#Skandinavia

[rune-folk]

Fjord views, West Norway

[fashionistanura]

It's their season! It's time!

[mara-ma]

❗️For my friend❗️

Early medival era

[lotusdesignbyz]

[wotans-choosen-folk]

[lavrenik]

Tistel – mistel – kistel thing: a runic spell or something else?

Tistel – mistel – kistel is an expression that can be found on several rune stones and churches in Scandinavia. Interestingly, according to the "rule" of writing runes, they should not repeat one after another, whereas in the original this inscription looks like this:

ᚦᛘᚴ : ᛁᛁᛁ : ᛋᛋᛋᛋ : ᛏᛏᛏ : ᛁᛁᛁ : ᛚᛚᛚ

If you transliterate it into Latin letters, you get

thmk : iii : sss : ttt : iii : lll

In Old Norse

þistill : mistill : kistill

Thistle – mistletoe – casket.

The expression is considered to be a spell, and any spell has both positive and negative magical effects (as, incidentally, and runes alone, if they are attributed magical properties, are not purely positive or negative, but always both). The Celts also collected mistletoe for medicinal purposes, and singing spells over the herbs increased their power, which may have given rise to tistel – mistel – kistel.

The inscription is found, for example, on the Ledberg runestone (1) in the Swedish province of Östergötland and on the Danish runestone Gørlev (2-3), both dating from the 11th century.

According to one of the versions the text on the Ledberg stone depicts Odin being devoured by Fenrir during Ragnar��k. Another interesting thing is that on the stone from Denmark, after the repeated sequence of runes, the author left the inscription "I have placed the runes correctly/in the correct order". I have read that the same inscription is in the Borgund Stave Church (4) in Norway, which is also one of the oldest surviving frame churches, which began to build with the penetration of Christianity in Scandinavia. Although the Borgund church is dedicated to St Andrew (the interior features his X crosses (5)), it is very much full of pagan symbols, such as the dragons on the roof (6), which refer to Viking ships, and runic inscriptions. I am waiting for candidates to come with me to Norway to check the presence of tistel – mistel – kistel there, because sadly there are no photos on the internet.

Also tistel – mistel – kistel is found in the Saga of the Bos, there is a huge article about it and about this phrase in general in Norwegian, I translated only the summary, but someday I hopefully will translate the whole thing :(

The article argues that the thistle formula is a prototypical fertility formula with a positive and/or negative sign during the Viking Age and the Middle Ages. The cultural and historical background of thistle and mistletoe and their medicinal use support this interpretation. The conclusion is that this formula had a complex symbolic meaning with life-threatening and life-preserving functions. In other words, it fulfilled a number of different tasks: from curse incantation to protection and blessing magic.

That is basically what I wrote above: any spell gives a response and can be used in both directions.

[milkywayan]

I see people starting to post romanticised winter images (especially of nordic countries) and I am here to tell you STOP!!! NO!!!!

It is summer!!! It is still summer! It is raining buckets, but it is still summer!!!

I don't want to go back to -10C and 4h of daylight yet!!!! stop stop stop you dont know what it is like!!!!!

[re-germanisierung]

[mikakadzutore]

The flag of Ukraine in the style of the Scandinavian Cross

[allmyandroids]

Beach at Gl. Skagen aka one of my favourite places on Earth ✨️

[retroappaloosa]

aarhus, denmark

[kahlango]

Dear Scandinavian ppl, i would like to ask you something: Where can i watch / download EXIT (2019) season 3?

How come it's so hard to find streamings that contain your tv shows/movies ?!! I love Norwegian, Swedish and Danish productions more than ANYTHING but it's so hard!! it's tiring to even LOOK for them 😭😭 the Norwegian ones mostly, and i miss them a lot, cause i am just amazed by everything made there.

So could you help a fan, please?

[raindropsilala]

How about stories?

I adore the Scandinavian mythology and fairy tales of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.

---Golden hair of Sif---

Sif - the wife of the God Thor, the ruler of thunder and lightning. She was the goddess of nature and fertility, and her main attribute was golden and long hair. However, Loki, the God of mischief and unfortunate jokes, sneaked into Sif's chambers and, while she was sleeping, cut off her hair.... When Thor found out about it, he became furious. But Loki promised to make things right. He went to the dwarves and ordered them to make new hair for Sif, hair made of gold. The dwarves outdid themselves, as their creations are the most beautiful on earth. These hair looked like real ones and were made of pure gold, they immediately grew back to Sif's head and started growing again. And Sif became even more beautiful.

[the-narnian-sea]

Not me having planned a whole ass roadtrip through norway today? For winter? I dont even like winter and never planned on going to the skandinavian countries, got my drivers license in february yet here i am 💀

Any norwegians here who'd like to tell me a bit about their country?🇳🇴 Takk!

[mahdidarkdrop]

أَيا وَطَنِي فِي الشَّمال  يا مَأْوَى الإِنْسان

حُبُّكَ جارٍ فِي الوِجْدان

إِنْ أَبْعَدَنِي الدَّهْرُ عَنْكَ فَأَبَداً لا نِسْيان

يا وَطَنِي الشَّمال

أَتُرانِي سَكَنْتُكَ أَمْ تُراكَ سَكَنْتَ الوِجْدان

نَحْنُ شَمالِيُّون  أَبْنائُكَ العاشِقُون

وَمَهْما بَعُدْنا عَنْكَ نَبْقَى بِكَ هائ��مِين