Monday, November 5, 2018

09:00 Lois and I get up. She is absolutely sure now that she has a cold, and a sore throat with it. We suspect that the babies taking part in last Friday's "Baby Bounce and Rhyme" session at the local library must have infected her with something unpleasant - damn!

10:00 We head over to Bishops Cleeve, a small town 3 miles north of Cheltenham and swing by the local Tesco supermarket to do the shopping. I am also close to running out of the tonic I drink with my daily glass of gin.

Afterwards, we pop into the village shoe shop. Lois needs a new pair of smart shoes, and she will also ask the staff to give her an extra old used cardboard shoe-box: her sect has a charity project that sends cardboard shoe-boxes filled with simple Christmas presents, to poor children worldwide.

12:00 We come home and have lunch. Afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and start browsing through the 13th chapter of Njal's saga. Scilla's U3A Old Norse Group is holding its next meeting on Wednesday, and this saga is the group's current project.

The story of the saga plays out mostly in Rangárvellir in southern Iceland during the years approx. 950-1015, and the early chapters are all about 2 brothers, Höskuldr and Hrut.

So far, Hrut, a handsome young Icelander, has been the saga's hero. He travelled to Norway, and became involved in a passionate relationship with the Norwegian Queen Mother, Gunnhilda. But the affair unfortunately ended very badly. Hrut suddenly remembered that he was engaged to Unn, a nice Icelandic girl who was still waiting for him back in Iceland. So he asked Gunnhilda to allow him to return to Iceland to marry Unn.

But Gunnhilda had become obsessed with the young Hrut and was not really happy about him splitting up with her. She let him leave, but at the same time put a curse on him - and this curse ensured that he became too well-endowed to have sex with Unn. And after his wedding to Unn, he discovered that he could not consummate the marriage.

Hrut and Unn: their sex life stalled before it began - yikes!

I discuss Hrut's dilemma with Lois. She finds it hard to believe that this story could be completely realistic. She points out that a woman's vagina has to be very elastic - otherwise it wouldn't be possible for a woman to give birth. But this is something we are not completely sure about - the jury is still out on that one.

The bottom line was that Unn simply declared herself divorced from him, something which Icelandic women had the right to do. The culture of the Scandinavian countries was very modern in many ways, I have to say.

Now that Hrut's marriage was in ruins, the story of the saga jumps forward in time to the situation of Hrut's niece, his brother Hauskuld's daughter, Hallgerd. 

She was known for her very long fair hair which hung down on both sides of her breasts - and she used to stuff the ends of her hair into her girdle to keep them out of the way - although the text is not completely clear at this point.

Hauskuld's daughter Hallgerd had such incredibly long hair that she was forced to

stuff the ends of it down her girdle. My god - what madness!

But Lois says this is simply not realistic - it would be too painful to have the ends of your hair stuffed down your girdle. From my perspective it's very useful to have Lois's comments on the text - the story was probably written by some stupid man who did not have the slightest idea of how women's bodies and body parts worked - my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!

Hallgerd was unfortunately a very hot-tempered woman, and her first husband, Thorvald, was also hot-tempered, which was bad luck. The two quarrelled one day about Hallgerd's extravagant housekeeping, and in the fight that followed, Thorvald struck her really hard.

After hitting her, Thorvald cleared off to do the shopping. It was the men in the Viking age who used to do the food shopping: the process often involved travelling for many miles, finding a farmer and negotiating with him to buy approx. 100 sheep for example. There were no supermarkets at that time.

Hallgerd's father-in-law, Thiostolf, got news of the couple's fight, and went hunting for Thorvald. The two men got into another fight, and Thiostolf killed Thorvald as revenge for his attack on Hallgerd. Afterwards, he drowned Thorvald, just to make sure he was dead - "to be on the safe side", ha ha!

Hallgerd's father-in-law, Thiostolf killed his son-in-law Thorvald

as revenge for his attack on Hallgerd

So Hallgerd was now single again. I must say that Hallgerd's marriage to Thorvald had got off to a bad start in the first place: Hallgerd's father had consented to Thorvald's request to marry her, without asking his daughter Hallgerd whether she liked Thorvald or not.

Hallgerd, now a widow, got married a second time, to someone called Glum, but this time she was allowed to decide herself whether she wanted to have Glum or not. Another piece of evidence that Scandinavian women had greater rights and freedoms than women in other countries had.

How refreshing!

Hallgerd  marries a second time, to Glum. But this time her father gives

her the option of refusing Glum - and he argues for greater "transparency" 

this time around. That way, he says, she won't be able to blame anybody else 

if the marriage goes pear-shaped. Hallgerd's previous (failed) marriage, to Thorwald, 

had been forced on her against her will.

18:30 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television, an interesting documentary made up of interviews done over the last 20 years with surviving soldiers, nurses, female munitions workers, etc., who took part in the First World War, also interviews with girlfriends and wives who had to sit at home back in Britain anxiously waiting for news about their loved ones.

A very touching program. It is interesting to see how clear and graphic these former soldiers' memories were about their experiences, considering that some of them were over 100 years old when the interviews were done. We get the impression that they must have told their scary, harrowing and touching anecdotes thousands of times during their long lives.

In spite of all the harrowing anecdotes, I succeed in staying zen through most of the program, but in the last 5 minutes I unfortunately begin to lose it a bit, and I feel the tears start to fill my eyes, although I manage to hide this luckily!

Florence and Ted had been planning to get engaged when the war broke out, but their plans came to nothing. She sent a lot of letters to him on the western front in France, was always positive, and always did her best to cheer him up, telling him about the wonderful life they would experience together after the end of the war.

When he was killed during the first year of the war, the authorities found her letters on his body. He used to put them in his jacket pocket every time his platoon advanced against the enemy.

She was working as a housemaid at a hotel in Buxton, and one day she received a letter from the War Office telling her about Ted's death - the authorities had got hold of her address from the letters they found on Ted's body.

For some reason, this anecdote touches me the most - I do not know why. The fact that Ted used to put Florence's letters in his jacket pocket when his platoon went on the attack, the fact that she was such a pretty young woman - maybe just because I have just become too much of a softie in my old age ha ha ha!

22:00 We go to bed, but later in the night I discover that Lois has crept out of the bed and is sleeping in the double bed in Sarah's old room. Her cold has got worse again, it seems. Poor her!!!!

Danish translation

09:00 Lois og jeg står op. Hun er helt sikker på, at hun er forkølet, og hun har ondt i halsen – staklen. Vi mistænker, at babyerne, der deltog i sidste fredagens “Baby Bounce and Rhyme”-sessionen på det lokale bibliotek, må have smittet hende med noget ubehageligt – pokkers!

10:00 Vi kører over til Bishops Cleeve, en lille by der ligger 3 miles nord for Cheltenham og smutter ind i det lokale Tesco-supermarked for at købe ind. Jeg er også tæt på at løbe tør for den tonic, jeg drikker til mit daglige glas gin.

Bagefter smutter vi ind i landsbyens skobutik – Lois trænger til et nyt par smart sko, også vil hun bede personalet at give hende en gammel brugt papkasse til sko: hendes sekt har et velgørende projekt, hvormed de sender papkasser, fyldte med simple julegaver, til fattige børn verden over.

12:00 Vi kommer hjem og spiser frokost. Bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og går i gang med at blade igennem den 13. kapitel af Njals saga. Scillas U3A oldnordisk gruppe holder dens næste møde på onsdag, og sagaen er gruppens nuværende projekt.

Sagaens historie foregår for det meste i Rangárvellir på det sydlige Island ca. år 950-1015, og de tidlige kapitler handler om 2 brødre, Höskuldr og Hrut.

Hidtil har Hrut, en pæn ung islænding, været sagaens helt. Han rejste til Norge, og blev involveret i et passioneret forhold til den nordisk kongemor, Gunnhilda. Affæren endte desværre meget galt. Hrut mindedes pludseligt at han var forlovet med Unn, en pæn islandsk pige, der ventede på ham tilbage i Island. Han bed Gunnhilda om, at tillade ham at rejse tilbage til Island for at gifte sig med Unn.

Gunnhilda var besat af den unge Hrut og var ikke ret glad for, at han ville gå fra hende. Hun gav ham tilladelse at forlade hende, men samtidig kastede hun en forbandelse på ham – og forbandelsen sikrede, at han blev for veludrustet til have have sex med Unn. Efter sit bryllup til Unn opdagede han at han ikke kunne fuldbyrde ægteskabet.

Hrut og Unn: deres sexliv går i stå, før det begynder – yikes!

Jeg diskuterer Hruts dilemma med Lois. Hun finder det svært at tro, at denne historie kunne være helt realistisk. Hun påpeger, at en kvindes skede er nødt til at være meget elastisk – ellers ville det ikke være muligt for en kvinde at kunne føde. Men det er vi ikke helt sikre på – juryen er stadig ude om det.

Bundlinjen var, at Unn erklærede en skilsmisse på ham, hvilket islandske kvinder havde ret til at gøre. Kulturen i de skandinavske lande var på mange måder meget moderne, det må jeg nok sige.

Nu hvor Hruts ægteskab er gået i stykker, springer sagaens historielinje frem i tiden til situationen af Hruts niece, hans bror Hauskulds datter, Hallgerd. Hun var kendt for sit meget lange lyse hår, der hanger ned ved begge side af sine brøster – hun plejede at proppe enderne ind i sit bælte eller måske ind i sit korset eller hofteholder – teksten er ikke ret klar på dette punkt.

Hauskulds datter Hallgerd havde så utrolig langt hår, at hun blev tvunget til at

proppe enderne ned i sin hofteholder. Du godeste – sikke et vanvid!

Lois siger, det simpelthen er ikke realistisk – det ville være for smertefuldt at have enderne af ens hår proppet fast i sin hofteholder. For mit vedkommende er det meget nyttigt at kunne have Lois’ kommentarer om teksten – sagaen blev sandsynligvis skrevet af en eller ande dum mand, der ikke havde den fjerneste anelse om, hvoran kvinders kroppe og kropsdele fungerede – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

Hallgerd var desværre en meget hidsig kvinde, og hendes første mand, Thorvald, var også hidsig, hvilket var uheldigt. De to skændtes en dag om Hallgerds extravagant husholdning, og i det slagsmålet, der efterfulgte, slog Thorvald hende rigtig hårdt. Så stak Thorvald af for at købe ind. Det var mændene dengang i vikingetiden, der plejede at gå på madindkøb: processen involverede ofte at rejse manage miles, finde en bondemand og forhandle med ham for at købe ca. 100 får for eksempel.

Hallgerds fosterfar Thiostolf fik nys om slagsmålet og gik på jagt efter Thorvald. De to mænd kom ind i endnu et slagsmål, og Thiostolf dræbte Thorvald som hævn mod hans angreb mod Hallgerd. Bagefter også druknede han Thorvald, bare for at blive helt sikker på, at han var død – for en sikkerheds skyld ha ha!

Hallgerds fosterfar, Thiostolf dræbte sin svigersøn Thorvald

som hævn for hans angreb mod Hallgerd

Derfor var Hallgerd single igen. Jeg må nok sige, at Hallgerds ægteskab med Thorvald var startet galt: Hallgerds far havde givet samtykke til Thorvalds anmodning om at gifte sig med hende, uden at spørge sin datter Hallgerd, om hun godt kunne lide Thorvald eller ej.

Hallgerd giftede sig igen, med Glum, men denne gang blev hun tilladt at beslutte sig selv, om hun ville have Glum eller ej. Endnu en bevis, at skandinavske kvinder havde større retter og friheder, end dem, kvinder i andre lande havde.

Hvor forfriskende!

18:30 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm, der består af interviews lavet over de seneste 20 år med overlevende soldater, sygeplejersker, våbenfabrikkernes kvindelige medarbejdere osv, der deltog i den 1. verdenskrig, også interviews med kærester og koner, der sad hjemme tilbage i Storbritannien og ventede ængsteligt på nyheder om sine elskede.

Et meget rørende program. Det er interessant at se hvor klare og grafiske disse tidligere soldaters minder var om deres oplevelser, i betragtning af, at nogle af dem var over 100 år gamle, da interviewerne blev lavet. Vi får det indtryk af, at de må have fortalt deres dels skræmmende dels sindsoprivende dels rørende anekdoter tusindvis af gange i løbet af deres lange liv.

På trods af de her sindsoprivende anekdoter lykkes mig at blive zen igennem hovedparten af programmet, men desværre i de sidste 5 minutter bryder jeg lidt sammen og jeg føler tårerne begynder at fylde øjnene, selvom jeg når at skjule det.

Florence og Ted havde planlagt at blive forlovet, da krigen uforventet brød ud, og deres planer blev ikke til noget. Hun sendte en masse brev til ham på den vestlige front i Frankrig, blev altid positiv, gjorde sit bedste for at opmuntre ham, og fortæller ham om det vidunderlige liv, de ville opleve sammen efter slutningen af krigen.  

Da han blev dræbt, i krigens første år, fandt myndighederne hendes breve på hans krop. Han havde det for vane tilsyneladende at proppe dem i sin jakkelomme, hver gang hans platon avancerede mod fjenden. Hun arbejdede som stuepige på et hotel i Buxton, og en dag fik hun et brev fra krigsministerien, der informerede hende om Teds død – myndighederne havde fået fat i hendes adresse fra brevene, de fandt på Teds krop.

Af en eller anden grund rører dette anekdote mig mest – jeg ved ikke hvorfor. Det, at Ted plejede at proppe Florences breve i sin jakkelomme, det, at hun var en så køn ung kvinde – måske fordi jeg er blevet så blødsøden i min alderdom ha ha ha!

22:00 Vi går i seng, men senere på natten opdager jeg, at Lois har forladt sengen og sover i Sarahs gamle dobbeltseng. Hendes forkølelse har forværret, lader det til. Stakkels hende!!!!