I Had To Draw Her.

I had to draw her.

“Brünnhilde”, 1936

Library of Congress

Tak! Den bog kendte jeg ikke :D

Goddammit, it's right there, in the ~Danish folklore Bible~ that everyone keeps referencing but no one seems to actually read! "Troll" is a category of being, not a specific creature!!!

"Additionally, not only are the under-grounders [underjordiske] referred to as trolls, but all social nature beings, yes all folklore creatures in general. (For trolls = jotnar, giants, risar, see p. 317)"

And when we turn to page 317?

After defining the category of creature that these modern folklorists refer to as jotnar, the author states that: "Jotnar and tursar are commonly also referred to as trolls [in our sources]"

Troll is literally just a catchall term for "magical guy". How in the world did people come to define it solely as "beast with horns and tail" or "dumb aggressive giant" when it is SO much more than that??

I gotta read this later!

A wild (mother) goose chase for a lost fairy tale

In august 2020 Forbes published an article about how writer and illustrator Pete Jordi Wood had uncovered a “charming gay fairytale” that “has been lost for 200 years”. In particular a story where a sailor wins the hand in marriage of a handsome prince. Wood is quoted as calling it an “unbelievably and fabulously gay” plot, and: “an ancient tale with a positive portrayal, of a guy who can be read as gay or asexual, but certainly queer”.

Obviously I was wild to read it, but sadly Wood’s adaptation of the fairy tale had been published as a limited edition children’s book and virtual exhibition that I could not access. Even more disheartening, the folklore sources were not named on his website, and his research was only available in a limited edition essay collection and zine that I would have to buy.

To make matters worse, the Forbes article said that Wood had translated variations of the story from Danish, German and Frisian. That was absolutely too close to home for me not to go looking for it! Except I had very little to go on, because again, Forbes didn’t give sources.

The article said only this:

Wood called the story “The Dog And The Sailor”

The protagonist is an adventurous sailor with an overprotective mother who defeats a beautiful evil witch and wins the hand in marriage of a handsome prince.

Wood found it in the Stith Thompson’s six-volume Motif-Index of Folk-Literature under a tale type called “The Dog and the Sea” which existed in multiple languages (Danish, German, Frisian and others), but not in English.

It was first written down in the 1800’s.

I could find only one mention online with more information, on the Simmons University website:

“Originally a Danish folktale documented by the folklorists Nikolaj Christensen and Jens Kamp, this story has been translated into English for the first time by Pete Jordi Wood.”

The consequence of all this is that I have been hunting for this fairy tale for a very long time and with the help of two amazing Danish followers and a lot of frantic internet searches, I’m finally convinced that I have! So, if you want to follow me into my obsession, you can find it all under the readmore.

Keep reading

which one of u was going to tell me that tea tastes different if u put it in hot water?

It’s art, it’s architecture, it’s whimsy, it’s —

so bye bye miss like big pizza pie

si signore, it’s amore when the moon hits your eye

and good old boys were drinking far too much wine

saying this’ll be the day that i shine

this will be the day that i shine

bells-