary traditions of immigrants from Iceland who settled in North America at the end of the 19th century. Many of them moved to Manitoba, Canada on Lake Winnipeg, where they formed a community that came to be known as “New Iceland.” In the section of the book entitled “Cakes and Cookies,” following classic Icelandic foods like skyr, smoked fish, and brown bread, are recipes for cookies traditionally eaten on Christmas. Their name in Icelandic is gyðingakökur, which translates to “Jewish cookie.”

How did “Jewish” cookies end up in a cookbook filled with the food of Icelandic immigrants to the New World? You can be sure that there weren’t many, if any, Jews among those settlers 150 years ago. Yet there are three recipes for Jewish cookies nestled between other traditional sweets like Vinarterta and ginger cookies.

Olafson Jenkyns is not sure how they came to be part of the culinary canon of the New Icelanders. Her guess is that the Jewish cookies came to Iceland by way of Denmark. For hundreds of years, Iceland was closely tied to Denmark; traders and merchants, some of them Jewish, moved back and forth between the two countries. Perhaps the cookies came via that trade route.

And how did those “Jewish” cookies land in Denmark in the first place? According to Gil Marks, author of Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, Jewish butter cookies originated in Holland. Many of the Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries found a safe haven in Holland. There they merged, “…their Moorish-influenced Iberian fare with the local Scandinavian cuisine. Instead of olive oil, they used the butter found in great quantity in Dutch cookery to create small rich morsels, still called Joodse boterkoeke (Jewish butter cookie) in Holland.” Until today, Dutch Jews serve those cookies on Hanukkah and Shavuot and at other dairy meals.

From Holland, the cookies spread to Denmark where they became a traditional pre-Christmas treat.

As is the case with all immigrants, when the Icelanders left their homeland in 1875 for the New World and created the community of New Iceland in Canada, they brought their culinary traditions with them. Gyðingakökur were part of that tradition. “The cookies must have been popular for them to have made it from Denmark to Iceland to New Iceland,” said Olafson Jenkyns.

In scouring through old cookbooks from the New Iceland community, Olafson Jenkyns found these three recipes for Jewish cookies – slightly different one from the next but all most definitely known as “Jewish.” One recipe was from a cookbook, circa 1915, from Reykjavik, Iceland.  The other two came from community cookbooks from New Iceland from the middle of the 20th century. In Gil Marks’ book, the Jodekager or Jewish cookie recipe was attributed to Denmark. His recipe is very similar to the Icelandic ones — all have lots of butter, all are rolled out into a thin dough, and then cut into rounds. And all are topped with a wash and a sweetener that combines sugar and nuts.

Are the cookies Icelandic? Canadian? Dutch? Or Danish? No matter where you find them, the name is the same, hearkening back to a Jewish presence and the Jewish bakers who created them.

Try these cookies yourself using the recipe from Jenkyns’ book.

[247reader]

Day 25: Gudrid vìðförla Thorbjarnardóttir!

Guðríðr Þorbjarnardóttir was born in the late 10th century, to a prominent Icelandic family. Her father, Thorbjorn, was chieftain of Laugarbrekka, and he took pride in his social status; when Gudrid fell in love with an unsuitably lowborn man, he opted to remove her from the temptation entirely, and brought her along when he voyages to Greenland with Erik the Red.

One saga reports that Gudrid made a (presumably more acceptable to her father) marriage at this time, to Thorir, a Norwegian trader, but she was quickly left a widow. It’s unclear what religion Thorbjorn practiced, but Gudrid was by this time a Christian; many Norse of the period, however, picked and chose which bits of new and traditional religion they liked. Gudrid’s second marriage was a politically advantageous one: to Erik the Red’s son, Thorsteinn, brother to the famous Leif Erikson - and a man determined to continue his brother’s efforts in Vinland.

It’s unclear whether Gudrid accompanied him on the ensuing voyage, but two things are clear: Thorsteinn died of illness en route, and while Gudrid, back in Greenland, married another prominent man, the idea of Vínland never left her. She soon convinced her new husband, Thorfinn, to finance an expedition with an eye to claiming the uncharted territory.

But North America, of course, was not uninhabited land. And while the settlement flourished for a brief period, long enough for Gudrid to give birth to a son, within a few years of Snorri’s birth conflicts with the indigenous inhabitants the Norsemen called “Skraelings” were constant. Gudrid, her husband, and their son returned to Iceland, the land of her birth - but Gudrid’s last great journey was still to come. After her husband’s death, she made a pilgrimage to Rome - truly earning her epithet: Vìðförla, the Well-travelled.

[scotianostra]

On 13th August 1867 William Craigie, the Scottish lexicographer, was born.

Isn’t it funny that us Scots started some of the most famous English establishments, like William Paterson who gave them The Bank of England, then Professor James Murray, the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary from 1879 until his death.

And we come to today’s subject, Sir William Craigie, a Scotsman from Dundee he was the third editor of the what is now commonly referred to as the ‘Oxford Dictionary’ or the ‘Oxford English Dictionary’(OED). He was editor of it for over 30 years.

It wasn’t always the English words for oor William though, born the youngest son of James Craigie and Christina Gow, William Craigie spent his formative years in his birth town of Dundee where, under the tutelage of his grandfather and older brother, he was introduced to Scottish Gaelic. This early taste of insular languages instilled in Craigie a passion that would endure for the rest of his lifetime. During his time studying at the West End Academy, Dundee, he began voraciously consuming the works of the early Scottish “Makars” – Robert Henryson, William Dunbar and Gavin Douglas – who would later become known among literary critics as the Scots Chaucerians for their role as the founding fathers of Scots literature.

As well as studying at St Andrews and Balliol College Oxford, where he learnt German, French, Danish and Icelandic, Craigie found himself at the University of Copenhagen where he added Medieval and Modern Icelandic to his ever-increasing list of languages.

Come 1897 Craigie’s lexicographical career began to take flight when the editorial board of the Philological Society’s New English Dictionary (soon to become the OED) were desperate to find a third Editor and Craigie’s name was put forward as a potential candidate. When Craigie received the fateful letter inviting him to work on the Dictionary on a trial basis; he was so keen, he even postponed his honeymoon with his newly wedded wife, Jessie Kinmond, to take up the position alongside the aforementioned James Murray, so you now had two Scots at the head of putting together the greatest collection of English words ever undertaken!

Let’s not forget, while he was employed full time on the English dictionary, Craigie continued with his other passion, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST) and in 1907, gave a lecture in Dundee on the action necessary to involve local people in collecting ‘Scots words, ballads, legends, and traditions still current’. The DOST was compiled over the following 8 decades and covers the language of Scotland from its earliest beginnings up to 1700. DOST has over 50,000 separate entries with over 581,000 illustrative quotations, and the 12 large printed volumes contain a total of 8,104 pages.

The print edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was once a constant companion to students, academics and writers across the English-speaking world. The Internet has now replaced it, but in it's day it was a priceless item, maybe not the OED, as it is known, but I think most households had a print edition dictionary, ours was used both for our homework from school, and many many games of scrabble, it certainly helped me understand the meanings of words and how they are spelled.

[choicesficwriterscreations]

CFWC F/AotW - Dec 31-Jan 6, 2024

✒️= Fanfic | 📱= Text Fics/Edits | 🎨= Fanart Ⓜ️ = Mature Content 18+ | 🔥 = Explicit/NSFW 18+ 🏳️‍🌈 = LGBTQIA | 🌟= Holidays 2023

ACROSS THE VOID

Sol x MC Fanart 🎨🏳️‍🌈 by @oh-so-youre-a-nerd

AMERICAS MOST ELIGIBLE

I Wasn't Built for Iceland ✒️| Carson Stewart x MC - @peonyblossom

BLADES OF LIGHT AND SHADOW

Complete BOLAS List - Week of Dec. 31-Jan. 6

BLOODBOUND

Kamilah Sayeed x F!MC Fanart 🎨🌟 by @bayleedraws-sometimesx

Think of how easy it would be … 🎨| Adrian Raines, Gaius Augustine - @oh-so-youre-a-nerd

CRIMES OF PASSION

Complete CoP List - Week of Dec. 31 -Jan. 6

THE CURSED HEART

Jack Fanart 🎨| by @chersonesse

THE ELEMENTALISTS

Elementalists MC Fanart 🎨by @artbyalz

Shreya Mistry Fanart 🎨by @ayayapap

IMMORTAL DESIRES

Breakfast Roast ✒️🏳️‍🌈| m!Cas x m!Gabriel x NB!MC - @aria-ashryver

Immortal Desires Fanart ✒️🏳️‍🌈 | m!Cas x m!Gabriel x NB!MC - @aria-ashryver

IT LIVES SERIES

Noah Marshall x M!MC Fanart 🎨🏳️‍🌈by @errajay

Parker Shaw x MC Fanart 🎨by @oh-so-youre-a-nerd for @aallotarenunelma

Snowed in at the Cabin ✒️🏳️‍🌈🌟| Lincoln McQuoid x NB!MC - @aallotarenunelma

LAWS OF ATTRACTION

Happy New Year from McGraw Byrne 🎨🌟| Gabe Ricci, Aislinn Tanaka, MC, etc. by @oh-so-youre-a-nerd

NIGHTBOUND

NB F!MC Fanart 🎨by @lilyoffandoms for @ladylamrian

What Comes After ✒️| Nik Ryder x F!MC - @infactnoimmasitinthemiddle

OPEN HEART

Complete Open Heart List - Week of Dec. 31 - Jan. 6

RED CARPET DIARIES

Happy New Year! ✒️🎨| Thomas Hunt x F!OC art by @/artbyainna (IG) fic by @theartoflovingthomashunt

THE ROYAL ROMANCE

The Best Mistake He Never Had (Series) ✒️| Drake Walker x MC - @camillemontespan Part Four

Traditions ✒️🌟| Liam Rys x MC - @bebepac

Unexpected (Series) ✒️Ⓜ️ | Liam Rys x MC, Maxwell Beaumont x MC - @angelasscribbles Chapter 10: The Truth Comes Out Chapter 11: Let's Be Happy

What's Already Mine ✒️| Liam Rys x MC - @ao719

CROSSOVERS

Bloodbound / Immortal Desires

Adrian Raines, Gabriela Adalhard Fan Art 🎨 by @hydn-jpg (C: @gaiuskamilah)

Multiple PB Choices Stories

Twin Heist ✒️Ⓜ️| Multiple Characters - @whatinthehale17

[hatari-translations]

Matthías interview on quitting Hatari - translation

Some sad news in Fréttablaðið today. The tl;dr is that Matthías is quitting the band to focus on being a father, but this is not necessarily the end of the band. Translation below the cut.

Matti quitting Hatari - trading in the leather suit for a dad sweater

[Image caption: Matthías holds his daughter Sóley on the photo on the right. He says the high point of his week is to see her dressed in this cute strawberry outfit.]

Musician, playwright and copywriter Matthías Tryggvi Haraldsson has decided to leave the band Hatari which he has worked with for the past few years. He aims to concentrate on being a father but says it's impossible to quell his creative spark.

"I basically realized when I became a professional singer that I get no real joy out of singing for people," says Matthías, who recently became a father. He says the fatherhood role has changed how he prioritizes his life.

"When you have a child you start to prioritize and you just have to do what you want to do," he says. Matthías currently works as a copywriter at advertising agency Brandenburg.

"Being a father in a 9-to-5 job is my primary objective right now. Of course, writing is never too far away. I've got a movie script churning away and another theater translation as well," says Matthías, who says it was a surprise that he'd ended up as the frontman of a popular band.

"It wasn't really ever the plan to become a singer. But of course Hatari was a fantastic idea and this doesn't necessarily mean the band is breaking up," says Matthías, who says the members of the band understood his decision and Hatari's fans won't have to despair, as the band will continue.

"It's a rollercoaster that has taken me places I never imagined a person could go."

The performance took on a life of its own

Hatari has for a long time been a name nationally known by both children and adults, especially after the band represented Iceland in Eurovision, which brought them international fame.

The band, which could be classified both as a traditional band and as performance art, quickly became known for its live staging and cool costumes. Matthías says the idea of the band took on a life of its own early on.

"It was performance art that kind of lived its own independent life and went faster than anyone could imagine or control. It just happened and took on a life of its own. It seems to have just been in the right place at the right time."

Diverse influences

The band originated with Matthías and Klemens Hannigan, who also sings in the band.

"It was really Klemens who was the reason we started doing anything to begin with. He sort of ordered me to scream something into the microphone the day we got bored of playing Civilization at his house," says Matthías, but also that he was writing a lot of poetry at the time, much of which made its way into the band's songs as lyrics.

"I was writing a lot of poetry at that time, and I was in a group of young poets that were a great inspiration to me. But also the band Laibach was always behind the ear," says Matthías. That band has been widely influential across a diverse flora of bands in the so-called "industrial" genre; among others, it was a great influence on the band HAM in its time.

Wanted to deceive the audience

Another thing that directed Hatari's creativity was their goal to deceive and defy the expectations of their audience, which was an effort to refuse to let the band be pinned down as one thing and gave them a lot of creative freedom.

"We were always trying, secretly and openly, to defy the audience's expectations. When we'd been stamped as a satellite of the heavy metal scene in Iceland, we went and cut off the long hair," says Matthías. Of course, this was also part of the band's role when it participated in Eurovision.

"The audience's expectations for Eurovision are of course as they are, and we perhaps don't exactly fit like a glove there," he says.

The warm blanket of late capitalism

Matthías has worked a wide variety of jobs over the years, both as a playwright, dramaturge and lyricist, but he also recently applied for a job as the programming director of Rás 1 [Channel 1 of the Icelandic state radio broadcaster].

"It's a radio station I have a great affinity and affection for, and I've previously made a radio series called Allir deyja [Everyone Dies]," says Matthías, who first got involved with radio as a news reporter.

"I've been a host at RÚV, but I first got involved with it through the newsroom when I was a news reporter. But I have strong feelings about the cultural role that the state broadcaster serves," he says.

When asked if it's hard to satisfy his desire to create in a traditional job, he says it is complicated but inspiration can be found in many places.

"The desire to create doesn't go anywhere, and I'm reading stuff in the evening after the girl's asleep and taking Fridays off and finding little chances where I can to work on scripts and translations and other things. The playwright and screenwriter doesn't die so easily," says Matthías, who also finds inspiration in his current job. "There's also creativity in writing advertisements for random companies. It's more fun than you might think, and especially in good company like I have at Brandenburg," he says.

When asked if the frontman of the anti-capitalistic band Hatari has now fallen for good for the ideology of libertarianism and market forces, he says so.

"I'm heading into the warm blanket of late capitalism," says Matthías who looks forward to experiencing its comforts. "All I crave now is safety, stability and disposable income to take vacations. Those are all ideas that were very alien to me less than a year ago. The rhythm of my life has taken kind of a U-turn, and I don't feel like taking weeks to rock and roll abroad fits into that new rhythm. But it was a fascinating experience to do it when I did."

[eastofthemoon]

Last couple years, I've managed to write a muppet fic for the holidays. So, here's another one! Hope you all enjoy!

Spooky Christmas

Rating: G

Series: The Muppets

Characters: Kermit, Sam, Uncle Deadly, Miss Piggy and various others

Summary:It's time for the muppets to plan the annual Christmas show, however, Sam objects to the typical muppet style. Thankfully, Uncle Deadly has other suggestions.

Archive Of Our Own

Kermit hummed as he sat at the head table with his clipboard. He did a quick count of the chattering heads spread out around the table and it seemed everyone was here. He didn’t see the Swedish Chef, but he knew he was busy preparing snacks for break.

“Okay, settle down,” Kermit called out.

The chattering continued.

“I said settle down please.”

Talking still continued.

“I said-”

“EVERYONE, SHUT UP!” Piggy shouted as she sprang from her seat next to him.

Silence swiftly fell upon the room.

Kermit cleared his throat. “Uh, thank you, Piggy.”

“Welcome, Kermie,” she said with a smile as she sat back down.

“Now then,” Kermit started as he held up his clipboard. “It’s time to start planning our annual Christmas show. So, time for brainstorming. Any ideas?”

“How about we throw fish, but they’re covered in candy canes,” said Lew Zealand as he tossed a fish in the air and then it came flying back.

Sam huffed under his breath in his seat near the end of the table.

“Um, we’ll put a pin in that for now,” Kermit replied.

“How about a holiday rock concert,” said Doctor Teeth.

“That’s a good suggestion, but we did that last year,” Kermit replied.

“My ears are still ringing from that horrendous cacophony,” Sam muttered.

“I got a great idea for an act,” Gonzo cried. “I dance in a bucket of sugar plums, while twenty tinsel cannons go off.”

Sam’s grumblings grew louder. “Of all the ridiculous-”

“Um..we’ll also, put a pin in that one,” Kermit replied.

“I have a suggestion,” said Piggy. “I think this year we should do a play.”

“Oh?” asked Kermit. “What kind are you thinking of?”

“A classic, Pride and Prejudice .”

Kermit blinked. “Um, Piggy, that’s not really a holiday story.”

Piggy grinned as she batted her eyes. “It can be if we include mistletoe.”

Kermit felt sceptical, but he could hear everyone beginning to toss ideas around it. It honestly was the best suggestion so far.

Gonzo raised his hand. “Can I use my tinsel canons?!”

Kermit stared at him. “Tinsel canons? For Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice .” He gave a deep sigh. “Yes, you can use tinsel canons.”

“Woot!” “Well, okay,” Kermit said as he started to write on his clipboard. “If everyone is for it we can-”

“I OBJECT,” Sam said as he slammed his wing on the table. “This nonsense can go on no longer.”

Piggy glared. “What’s your problem?!”

Sam glared back as he leaned over the table. “My problem is that every year we put out some tomfoolery that we call a ‘Holiday Performance’. I say it’s time we do a Christmas show the traditional and American way with proper holiday symbols like Frosty, reindeer and Santa!”

The group began to groan and protest.

“But EVERYONE does those,” Fozzie replied

“Si,” Pepe snapped, “and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a repeat of the snowman fiasco, okay?”

“No kidding,” Floyd called out. “Animal still get nightmares from it.”

Animal shivered. “So...cold.”

“If the floor is open,” Uncle Deadly said with his seat next to Piggy’s. “I may be able to provide some unique alternatives.”

Kermit frowned. “Oh, yeah? Like what?”

“It better not be more flying fish,” Sam muttered.

“Have you ever heard the Icelandic tale of the Yule Cat?” asked Uncle Deadly.

Kermit frowned puzzled. “I can’t say that I have?”

“I haven’t,” said Rizzo, “but anything that involves the word ‘cat’ instantly makes me suspicious.”

“The story goes,” Uncle Deadly continued, “on Christmas Eve the Yule Cat comes down from it’s home in the mountains to check to see if people are wearing new clothes.”

“Hmm,” Sam muttered, “not quite Santa, but I can appreciate a creature making sure people are properly suited for the occasion.”

Kermit continued to stare at Deadly. “And what happens if a person doesn't get new clothes?”

Uncle Deadly waved a hand. “Oh, it eats them.”

Sam choked. “What?”

“Ha! Called it,” Rizzo called.

Kermit felt a tug on his arm and glanced down at Robin.

“Uncle Kermit, am I going to have to start wearing pants?” he asked.

“I have a feeling the Yule Cat isn’t going to check on frogs,” he said quietly.

“That is horrible,” Sam bellowed.

Uncle Deadly gave a shrug. “Well, I have heard modern versions say the Yule Cat makes a mess of the house rather than consuming it’s inhabitants.”

“Hey, we could do stuff with that,” Rowlf said. “Make jokes about it clawing the curtains, it can’t deciding if it wants inside or out-”

“And,” Fozzie cut in as he raised a hand, “I got a lot of cat jokes that would be purrfect! Eh? Eh?”

“His jokes sure seem like something the cat dragged in!” Statler yelled while Waldorf laughed.

Kermit gave a nod. “Okay, we can use the Yule Cat-”

“Certainly, not,” Sam said sharply. “We can not endorse feline misdemeanor!”

Uncle Deadly drummed his fingers on the table in thought. “If that’s not your ‘cup of tea’, I suppose there are the Yule Lads.”

“And who are they?” Sam asked suspiciously.

“13 brothers who each come to visit home on the last 13 nights leading up to Christmas.” He folded his hands together as he leaned forward. “Children leave their shoes on windowsills and in return the lads will leave small gifts and a rotten potato in ones that have been naughty.”

Sam mulled this over. “That’s much more palatable. What are their names?”

“I don’t recall the exact order, but one of them is called Spoon-Licker.”

Sam froze as Kermit looked on curiously.

“What?” said Sam.

“Another is called Pot-Scraper, Door-Slammer, Sasuage-Swiper-”

“Those are horrible names!” Sam snapped.

“They are a bit of an odd choice,” Kermit replied.

Uncle Deadly raised a finger. “To be fair, they’re named after the pranks they pull in the houses they visit.”

Sam massaged his forehead. “Of all the stupid...”

“What kind of mother gives them those kinds of names?” Piggy asked.

“Well, considering their mother is the child eating ogress Grýla, who hunts for disobedient children to throw into her stew pot, I imagine appropriate names is not her top priority.” He paused and raised a hand. “I should mention she’s also the owner of the Yule Cat.”

“Interesting family,” Piggy replied, darkly.

Kermit tapped his chin. “Well, if we hold back on some of the child eating stuff-”

“No,” Sam growled.

“Then how about the Krampus?” Uncle Deadly suggested.

Sam sighed. “He’s not another member of the Lad family is he?”

Uncle Deadly placed a hand over his chest. “Certainly not, he is a companion of Santa Claus.”

“Oh, that’s better,” Sam said as he eased up. “He helps deliver the toys?”

Uncle Deadly waved a hand back and forth. “Yes and no. He does ride with Santa, but while Old Saint Nick hands out toys to good children, the Krampus whips the bad ones with branches and sticks.”

Sam buried his face into his wings. “Why am I not even surprised?”

“There are even some darker stories that say he throws them into his basket to take them back to his lair to eat them.”

Sam glared at him. “I’m rather concerned about how often cannibalism is coming up in these stories.”

“It’s not cannibalism though,” said Scooter. “I mean ‘cannibalism’ is when a person eats their own kind, and these creatures aren’t human so it’s just people eating.”

“Wait, hold it,” Bobo said as he sipped his coffee. “If we ate each other would that be cannibalism? I mean, we’re different creatures but we’re also all ‘the muppets’ so-”

“I’m going to stop you there before you go further down that rabbit hole,” Kermit said before turning back to Uncle Deadly. “Still, if we tone down some aspects we might be able to-”

“Why are you even considering this?!” Sam snapped. “Dangerous felines? Ruffians breaking into houses to lick spoons? What does any of that have to do with Christmas?!”

“Because there are people that do rather enjoy the spooky side to Christmas,” Kermit replied.

Sam blinked dazed. “Spooky side to Christmas? What are you talking about?!”

“Well, the holidays take place on the longest, coldest and darkest nights of the year,” Kermit said. “Isn’t it only natural that people find that a bit scary and make up stories to deal with it?”

“It’s true,” Bunsen chimed in. “The traditions of Yule are said to go back centuries.”

Beaker cleared his throat. “Meep, meep, meep! Meep, meep, meep. Meep. Meep, meep, meep. Meep, meep, meep? Meep!”

Everyone gave a unanimous applause.

“Well spoken,” said Uncle Deadly, “that was truly profound.”

“Indeed,” Bunsen said as he patted Beaker’s shoulder. “I do love it when you use your anthropology knowledge.”

“Nevertheless,” snapped Sam. “We are Americans and therefore we should do an American Christmas play. We should do A Christmas Carol .”

“Um, I do love A Christmas Carol ,” said Gonzo, “but we’ve done it a million times.”

“Yeah, we want something new,” said Rizzo.

“But it is American and has none of this dark Christmas stuff,” Sam stated firmly.

“A Christmas Carol?” Kermit said blankly. “The one written by a British author that is about three ghosts haunting a man to change his ways? That A Christmas Carol?”

“And let’s not forget how the Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come is a grim symbol of our fear of mortality and grappling with death.”

Everyone turned to Fozzie stunned.

He shrugged. “What? Can’t a bear appreciate the classics?”

“Sure, he can,” said Waldorf.

“They’re as old as your jokes,” said Statler as both the old men laughed.

Sam gave a deep defeated sigh as he turned to Kermit. “Pride and Prejudice it is.”

“Great,” said Kermit. “Now how many cannons do we need?”

[painthropologist]

Recommended readings on pain

The following is a comprehensive reference list of readings on pain, embodiment, and ritual, to name a few of the topics that I will be discussing. This list will be updated as and when I find new sources, and covers various subjects from anthropology to sociology, philosophy, and beyond.

Adler, M. (2006). Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers and Other Pagans in America. 4th ed. USA: Penguin Books. 

Åsatrufellesskapet Bifrost (2024). Om Bifrost. Available at: https://bifrost.no/om-bifrost (Accessed 13 June 2024).

Asprem, E. (2008). Heathens Up North: Politics, Polemics, and Contemporary Norse Paganism in Norway. The Pomegranate, 10(1): 41-69. 

Aðalsteinsson, J.H. (1998). A Piece of Horse Liver: Myth, Ritual and Folklore in Old Icelandic Sources. Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan Félagsvísindastofnun.

Belardinelli, A.L. and Bonsaksen, J.A. (2020). An Ancient Perspective.  Available at: https://www.churchofpain.org/about (Accessed: 5 March 2024).

Bell, C. (2009). Ritual Theory, Ritual practice. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Eliade, M. (1969). The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Calico, J.F. (2018). Being Viking: Heathenism in Contemporary America. Sheffield: Equinox.

Durkheim, E. (2012). The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York: Dover Publications.

Fibiger, M.Q. (2018). Thaipusam Kavadī – A Festival Helping Hindus in Mauritius Cope with Fear. International Quarterly for Asian Studies, 49(3-4): 123-140.

Fonneland, T. (2015). The Rise of Neoshamanism in Norway: Local Structures-Global Currents. In: Kraft, S.E., Fonneland, T., and Lewis, J.R. Nordic Neoshamanisms. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 33-54.

Geertz, C. (1973). Religion as a Cultural System. In: The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books Inc, pp. 87-125. 

Glucklich, A. (2001). Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gunnell, T. (2015). The Background and Nature of the Annual and Occasional Rituals of the Ásatrúarfélag in Iceland. In: Minniyakhmetova, T., and Velkoborská, K., (eds.) The Ritual Year 10: Magic and Rituals and Rituals in Magic. ELM Scholarly Press. 28-40.

Harvey, G. (2013). The Handbook of Contemporary Animism. New York: Routledge.

Hobsbawm, E. (2012). Introduction: Inventing Traditions. In: Hobsbawm E., Ranger T., (eds.) The Invention of Tradition. Canto Classics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1-14.

Hobsbawm, E., and Ranger, T. (2014). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jackson, J.E. (2011). Pain and Bodies. In: Mascia-Lees, F.E. (ed.) A Companion to the Anthropology of the Body and Embodiment. UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Kleinman, A., Das, V., Lock, M. (1997). Social Suffering. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Lee, N. (2022). On a Wind-Rocked Tree: Pain as Transformation in Contemporary Heathenry. In: Strickland, S., Hunter, L., and Mullin Berube, S. Riding the Bones. USA: The Three Little Sisters. Appendix D.

Luhrmann, T.M. (2012). Touching the Divine: Recent Research on Neo-Paganism and Neo Shamanism. Reviews in Anthropology, 41(1), pp. 136–150. 

Manfredi, F. (2024). Beyond Pain: The Anthropology of Body Suspensions. New York: Berghan.

Mauss, M. (1973). Techniques of the Body. Economy and Society, 2(1): pp. 70-88.

McLane, J. (1996). The Voice on the Skin: Self-Mutilation and Merleau-Ponty's Theory of Language. Hypatia, 11(4): 107-118.

Mitchell, J. (2009). Ritual Transformation and the Existential Grounds of Selfhood. Journal of Ritual Studies, 23(2): 53-66.

Obeyesekere, G. (1981). Medusa’s Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Pagliarini, M.A. (2015). Spiritual Tattooing: Pain, Materialization, and Transformation. Journal of Religion and Violence, 3(2): 189-212.

Polhemus, T. (1998). The Performance of Pain. Performance Research, 3(3): 97-102.

Rappaport, R.A. (1999). Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. UK: Cambridge University Press.

Rasmussen, R.H. (2020). The Nordic Animist Year. Estonia: Ecoprint.

(2023). Aun 2031. Available at: https://nordicanimism.com/aun-2023 (Accessed: 19 March 2024).

(2024). Aun: Cannibal Kings, Cosmic Healing and the Recovery of a Nordic Tradition. Estonia: Ecoprint.

Reynolds, C. and Erikson, E. (2017). Agency, Identity, and the Emergence of Ritual Experience. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 3(1): 1 –14.

Scarry, E. (1985). The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World. New York: Oxford University Press.

Shilling, C. & Mellor, P. (2010). Saved from pain or saved through pain? Modernity, instrumentalization and the religious use of pain as a body technique. European Journal of Social Theory, 13(4): 521-537. DOI: 10.1177/1368431010382763.

Snook, J. (2013). Reconsidering Heathenry: The Construction of an Ethnic Folkway as Religio ethnic Identity. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, 16(3): 52-76. 

von Schnurbein, S. (2016). Norse Revival: Transformations of Germanic Neopaganism. Boston: Brill.

Viljoen, M. (2010). Embodiment and the experience of built space: The contributions of Merleau-Ponty and Don Ihde. South African Journal of Philosophy, 29(3). DOI: 10.4314/sajpem.v29i3.59153.

[explorersaremadeofhope]

pleeeeease i wanna hear about snorri sturlusons edda being an unreliable source for pre christian skandi life

agsdfjsgh oh no it's almost 4am

okay CONDENSED VERSION

the prose edda was written in the thirteenth century. (it's commonly dated to around 1220.) snorri himself lived from 1179 to 1241, which makes him solidly high medieval by a european standard and medieval (ie not viking age) by a scandinavian standard.

iceland converted to christianity in the year 1000 AD through a resolution carried in the alþingi (this is according to njáls saga as we do not actually have contemporary written material from that era. pinch of salt as to the precise date, and of course the nature of conversion is such that it doesn't happen overnight, even in a small population like late viking age iceland, but nevertheless -- iceland was very decidedly no longer pagan by the 1200's)

(this leads into a Big Old Debate about the nature of oral memory and how much and how reliably material can be preserved in that manner, especially detail, and for how many generations. this is contentious and im not gonna get into it but it's a factor)

snorri sturluson was a christian

this matters because although he was interested in the culture -- especially the poetics (we'll come to that) of the past, he was not a part of that culture and he was viewing it from the outside. his interest was antiquarian.

snorri sturluson's edda is an educational work in poetry. it is a poetic. a book of skáldskapr, ie of the poetical arts. the poetry of viking age iceland, the poetical culture that medieval iceland inherited, was one based on a huge and complex metaphorical system which directly referenced pre-christian mythology. to take a classic example, instead of simply saying 'gold', you might say 'sif's hair', but to understand this you'd need to know the story where sif loses her hair due to a loki fuckup and is gifted new hair made from gold.

in short, the loss of the knowledge of these stories would completely hamstring all successive generations of poets -- not only would they no longer be able to participate in the poetic tradition, they wouldn't even be able to comprehend and appreciate the work of their predecessors.

the narrative part of snorri's edda is the one most people are familiar with. it is even often printed separately. but his work is actually comprised of four sections: a prologue dedicated to explaining that the pagan gods were actually men (see euhemerism), the narrative portion (gylfaginning), a section which explains a large number of poetical metaphors (skáldskaparmál), and a section which gives examples of various poetical metres a skáld should know (háttatal).

oh god i said condensed, this is already so long

FINALLY: snorri was a scholar. and medieval scholars took a different approach to their material than modern historians. they were unafraid to edit, embellish, pick and choose, compile and systematise as they saw fit. (we have some notion of what types of sources snorri used and some of his material survives in other sources, but much does not, leaving his account the only one, which means we can't check his work, as it were.)

we must assume that the prose edda synthesises material that was varied and contradictory -- folk tradition always is (think of how many versions ballads and folk songs survive in). we must assume that there are versions which were lost. we must also assume that his christianity has affected the material to *some* degree, though how much is again a Big Debate (for example we may point to the part where he says that loki was outwardly beautiful but wicked -- afaik there is no physical description of loki anywhere else, and it's tempting to see a parallel here to christian notions of temptation).

TLDR snorri has created a *version* of norse myth. and while we should be incredibly grateful that someone actually sat down and created a literal guidebook like this we must also remember by whom it was made, why, and when. (✨source criticism!✨ [philology jazz hands])

(this isn't even getting into how the narratives of mythology correlate -- and don't -- with the evidence of worship uncovered by archaeology but POST TOO LONG)

[blackmoonfairy]

so this year i found out about an icelandic christmas eve tradition called jolabokaflod or christmas book flood where you basically gift new books to each other and read them together while eating chocolate or drinking hot chocolate and i told my sister about it after we gifted books to each other and agreed to start doing it every year.