wisdom cries

fairfolke's writeblr! i write high & historical fantasy with both soft & hard magic systems.

[bruciemilf]

Did I daydream this, or was there a website for writers with like. A ridiculous quantity of descriptive aid. Like I remember clicking on " inside a cinema " or something like that. Then, BAM. Here's a list of smell and sounds. I can't remember it for the life of me, but if someone else can, help a bitch out <3

[bruciemilf]

I FOUND IT BITCHES

[dramono]

This is going to save me so much trouble in the future.

[tunashei]

Caves are weirder and more varied than you think

[detectivehole]

some of you are miserable because you're mean. like you're just mean to people and things

[detectivehole]

"why don't i have any friends" because you are mean

[detectivehole]

this can be fixed at least in part very easily though! just stop being mean. i believe in all of you 👍

[roach-works]

‘but i’m not mean’ ok, cool! do you:

point out people’s mistakes and failures to them? in front of others?

belittle their accomplishments and successes? in front of others?

make fun of people and laugh at them? in front of others?

do all this secretly to your ‘friends’ because friendship means being able to ‘joke around with’ each other, or ‘be brutally honest’ with each other?

bring up past grievances with people over and over until they’ve apologized ‘enough’, or just to shut down arguments with them, or get out of conversations you don’t want to have?

refuse to do favors for people? like when you feel they haven’t ‘earned’ your time or effort? or at all because you don’t want to be ‘taken advantage’ of?

try to get out of paying your share of bills, doing your share of chores? spend time figuring out exactly how little you can contribute to groups in terms of time, effort, and money, without anyone noticing or getting too mad at you?

get angry and jealous when people are happy about things that don’t concern you? get angry and jealous when people pay attention to each other and not you?

spend any amount of time ‘getting even’ with people?

THIS BEHAVIOR IS MEAN.

you might feel like you’re a perfectly nice person who cares a lot about people but also speak your mind and take no shit! but if you do any of this stuff, people won’t like you anymore, because it fucking sucks to be around you. you suck to interact with. no one fucking likes being mocked, criticized, picked on, upstaged, pushed around, mooched off, or revenged upon. they will, if they have any self-respect at all, avoid you.

the worst case scenario actually isn’t that you end up alone. it’s that you end up with other people who are just as mean as you are, and you all mutually tear each other to pieces on your way to drug addictions, losing all your money and property and kids, and jail time. this happens a lot, i have seen it go down, and it’s not fun even for bystanders. please consider putting the time and effort in to be nice, instead.

[tlbodine]

A lot of people need to hear this.

[dingdongyouarewrong]

most of y'all probably already know about this website, but if you're a writer and you're looking for names for your characters (especially ones that fit a particular theme) might i recommend magic baby names?

you can enter one (or multiple) names and it'll automatically generate names that are thematically similar to the one(s) you gave them, which can be SO HELPFUL when you're looking for inspiration

[writing-with-olive]

Alrighty my dudes I have been asked to talk about how to make characters

I will preface this by saying I'm like 62% sure this is generally considered *not* a great way to go about characters, but doing it like this brings me tremendous joy so whatever. Besides, it still leaves the 38% chance possibility that this is actually a great way, soooo....

we're doing it.

1) What pieces of the character do you already have?

This could be narrative role, bits of backstory, little dialogue clippings, a general vibe, whatever. Jot down what you can as soon as you can because otherwise your brain will throw these ideas off a cliff and you will likely never see them again. Or maybe that's just me.

2) Give em a name

Generally I find it's best to give you characters names as early in the process as I can, or else whatever placeholder name I give them will stick. This is sometimes how you can end up with names that do not mesh nicely together, and can be a bit jarring later on. If you can't think of a name, give them the title of their narrative role (such as lancer) as that's less likely to stick as their actual name.

3) Figure out what the core of the plot is going to be

This is important because it will influence why your characters will be in the story, and in what capacity they're likely going to be joining in from. It doesn't have to be super detailed, but get enough so that you can get a basic handle on what roles will need to be filled, and what types of characters can fill them.

4) Start figuring out group dynamics

Note that I said *start* - not *completely and utterly* good? good. The group dynamic is almost like its own character in a way, and if you want an ensemble cast to work well with each other, you gotta consider that. (i learned this the hard way). How do you want your duos, trios, four....o's, and larger groups to interact? This can also help build out details of the individual characters.

5) Iterate through the above steps a few times

As you develop characters, your idea for their dynamics may change a bit. The type of plot you want can morph. The individual characters may have new additions or subtractions. Give yourself time to mush these around in tandem with one another. Also, make sure you're writing a lot of these bits down somewhere. Especially at the beginning stages when you don't have quite as good a grasp on them yet.

6) Get deeper

Once you have a pretty good general idea of who these characters are and how they function as a group, get deeper. This is where character questionnaires can come in super handy. This is where you take them from probably tropes and make them into actually human beings (or frogs if that's the kind of story you're writing).

[librarysilverfish]

The Issue With Conventional Plotting Methods

New discovery!! I have thoughts within me about plotting methods and these are those!!

It seems to me that all the classic/conventional plotting methods make a lot of assumptions that are simply not true, and I think this is the reason I’ve struggled to find a plotting method that is useful for more than just being smart-looking wallpaper while I work on my WIP. If we can acknowledge those wrong assumptions, I think this will help us adapt methods that work better for us in the future.

1. Plotting methods assume that there is, in fact, one single chain of events on one single scale that is the most important to The Story.

Here are some chains of events that are playing into each scene that are not “the plot.”

The internal progression of emotions (emotional arcs) that each character is going through

The causal chain for each and every prop/resource in the scene

The causal chain for each and every social influence that happened prior to the scene

I guess you could think of the plot as being the intersection of all of these things that we are able to reasonably pay attention to during the scene. It’s not a problem that The Plot takes precedence over all those other contributing event chains, but it is a problem if we forget those event chains are what makes up the plot. In doing this, we turn The Plot into its own isolated entity, making it much more inflexible than it should be.

If The Plot is not working, a whole plot point doesn’t necessarily need to change. There may be a causal chain for something inside the scene that needs to change instead. Same with building the plot: only following a few key causal chains could take you farther than tackling the whole Plot at once.

2. Plotting methods often put you in the mindset of building the plot in relative isolation from character and/or setting.

The plot happens because of what each of the characters’ wants and needs are. The characters’ wants and needs are often a result of social factors (the social end of worldbuilding) or practical factors (the physical end of worldbuilding.) Of course it’s harder to come up with the events if you’re trying to do so before you’ve thought through the characters’ arcs or the setting.

It’s not 100% a matter of which order to develop these things in. They can all be developed simultaneously, and I think they should be.

3. A lot of plotting methods ask you to build the plot like it’s a self-contained machine that needs to be propelled by the main character and their motivation.

In actuality, although many think the main character should very much be acting on the plot, the story should actually be driven by causal chains. A boulder fell, causing bears to flee their home, putting one in the path of the characters, causing them to climb a tree, causing the tree to fall, causing the casket that contains the magic to be unearthed, etc etc. And while the protagonist’s motivation dictates how that most important character acts during all of this, that isn’t necessarily the thing that’s forcing the story to move along.

So I guess my tl;dr is this: conventional plotting methods are not as effective as they should be because they don’t incorporate other vital story elements, most notably the characters’ arcs and the chains of events within the setting.

I think the story gives rise from the setting and characters. Any good plotting method should help you translate setting and characters into a story.

[cryptotheism]

What could European alchemists actually do? Aside from that dude that "discovered" (stole) the method for making Meissen ware, did all of their impressive jargon and self-promotion actually have any tangible benefits for their employers beyond "Ooh, he's got his own alchemist!"-level stuff?

Yes it did. Alchemists invented numerous dyes, textiles, glassblowing techniques, inks, and paints. They are responsible for many advancements in small-scale metallurgy and whitesmithing, chemical methods of refining ore, systems of lighting, mining technology, and minting. (They were an essential element in countering counterfeiting for many states.)

And fucking HEATING. Alchemists are people that spend their entire day locked in a room trying to heat things to very specific experimental temperatures, or maintain specific heats for long periods of time, one of their major contributions to history is actually many improvements in fireplace technology.

Imagine you're a 1500s Austrian noble and you're tired of your wine freezing over at the dinner table. Your Alchemists lab is always hot as fuck, maybe you should ask him to see if he can transmute you a new dang fireplace.

They never figured out the whole gold thing though, turns out you need a particle accelerator for that.

[absolxguardian]

Alchemists were basically techpriests, just they invented things while fucking around and doing some spiritualism instead of being responsible for the maintaining of lost technology. So a reverse tech priest I guess.

[cryptotheism]

Unfortunately in this period they were mostly just Catholic entrepreneurs.

[coffeebeanwriting]

What are STORY QUESTIONS and how do they strength your novel?

The main story question is the primary question that readers will be wondering throughout the story. It will be answered at the end of the book. Typically, this question comes from your story problem (or inciting incident) which is the issue or event that launches your character out of their comfort zone and into the story.

The story problem: Prim is selected as Tribute, so Katniss volunteers. The story question: Will Katniss survive the Games and return home?

A story question keeps the readers indulged in the story. It keeps them wondering, anticipating and full of suspense. This means they keep flipping pages.

Now, this is where the magic happens…

By adding in smaller story questions throughout your novel, you create a flow of questions and answers that keep your reader hooked page by page.

Here’s a general rule of thumb:

The Main Story Question: the primary question that needs to be answered by the end of the story.

How will Katniss survive The Games?

Big Story Questions: every scene (or chapter) in your book can have a question (or multiple) that is answered by the end of that scene OR not answered until later in the story to further captivate your reader.

If there’s only one winner, what will happen between Katniss and Peeta?

In the scene where Katniss finds herself stuck in a tree above the Careers, how does she get out of the situation when there’s only one of her and a dozen of them? 

Katniss partners with Rue… but there can only be one winner; how will this unfold?

Little Story Questions: every paragraph (or at least the important ones) could have a question that is answered on the same page, chapter or even at a later time in the story.

In the very first paragraph of The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins casually mentions the Reaping. This is a little story question that intrigues the reader to keep reading in order to find out what the Reaping is.

If you introduce a question, never forget to answer it. Confusion and irritation can arise from this.

The longer you take to answer a question, the more time it has to sauté in your readers mind. This is good, but waiting too long can also cause annoyance. It’s a delicate balance, but can be so impactful in a story! That nice flow of question and answer, question and answer…  👌👌👌 muah. 

Instagram: coffeebeanwriting

📖 ☕ Official Blog: www.byzoemay.com

[m00nlight-fa1ry]

[dracofidus-deactivated20200523]

Needless to say, I am HORRIFIED.

[thecottageinthedark]

‘All that you need to know about boars can be summed up in the fact that if you wish to hunt them, you must have a specially made boar spear. This spear has a crosspiece on it to prevent the boar from charging the length of the spear, driving it all the way through his own body, to savage the human holding the other end.’

-Boar and Apples, T. Kingfisher

[dracofidus-deactivated20200523]

fuck OFF

[palindromordnilap-deactivated20]

Note that pigs are also HUGE. So, yes, they ARE slightly larger pigs.

[dracofidus-deactivated20200523]

So I grew up in the city and have never seen a pig in real life and I just googled it and WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS

I thought they were like labrador sized, like, fat labradors, not mini-cows.

[tokensouthernbelle]

every time I see this post there are more people discovering how fuck off huge pigs actually are and I love it I thought this was a thing everyone knew but clearly not and I’m laughing 

[stillwaterseas]

This is me with our Tamworth boar, a heritage breed closer to their wild cousins than the Yorkshire above. I am a fully grown, average sized human. He was a gentle sweetie who, sadly, is no longer with us. His name was Mr. Big. 

[dracofidus-deactivated20200523]

FUCK OFF

[coelasquid]

Forever laffin’ at people who don’t understand how enormous, terrifying, and tenacious wild boar are. 

They’re like if bears had knives protruding from their closed mouths and Didn’t Know When To Quit. Their survival instincts when they’re wounded aren’t “run away and minimize injury” it’s “take the thing that hurt you down with you” They also make sounds like someone crossed a pig with an alligator.

Their head and neck alone can be like the size of an entire human torso.

Also forever laffin’ at people who think pigs are tiny, ‘cause we designed those things can get in the neighbourhood of a thousand pounds in ideal circumstances. 

It’s like when people assume Tuna must be small because they’ve only ever experienced them in hockey puck form.

[obstinate-nocturna]

Like seriously why the fuck y'all think everyone FREAKED THE HELL OUT when Dorothy fell into the pig pen in Wizard of Oz? It’s because pigs are HUGE and weigh a shitton and would crush her in an instant.

[proserpine-in-phases]

also dont they eat like, basically anything?

[justabrowncoatedwench]

YUP. Pigs will eat people, if given the chance. They dgaf.

[wolverinequeen]

That’s why boar hunters use a team of very tenacious dogs to hold the boar so they can be speared without fucking you up. The dogs wear body armour. 

I’ve heard stories of people shooting boars, and if it didn’t kill them, it just pissed them off. 

[andthentheywilleatthestars]

how the hell did we ever domesticate these things?

[petermorwood]

…“how the hell did we ever domesticate these things?”

Very carefully, I would imagine.

WIld boar babies are rather cute, like living humbugs…

…but the adults and their ferocity have been associated with warriors for thousands of years, from Mycenaean Greece (a helmet made from sections of boar tusk)…

…through Celtic Europe (reconstructed carnyx war-horns and standards)…

…Ancient Rome (the crest of Legion 20 “Valeria Victrix”). A couple more legions also used a boar as their crest - I wonder did they squabble over which was the “right” one the way a couple of Swiss cantons had a little war over whose bear was best…?

…then Anglo-Saxon and pre-Viking helmet crests…

…right up to the late Middle Ages (here the white boar badge of Richard Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III of England)…

…and the blue boar badge of the Earl of Oxford, more usually represented by the De Vere arms, quarterly gules and or, in the first a molet argent.

After Richard was defeated at Bosworth in 1485, there was a run on blue paint as inn-signs were changed to reflect new loyalties since Oxford was on the winning side…

And pigs will definitely eat people.

It gets mentioned in the movie “Snatch”, the book/movie “Hannibal” and the webcomic “Lackadaisy Cats”, among numerous other fictional sources, and IRL it’s suspected to be the reason why numerous missing persons have stayed missing.

More here (another comment to this same OP) and here (slightly different).

Here’s some boar-hunting armour for dogs, ancient…

…and modern…

…and the modern one looks very like a simple style of ancient…

[dduane]

So when Odysseus’s old nurse recognizes him by the scar he got from the boar-tusk slash that almost killed him… now you get the resonance.

[bookoisseur]

This post…it just really went places on me.

[wilwheaton]

I hope you read this entire post, and that it made your entire day so much better, even if just for a few moments, like it did mine.

[basinke]

giant fuckoff alligator wolves

[flannelizard]

My sister’s car got hit by a wild boar once. She did not hit it. She was at a red light and it ran up out of NOWHERE and wrecked her passenger door. If it had hit the drivers side? She would’ve absolutely had several broken bones.

[by-ethan-fox]

You’re off the edge of the map, mate. Here there be monsters!

[draftmare]

Let’s not forget that if a domestic pig gets loose it will revert to “boar form” within one generation. Pigs are legit just one step away from blood thirsty monsters.

Boar are also considered an invasive species in several areas of the US. Like here in Michigan, thanks to Ted Nugent. 🤦🏽‍♀️

[curliestofcrowns]

In the book 1491 Charles C Mann discusses how Spaniards reached Florida, failed to conquer the existing civilizations, but left their pigs there, and the next time Europeans entered the area 150 years later the civilizations were gone. It’s argued that the boars helped destroy several of the thriving indigenous societies of the Florida peninsula and Deep South.

[lostinhistory]

When I was 16, my mum and stepfather decided we were moving to the country to live on a farm.

You have not known true fear until you are stuck in knee-high mud, in a pig pen, holding a bucket of food, while two enthusiastic pigs charge at you.

[headspace-hotel]

I will refer you to the list of domestic pig breeds on wikipedia

Most “Smaller” pigs are around 150-200 lbs or so at full maturity, “large” breed pigs can exceed 1,200 lbs. I have no idea why media insists on portraying them as the size of a labrador retriever.

Feral hogs’ tusks are roughly positioned just right to slash into and sever the artery in a human’s thigh, or so I’ve heard.

[nightskywriter]

Yup! This is why many pagan gods of war are represented by a Boar. (Think Ares)

[wordsnstuff]

Resources for Writing Injuries

Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlist || Work In Progress

–

Head Injuries

General Information | More

Hematoma

Hemorrhage

Concussion

Edema

Skull Fracture

Diffuse Axonal Injury

Neck

General Information

Neck sprain

Herniated Disk

Pinched Nerve

Cervical Fracture

Broken Neck

Chest (Thoracic)

General Information

Aortic disruption

Blunt cardiac injury

Cardiac tamponade

Flail chest

Hemothorax

Pneumothorax (traumatic pneumothorax, open pneumothorax, and tension pneumothorax)

Pulmonary contusion

Broken Ribs

Broken Collarbone

Continuar lendo

[thoughts-of-a-heathen]

Werewolves in Scandinavian folklore

Forget all that you thought you knew about werewolves; this post is about Scandinavian werewolves, and they are quite different from the werewolves you can find in modern pop culture.

First of all, Scandinavian werewolves aren't necessarily wolves. According to Isof (the Swedish Institute for Language and Folklore), people transformed into the type of carnivorous animals that could be found within the local region. In southern Sweden, people turned into dogs, in central Sweden they usually turned into wolves, and in the northern parts of the country, people often took the shape of a bear. There are also stories of people turning into other animals, for example wolverines, but these are far less common. In Norway, it seems like people mainly turned into bears or wolves.

There are many regional names for werewolves:

hamnvarg (hamr wolf)

hamnbjörn (hamr bear)

hamløper (hamr runner)

fähusbjörn (cattle house bear)

knivskedsbjörn (knife sheath bear)

lappbjörn (racial slur¹ + bear)

manulv (man wolf)

manvarg (man wolf)

mankuse (man devil?²)

marulv (mare wolf)

vittvarg (vittra + wolf)

The act of being a werewolf could also be described like

gå björn (walk [around like a] bear)

gå i björn (walk in bear [hamr])

spå i björn ('divinate in bear'³)

löpa i björn (run in bear [hamr])

gå i björnham (walk in bear hamr)

vänd till björn (turn [in]to [a] bear)

(In cases where the person turned into a wolf, it would of course be called "löpa i varg" etc.)

(In standard Swedish, werewolf is 'varulv,' which means 'man wolf.')

"Stundum i vargs ham"

In Strengleikar (which probably was created around 1250), the Norwegian translator of Bisclaretz ljóð/ Bisclavret has added his personal experience to the story. In his childhood, he had known of a rich farmer who was "hamskiftisk" (a shapeshifter). "Stundum var han maðr. Stundum i vargs ham." ('Sometimes he was a man. Sometimes [he was] in wolf hamr.')

Three legs

"The werewolf looked like a large, shaggy dog with fiery red eyes, and who was running on three legs. The person who [...] has the tragic fate of trotting around at night as a werewolf, was transformed as soon as he fell asleep in the evening, [in such a way that] one of his arms turned into a tail, the other one a leg, and the head was made pointy like a wolf's head, and after [the transformation] was completed, he jumped, on his three legs, out of the bed, and began his horrid night walks."

- Nicolovius, Folklivet i Skytts härad

Now is probably a good time for me to mention that Scandinavian werewolves don't spread the curse by biting people. So put that notion aside for the rest of this read.

In Scandinavian folklore, people turn into werewolves because of magic. Werewolf transformation can be divided into two groups: voluntary and involuntary transformations.

Voluntary Transformations

The voluntary transformations usually involve magical objects - a belt, a salve, the skin of an animal etc. Many sägner talk about belts that were made of human skin. But any old belt made of human skin wouldn't suffice - oh no! The crafting process included several magical rituals, performed under the right circumstances, by the right kind of person. It must also be used correctly, or it won't work. The older generations often made sure to teach the younger about these (and other) rituals and spells before their confirmation. If people had "learned some of God's words" before they learned the traditional spells and rituals, the magic wouldn't be as powerful.

Some examples of voluntary transformations:

"If they put on a bear skin or wolf skin, they could turn into bears or wolves. They threw off the skin when they wanted to become human again."

Västra Emterviks socken, Värmland, Sweden

"[At Vargkluggbacka] there lived a merchant from Tukkum, Estonia, who had a wolf skin and inhabited [the shape of] a wolf, until they shot him dead. It didn't work until they made a bullet out of a button that was made from inherited silver."

Runö, Saaremaa, Estonia

"I don't know of any other werewolves than the one that spent a whole year hunting in Transtrand and Lima in Dalarna. They shot it here in this area on a Christmas morning. An old man had made a bullet from his wife's wedding ring, and that was the bullet that killed [the bear]. [....] It was a boy who had turned into a bear. It is said that they found the knife and the belt inside of the [bear] skin."

Dalby, Värmland, Sweden

"Some men had a bear skin [that they would] crawl into."

Mora, Dalarna, Sweden

People would typically want to become a werewolf so that they could get revenge. Therefore, they often turned into the animal that would cause the most harm.

Another reason could be starvation - people who didn't have enough to eat would allegedly turn into bears. (This explanation is very uncommon.)

The voluntary transformations could usually be reversed by performing the transformation ritual again, but - you guessed it - in reverse. People who shape shifted with the help of an animal skin would simply remove it when they wanted to return to their human form.

People who turned themselves into werewolves often went mad.

Involuntary Transformations

Involuntary transformations could happen for a number of reasons. It could be the result of a curse. These types of curses are common in medieval ballads, as well as in sägner. However, the most popular cure in the ballads (drinking the life blood of a family member) is almost unheard of in sägner. But the belief that a werewolf can lift the curse by eating a fetus from a pregnant woman can be found in medieval ballads and sägner alike.

In the ballad of the enchanted knight (Den förtrollade riddaren), the two gory cures are combined:

[A stepmother abuses her step son, and the turns him into a wolf and tells him to go live in the forest. He ambushes her and pulls her off the horse]:

"Then I with resentment / ripped the fetus out of her body.

When I had drunk my brother's blood / I turned into a good and noble knight."

In the Danish version of this story, the werewolf/protagonist is a young maiden. She rips her unborn brother out of the stepmother's womb, and then runs into the forest with the baby. But she doesn't kill him:

"I bit him in his pinky toe / [because I wanted] him to be baptized and christened."

It is said that a pregnant woman who got attacked by a werewolf could save herself by throwing a piece of clothing at the beast. The werewolf had to rip the garment to shreds, which hopefully would give the woman enough time to escape.

This is seemingly what the maiden is trying to do in the medieval ballad The Werewolf (Varulven):

[The maiden is going to meet her beloved in the forest. They have had premarital sex, and the maiden is pregnant. In the forest, she is attacked by a (were)wolf]:

"Dear wolf, don't bite me. / I will give you my silken sark.

- I don't care about your silken sark / Your young life and blood has to go."

[The maiden keeps pleading for her life, but the wolf refuses to listen. She climbs into an oak tree. The wolf digs up all the roots of the oak, and the tree falls over. The maiden screams. Her beloved hears this, and saddles his horse. But even though he is riding "a little faster than the bird was flying," it is too late]:

"On his way to the blooming grove, / he meets the wolf with the fetus in its mouth."

A band called Garmarna has recorded a version of this ballad (that doesn't include the verse about the fetus):

The belief that werewolves attacked pregnant women was so well established that some versions of these ballads don't even mention pregnancy or fetuses.

With this in mind, it's no wonder that many pregnant women didn't want to leave their homes alone, but would insist on bringing a man with them for protection:

"Werewolves were considered to be particularly dangerous to pregnant women, who they wanted to rip apart; and because of this, such women rarely dared to go out in the dark without being accompanied by a male person."

- Nicolovius, Folklivet i Skytts härad

But in some sägner, the werewolf (or rather: werebear) doesn't harm the fetus, because the werebear can break the curse by raising the child that it has ripped from the womb.

According to Dagligt liv i Norden i det sekstende århundrede by Troels Troels-Lund, this was a telltale sign that the bear was a transformed human:

"Rigtige Bjørne var derimod kendelige paa, at de med største Velbehag aad Fostret."

(Loosely translated: "Real bears, on the other hand, could be recognised by the fact that they ate the fetus with great pleasure.")

That being said, there are plenty of stories about real bears ripping fetuses out of the womb and raising them as their own.

Scandinavian folklore is diverse, and a little bit contradictory.

Other werewolf cures include:

telling the werewolf that they are a werewolf

calling them by their real name

showing them compassion and giving them food

hitting them across their mouth

convincing the person who turned them into a werewolf to lift the curse

destroying the magical objects that had been used to turn them into a werewolf (in case such things had been used)

In some cases, the curse is lifted automatically after a certain amount of time (usually seven years):

"The old woman in Sofigården turned her own son into a wolf. She was angry that he felt compassion for the wolves. When they were hungry, and approached [the house], he usually made sure that they got something to eat. One time he fed them a cat. Then the mother came and said: 'You will be allowed to [stay] with them too." He was transformed into a wolf, and traveled with the wolf pack. He was gone for seven years. Then he came [back] to Sofigården. When he walked through the door, the wolf skin fell from him. The mother took it and burned it. But then the boy started digging in the ashes and howled like a wolf. When it was the time of Christmas Eve, a throng of wolves came to the farm. When the boy saw the wolf pack, he cried and went out to them. He understood the language of the wolves. He took the largest goat and carried it out to them. Since it was Christmas Eve, his mother didn't scold him for it. The animals on that farm never ran the risk of being killed by wolves."

Norra Finnskoga, Värmland, Sweden

Xenophobia

Many sägner about werewolf curses are xenophobic. The Sami, as well as Finns, are often accused of turning people into werewolves:

"He got [the curse of being] transformed into a wolf in Finland. He obviously must have spoken with some Finnish woman and been cursed [by her]. He had to be a wolf until someone called him by his real name. His name was Lasse. His wife waited for him, but he never returned back home. One time, the wife was baking. Then she saw a wolf outside [the house]. She went out with her baker's peel to scare away [the wolf]. 'Why are you roaming around here?" she said, "Shoo on you, Lasse!" Then the man appeared in front of her. He was released from [the curse], but the tail was still on him, it never disappeared. Someone from Appuna told me. It is said to have happened during her grandmother's lifetime."

Högby socken, Östergötland, Sweden

"My aunt told me so many times about the one time, when she was standing by the Mösch lake, and she saw a wolf on the other side [of the lake] who was looking at her in a cunning way. My aunt was young back then. She said: 'Poor you, Per, are you standing there?' Then the wolf cloak fell from him, and he went around the lake and thanked her. It was [racial slur for Sami people] hags who turned people into critters. [People] could turn into wolves, and have to be with other wolves, and when they killed an animal, they had to eat, even though they didn't want to."

Älgarås socken, Västergötland, Sweden

The Sami and Finns were thought to have the ability to talk to animals. The story from Värmland that I have already quoted continues:

"There where wolves everywhere around here a long time ago, they came from the place where the Finns lived, they were wearing [animal skins] (transformed from humans!) Then a Finn came down here once, and when I told him how I dreaded the many wolves, he sent them back to the place they came from."

Västra Emterviks socken, Värmland, Sweden

The Roma people could also be accused of cursing people and turning them into werewolves:

"[...] a group of g*psies appears, and an old woman, who is their leader, enters [the house] and begs insolently. She is rejected and threatens [the tailor], but is driven out with a cane. Then she hits [the tailor] three times on the head with her magical wand, and he turns into a wolf and runs howling into the forest."

- En mycket märkwärdig Historia om en Wandringsman som i sjuttonde seklet blef, i tio års tid, förvandlad till en Warg. Mycket förunderlig att läsa (1846), as told by Ella Odstedt in Varulven i svensk tradition (1943)

These beliefs are racist, and they are understood and identified as such in Scandinavian discourse.

However, it is important to keep in mind that the folklore surrounding werewolves is older than the racist narratives that have since become a part of it. The xenophobia can often be traced back to specific historical events, like wars or societal changes. After a war with Russia, people in Sweden accused the Russians of turning Swedish soldiers into wolves and then sending them to terrorise Swedish farmers...

Werewolves tales that mention the Sami or Finns are more common in the northern parts of Scandinavia.

In some sägner, a Sami farmhand/servant/similar turns into a wolf or a bear at night, eats the livestock of the farmer who hired him, and then turns back into a human and goes back to sleep in his bed in the farmhouse.

It should be noted that members of any marginalized community could be accused of turning people into werewolves. This is a friendly reminder that the term vargamor is a slur in this context. The way it's currently being used on Tumblr has no basis in Scandinavian folklore.

But yeah. When society is destabilised, or things change, or when people feel scared, it's always handy to have a scapegoat.

Since the majority of my followers aren't from Scandinavia, let me give you some historical context:

Most people were either farmers or city dwellers (living in one place, not moving around)

The Bible (allegedly) tells people to live and work as farmers

Therefore, traveling people are not Good Christians™️

Criminals could literally be sentenced to "be driven out of town"

Which sort of explains why people didn't trust travelers

The world was also divided into cultivated land (where humans lived) and the wilderness (where animals and magical beings resided)

Travelers, or people who lived outside of the "human" realm were looked upon with suspicion

The Sami usually lived in "the wilderness"

So did many of the Finns who migrated to Sweden in the 17th century (they started cultivating forest land)

The Roma people traveled (because they weren't allowed to stay anywhere, basically)

Poor people often had to live in huts in or close to the forest

Lots of poor people also had to wander around and beg for food, clothes, shelter and so on

You cannot separate our folklore from our history - they are intertwined

Anyway, werewolves...

People who had been turned into werewolves, but then had the curse lifted, could still understand what the animals were saying. A different version of the story of the cursed tailor goes:

"A human could be forced to take the shape of an animal. It happened through someone else's magical arts. It is said that there was a tailor who got transformed into a wolf. But once the curse was broken, and he had become a human again, he understood the howls of the wolves. One night, he and the farmer who he was sewing for stood out on the porch and talked. Then the wolves started howling in the forest. "How the wolves howl! I wonder what they're saying?" said the farmer. "Oh, they said that they're going to kill your white mare tonight, so you should probably bring her home," the tailor said. But the farmer didn't listen to him, and left the mare out in the enclosure for the night. But in the morning, the wolves had been there killed her."

Lenhovda socken, Småland, Sverige

As mentioned in the sägen from Älgarås, [most] people could no longer control their own actions when they had turned into werewolves. This made them dangerous to the people around them:

"They didn't know where [Gråbein-Arne] came from. But there was still a rumour that said that he was a werewolf - that [someone] had cursed him in such a way that he sometimes turned into a wolf. And then he could become a danger to both humans and animals. One day, when Arne and a maid were harvesting hay together, he felt that the curse was coming over him. Therefore he warned the girl that he had to climb up in a tree. And no later than she had climbed the tree, Arne threw his scythe and clothing, and slipped into a wolf hamr, started howling like a wolf, and set off into the forest. It wasn't too long before he returned, in human form, put on his clothes again, and continued his work. But he told the girl that she had escaped up into the tree at the last minute, because when he had his wolf hours, he couldn't stop himself from ripping apart every living [thing]. After this kind of wolf hours, he was pale and limp, so it probably tool its toll on him. But otherwise he was compliant and friendly."

Tresfjord, Møre og Romsdal fylke, Norway

The notion that people could sense the transformation before it happened is quite widespread:

"At the farmer H---- [...], a beggar entered one night, who with the permission of the [farmer and his wife] lied down to rest on the bench next to the tile stove, while the farmer, his wife, and the servants, worked in candlelight; but as soon as [the begger] had fallen asleep, he yelled in his sleep: 'here grows a tail'; which made everyone who was present jump to their feet, as they knew that these words always⁴ preceded the horrible transformation, and watched in terror, as a large, thre-legged werewolf snuck out of the house."

- Nicolovius, Folklivet i Skytts härad

Interestingly enough, a sägen from Asarum, Blekinge (Sweden) states that "such a förhamning ('changing of hamn') didn't pose a threat to livestock, but to women."

"Through the Light-Headedness of the Mother"

Curses weren't the only thing that could turn people into werewolves. In southern Sweden, it was believed that you could make your labor process less painful if you crawled under a mare, gave birth to the baby on a spot where a mare had rolled around, or if you crawled through a horse harness or the foetal membrane of a foal. By doing this, giving birth would be just as easy for you as [people thought] it was for a horse. However, this practice was frowned upon, as it was believed that it harmed the unborn child. If it was a boy, it would become a werewolf. (If it was a girl, it would become a mare.)

(The mother would be blamed for all kinds of birth defects - real or imagined. Don't look a hare in the face while you're pregnant, or your child will have a cleft lip...)

As I have already mentioned in a post about cats, it was believed that a newborn baby would become a werewolf if a cat stared at the babies crib. And if a cat walked under a coffin, and then under a bed where someone was giving birth, this would also turn the child into a werewolf.

According to Isof, certain physical characteristics could be a sign of someone being a werewolf: monobrows and bushy eyebrows, worn down or damaged teeth, facial scars, a lack of beard or body hair... If a person didn't have a shadow, that was a clear sign. If people ran up stairs or hills on all fours, they were probably werewolves. People who were tired during the day were also suspected of being werewolves.

The full moon isn't mentioned in Scandinavian sägner about werewolves. It is common for the transformation to happen at night, but it could also happen during the day. Some werewolves would transform every evening, others would have specific days, months, or times of the year (like Christmas). Some, like the boy from Sofigården mentioned above, would be werewolves for years.⁵ In other cases, they were cursed for life.

Killing a Werewolf

It was hard, almost impossible, to kill a werewolf:

"A [person] who walked in bear hamr was almost invulnerable."

Lima, Dalarna, Sweden

This was especially true for werewolves who had transformed voluntarily. During the transformation ritual, they would mention all human weapons, which would make the weapons ineffective and harmless.

Werewolves could be killed with silver bullets, or with ammunition containing pages from a psalmody, communion wafers, or other sacred [Christian] things.

Sometimes the werewolf was killed by a (seemingly random) household object that they forgot to mention during the transformation ritual. In one sägen, the werewolf is killed with a flax rippler.

Flax rippler, Nordiska museet

However, killing the beast wouldn't necessarily break the curse:

"If you shot a werewolf, he would die, because [the bullet] hit the person, and the hamr would stay [intact], [and therefore] nobody would know that it was a human [that had been shot]."

Älghult, Småland, Sweden

The plethora of phrases used to describe the hamr concept suggests that different regions/people had their own (local) take on it. (I will probably make a separate post about this eventually.)

Gender

Even though it is more common for men to become werewolves, there are some cases of women being transformed:

"[...] but still I remember that in my youth, there was a horrid old woman who was said to sometimes 'löpa björn' ('run bear'= turn into a bear), and who for that reason was called Biörngäntan ('the bear girl⁶').

- Glysisvallur by Olof Broman, Hälsingland

"A sägen has been told in Rissätra, about how someone from the village once shot a woman who had 'worn [a] bear hamr.' It was revealed because the she-bear had braided hair like a woman."

Rissätra, Dalarna, Sweden

This post is getting ridiculously long, so let's end it with an incredibly vague story:

"In Russia it is quite common for the entire wedding entourage to be turned into wolves, and afterwards, you can recognize the bridal couple by the white wreaths around their necks."

Ormsö, Läänemmaa, Estonia

TL;DR Scandinavian werewolves

Appear in the shape of wolves, bears, dogs, or wolverines, depending on the region

Usually have three legs

They aren't affected by the full moon

But it's common that they transform at night

They don't spread the curse by biting people

People become werewolves because of magic - their own or someone else's

There are many different ways to break the curse

¹This name probably comes from the belief that the Sami people were able to turn people into animals. You should under no circumstances refer to anyone (or anything) Sami using the word "lapp." However, "lapp" can also mean something like "a small piece of a flat material" (like paper or fabric); a note or a patch. You need to look at the context. This is especially true for compound words - "lapptäcke" just means quilt...

²Kuse has many translations. It could also mean wolf, thug, insect... (SAOB)

³But what this really means is "using magic to transform into a bear"

⁴This obviously isn't true for all of Scandinavia (or even Skåne). Folklore is very diverse and inconsistent.

⁵Usually seven years, according to Isof.

⁶Alternatively: the bear spinster

Sources:

Isof

Ella Odstedt: Varulven i svensk folktradition

[ina-writes-deactivated20210710]

enemies to lovers but for romantic asexuals: the villain pushes MC up against a wall but instead of getting this really sexually charged scene, all the fight just…goes out of them when their eyes meet. the villain loosens their grip and gets this soft, pained look that catches MC so off-guard that all they can do is just stare back, the first time they’re both able to do so outside of conflict. neither of them speak, but it’s written clearly on both of their faces: I don’t want to do this. Not to you. There has to be another way. 

[thoodleoo]

god i love reading about stupid drama in ancient greece. like there was an athlete named theagenes who was so good at every kind of athletic contest that when he died, one of his opponents would go to beat the shit out of a statue of him out of spite, but then one day the statue fell on the guy and killed him so the greeks took the statue to court for murder, convicted it, and threw it into the sea

[thoodleoo]

actually i left out the best part of this story which is that a plague then struck and when people consulted the oracle at delphi she was like "well you've pissed of theagenes" so they had to go dig the statue back up out of the fucking water

[pathsofoak]

How do I describe a tired person? I got 'dark circles under the eyes' but it kind of stops there.

[pathsofoak]

I mean "hasn't slept in four days" tired by the way. Like straight up the hallucinating kind of sleep deprived.

[pathsofoak]

Found what I was looking for!

This website has a whole page dedicated to physcial descriptors of certain emotions, including tiredness and exhaustion!

(descriptionary.wordpress.com)

[hellenhighwater]

There's lots of good descriptors and comments in the notes, but one thing I'm not seeing is that at that level of exhaustion, your perception of time distorts. When you're microsleeping--between sentences, while you're walking, in the middle of performing other tasks--time can seem to be passing either incredibly slowly or incredibly quickly, as your brain cycles in and out of sleep in a fraction of a second. Your vision occasionally blacks out, but you also get darkness creeping in on the edges of your vision, crawling frond-like and narrowing the world to a dark tunnel. It's kinda cool! Your hearing is usually more reliable than your vision--you can listen and pay attention but keeping your eyes open is hard.

Decision making and focus also deteriorate. After five days of no sleep, punching myself in the throat in order to restore my lost voice seemed perfectly reasonable (and, for what it's worth, did work.) You can physically still accomplish strenuous tasks--I could still carry 100+ lb loads without significantly more strain than normal--but maintaining focus on the tasks is harder. Your body wants to relax and sleep, so to carry a heavy load, you have to actively force yourself to maintain your grip. Doing things like counting large quantities is near impossible, because you repeatedly loose focus and second-guess what you've done already. You stagger and stumble as you walk, if microsleep is setting in strongly enough to catch you as you're walking.

I hope you can benefit from my poor decision making. I may not be a role model but if nothing else I can teach by bad example.

[high-quality-tiktoks]

We call it, La Bonk. For those wondering it’s 10lb.

[jesters-armed]

@petermorwood For your collection of fab, but not easy to use weapons

[petermorwood]

Backing music is Edith Piaf singing “La Vie en Rose” - very apt. :->

This one’s not easy to use simply because it’s so big. Trimming everything down by making the head actual rose-sized, and mounting it on a hollow not solid haft, would result in quite an effective and strikingly (ouch) pretty weapon.

Since the head would no longer be as massive, realistic-looking petals would need compressed into the more compact, sturdy shape suitable for something meant for thumping things - like, for instance, these…

*****

Maces with flanged heads were fairly common, and the Indian “shishpar” was sometimes even made with with spiral flanges.

I don’t know this one’s exact weight but if it has the usual hollow metal haft then it’s probably about 1 kg / 2.2 lbs or a little (not much) more.

Look at how thin the flanges are compared to the “La Bonk” petals (unusually thin, indeed possibly sharp-edged, though their spiral curve adds strength); between that and the khanda broadsword hilt, I’m betting it’s well-balanced and manoeuverable.

Yet if some Maratha or Rajput warrior had asked the weaponsmith who made it to make one shaped like a rose, the reply would probably have been “Certainly, sahib, would you like a guhlab rose, a paneer rose, a damask rose or a musk rose, and would you like the petal edges sharp or blunt?”

*****

Here are a few more Indian maces, and here’s another reason why Indian warriors liked hollow hafts - it not only saved weight, it made room for a little extra whether the weapon was a tabar (axe):

…zaghnal (”war-pick”)…

…or bhuj (”hatchet-knife”)

Those daggers seem so common that I’ve started think they weren’t actually a “hidden surprise”, more an accepted way to carry an additional backup weapon. Oddly enough Indian maces seem to be the only hafted weapon which didn’t have them - at least I couldn’t find a pic of one - though there were any amount of maces with sword-hilts.

However maces from other countries did. This one is from Germany, ca. 1550; it weighs 1.2kg / 2.6 lbs…

…while this one is from Poland, ca. 1650s, weight 1.07 kg / 2.4 lbs.

A “Petite La Bonk” scaled down to match these (with or without dagger as optional extra) would be quite something.

And easy to use, too. :->

[radiobob214]

@natalieironside

[tiaramania]

French Jet Tiaras

During the Victorian Era when mourning jewelry was very popular black glass was used as an alternative to jet.  Even though the glass itself was primarily made in Bohemia it became known as French Jet.

French Jet Tiara - circa 1880 - currently in the Victoria & Albert Museum

French Jet Floral Tiara - late 1800s - currently in the Museum of London

French Jet Tiara - currently in the Nordic Museum

French Jet Floral Tiara

French Jet Tiara 

French Jet Fringe Tiara

French Jet Wreath iara