Silly American seeks info on Scandanavia

[trentonjoe]

Thank you very much. Other than the bear, they all look like useable links.

Its nice to have these boards used for good and not evil.

Oh, and I will be mentioning the Sweden recently won the team handball World Cup!

Any more info is welcomed.

Anecdotal stories would be great. Do you guys have a boogie man? Santa CLaus? Easter bunny? Tooth faerie?

Lucky numbers? National icons? SNow jokes? stuff like that would be great!


Again, thanks for the help.

 

[Zander]

I went to Norway for a friend's wedding several years ago. I have to say that it's a beautiful country populated with genial people. And I found no less than 3 very nice RPG stores, 2 in Oslo and one in Bergen.

Anyway, in Norway they have these old wooden churches called stave churches that are modelled on Viking buildings. There's a picture of one in the Asgard section of the 1E Manual of the Planes. The one shown really exists: it's in Heddal near Notoden (sp?). The same one is illustrated in the Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology. If you cover Norse mythology and the conversion of the Scandies to Christianity, you should definitely mention the stave churches.

I also went to the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. I don't know if they have a web site, but if they do, that should interest your students too.

Hope that helps!

 

[Piratecat]

In an attempt to make up for the Prime Number Pooping Bear, I point you to the Vasa: a Swedish sailing ship from 1628 that was so over-decorated that it was topheavy and unstable. On its maiden voyage, it fired off a broadside salute with its cannons... and sank. Now raised and restored, it is fascinating and beautiful. I saw it while I was in Stockholm, and it was one of my favorite museums.

 

[Scarab]

Anecdotal stories would be great. Do you guys have a boogie man? Santa CLaus? Easter bunny? Tooth faerie?

Sweden has "Tomten" - the predecessor to Santa Claus, sort of.

Farmers used to believe that there was a "house spirit" (hence the Swedish word "hustomte" - "house santa"). The house spirit was your friend, as long as you didn't anger him. He kept the animals healthy (he could talk to them), kept diseases away, that sort of thing. He was very shy, and only left his home at night.

The tomte was friendly but grumpy, and was very quick to anger. On every Christmas eve you put some porridge out on your door step for him to eat, as a gift and thanks. You had to put some butter and honey in the porridge, or he would get mad and spread diseases in your stable.

Lots of tomte lore was transferred to the Santa Claus story - the porridge on Christmas eve, the red hat, among other attributes. here is a typical picture of him. Even though he was small, he was immensely strong (something like 28 Str ) and could easily wrestle a bull to the ground.

The tomte was of a race I'm sure you'll recognize: gnome.

So while the original Santa Claus comes from Germany, there are lots of elements from Sweden in the lore about him.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Anecdotal stories would be great. Do you guys have a boogie man? Santa CLaus? Easter bunny? Tooth faerie?

Näcken is a very attractive man-like fiddle player or singer. Appearing at rivers and in waterfalls. He is fond of women, who sometimes are found drowned at places where he appears. Näcken is said to dislike clothes.

 

[Scarab]

Näcken is a very attractive man-like fiddle player or singer. Appearing at rivers and in waterfalls. He is fond of women, who sometimes are found drowned at places where he appears. Näcken is said to dislike clothes.

"Näck" in Swedish means "nude". I'm sure you can see the similarities in "näck" and "naked"...

He could also take the shape of a horse and leave the waterfall he had as a home. He then lured someone to ride him, and then rode down to the river and drowned them.

 

[psychognome]

As a proud and patriotic Finn...

...I'd like to say that the Forgotten Realms deity known as Mielikki is actually a straight rip-off from Finnish mythology, as is Loviatar. Oh, and I happen to live in a part of Finland that's been named by another deity from Finnish mythology, Tapio, the so-called god of forests... the place I happen to live in, Tapiola, (free translation: Tapioheim) is a wooded place.
Another thing, the sauna was a Finnish invention, no matter what a good-for-nothing Swede might tell you! And no, sauna bathing doesn't make people stupid, and the German who said so is a stinking liar! If Finns were so stupid, then how could they have invented such a marvellous thing as the sauna? And to all those humoristically challenged, the thing about sauna and stupidity was sarcasm: it's obvious that Finns are stupid, but they once were the great, wise folk who invented the sauna...
Oh, and all Finns have -2 to their Charisma score and favored class: Druid!

 

[Scarab]

Re: As a proud and patriotic Finn...

Oh, and all Finns have -2 to their Charisma score and favored class: Druid!

Finnish drinking song: "Now!" *gulps down drink*

 

[jujutsunerd]

Thank you very much. Other than the bear, they all look like useable links.
Anecdotal stories would be great. Do you guys have a boogie man? Santa CLaus? Easter bunny? Tooth faerie?

Well for traditions (and a lot of practical information) you could do worse than looking here:

http://www.inv.se/svefa/tradition/engtrad/tradhome.html

It's a site aimed for immigrants to Sweden, and the rest of the site has all sorts of information, but this part seems most like what you want.

/Jonas

 

[trentonjoe]

In an attempt to make up for the Prime Number Pooping Bear, .

thought the bear was great, just uh,uh, not really useable in class.

One more question. The Finns are different than the rest of you guys right? Aren't they more Asiatic in descent and the rest of you guys more Angl-Saxon?

Is there languauge different? Do they use the cyrillic alphabet?
How different are Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish? Are they similar to French, Italian, and Spanish?

Did all Vikings have long blond beards?

I guess that is a couple of questions.

THE silly american exits stage left.