Huldreblog

Inherited Cultural Grief and Women

2010-09-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

We inherit everything from our ancestors. In Old Norse this is called oorlog. As cultures go through changes due to environmental strain, war, and other traumas, the mothering of children necessarily shifts. If our mothers endured great pain, they often preserve it in stories, songs, and old wives tales meant to instruct against danger and indicate who the children should trust. If they were abused, they often abuse their children or become addicts to numb the pain of their oppression rendering them unable to develop emotional maturity. These things are passed to their children and dysfunctions are perpetuated across the culture throughout generations in this way.

Women's self esteem, emotional maturity, and healthy family and community relationships are proportionate to the self esteem, emotional maturity and healthy family and community relationships their mothers had. The kind of fathers they chose depended greatly upon their ability to make functional and emotionally mature choices. Things that limit this ability include loss of legal rights, lack of community support and education, incidence of rape (the cultural acceptability of rape, female mutilation and infanticide) and family of origin issues such as addiction and abuse. These limiting factors manifest in cultures who have undergone oppression, occupation, and genocide by outside cultures. The Native American community in the United States has been working on this very issue since the understanding of colonialism's impact on the existing culture became a study! Every culture in the world has experienced this. It is universally the women of the oppressed culture who most suffer and continue to suffer the brunt of oppression and degradation, which then is passed to their children.

The women of Northern European descent lost their rights, freedoms, and respected positions in community with the coming of patrifocal (father centered) culture. The history of it lies in the words each successive generation used to describe women within the culture and how they are depicted in the songs, and stories our mothers and grandmothers taught us. Historically, as their legal rights and cultural status changed with incoming patrifocal cultural influence, the words used to describe them changed from words of esteem to words of degradation.

I began my journey towards a healthy self esteem as a European American by turning to the oldest known word for a woman of high spiritual and cultural esteem, Volva, Old Norse for staff carrier. I deconstructed two major works left to me by my ancestors, the Voluspa Edda (prophesy of the staff carrier) and Kjerringe med Staven (Dear lady with a staff). The poem Voluspa was written down in the 1100's ACE and has its roots in oral tradition. The antiquity of the Volva Tradition is attested to in the Archeology and Petroglyphs dating to the Scandinavian Bronze Age circa 2000 BCE where the richest grave finds in Scandinavia belong to staff carrying women.

The second work, Kjerringa med Staven, is a well known Norwegian folk tune dating from the 1800's or earlier. Kept alive in the United States through oral song tradition, community dances, and Sons of Norway and other preservation societies. In the US, the word Kjerringa still has it's pristine meaning of endearment.

While in Norway (May 2009) filming the Norwegian reality show "Alt for Norge," I had the opportunity to explore the current meanings that volva and kjerringa have in modern Norwegian culture and whether Norwegians still had a cultural memory of womens traditional power. I found that the word volva has become equivalent to cunt, said in a socially demeaning way rather than a socially uplifting way. Kjerringa said with a certain inflection has come to mean bitch, said as a demeaning and mean spirited put down of women.

As an American Volva, it was a bit shocking to find this.Yet, in a way it was no surprise. Following the example of America, many nations have allowed the focus on cultural healing to drift in favor of commercialism and global corporate interest. Cultural healing must begin with women's self esteem, legal rights, and ability to raise the next generation with emotional maturity, strides which Norway leads the world in! Yet let us not forget to reclaim the words, songs, and stories - and thereby the history of our traditional ways as women. Releasing the grief of generations of Nodic women whose gifts to the community have been shamed, disrespected, or completely ignored and half forgotten heals the oorlog of my culture.Uplifting women and respecting their humanity is the key to healing the world.

merging blogs

2009-04-13T13:01:00.001-07:00

huldreblog is now merged with karitauring blog

All posts have been transferred and this page will be deleted soon.
Cheers,
Kari

Huldre in Transition

2006-11-28T10:19:00.000-08:00

So much happens in the Fall. The shift from Summer and sunshine to Winter and darkness is always so transitional.

My Huldre project was defined fully in my Bush Fellowship which you can read on my web site at this link.

Maren Amdal has left the group to begin her own journey as a singer in Minneapolis. Ken Sherman and I are up to our eyes in December Gigss. You can read about them here.

Finally, my site re-design means I will be posting blogs directly onto my site. No more ping-pong ball from site to site to read my work. The transition will happen by 12th Night, 2007 (that's January 6th).

Yours in the mist of the change,
Kari

Huldre Cross the Rivers All the Time

2006-09-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

Huldre will perform the "Sibilen Voluspa" at the Bryant Lake Bowl as part of the Kari Tauring and Friends Harvest show - Crossing the River 2006.

To hear it click this!

We've been recording

2006-07-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

Take a listen to the new versions of Dromte, the Voluspa etc.
http://www.karitauring.com/HuldreMp3s.htm

More and more to come as Kari writes for the study and travel grant that would expose new material both here in Minnesota and in Norway!

Farming in the City

2006-06-12T09:58:00.001-07:00

So many people have asked me how I can follow the ways of the Huldre here in the city. Huldre like woods and mountains and fjords and streams. Huldre like cows and crops and butter and berries...

Well, I have said it before and I will say it again, Minneapolis/St. Paul is a fine place for Huldre. With the river, the parks, Minnehaha Falls and creek we have lots of places to hide from mere mortals.

And with all the Urban Greening/Gardening/Farming going on in the Twin Cities, there are many places that Huldre can sprinkle their magic.

Sanford Middle School is one place where some wonderful gardening is about to ensue!

Here is a link to the greening projects in my neighborhood. If you are a Huldre type you will want to be involved in some of these things:
http://karitauring.com/sustainableurbanenvironments.htm

Yours in June,
Kari

Farming in the City

2006-06-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

Cold Huldre

2006-05-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

Just a funny thought about Huldre in May, we never forget how cold we used to be.

6 months from now we will be back into the show season. It's hard to believe, but Huldrefolk love these strange and crazy extremes!

Now it is summer, we will mend and fix all our winter gear, we will bake our bones in the sun, and we will sing songs for the growing things that sleep in the Winter's Dark Hours.

New Songs for Huldre

2006-04-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

I wrote one based on Dromte mig i drom en natt.
Maren wrote one on the Volspusa.
Ken was dubbed Spellman and we wrestle with this song.
We all learned Kjerringa med Staven (Old Woman with a Stav) from "Mike and Elsies" book of Norwegian folk songs that my mother let me borrow.

We rehearse on Monday Nights.

Our next performance is on May 1st at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater opening up for "How the Sap Does Rise"

Here's the link for the show.

Ha det bra,
Kari

My Space Page for Huldre!

2006-03-17T12:17:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

Huldre (the band) now has a page at my space. Here is the link: http://myspace.com/huldre

We are going into the studio in May to begin our first CD together. We are very excited. In the meantime, listen to some of our Mp3s.

Maren and Kari have recieved the most beautiful Scandinavian Bronze Age String Skirts made by Terri Allen just for Huldre. View and read more at my Runakari blog.
We will be working with photographer, Stella, from Emella for CD cover etc.

The next time you can hear us live is at the May 1st show at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater in Minneapolis. More info.

See you soon,
Kari, Maren and Ken

The Voices of My Mothers

2006-02-26T08:53:00.000-08:00

One of my 2006 goals is establishing the foundation for a thorough family tree. The Native American and Eastern ideas that my life affects and is effected by seven generations back and seven generations forward gives me another reason beyond simple curiosity and fascination to learn about my physical lineage. Fascinating it is, and curious I am, however there is a part of my past that defines my present and predicts my future. So I've finally gotten some written documents about my family lineage from my closest branches: my parents.

I spent an enjoyable several hours the other evening reading stories written by distant relatives that I have either never met, or not seen in years, recalling their memories of their parents or grandparents; recalling stories of lives lived during times of war, struggle and change. Listening to their voices on the paper, I felt a connection with past, differently than I have while reading history texts in college, or biographies of historic persons. There are historic persons in my lineage, and there are stories set in times I've read about in history texts. However, in the everyday language of my own family, I see a personal side of "history": the side that is "his story" and "her story". Because while the events in those books we study are important to know, so too are the events in our ancestors' lives. Crossing oceans and continents, settling and moving, building and tearing down, establishing order and rebelling against it; with out pomp and no mind to prestige, the words of my family communicate the essence of another time and of a spirit that is mine as well - that past that is a part of me and my present.

I see the patterns in my life that reflect the patterns of history. Why study history? "Not to repeat our mistakes" they say. "To learn from the past" we are told. And so too is it with our own history. 50% my mother and 50% my father. A quarter of each of my grandparents, and eighth of each of my great grandparents. And thus is my deck dealt. The tools I come with, the knowledge I start with, the foundation my first foot falls upon. Now it is up to me to choose how to play those cards, and when to add new ones to the deck.

At 2:30am, I finally put away the files. I turned off my bedside lamp, and curled up on my side. I adjusted my pillows, and closed my eyes. And there in the darkness, I heard their voices. Whispers of their lives, like wind in the woods. Softly floating through my mind, I heard their songs. Norse, Celtic, Gaelic, American, young, aged, new, old. Like the voices of the Huldre calling from within the mountain of the past.

~Maren

Groundhog Sees

2006-02-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

When in the new chill of Imbolc morning, the creatures wake and wander,
or stagger towards their morning's rest
a long night of prowling behind them,
we see the groundhog.

Sun shining rainbows on the icy threshold she comes. Peeking out and venturing forth, she comes.

Imbolc morning, Groundhog's Day, the sun shines on your face of fur and sleepy eyes, you turn.

In a panic you are taken, shaken, a shadow passes and it moves. Could it be eagle scouting breakfast? Could it be fox?

What does it matter?!

Groundhog sees and darts back beneath the snow encrusted den. She will not come again, until Equinox has claimed the morning, lengthened the days to equal, and assured dear Groundhog of her saftey in the mid-spring sun!

Winter's grip holds fast. Huldre waits with Groundhog.

Huldre prepare for Spring

2006-01-18T12:38:00.000-08:00

What do the Huldre do after the rice pudding is gone and the cider is starting to go "hoopy hoppy" as my great grandmother would say?

Imbolc is the old Celtic name for the February 2nd holiday we sometimes call Groundhog's Day. It is the begining of Spring (where Winter Solstice is midwinter and Equinox is midspring) This is the time when we take the seeds out of the tins and dark cool cupboards to see how they survived the winter. What is viable and what is spoiled?

We take the best seeds saved from last fall's harvest and we bless them. Some of them we need to start soon such as tomatos and peppers. Some of them we keep an eye on so they don't mold as days grow lighter and warmer because they need to be sewn directly, such as corn, peas and beans. The Huldre were the folk that taught the early Nordic people the best practices for agriculture and animal husbandry. As children of the goddess Freya, Queen of the Vanir, the Huldre will celebrate the life that stirs slowly and deeply in their underground homes.

The legend of groundhog must have come from the early people of the hill. If we see our shadow, we may get frightened and stay in our homes beneath the earth for another 6 weeks (until Spring Equinox). Why would our shadow frighten us?

Winter is a time for shadow, deep reflection, hibernation, and the dream time. If we have not integrated our shadow self enough during this time, we need to do it some more. Only through integrating our shadow side do we become whole psychologically. We need to understand the darkness of humanity, the difficult side of things, the choices we have to do great good and great evil. If we do not understand this, we are not able to use our free will to choose the great goodness we are capable of. Huldre understand this.

So, at this cross quarter point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, the Huldre are busy sorting their seeds, using the cider-gone-vinegar to cleanse and purge their systems, restoring balance to their bodies and to the Earth Mother from whom we all are born. They are starting to prepare the goats and cows for the trek up the mountain to the Summer pastures. They are finishing their spinning and mending using up the last of the previous year's wool and flax. They are finishing their songs and poems to be sung as the Spring draws near. As the last of winter's candles burn bright they prepare for change.

Ah...the Huldre are a busy lot!
More on Huldre

More on Seasonal Holidays

Today I saw the Brisingamen Bridge

2005-12-19T10:26:00.000-08:00

Today I saw Brisingamen Bridge while walking Jack to school.

The rising sun was hanging low above Duncan's house when I got to the crosswalk.

A constant sifting snow like powdered sugar, yet each crystal so distint, was reigning down the light of gold in a perfect full arch embrace. Centered by the Chestnut Trees the snow rainbow of gold held fast as I walked and watched the sun creep up the arch, the ark, the bridge.

"Jackie!" I called behind me, turning. "You have got to see this! In all my nearly 40 years of living in this climate, I have never seen such a thing. We are surely blessed." I remembered the teaching that the divine promise of unconditional love (love without judgement) comes in the form of a rainbow.

Science explains the breezes on an 8 below 0 day as upper atmospheric whisps picking up the prisms, the crystals of snow from the top of the school and parks flat roofs. The heavy orange gold winter sun is amplified by the prisms, the crystals. The thick crystals reflected red, orange, yellow, and only the hints of green and blue, indigo and violet were implied and consumed by the whitness of the thick snow sugar.

The arc or corona (crown) was, as I say, complete. And the left pillar as I approached it moved into the street where the young lady at crossing guard duty could see it and share in it's wonder. I pulled our own Grace Jaggers outside in the cold to verify it. (Alas that I had a camera. If anyone saw it and got a photo, please email a copy to me for publication).

I call this archway the Brisingamen Bridge for these reasons: In Nordic Mythology, the cosmos is held together by the world tree, Yggdrasil. There are bridges from the world of the humans and the worlds of the gods, the elves, the giants etc. The bridge between Manneheim (human home) and the Assir (where Odin lives) is called the Bifrost Bridge. It is created with light and crystals.

The Brissengammen is the necklace of gold worn by Freya of the Vanir. This bridge looked like that very necklace, all red and gold and showering her Sungold on my Mannehiem. So I call this the Brissengammen Bridge. Wow. To have one right in my neighorhood. Surely Huldre (Freya's own children) will be about this Yule! (I hope you are all putting out bowls of rice pudding!)

After cleaning up the cocoa making supplies for our hard working crossing guard 4th and 5th graders, I quickly bundled up and ran outside. Sure enough, the sun's arc had already moved to the apex of the bridge, but the pillars remained to assure me of what I had witnessed.

In telling Adreinne she commented hopes it would return. "I think it's still there," I said, "if only we will see it!"

"Ahh" She said. "Aren't we lucky to live here and now?"

"Yes," I replied. "We are truly blessed."

Gud Yule til alt!

RunaKari

Why can't you see the back of a Huldre?

2005-12-06T13:38:00.000-08:00

There are many references in the Eventyr, the stories of the Huldre that talk about how beautiful they are to look at from the front. But often when you see the back of them, it is hollow, not there.

I believe that to be a perception of 3rd dimensional beings, like humans, who are not used to living on so many levels. It is as though the Huldre are between worlds, as Maren made comment about in the last huldreblog. In my (Kari's) experience, I have felt "half here/half there" when the dream time has been active and full of real life lessons. I have carried those lessons with me from the dream time to the awake time and it has sometimes felt as though I have had "one foot in each world."

I imagine that with all the practice of interdimensional living that the Huldre, and the other fine folk of the folk have, and with all the new ways of being and percieving that humans have, Huldre might seem more solid to us today than they did to our ancestors!

Let's keep looking,
Kari

Wizard Women of Winter

2005-11-27T11:45:00.000-08:00

As Huldre live cozy inside the mountains and woods, so we live cozy inside our homes. This Thanksgiving weekend brought the first real accumulation of snow here in MN, and with it a lot of thankfulness for the new windows I had installed in my 100 year old home this year. Huldre don't probably have to worry too much about drafty windows, but I, having my feet in two worlds, am finding the balance between flicking a little magic around and practically meeting my physical needs with heavy new drapes.

The universe has confirmed yet again its support of my cross-world existence, encouraging me to continue exercising balance, with an unexpected and relatively large check in the mail. I think it was delivered by one of my sisters-under-the-hill… Whomever brought it, it allows me to proceed into winter with my needs met. This is one Wizard Women of Winter who is finding cross-world living an ever awe-inspiring magical, if sometimes emotionally challenging, way of living.

Until next time…

Maren

Huldre Eventyr - Tales of the Nordic Earth Folk

2005-11-19T15:51:00.000-08:00

Huldre, I imagine, spent many long hours crafting stories as the churned butter, or kneaded dough, or stitched their cloth. I imagine that Huldre had as many stories about the "Over-landers" as the Scandinavian people did about the "Fair-Folk in the Mountainside". Unfortunately I have not found a true Huldre tale, but rather I have unearthed many human tales - stories about the Huldre.

So here it is mid-November, and all of my neices and nephews will shortly be recieving the newest installments of my interpretations of scandinavian fairy tales... Oh wait, I have yet to finish writting them! I've got three complete, out of twelve which I comitted to retelling in this chap book style. (You can see them at http://www.karitauring.com/HuldreEventyr.htm ) They will make fine gifts for my neices and nephews this Holiday.

Christmas presents are always a wonder for me. It has become so material, so needlessly complicated, this winter giftgiving holiday. What happened to brown paper packages tied up with string? Now we have purple and gold foil paper printed with images of other packages tied up with shimmering rafia! Very fancy, and yet it still winds up in the same place - a large (often black) garbage bag. I much prefer home made gifts to store bought ones... Something about the gift of the givers time, energy, creativity and love seems much more fulfilling. And this season, in particular, is one where I'm finding it to be more financially prudent to create gifts rather than purchase them! I'm sure my four neices and two nephews will enjoy reading stories retold by their very own Auntie Maren, perhaps even as much as the new video game or fashion doll they receive from someone else.

I wonder how the "Fair folk under the Mountainside" would have dealt with Holiday marketing... Perhaps that is another reason we see them so rarely these days... Maybe I'll have further insights next time. For now...

~Maren

Heads in the Ice

2005-11-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

The seeds of creation are in the ice, the more we are water, the more we are everything. Huldre genetic code is readable through intermingling with Neandrathol...Ah...Lilith's daughters are everywhere. The Plieades...seven sisters, Mave the one we all call Mama, Ma Mer, Ma, Ave and M-ave...

Look for her in the ice.

Huldre in the woods

2005-11-11T08:19:00.000-08:00

When at the Turf club, herding at David de Young's birthday party, someone asked "Do you really live in the woods?"

"Yes," I said. Actually I do.

Yep, right here in the Middle of Minneapolis.

As a wizard woman of the North, I am compelled to walk and work in nature. So far, Minneapolis has been a city that understands this. May gentrification of our parks and riverways cease...

Why do Huldre and all folk of the faerie need the woods?

Fairview Riverside Chemical Dependency Clinic has a hand out that explains.
There are only two ways for the human body to create the necessary chemicals that relieve depression - crying and communing with nature. That's it!

Do Huldre get depressed?

Extra-sensory folk are ones who feel the great joys of the world and share this with others. They feel the great burdens and griefs as well. This can create a tendency towards depression and bi-polarism in an unbalanced brain.

So to keep balanced, you will find wizard women of the north crying in the rain, or while sitting in a tree, tears shed for others pain and grounded into the earth by the knowlege that the deeper the well of grief, the more resounding the echos of joyus laughter.

You will find Huldre in the woods, by the rivers, on the hills, dancing through the fields, in their gardens, feeding their in-town chickens, cats, dogs, birds, squirrels, racoons and even a few deer. They are the ones who grow a forest around them no matter where they are in the world. Laughing and crying and feeling the totality of nature and all their relations.

HuldreBlog

2005-11-02T16:30:00.000-08:00

So many questions about the Huldre. So many perceptions and family histories of stories. Were they scary to you? Do you look like one too?

So I thought, good then. We will start a posting site for this. Maren or Kari or Ken or Matt may be making entries. These are the Huldre (the out ones) in Minneapolis.

Ok then. Here goes.

There is a CD which I think I must begin with. The Wizard Women of the North. Well it was released by Northside in Minneapolis in 1999, the year I began the Discovering Origins/Building Traditions shows.

Seven years later I am also doing this music and have finally gotten a chance to buy the cd. Here is the definition of Huldre on the CD Jacket:

"The Wizard woman of the North can be found at a cafe, but pay attention to her shoes, they are usually the type that she can easily kick off. Because the wizard woman of the North has to have air between her toes so she can feel the earth she walks on and belongs to. These feet with the well ventilated toes are used for dancing or for marking the rythm when she plays or sings. ..."
Perneille Anker

Let me just stop there and say. This I find to be true.

Kari