Troll workshop, making tiny mythical creatures. While making shure not to pierce my fingers, we all got the basics and materials to start making our own little troll. A nice and productive way to start the day. As my tiny creature slowly formed into Yule cat, known from icelandic folklore as the cat of Gryla, the course teacher told us some of the tales and background stories of trolls. I had never heard these stories before, somehow inspired me to make my Yule cat. 

Later during the day we were guided by Stefan around the city. Funny enough he told us about the Yule cat and Gryla as well. But what really stood out for me was the childrens lullabies. Icelandic lullabies refer to some grimm and dark folklore. 

Iceland is best experienced as an adult!! 

We did a troll workshop where we created our own trolls out of Icelandic wool. While doing so we listened to ttoll sagas being told by one of the instructors. The task given was quite simple: create a troll with a needle and several varieties of wool. It was very interesting to see the many different kinds of trolls the participants made.

In the afternoon we did a guided tour in Reykjavik. During the tour the guide shared many Icelandic sagas and told the history of several historical places around the city: 

In generel I would say the highlight of the day was listening to the sagas being told throughout both activities. The guide and instructors told the stories with passion and it was easy to hear that they knew their sagas very well. And especially the guide was r very good storyteller. 

The morning session was a wool workshop. It gave me a creative look to imagian how trolls are look like.  It was a very fun and useful way to learn about the way of living. I made some changes to my troll, because I heard about some clothing regulations for the trolls. When the trolls enter the church, they need to be dressed up and wear a head. The picture of my troll shows the head. 

In the morning we spent three hours workshop in making an Icelandic troll with Icelandic wool after hearing some stories about Icelandic trolls. Each participant gets down to making his or her own troll according to their skills. 

Making trolls was a fun project that anyone can do and does not require any level of skills to create them. 

We make a lot of different trolls by expressing our deepest feelings….. 

 

At the afternoon we had a tour around Reykjavik city center. The tour was full of myth and legends about troll, elves and other mythical creatures. We realized the importance of those stories in Icelandic tradition. I believe that it was a common feeling that all stories were enough scaring. I don’t know if this is good inspiration for the youngest. 

I impressed also by the number of Santa Claus Iceland has. 

 

Thus, Tuesday, April 23, 2019 afternoon, we could listen, wandering along the streets, stories ...

 

Better to be wise: in fact, the Icelandic folklore involves 13 Christmas trolls, the Yule, who come to haunt villages to scare children. Kind of father whippers in some ways. Over the years, however, the roles of the Yule Lads have softened, and these little fellows have become less harmful. They appear during the 13 nights before Christmas, and everyone leaves after 13 nights. In total, they are present from December 12 to January 6.

"Yule", which means "Christmas" in Icelandic, is inherited from the pagan celebrations of the winter solstice.

Here they are, in order of appearance:

1 / The clum of sheepfolds: fun to harass the sheep, although handicapped by his wooden legs.

2 / The dadais ravines: hides in the gutters to enter the stables and steal the milk.

3 / The stocky: abnormally small, he steals pans in order to lick the fat that is there.

4 / The licker spoons: very thin, he steals the wooden spoons to lick them.

5 / The scrapers: steals the remains of dishes

6 / The bowl licker: hides under the beds while waiting for someone to put his bowl in order to steal it.

7 / The door clacker: as the name suggests, he particularly likes to slam doors, preferably at night.

8 / The skyrofoam: do not let Skyr (a fermented milk formula) nearby!

9 / The sausage thief: hides in the rafters of the attic where the sausages are smoked.

10 / The voyeur behind the windows: in search of something to steal, he spends his time scrutinizing behind the windows.

11 / The sniffer: he uses his big nose to find the best places to steal Christmas cookies.

12 / The meat hook: he uses his hook to steal the meat from a distance.

13 / The thief of candles: follows the children in the dark to steal their candles.

 

Here is an illustration to better navigate:

An Icelandic lullaby entitled “Sofdu unga ástin mín” (“Sleep my young darling”) written about an Icelandic couple of the eighteenth century and their child (Fjalla-Eyvindur and his wife Hallaparle) tells the story of infanticide. Indeed, in order to escape, the mother would have killed the child after singing:

Similarly, if a “face appears at the window” means that “bloodthirsty ghosts roam in the darkness”.

 

In Icelandic, a ghost is called draugur. They are often people who have just died tragically, who are victims of a sudden and violent death, murdered or horribly injured. Those can make themselves visible if it sings to them. They can speak, often rhyming and repeating the last two syllables of each sentence, but they can not pronounce the word Gud, which they replace with an innocuous syllable. Often, they bring innocent prey to the grave. One of the most famous is certainly the Deacon of the Black River, who came to fetch his fiancee.

Having promised to come to fetch his fiancée on Christmas Eve, the young man perched on a horse dies passing over a river whose bridge is broken. The next day, the villagers bury him. But if her funeral takes place, the fiancée having remained without news, knows nothing of the affair. Also, on the evening of December 24, the ghost of the young man comes up, the beautiful joins him behind him on his horse, and here he begins to speak in the manner of the ghosts. It was then that she saw the mortal wound on the back of the ghost, just as he was about to drag him into his grave. Once in the cemetery, panicked, she tries to ring a bell to alert the villagers. But her fiancé fire holds her by the sleeve of her coat. The latter being previously damaged, the monster could keep only a small piece of cloth of his bride and the girl could ring the bell. The villagers then came to help him. Back home, the ghost came to harass her, manifesting herself by knocking on her door every night for thirteen days until a wizard came to her aid, as well as the villagers, who all ended up together. crush the ghost under a rock to put an end to his sinister actions.

 

We kept the “best” for the end, with the nábrók, the magical pants meant to bring unlimited wealth to the wearer.

To make the nábrók, you need a poor widow, and a gold coin (and incidentally, ask permission from the person whose skin is being used). Once this person dies, it is necessary to recover the skin (from the waist to the feet), to make them trousers, which, once worn, can not be removed. To attract fortune, it is also necessary to keep the gold coin, which will work like a magnet, by drawing all the pieces of the environment towards it. Which ensures wealth. However, do not die with these pants! .... At the risk of terrible things happening to the owner.

Loch ness of Iceland? Yes, it’s Lagarfljótsormurinn

 

This morning, I was afraid about our work : surprise and fear for me... Making a troll, with a needle and wool, that seemed amazing to me !!

I did not know what I would be able tot do, nor what my fingers would do. And that's why it  was great, despite the anxiety of not succeeding. 

Inventiveness is still what teaches us the most about us, unknown, uncontrolled. 

 

 Also, I liked this sentence pronounced by one of our hostesses: “for the same instruction, completely different answers”. I therefore celebrate the joy of being oneself, with others, and to meet otherness, to respect it, and to make it a shareable wealth.

Thank you all for this beautiful day in your company.

 

Sylvie created a troll, soft, sweet ... I created an ogress, sort of troll in France. An ogress like "Fiona", Shrek's fiancée.

 

But I finally found the name of my trolless: it will be Gilitrutt...

 

Here is the story of Gilitrutt!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So it's both the bride, but also Gilitrutt, the one whose name we did not know, who is in the image of the unknown who in me will have chosen to make this funny character.