Good afternoon everyone,

It's the time of year when I want to sit on a hill and drink mead, perhaps you are feeling the same? If so, here's a suggested soundtrack and some spooky stuff from the Nordics, where they know about long summer days.

This is a traditional Danish folk song, sung by Agnes Buen Garnas. It's really beautiful, my family got it on a free CD when they bought something else so I know relatively little about it, including what Målfri Mi Fruve actually means. Google translate is useless here. If you know Old Danish, I'd love a translation! And if you don't, this is still a lovely song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q_wRGBAoYg

Of course the hills I'd be sitting on would be in well populated and well lit areas, so I don't need to think about this, but here's an article on the scary ladies (or lady adjacent creatures) of the Scandinavian forests:

In Norway, the word huldrefolk or huldre (plural) derived from Old Norse huldr ‘hidden’ is used for all kinds of supernatural beings, sighted and talked about by the folk. Hulder, or Huldra in the singular, signifies a female forest spirit, even though she might as well appear in mountains. This is the same line of thinking that we find in Swedish folk tradition, were the forest spirit act and appear alone, not a part of a collective or families of supernatural beings, like vittra. In northern Sweden, the name vittra refers to a group of supernatural beings that lives underground that have many traits in common with fairies from folklore of the British Isles, as well as with the ellefolk in Danish tradition or the huldrefolk in Norwegian tradition.

https://folklorethursday.com/folktales/skogsra-and-huldra-the-femme-fatale-of-the-scandinavian-forests/

Even scarier, today I found out the origins of the word nightmare! A mare is a frightening female spirit that sits on your chest as you sleep. Did you all know this already? I can't believe I've spent so much time thinking hmmmmm nightmare is a weird word! Wish I knew the origins of that one! when I could have looked it up and got a cool answer:

The root of the English word “nightmare” is the Old English maere. In Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse, a mara was something known to sneak into people’s rooms at night, plop down on their bodies, and give them bad dreams. When the mare came to visit, the victim would feel a heavy weight—it might start at the feet, but it always settled on the chest—and lose the ability to move.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/original-nightmare-demon-suffocation-night-terror

Have a lovely long day,

Alex.