This picture of Hakan buttering the corn with his finger because we didn't have any cutlery, cracks me up. A spontaneous barbeque picnic at Mjelle, Bodø, Nordland, Norway, when we still lived there, up north.
Among the most ubiquitous preoccupations of medieval literature is an insistent concern to detail the activities of the devil. In popular and theological belief alike, demons were everywhere ready to pounce upon the souls and bodies of the unwary, to deceive and trick even the most saintly. (Jennings 1977.)
⛪️The Espoo Cathedral is the oldest existing building in City of Espoo, Finland. The Espoo Cathedral is a medieval grey granite church at the shore of Espoo river. It has been been around for more than 500 years.
The church's oldest parts date back to the 1480s. The architect was an unknown "Espoo master". Together with the 🇫🇮Hattula and Lohja churches, the Espoo church is a significant monument of medieval murals.
😈As a warning to the people, the wall mural depicts the works of the devil and witches, e.g. churning butter (buttering the butter) with the help of demonic familiars or minor demons (Para or Piru in 🇫🇮).
😈Tutvillus (Titivillus or Tutivillus) : was a demon said to work on behalf of Belphegor, Lucifer or Satan to introduce errors into the work of scribes. However in Finland (Sweden-Finland) the demon had unique features.
“Certain people, however, think idle things during sermons and speak idle words in church when they should be putting their hearts to those things being said. Wherefore at a great solemnity, when a certain holy priest saw a devil stretching parchment with his teeth, he demanded of him why he was doing so. To whom the devil answered: "I am writing down the idle words said in this church which because of the solemn feast today have been remarkably increased, and seeing that the piece which I brought was not sufficient, I have attempted to stretch that parchment with my teeth. (Jennings 1977.)”
🇫🇮Finnish version continues: Laughing in church was forbidden. It happened that the parchment was already completely full when the churchman entered. The demon wanted this name on paper and began to stretch the cow skin parchment. However, it lost its balance and fell to the floor of the church. The churchman laughed at this, and the demon finally got his name on the list of sinners.🙂
Sko-Ella (Shoe Ella) is the titular protagonist villain of Scandinavian folk tale, who is known as the woman who terrified even the devil.
🗻Blockula (Blåkulla in modern Swedish, translated to "Blue Hill") was a legendary island where the Devil held his Earthly court during a witches' Sabbath.
Most helpful Sources:
Fält, K. (2017). Women and Demons in the Late Medieval Wall Paintings in the Church of Espoo (Finland). Mirator, 18 (1).
Tutivillus: The Literary Career of the Recording Demon
Author: Margaret Jennings
Source: Studies in Philology, Vol. 74, No. 5, Texts and Studies, 1977. Tutivillus: The Literary Career of the Recording Demon (Dec., 1977), pp. 1-83+85-87+89-91+93+95 Published by: University of North Carolina Press.
The bust of a middle aged man made out of butter was sitting on my bathroom counter. It turned and began to scream at me, but the scream was utterly silent. Everything was so silent. I was so frightened of the butter bust.
probably time for this story i guess but when i was a kid there was a summer that my brother was really into making smoothies and milkshakes. part of this was that we didn't have AC and couldn't afford to run fans all day so it was kind of important to get good at making Cool Down Concoctions.
we also had a patch of mint, and he had two impressionable little sisters who had the attitude of "fuck it, might as well."
at one point, for fun, this 16 year old boy with a dream in his eye and scientific fervor in heart just wanted to see how far one could push the idea of "vanilla mint smoothie". how much vanilla extract and how much mint can go into a blender before it truly is inedible.
the answer is 3 cups of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup milk alternative, and about 50 sprigs (not leaves, whole spring) of mint. add ice and the courage of a child. idk, it was summer and we were bored.
the word i would use to describe the feeling of drinking it would maybe be "violent" or perhaps, like. "triangular." my nose felt pristine. inhaling following the first sip was like trying to sculpt a new face. i was ensconced in a mesh of horror. it was something beyond taste. for years after, i assumed those commercials that said "this is how it feels to chew five gum" were referencing the exact experience of this singular viscous smoothie.
what's worse is that we knew our mother would hate that we wasted so much vanilla extract. so we had to make it worth it. we had to actually finish the drink. it wasn't "wasting" it if we actually drank it, right? we huddled around outside in the blistering sun, gagging and passing around a single green potion, shivering with disgust. each sip was transcendent, but in a sort of non-euclidean way. i think this is where i lost my binary gender. it eroded certain parts of me in an acidic gut ecology collapse.
here's the thing about love and trust: the next day my brother made a different shake, and i drank it without complaint. it's been like 15 years. he's now a genuinely skilled cook. sometimes one of the three of us will fuck up in the kitchen or find something horrible or make a terrible smoothie mistake and then we pass it to each other, single potion bottle, and we say try it it's delicious. it always smells disgusting. and then, cerimonious, we drink it together. because that's what family does.
Obsessed with lovers and piners calling the object of their affections their best friend. Like yessss blur the lines between platonic and romantic love. show how important they are to you in a multifaceted way. Cover up your feelings with another kind of love that is just as true. One type of love does not negate the other and but tragedy can rip both out from under you single handedly, and it will hurt so much more that way. Losing a friend and a lover. Gaining both and not needing any labels for what they are. Using labels but having it be so much more than a title. Were they friends before they were lovers? Or were they lovers whose friendship grew inside of their love? Unclear! Who cares!