The Cheshire Cat

from 1866 publication Alice in Wonderland (wiki) 

The Cheshire Cat is one of many iconic characters depicted in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that have become enmeshed in popular culture, appearing in various forms of media, from political cartoons to television. One of its distinguishing features is that from time to time it disappears, the last thing to be seen being its grin.

I love the Cheshire cat, a great invention by Lewis Caroll. Its behaviour by disappearing, only leaving its grin, is a very catty behaviour. But I wanted to know a little more about this famous cat and found that it is amazing how much the Cheshire Cat is involved in: Literature, Film, TV, Games, Amima, Manga, Businesses, Art, Comics. Lewis Caroll really did hit bull's eye with that cat.




 CARVINGS

carving, St.Nicolas Church, (wiki)

Where did Lewis Caroll catch

carving, St.Wilfried's Church, Cheshire (wiki)

that great idea? Many have guessed that it came from sandstone carvings on old churches. There is a carving of a cat on the tower of St Wilfried's church in Grappenhall, a neighbourhood of his birth place in Daresbury Cheshire, but some historians believe that his Cheshire cat was inspired by a carving in Croft church. In 1992 the Lewis Caroll Society wondered if a gargoyle on a pillar in St Nicolas church in Cranleigh, where Caroll used to travel when he lived in Guildford - or if a church in the village of Croft on Tees in the north east of England where his father had been rector - had inspired him. But seemingly it could not be the church in Cranleigh, since he moved to Guildford about three years after Alice in Wonderfland was published. The cat in Cranleigh is very similar to a very grinning Cheshire cat though. He might have been there anyway. He cannot tell us now. And according to someone, whom nobody knows, he had visited St Christopher's Church in Pott Shrigley, Cheshire, which has a stone sculpture most closely resembling the picturial cat in the book. There are many theories.


English Stone Masons in Jutland.

with a grin, Hedensted Church (grethe b)

without a grin, Hedensted church (grethe b)

Maybe the Cheshire Cat visited Denmark?. When all the stone churches were built in a relatively short period, there was a need of both men of the church and craftsmen, and the king sent for bishops and stone masons from England. Many Danish churches have got some fine carvings, some were made by English stone masons - and I have found two cats in a church in Hedensted in East Jutland. A cat with a grin and a cat without a grin. Maybe the stone mason came from Cheshire? What do you say about that? 

1898 edition (wiki)

Alice in Wonderland
Alice first encounters the Cheshire Cat at the Duchess' house in her kitchen, and then later outside on the branches of a tree, where it appears and disappears at will, engaging Alice in amusing but sometimes vexing conversation. The cat sometimes raises philosophical points that annoy or baffle Alice. It does, however, appear to cheer her up when it turns up suddenly at the Queen of Heart's croquet field, and when sentenced to death baffles everyone by having made its head appear without its body, sparking a massive argument between the executioner and the King and Queen of Hearts about whether something that does not have a body can indeed be beheaded. At one point, the cat disappears gradually until nothing is left but its grin, prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat

Adaptations: 
In the 1951 Disney animated film, Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat is depicted as an intelligent yet mischievous character that sometimes helps Alice and sometimes gets her into trouble. He frequently sings the first verse of the Jabberwocky poem.
Cheshire Cat made non-speaking cameos in House of Mouse.
Cheshire Cat has made multiple appearances in the video game series Kingdom hearts.
1999 TV film: In the 1999 television adaptation of the books, the Cheshire Cat is portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg. She fully acts as an ally and friend to Alice, the latter defending the cat when she is threatened with execution.
2010 film: The Cheshire Cat appears in Walt Disney's 2010 Alice in Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton. In the movie, Cheshire (as he is referred to by other Wonderland characters) first appears to Alice as she is walking alone in the forest. He helps her by binding the wound she suffered earlier by the Bandersnatch and taking her to the Hatter and the March Hare. He is later blamed by the Hatter for betraying him during the Red Queen's attack where the White Queen's throne was usurped. However, as the plot moves along, he redeems himself by changing his form to resemble the Hatter during his execution and then evaporates as the axe is about to make contact, thus fooling everyone as the Hatter's hat floats up to the Queen's seat and Cheshire appears and winks. In the video game adaptation of the movie, Cheshire is a playable character who can not only turn himself invisible, but other objects around him as well. The character was voiced by Stephen Fry.


Other references:
Prior to the release of the 1951 Walt Disney animated adaptation of the story, scholars observed few specific allusions to this character. Martin Gardner, author of The Annotated Alice, wondered if T.S.Eliot had the Cheshire Cat in mind when writing Morning at the Window but notes no other significant allusions in the pre-war period. Images of and references to the Cheshire Cat cropped up more frequently in the 1960s and 1970s, along with more frequent references to Carroll's works in general. (See generally the lyrics to White Rabbit by the rock group Jefferson Airplane. The Cheshire Cat appeared on LSD blotters as well as in song lyrics and popular fiction.

TELEVISION: The Cheshire Cat appears in Once upon a Time in Wonderland (a spin-off of Once Upon a Time) voiced by  Keith David. While looking for the Mad Hatter's house from the trees, Alice encounters the Cheshire Cat in giant form where the Red Queen had promised him that Alice would be good food for him. Both of them ended up engaging each other in combat until the Knave of Hearts arrived and threw a piece of one mushroom side into his mouth which shrank him back to normal size as the Cheshire Cat leaves.

 
ANIME and MANGA: In CLAMP's Miyuki-Chan in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat appears as a sexy catgirl. In the Alice in the Country of Hearts or Heart no Kuni no Alice series of manga and anime the Cheshire Cat appears as a catboy punk called Boris Airay. He has tatoos and body piercings, wears exposing outfits, a collar and a chain and a boa. He also has a fetish with weapons, especially guns. In the series, like many of the other characters, he falls in love with Alice.
The villain Schrödinger in the manga Hellsing is described by his commanding officer the major as "the smiling cat of Wonderland".
In the anime and manga Pandora Hearts one of the main characters Alice had a pet cat that died, but returns 100 years later as a chain in a realm created by one of Alice's memories. He came to call himself the Cheshire Cat, and had a more human-like appearance or a catboy look.
 In the sixth episode of Serial Experiments Lain,  Lain refers to a Wired user with an avatar consisting of disembodied, wide-grinning lips as Cheshire Cat. Lain's friend, Alice, was named after the book's protagonist.
The Pokémon character Gengar has the Cheshire Cat's mischievous smile.
In the episode 'Haruhi in Wonderland' of the popular anime/manga Ouran High School Host Club, the twins Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin each dress up as the Cheshire Cat, allowing them to 'teleport' from one place to another. They keep up this charade until Haruhi tells them to come out. She cannot concentrate as they are making her dizzy.

ART: An exhibit called The Cheshire Cat at the Exploriatum in San Francisco, created by Bob Miller in 1978, features a mirrored eyepiece that allows visitors to look at a picture of the Cheshire Cat's face with one eye, while the other eye sees a reflection of a white screen to the side-

stuffed toy, Museum Indianapolis(wiki)

BUSINESSES:The Cheshire Cat lends its name to two public houses in the county of Cheshire; one near stockport and another on the a41 south of Chester.

COMICS: In DC Comics, the New Goddess Malice Vundabar, niece of the villain Virman Vundabar, resembles Alice and controls a carnivorous creature called Chessure, that looks like nothing more than a grinning face. Cheshire is also the codename of the human assassin Jade Nguyen, who has a daughter with the heroic archer Roy "Speedy" Harper.
In Marvel Comics, Cheshire Cat is a foe of Luke Cage. An ally of fellow Cage enemy Big Brother, Cheshire Cat is able to make himself invisible and teleport. His physical appearance and manner of speaking are both evocative of a classic hep cat., despite debuting in 1976.

Jabberwock (wiki)

FILM: "le fond de l'air est rouge" (1977), the English title Grin Without a Cat. Like the original, it signifies that revolution was in the air but failed to take root. In the film, it is also stated: a spearhead without a spear, a grin without a cat.
The late filmmaker Chris Marker gave his monumental documentary on the New Left Movement of 1967–1977,
The Disney version of the character can also be spotted during the final scene of the film Who framed Roger Rabbit (1988). The Cheshire Cat is heard singing the poem Jabberwocky before he materialises in front of Alice.

GAMES: The character Luka in video game Bayonetta is nicknamed "Cheshire" by the titular character, which is exhibited through his ability to appear or disappear at many locations throughout the game by use of a grappling hook.

American McGee (wiki)

In the video games American McGee's Alice (2000); and the sequel Alice: Madness Returns (2011), the Cheshire Cat is portrayed as an enigmatic, yet wise guide for Alice in the corrupted Wonderland. In keeping with the twisted tone of the game, the Cheshire Cat is mangy and emaciated in appearance. His voice was provided by Roger L. Jackson, who also voiced the Mad Hatter and the Jabberwocky in the game.
In the Disney/Square Enix video game series Kingdom Hearts, loosely based on the Alice books as a subsequent adventure, the Cheshire Cat offers Sora, Donald and Goofy clues to prove that the Heartless attempted to steal the Queen of Hearts' heart and not Alice, along with the blizzard spell.

MUSIC:Pop punk band Blink-182's debut studio album is called Cheshire Cat(1994).
Hypnogaja's  song "Looking glass" states that "There's a cat that smiles like the crescent moon".
Blood on the Dance Floor's "Where's My Wonderland" song makes a reference to the Cheshire Cat's smile.
The Cheshire Cat is part of the chorus of victim effect's "Alice Alice".
French singer Nolwenn Leroy produced the album Le Cheshire Cat et moi in (2009)
Radiohead's "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" contains the lyric "You've got a Cheshire cat grin".
Though never mentioned by name, the Cheshire Cat is a central character in vixy's "The Girl Who's Never Been".
The Cheshire Cat is in the Mad T Party at Disney's California Adventure park. He is portrayed after Chessur and is found onstage playing the drums.

 
PRINT: Cheshire cats is the name given to the widespread genetically engineered cats appearing in Paolo Bacigalupi's biopunk novel The Windup Girl (2009).
In Frank Beddor's The Looking Glass Wars series of novels, the Cat is Redd's top assassin. The Cat has butcher knife claws and can change from his true form to the form of a small black kitten. He initially has nine lives, but loses all but one by the end of the book.
In the  Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, the Cheshire Cat is an overseer in the Great Library, a library within the "book-world" which contains copies of every book ever written. However, due to "boundary changes", the Cat is renamed the "Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat".



Don't despair, take it easy, we're all mad here!

Source: wikipedia
photo Hedensted church, grethe bachmann
photocopies; wikipedia

Ivory Gull and Snowy Owl visiting Hanstholm, North Jutland

See new photos 2013-2014 of the Ivory Gull at Hanstholm, North Jutland

Ivory Gull, Pagophila eburnea, (wikipedia)

It is possible to see some rare Arctic birds at Hanstholm in North Jutland in these days, among those a young Ivory Gull which usually breeds in northeast Greenland , northernmost North America and Eurasia. This High Arctic gull  prefers usually to stay in the high North during winter where it forages on small fish and seal carrions, which it locates by following the polar bear. Even the northern part of Norway and Iceland is a southern section for the Ivory Gull, and the bird is not seen there on a yearly basis, neither during winter.

Snowy Owl, (wikipedia).

At Hanstholm is another rare bird right now, a young snowy owl, which probably comes from the Sibirian tundra. The snowy owl is a nomad, and it is roaming around in the hunt for food. In winter and early spring it happens to be straying into Denmark, but there are years between.  

Ivory Gull (wikipedia)

It is the eighth time the Ivory Gull is seen in Denmark, and it is a rare event. Once in 2006 it was seen at Langø havn at Lolland on 29 December, and this event brought hundreds of tourist to the small town. This is also happening now at Hanstholm in North Jutland in December and January 2013-2014. Birdwatchers come from all over the country. Today it is easy for them to communicate with their mobile phones: "Where is it now?" and then they are all gathering in a group with cameras and binoculars to watch this little white bird, which don't understand a word of all this attention!

Ivory Gull wintering in Bering Sea, (wikipedia).

 Ivory Gull/ Pagophila eburnea ( Danish name : Ismåge)

The scientific names eburnea and Pagophila mean ivory-coloured and "lover of sea ice" from the Latin ebur for ivory and the Greek pagos for sea-ice respectively. The ivory gull has no sub-species, and no fossil members of this genus are known.

This species is easy to identify. At 43 centimetres (17 in), it has a different, more pigeon-like shape than the Larus gulls, but the adult has completely white plumage, lacking the grey back of other gulls. The thick bill is blue with a yellow tip, and the legs are black. Its cry is a harsh eeeer. Young birds have a dusky face and variable amounts of black flecking in the wings and tail. The juveniles take two years to attain full adult plumage. There are no differences in appearance across the species’ geographic range.


During the winter, Ivory Gulls live near polynyas, or a large area of open water surrounded by sea ice. North American birds, along with some from Greenland and Europe, winter along the 2000 km of ice edge stretching between 50° and 64° N from the Labrador Sea to Davis Strait that is bordered by Labrador and  southwestern Greenland. Wintering gulls are often seen on the eastern coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador and occasionally appear on the north shore of the Gulf of st Lawrence and the interior of Labrador. It also winters from October through June in the Bering Sea and Chukchi Seas. It is most widespread throughout the polynyas and pack ice of the Bering Sea. It is also vagrant throughout coastal Canada and the northeastern United States, though records of individuals as far south as California and Georgia have been reported, as well as The Brisith Isles, with most records from late November through early March. Juveniles tend to wander further from the Arctic than adults^.

Pack Ice, see bird in right corner (wikipedia)

 

It migrates only short distances south in autumn, most of the population wintering in northern latitudes at the edge of the pack ice, although some birds reach more temperate areas.
It takes fish and crustaceans, rodents, eggs and small chicks but is also an opportunist scavenger, often found on seal or porpoise corpses. It has been known to follow polar bears and other predators to feed on the remains of their kills.
Ivory Gull breeds on Arctic coasts and cliffs, laying one to three olive eggs in a ground nest lined with  moss, lichens, or seaweed.

Welcome 2014

Cute Pandas on the Slide

Pandas





They are so cute, those little Pandas playing on the slide.

To all of You!

A Very Merry Christmas !

Grethe

The Famous Cat Maru and a Christmas Stocking

The famous Cat Maru

Christmas Food and Drink and Dangers outside...

Now it  is soon Christmas again!

We are so used to our Christmas traditions that we don't wonder much about from where they come. Before Christianity was held a midwinterfeast, and it is not exactly known how it was celebrated, but the Icelandic chronicle writer Snorre Sturlasson (1178-1241) tells a Saga about Hakon the Good of Norway, where king Hakon had decided that the midwinterfeast - called Jól - had to be celebrated at the same time as the Christian feast on 24-25 December. The Jól was originally placed at the midwinternight, which at Snorre's time was in the middle of January. The name  Jól is of pre-Christian origin and means feasts.

Hakon the Good, P.N. Arbo  1800s

The ancient midwinterfeast was a celebration, where the wish about peace and fertility for the next year was dominant. King Hakon was very interested in Christianity, which was not a popular hobby in Norway at that time, and on his visit to one of his landlords,where the king had to bless the beer, he cheated by making the sign of the cross.This was rather unwelcome.

There is only one pre-Christian source about the ancient Jul. The singer says in a ballad that he wants "to drink Jul" while sailing on the sea. "To drink Jul" was one of the important elements of Christmas, and  this tradition goes back to pre-Christian times, but it is not certain if the beerdrinking and the intoxication might have had a cultic significance.

Julafton, Carl Larsson, Sweden

Together with Christianity the Jul gradually became a feast of the birth of Jesus, but since he is called the "Light of the World" it is actually correlating well with the basic idea of Christmas and the old celebration of the New Year and the coming light. The birth of Jesus was in the 300s defined as 25 December. Winter solstice was placed on this day in the Roman Empire- this created a situation where Jesus could compete with other deities who also had their main holy days around winter solstice - like in the Mithras religion. In the North the Jul was put together with the Christian feast for the birth of Christ, but the church did not succeed in naming the feast Kristmesse (Christmas). In Denmark it is still called JUL.

Food and Drink for Christmas

Ham and bacon were important. The pig had to die!

When the Christmas food had to be prepared for the table the pig had to be slaughtered. During the Christmas period people had -  if they could afford it - enough fat food and strong beer. In the 1700-1800s it was especially the meat from pork which was served on the Christmas table, and it was prepared into fresh boiled ham, sausage, blood sausage and salt food. The pigs had ideally been out in the forest all autumn, eating themselves fat in beech seeds and acorns. After autumn came November, named slagtermåned (slaughter month). And the fat pigs were being slaughtered.

Slaughtering the pig was an event above the usual. The farm people had to prevent someone from looking at the pig with evil eyes - and after the pig had been scalded and opened, the guts had to be brought into the house as soon as possible, and doors and windows of the scullery were closed, for if they were open, they might risc that the pig's intestines broke or all other kinds of misfortune happened. In order to prevent "unauthorized" persons to get into the scullery during the work, a cross was cut in the pig's heart, lungs and liver, before it was put into a water-filled vessel.  In a village at Zealand an ancient custom was still kept alive in the 1800s: the upper cervical vertebra was given to the dog. If a human eat the meat of this piece, it meant that he or she would be decapitated the next year. 

Wheat Bread was a special form of giant Christmas cakes and they were often decorated with  refined patterns. But the small Christmas cakes similar to what we know today were also a part of the Christmas delights. 

Giant Christmas bread cake 1637

In a farm the Christmas baking was another important task, especially the baking of sigtebrød (rye bread), a delicacy which people rarely had on daily terms. The large ovens were filled with  big delicious bread. Some breads were round or oval and were called cakes, some of these cakes were immensely giant and might have a weight of 12 kilos. Regardless of shape or weight they were equipped with some decorations. Around 1850s the patterns were drawn with a quill pen, a comb or other pointed things, circles were made by pressing a drinking glass into the dough, creative people stamped potato prints with figures cut in raw potatoes - or they made wooden stamps, where the figures were hearts, pentagrammes, stars and alike.

christmas cake molds 1600s.

There were special aromatic scents of all spices in the house during Christmas, both around the slaughter time and the baking time. When the breadbaking was finished, the next baking was the real cakes. The traditional peppernuts were made without leavening - and those small spicy cakes were as hard as stone. Spices were purchased as whole spices and grounded in a mortar, and the scent and aroma of allspice, cinnamon, pepper, clove, cardamom were the spirit of Christmas. Klejner, applecakes and various waffles also belonged to the Christmas assortment.

christmas beer 1896

Christmas beer had to be sweet. Good and strong and sweet beer was made in the home brewery.

eating and drinking 1600s

In the oldest source about the Nordic Christmas feast was a song from the end of the 800s. Here was no talk about celebrating Jul, but about "drinking jul". In the medieval folk songs the expression "to drink jul" was still used - and in the peasant society juletønden, the Christmas barrel, was the name of the sweet, strong and good beer made on the occassion of  the upcoming Christmas feast. The beer had to be strong and sweet, both honey and extra malt were added. The brewing work was hard, it gave thirst and the wife who did the brewing, might have taken the opportunity "to gaze a little too deep" in the newly brewed beer. A farmer's wife from Zealand had been gazing so deeply in the strong beer that her husband invited the lord of the manor to see the drunken housewife!  She was jumping around singing a song with an uncertain voice. "Is your wife always that happy ?" asked the landlord. The farmer said with a smile. "Well, we did brew some beer yesterday."

Brewery 1600s

The official breweries took gradually over and sent various types of beer on the market around Christmas time. Today, when Tuborg's Christmas beer is sent out the day is called J-day, and the beer is expected with excitement at the pubs.

The society's eating and drinking in Christmas time in the previous centuries might have had several reasons. People undoubtedly both eat and drank plenty when they had the possibility to do so, and Christmas time meant good and delicious food and strong and sweet beer, which contributed to the cosiness in the dark season. Some people meant that the Christmas-eating and drinking might be a means to secure a fertile year. Christmas was an event before the coming year, and by eating and drinking well during this special time people might influence the new year to contain some of the same abundance and ample supply like the previous year.

The Dangers outside

Today we connect Christmas with cosiness and security,  but for people in the old days - especially out in the country - Christmas had another and more gloomy dimension. It was the darkest time of the year and in the dark many dangers and nasty creatures might lurk. Many legends tell about people meeting ghosts and supernatural creatures at Christmas time.

The church service of the deceased:  A wellknown legend is about the church service of the deceased on Christmas night and takes place at a farm near Vokslev church in Himmerland. The farmhand were out early to fodder the horses on Christmas morning. The farm had no clock, and he went into the house to wake up the farmer and his wife. He told them they had slept over, he had heard some singing in the church - and the farmer's wife jumped out of bed. She must not be late for the church service. She dressed and hurried off to  church and into her church stool, but then she discovered that sitting next to her was someone who had died years ago. All the church goers were deceased people. Her neighbour whispered to her that she had to hurry out of the church and hold on to her cape, if she felt that someone was grasping it. She did as she was told - and when she came to the church door her cape was torn away from her. When the village people came to the church in the morning they saw her cape lie outside the church door, torn into little pieces

White Lady, wikipedia

Christmas ghosts. Other legends describe real Christmas ghosts at Kongensgård in Thy. A young girl was haunting each Christmas and New Years Eve, even in the stable where she had once hung herself.  At Spentrup churchyard near Randers a child murderer was haunting between Christmas and New Year, and in Besser vicarage at the island Samsø a child was heard crying on Christmas Eve.

At Høegholm manor a daughter of the landlord was evoked down in the forest, and when she was lowered to her neck she asked permission to come close to the manor by a hanefjed (tiny step) each Christmas Eve. She was allowed to do so and when she will reach the castle on Christmas Eve once upon a time, the castle will sink into the ground . At a farm at Balleskov field near Skanderborg was always a racket at Christmas and New Year, and at a farm in Keldernæs at Lolland "the ghosting" started already in November, increasing during Christmas and diminishing in January.

The Wild Hunt, P.N.Arbo 1872

Hans Lindenow, who died in 1659, drove through Skibbrogade in Kalundborg with his head under his arm. Many had seen this! They were said to be sober!In the town Nordborg at the island Samsø the Helhesten (a ghost horse) came and drank from the water trough. In some districts people might risc to meet "the Wild Hunt",  a society of hunting men and howling dogs, led by "the Night Hunter",  the "Wojensjæger" (the Odinshunter). He meant death and misfortune, if he did not get a ward off sacrifice. He wanted mostly meat for his dogs. The Night Hunter might be what some names suggest, namely nobody else than Odin himself, the Nordic Asatru's wise, but gloomy leader.

Helhesten/ The ghost horse

Death Omens: Christmas was also  - because of its special magic -  very well suited for taking omens, like about weddings, weather, harvest, death and alike. He, who during Christmas dinner sneaked outside and looked through the window, would discover who was a coward and who had to die in the year to come, for this person was sitting by the table without a head or without a shadow. But it was not without a risc to watch this. He might see something shocking and end up being crazy from agitation. This happened to a young guy at Zealand.

Another method was to walk to the churchyard on Christmas midnight and sit upon the church gate with a green turf or some grave mould upon his head. This would make him able to see the shadows of those who had to die in the coming year. This was a most dangerous thing to do. A guy who tried this had his head twisted around. Another guy saw all the shadows, but also someone with a rope around his neck . This was the guy himself who hung himself before the year had gone.  

The grave sow

But there was no security indoors either. If the farm people had forgotten to give a couple of extra sheaves to the gloso (a special staring sow) at the end of the harvest, they would risc that the sinister sow came into the house making lots of ravage on Christmas Eve. The gloso or the grave sow was a giant pig with a knifesharp back with bristly brushes and with staring eyes, announcing death and disaster.

invisible creatures. 1600s

Many ancient stories indicate that some of those supernatural guests were wellknown and expected. In Helsinge parish and in the Århus district the tradition was that the house wife put an extra setting upon the table. At Bornholm and at Zealand the food had to stay on the table on Christmas night and the candles had to burn all night. In some places the residents slept in a bunch of hay on the floor on Christmas night, while the covered beds were empty, ready for the special guests.

Christmas goat

rumble pot

Human Scary Creatures:  Some of the sinister guests were real. Documents from the 1700s tell about the Christmas goat, a dressed-up guy, who was jumping around and goring all people, trying to scare them. A story from the beginning of the 1500s tells about young people running around in "devil's clothes", scaring people and making trouble. The human Christmas ghosts made noise with rumble pots and threw pieces of pots and ash bags on the house doors.  In the end of the 1600s it was forbidden to walk around with the rumble pots  in Copenhagen. But the human scary creatures took the sting out from the terrible supernatural creatures of the Christmas nights by giving them a concrete and harmless form - and there was no risc inviting the human ghosts into the house for a Christmas snaps.






photo from wikipedia and Nordisk folkeliv i det 16 århundrede

 

JORN and POLLOCK, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen

Asger Oluf Jorn (3 March 1914 – 1 May 1973) was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International.. He was born in Vejrum, in the northwest corner of Jutland, Denmark, and baptized Asger Oluf Jørgensen.
The largest collection of Asger Jorn's works—including his major work Stalingrad - can be seen in the Museum Jorn, Silkeborg, Denmark.

Asger Jorn: Letter to my son, 1957

In 1929, aged 15, he was diagnosed with
tuberculosis although he made a recovery from it after spending 3 months on the west coast of Jutland. In 1936 he traveled (on a BSA motorbike he had scraped together enough money to buy) to Paris to become a student of Kandinsky. However when he discovered that Kandinsky was in straitened circumstances, barely able to sell his own paintings, Jorn decided to join Fernand Leger's Academie Contemporaine, it was during this period that he turned away from figurative painting and turned to abstract art. In 1937 he joined le Corbusier in working on the Palais des Temps Noveau at the 1937 Paris Exhibition. From 1937 to 1942, he studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen. Jorn  was the first person to translate Franz Kafka into Danish. During the course of his artistic career he produced over 2500 paintings, prints, drawings, ceramics, sculptures, artist's books, collages, décollages, and collaborative tapestries. He died in Aarhus, Denmark on 1 May 1973. He is buried in Grötlingbo, on the island of Gotland in Sweden.

Pollock, nr. 5 1948

 












Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956), known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was well known for his unique style of drip painting. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety, a major artist of his generation. Regarded as reclusive, he had a volatile personality, and struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy.
Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related, single-car accident; he was driving. In December 1956, several months after his death, Pollock was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)  in New York City. A larger, more comprehensive exhibition of his work was held there in 1967. In 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London. In 2000, Pollock was the subject of the film Pollock, directed by and starring Ed Harris, which won an Academy Award. 

Source: wikipedia

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen has taken a closer look at the work of two outstanding artists with an exhibition Revolutionary Roads. (with 135 works, paintings drawing and prints) From November 15 2013 - February 23 2014. .

Jorn and Pollock never met, but they both  revolutionized painting during and immediately after World War II. They were the same age, one a northern European born in Vejrum, Jutland, the other an American from Cody, Wyoming, in the USA. This exhibition focuses on the period 1943-1963. For both artists there was a ‘before’ this period, and for Jorn also an ‘after’. It was in this period that the two artists’ work was defined and they achieved the greatest international attention.
 
Some of Jorn’s and Pollock’s works are almost indistinguishable in style. Jorn and Pollock offer us different versions of the routes that the revolution in painting could take, and often what looks identical is really fundamentally different. With his drip technique Pollock changed the rules of the game for painting itself for many people. He staged the artist as the modern hero; he was in the painting, but outside society. Jorn went a different way. For Jorn it was about commitment to the real world, about getting history and the contemporary world into art and a residue of the figurative in his works, a recognizability to which we can relate as viewers.

Jorn is a central figure in Louisiana’s collection and has been presented retrospectively several times, but it is half a century since Pollock’s paintings were last presented at the museum (in 1963). This exhibition shows 135 works, paintings, drawings and prints lent by some of the world’s leading museums and private collections.

The meeting between the works of the two artists has been organized in five thematic sequences, each with its own expression – routes that constantly cross paths: Myths and Mythmakers, Figuration and Abstraction, Abstract Expressionism and What Looks Like It, The Accidental and The Controlled and Jorn & Pollock. Revolutionary Roads. 


Source: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Grass Snake/ Snog

Natrix natrix

grass snake, photo: stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk

The grass snake ( also called the ringed snake or water snake) is a Eurasian non-venomous snake - and the name natrix is probably derived from the Latin nare or natare "to swim". It is widely distributed in mainland Europe, ranging from mid Scandinavia to southern Italy. It is also found in Middle East and northwestern Africa. British grass snakes belong to the subspecies N. n. helvetica. This species is one of only three snakes to occur in Great Britain, and is distributed throughout lowland areas of England and Wales, it is almost absent from Scotland and is not found in Ireland, which has no native snakes.

The grass snake (Natrix natrix) is one of few snakes in Denmark. The Danish name is: Snog. It is usually black with a lighter underside, the two yellow neck spots are its most important characteristics, but the yellow spots might be absent in some rare cases. The grass snake is recognized from the viper by that its head is evenly into the body and that it has a circular pupil. In Denmark are found grass snakes of ab. 132 cm lenght. The female is averagely longer than the male. (average 100 cm)  The newly hatched young ones look like the adults, but some young snakes might have a zigzag stripe down the front part of the back, and thereby be mistaken for vipers. The grass snake can bite, but it is not poisonous and is usualy not aggresive towards humans.

Not being venomous, the snake's only defence is to produce a garlic-smelling fluid from the anal glands, or to feign death by becoming completely limp.The snake may also perform an aggressive display in defence, hissing and striking without actually opening the mouth. It rarely bites in defence. It may also secrete blood from the mouth and nose whilst playing dead. Its enemies are various predator species, including corvids, storks, owls and perhaps other birds of prey, and foxes.


The grass snake is protected in Denmark and many of its habitats are protected according to law. It lives in most of the country, but is rare north of Limfjorden and is not seen on some of the Isles. During the latest 100 years the grass snake has declined considerably in Denmark. In Europe the grass snake is protected by the Bern-convention. 

grass snake hunting, Sweden, photo; wikipedia.

The young grass snake eats earthworms, snails without house, insects, fish fry and tadpoles. The adult snake hunts especially frogs and toads and it swims elegantly out into the water for frogs, but is also seen hunting along the edge of a lake. When the snake is close to the prey it uses its sense of smell to catch it. The adult grass snake feeds almost exclusively on amphibians, although they occassionally eat lesser mammals and fish. A grass snake in captivity can eat earthworms, but it never feeds on carrion. Contrarily to the python the grass snake consumes the prey while it is alive and is not influenced by the poison from amphibians.

The grass snake is especially found along rivers, lakes and bogs, but also in heaths, in forest clearings, in field borders and stone dikes. It demands a varied terrain, and its preferred habitat is lakes and bogs where the sun shines - and which is surrounded by forest. If you see many frogs somewhere, you'll probably also find grass snakes. The chance to see them is especially in the afternoon where they are most active, since the water is warmest at that time.The grass snake has declined in Denmark since its prey, frogs and toads have declined in numbers and spread. Their habitats have disappeared or they are destroyed. The landscapes are more uniform and the snake needs stone dikes, field borders and alike in order to find a suitable place for laying eggs. The manure by the farms where the grass snake can lay its egss have become rare.

grass snake swimming, photo: wikipedia

Grass snakes, as with most reptiles, are at the mercy of the thermal environment and need to overwinter in areas which are not subject to freezing. Thus, they typically spend the winter underground where the temperature is relatively stable. The males appear in the end of March after hibernating in winter, and they start to sunbathe near the winter-quarter. They are ready to mate at the end of April after they have been moulting which occurs at least once during the active season. As the outer skin wears and the snake grows, the skin loosens from the body, including from the eyes, which may turn a milky white colour at this time. This presumably affects the eyesight of the snakes and they do not move or hunt during this time. The outer skin is eventually sloughed in one piece (inside-out) and normal movement activity is resumed.

bog lake Rebild Forest 2012, gb

At this point the females appear and the mating happens in the beginning of May. The females lay their eggs in mid-summer. The eggs have to be placed where it is moist and warm in a landscape like in Denmark, where the grass snake uses manures, compost piles, and piles with garden waste. Laying eggs might happen in a compost pile at least 15 cm inside the pile. The litter of the grass snake is averagely 13 eggs.The eggs are hatched in the middle of or the end of September, and  the young ones can take food at once.

If the weather is cold, the grass snake hibernates without having eaten. The young ones live very hidden and grow 10-15 cm each year. The males are mature after the third winter, the females after the fourth winter. Some grass snakes can reach an age of 23 years. In August-September the animals return to their winter quarter. If it is hot enough the snakes might mate once again. They hibernate in late September or in the beginning of October. When overwintering they demand a place which is not too moist, like a southfacing hill in the edge of a bog area, but they might also overwinter among stones in ruins, in stoneworks at old bridges, in abandoned fox graves or hollows under trees.


Folklore

fairy tale  folklore

In Danish folklore the snakes are both large and very varied. The stories about the house snake is a lesser group and those stories mostly belong to Jutland.

The country people were very familiar with its presence and they rarely hurt the grass snake, which almost belonged to the livestock like the stork did. The snake was considered as a protector of the house and a good spirit. The grass snakes liked to go into the houses and they were allowed to do so in many places, since they repaid this freedom by cleaning the house from mice and insects. And people accepted that the snake drank the cream and the milk from the milk jug and lived in and under the beds.

The beds were in "the old days" mostly alcoves with curtains or wooden doors. In the bottom of the bed were placed heather bundles as close as possible and above this was spread the bedstraw. Such a bed bottom was a popular place for the grass snake. It loved the heat, and the goodnatured animal became easily domesticated with people, who did not hurt them. The snake often resided in houses and stables.
 

There are many stories about children sharing their porridge and milk with a grass snake, and the parents thought it meant great luck for a child to eat together with a snake. An old man told about his childhood in the late 1890s: "When our parents were out working in the field,  and while we children were sitting eating, the grass snakes came and began to lap up the milk, but we thought it was exciting. "

alcove bed, wikipedia

In a village Hesselholt, Mammen parish were so many grass snakes that they walked across the floors when there was silence in the house. In many villages and parishes are told about grass snakes living in the bottom of the beds. In Kragelund, Mid-Jutland someone told that there was a big number of snakes in the manure and in the heather bundles of the beds, and the snakes milked the cows! This was a constant rumour everywhere. An old woman told about Vissing kloster. Here were so many grass snakes that they walked into the houses and resided in the alcove beds. There are lots of stories about the grass snakes living in the bedstraw and lapping the milk from the porridge.

A paper from the Danish sculptor Anne Marie Nielsen in 1918 was a story from her mother. She had told her daughter about a woman who came home and went into her kitchen, where she saw a big grass snake stand up and lap milk from a plate with milk and bread upon a children's table. People on a farm complained that there was an "ugly smell" from the numbers of grass snakes in the stable and elsewhere, but the farmer would not let anyone hurt them - and when a girl and two boys had killed a bunch of grass snakes one day, the farmer punished them with a slap in the face. He meant that the grass snake gave some sort of protection against misfortune, if they were left in peace. From many reports it is obvious that people thought they came into accident if they hurt or annoyed the grass snake.
viking house, Fyrkat, gb The sick girl and the grass snake In a village Randlev, in East Jutland, a couple of parents had a sick daughter who was also slow to speak. She often sat upon a stone near the house. One day her parents saw a big grass snake in her lap. She feeded it while she stroke it along its back and spoke to it. The priest gave her parents the advice to keep the child indoors, but she cried and was very unhappy. They let her go out again and she went to the stone with some food. The snake came back and was being fed. But the priest kept on telling the parents to keep her indoors - but then she died, and when they came out to the stone the snake lay there dead. The little boy and his snake friend.  At the island Langeland a little boy sat by the treshold, when a grass snake came up to him. He scratched the snake upon its back with a hazel twig. And the snake liked it  This happened daily for some time, but when the boy wanted the snake to eat dinner with him his father would not allow this and killed the snake. But then the boy grew insane.  The angler and the viper.  The same advice: stroking the snake on its back was also used on vipers. If someone took the viper and stroke it upon the tail with something woolen, then he could let the snake run upon his body and it would not harm him. In a magazine from 1936 someone gave this advice: "on his way to a small forest lake in Jutland to go fishing the angler met one day a reddish viper upon a tuft of grass, where it was varming itself in the sun. He began to whistle an ingratiating melody, and the snake seemed to like it. The next day he whistled for it again. He found a piece of velvet in his pocket, bound it to a stick and stroke carefully the viper along its back. The viper gave a little twitch, but when it felt the soft velvet it obviously liked to be stroked. Each day the angler he said hello to his little friend, and at last the snake was so affectionate that it stretched out its head to be stroked in the neck. The viper liked best to be stroked in the neck and it never struck out after him. He took care when he came up to the snake not to frigthen it but at last he made the stick shorter and shorter and he could now stroke it with his finger. He knew this snake for two summers but then it did not turn up anymore. It is said that this story is probably tru and many stories report that the viper is not as evil as said. I'll not advice anyone to try this viper-stroking! Folklore is folklore.

The Grass Snake King.
The stories about the king of the grass snake are similar to the stories about the Viper King, which can be read in the article about the viper here on Thyra-blog.

Chocolate is healthy -.Seven good News!

Here are seven good news about chocolate, so don't feel it as a burden upon your conscience if you love chocolate. 
A piece of chocolate each day is okay!

1) Chocolate minimizes the risc of a stroke. 
If you eat 60 g chocolate a week, you've got less risc of dying from a stroke.This is due to the flavonoids, an antioxidant, which is richly presented in chocolat. It lowers the blood pressure and the levels of the bad cholesterol.


2)  - keeps you slim
People who eat moderate chocolate each week are slimmer than people eating chocolate sometimes. A research shows this. In USA they compared two similar groups of people. The difference was there, but it was not obvious what made the difference.

3) - gives you a sharper eyesight
A piece of chocolate can make you a better driver in bad weather. The flavonoids are probably the reason, since they increase the blood flow to the retina which makes you see better. This is particularly true when it is difficult to distinguish contrasts in rain and fog.

4 ) - makes you a math genius!
If you need to control your loan in the bank or help your school-child with the math? A little chocolate can make you more clever. An English research concluded that students who eat chocolate were better doing the math. The reason? The flavonoids increase the blood flow to the brain.


5) - makes you remember it all.
Chocolate can overcome the age-related memory. In other words: it makes you wiser. In order to find out if this could be measured, a scientist examined for fun the link between chocolate-ingesting and the Nobel-prizes. In Schwitzerland people are the top chocolate eaters -  and Schwitzerland is in top as to the Nobel prizes!!

6) - can promote love
 Does chocolate work as a natural viagra? Both yes and now. It is known that the substance fenetylamin, which is present in lesser numbers in chocolate, releases endorphines and increases the effect of dopamine, which on the other hand affects the sexual desire. But it is not certain if the number of the substance in chocolate is enough to affect the sexual feelings.

7. - helps the PMS-mood.
 Chocolate increases the serotonin-hormone in the brain. Therefore it functions as increasing the mood for a woman with pms or menses, where the serotonin-levels are low.




By Anki Sydegaard/ translation Marianne Arnvig/sundhedsøndag, nr. 46, 11.11.13, 
Sources: Medicinehunter. com, Huffingtonpost.com, SVD.SE, BBC NEWS, Siencedaily.com