The Yuletide lads - part 10

Sausage Swiper
( Bjúgna krækir )

The ninth was Sausage Swiper,
a shifty pilferer.
He climbed up to the rafters
and raided food from there.

Sitting on a crossbeam
in soot and in smoke,
he fed himself on sausage
fit for gentlefolk.

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translated by Hallberg Hallmundsson
Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 9

Skyr Gobbler
( Skyr gámur)



Skyr* Gobbler, the eighth,
was an awful stupid bloke.
He lambasted the skyr tub
till the lid on it broke.

Then he stood there gobbling
- his greed was well known -
until, about to burst,
he would bleat, howl and groan.

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translated by Hallberg Hallmundsson
Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 8

Door Slammer

( Hurðaskellir )

The seventh was Door Slammer,

a sorry, vulgar chap:

When people in the twilight

would take a little nap,

he was happy as a lark

with the havoc he could wreak,

slamming doors and hearing

the hinges on them sqeak

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translated by Hallberg Hallmundsson
Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 7

Bowl Licker
( Askasleikir )

Bowl Licker, the sixth one,
was shockingly ill bred.
From underneath the bedsteads
he stuck his ugly head.

And when the bowls were left
to be licked by dog or cat,
he snatched them for himself
- he was sure good at that!

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translation by Hallberg Hallmundsson
Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 6

Pot Scraper
( Pottasleikir )

Pot Scraper, the fifth one,
was a funny sort of chap.
When kids were given scrapings,
he´d come to the door and tap.

And they would rush to see
if there really was a guest.
Then he hurried to the pot
and had a scrapingfest.

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translation by Hallberg Hallmundsson
Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 5

Spoon Licker
( Þvörusleikir )

The fourth was Spoon Licker;
like spindle he was thin.
He felt himself in clover
when the cook wasn´t in.

Then stepping up, he grappled
the stirring spoon with glee,
holding it with both hands
for it was slippery.

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translation by Hallberg Hallmundsson
Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 4

Stubby
( Stúfur )

Stubby was the third called,
a stunted little man,
who watched for every chance
to whisk off a pan.

And scurrying away with it,
he scraped off the bits
that stuck to the bottom
and brims - his favorites.

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translation by Hallberg Hallmundsson
Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 3

Gully Gawk

( Giljagaur )

The second was Gully Gawk,

gray his head and mien.

He snuck into the cow barn

from his craggy ravine.

Hiding in the stalls,

he would steal the milk,

while the milkmaid gave the cowherd

a meaningful smile.

by Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translation by Hallberg Hallmundsson

Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide Lads - part 2

Tonight the first Yuletide lad comes to town.

Sheep Cote-Clod
( Stekkjastaur )

The first of them was Sheep-Cote Clod.
He came stiff as wood,
to pray upon the farmer´s sheep
as far as he could.

He wished to suck the ewes,
but it was no accident
he couldn´t; he had stiff knees
- not to convenient.

by Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translation by Hallberg Hallmundsson

Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 1

Let me tell the story
of the lads of few charms,
who once upon a time
used to visit our farms.

They came from the mountains,
as many of you know,
in a long single file
to the farmsteads below.

Grýla was their mother
- she gave them ogre milk -
and the father Leppalúdi;
a loathsome ilk.

They were called the Yuletide lads
- at Yuletide they were due -
and always came one by one,
not ever two by two.

Thirteen altogether,
these gents in their prime
didn´t want to irk people
all at one time.

Creeping up, all stealth,
they unlocked the door.
The kitchen and the pantry
they came looking for.

They hid where they could,
with a cunning look or sneer,
ready with their pranks
when people weren´t near.

And even when they were seen,
they weren´t loath to roam
and play their tricks - disturbing
the peace of the home.

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translation by Hallberg Hallmundsson

The Santa Clause is coming to town

Yes, tomorrow there are 13 days till Christmas and that is when the Icelandic Yuletide lads start heading down from the mountains towards the farmsteads below.
It struck me just the other day that, it is not easy to explain why the Icelandic Santa Clauses are 13 or why they are called so strange names. Understandably,names like Sheep Worrier (or Sheep Cot-Clod), Door Sniffer and Window Peeper might seem more intune with today's perverts than something well yes, perverted in a sense if you really give it a good thought, but it is tradition, and today it's just amusing.
But I decided to give my Scottish friends a treat and put on my website a in 14 installments, a poet by Jóhannes of (/from) Kötlum about the Yuletide lads, because no one gives a better image of these guys than him.
The first one comes tomorrow, so I will start with the beginning of the poet tonight, and for the next 13 days I will add the next bit of the poem so that in the end everyone will know about the Icelandic Yuletide lads.
(I got the translation by Hallberg Hallmundsson online).
Enjoy

Packed and ready to GO HOME!

Wow, this has been an incredible day. I woke up at 8am as usual, but this time I hurried to get dressed and out the door with final laundry before going home tomorrow. When I had finished making the bed with nice clean sheets and stuff it was time to head to Uni. I had three classes today, one straight after another, and then I finished at two. When that happy hour arrived, I flew out the door to meet my friend Árdísi outside the subway station and on we rolled into Buchanan Street Subway station where we lifted off to go to UGC Cinema to see THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA. Ok movie, but dear lord, how long IS it! We managed to get into 2:20pm show but it probably didn't start until half hour later and we didn't get out of the screen room until 5pm. Thankfully the movie stirred a few good memories up from watching the BBC version of the Narnia Chronicles so I was absorbed in the movie and didn't really notice the time pass. But then reality intruded and I had to head home to START pack. Yes, at that time I hadn't even started packing and I am going home tomorrow. Well we got home just before six and I started packing for real. I finished packing quarter to seven. I hurried to tell my friend Árdísi, because she has been quite worried the past few days, that I hadn't even started thinking about packing yet. Then for about an hour and half I was cleaning my room. Now, I am sitting down for the first time in more than two hours and eating my dinner, that I ordered from Chow's. Probably the best Chinese place in Glasgow.
I am completely done in, but I am just soooooo looking forward to going home, I don't mind at all. But oh, dear, there will definitely be excess baggage on the move tomorrow and that does not include me.
Friends and Family ... see you tomorrow. Friend in Glasgow ... see you in the new year!

Day after tomorrow

and I'll be home for Christmas. I am looking soooo much forward to going home I can hardly sit still. I continually burst out in songs, singing a strange mixture of Christmas songs with unflattering shakes of my bod. My advent calander is almost finished, marking how many days are until I go home instead of how many are until Christmas, because when I go home, it will be Christmas for me. I went shopping to day, big surprise there, and finished my christmas shopping. Now it's just rest and relaxation until tomorrow when I start packing and then all hits the fan.
But before all that craziness starts I will be chillin' out in UGC cinema (or I should say CineWorld now) watching Chronicles of Narnia. Yes, envy me! Mwhahahahahah!

The Wild West ... End

This is not copy/paste, but what actually happened to me again today, when I was walking home today through THE GARDEN. That darn squirrel attacked again. I am starting to think, I either have an admirer here or a stalker. I just have this mental picture of him jumping on me and running up and down my body while I do that funky cartoon dance trying to get him off me. Spooky squirrel country.

Dilbert©1999 United Feature Syndicate, Inc

Showdown in the Park

Glasgow is truly a dangerous place. Today I was almost run over by a squirrel. I was walking through the Botanic Gardens on my way to Uni this morning, when I noticed a tiny squirrel running across the pathway in front of me. At first he ran into the direction of a guy that was walking just ahead of me, and he only stopped like barely two feet in front of the guy. The guy was startled and stopped for a second and then headed on but looked back where the squirrel was still standing watching after him with a strange look I can only guess. Then, I was next, I just kept on going, thinking that the squirrel would run away when I approached him, they usually do that. But nooooo, he ran straight at me. And then he stopped, just like with the guy only like few feet between us and he looked up at me with his teeth bared in a real mean kind of way. I was very thankful that he stopped and didn't run up my skirt, that would not have been funny for anyone other than those watching me. But it was scary, but I just looked down at the little pip-squeak and kept eye-contact with him until I had safely passed him. Showdown in the park at mid-morning. High drama and I escaped with my life intact. Brave girl! Went to school and had a nice day, and am not emotionally scarred by this experience.

Kaffihúsaspekingur .... vissi það alltaf!

Kaffihúsaspekingströll

Þú ert vanafastur, yfirvegaður innipúki.

Kaffihúsaspekingar eyða minni tíma á kaffihúsum en viðurnefni þeirra gefur til kynna. Þeir drekka ekki einu sinni allir kaffi. Þeir eru ekki einu sinni allir spakir. Af hverju kallast þeir þá kaffihúsaspekingar? Svarið er einfalt. Speki þeirra minnir oft á kaffi latte. Hún er froðukennd. Kaffihúsaspekingurinn nýtur sín best í góðra vina hópi og stundum segir hann eitthvað gáfulegt - þótt það sé ekki nema bara út af því að hann talar svo mikið.


Hvaða tröll ert þú?

Brrrrr .... cold

When has this happened. I had closed my window, but still allowed a small bit of air to get through, big mistake. I didn't understand why I was still so cold, even though I put my radiator up, when I finally gave up and closed the window completely. I nearly couldn't, because the handles on the window were soo cold I almost didn't want to come near them. Nearly froze! Then I checked my website, where the Glasgow weather is shown and saw that while it was nice and cosy back home in ICELAND with 6°c it was -7°c here in Glasgow. eeeeeks. No wonder I was cold and that is not something you should feel while in your room.
When I went out today, very late, as you might guess from me blogg earlier today, I didn't plan on staying long, basically I just had to buy something for my dinner and some milk, I was just short of two hours in the City Central and then I decided to start home, I went to the taxi line at Central Station because I saw there were no taxis to find at Argyll street. When I came to Central Station there was already a very nice long line there, I waited for about half hour and while there I counted the taxis from when I arrived until I left. I took taxi number 31. It was cold to wait and it took my toes at least an hour to realize they were still alive.

Winter in Scotland

When I woke up yesterday there was frost everywhere, not snow or anything but just very cold. Well, it was more like freezing and it didn't change at all, and it was freezing cold all day yesterday. Not nice when you come out from the cinema at 3am in the morning, on top of that having to wait for a taxi in the bleeding frost. We didn't make it home until nearly 4am and poor Árdís had to got to Uni at 12pm today. But what I noticed yesterday at the Halls, was that they had started spreading salt all over the place. And it was not slippery ice or anything about, just frost, that went away as soon as the sun hit the spot, but they are soooo scared to death of being sued by someone if they possibly might do themselves a bit of harm they put salt all over the place. Amazing, and this means that today when I go out, at all the places the sun shone yesterday are going to have cooked salt which is really not nice to walk in, yeuk. Get a grip Scotland, frost is not going to kill anyone, wait until it gets really slippery and then do something, this is just a waste.
We went to the Debenhams sale yesterday as well, and I did some killer bargain bying, which I am very proud of, there was like 10%, 20% or 25% of evertyhing in the store, it just depended on what you were buying how lucky you were, and I got very lucky.
And considering I just woke up, I might just head into the city center today as well, since I really do not think I will do anything productive today. Will go up to Uni Library tomorrow to get books for my next essay.
I got a packet delivered today from Ireland, from Cathach books. Had a really hard time to find them on the internet, ended up sending a letter to Ireland, with the address my mom got me from a guy back home in Iceland. The guy from the bookshop contacted me through e-mail shortly after and I now am the proud owner of the book "Camchuairt ar Éirinn" or "Impressions of Ireland" or "Ferðaþættir frá Írlandi", a book containing all three languages, by Einar Ólafur Sveinsson from 1947. I really like it and it seems very interesting.

Harry Potter crazy

I'm going to see Harry Potter tonight. Yep, not this evening but tonight, well actually tomorrow even. It starts 00:05 am the 18th of November. On top of that, I am going into the city center in a short time, because there is a new Christmas market at the St. Enoch's square (a German one, much more fun than the French one, that was last weekend). Also, Debenhams is having a Christmas Sale, with special offers and fun stuff all around, open till midnight tonight, and I am very tempted to take a peek.
Anyway I am bound to end up spending a good deal of money, well actually, I hope I will so that I can finish the Christmas shopping early. I need to find out a way how I am going to get all the prezzies home save and sound.
It's going to be interesting!

I once was lost but now I'm found

I was without internet connection for nearly 24 hours and it was driving me insane, and not only me, because Árdís, Dinesh and Stephanie were all suffering as well. I broke down today and had to flee the house. Went to the cinema to drown my sorrows, instead I was nearly suffocated. I went to this really sci-fi nerdy movie, Serenity, (talk about it later) and had gotten quite comfortable in my seat when this girl comes and drags her freaky-looking boyfriend into the row beside me and he sits down beside me. After two minutes, he burps, so that I had to lean well away from him so I wouldn't get to know more about his breakfast. Just before the movie starts another burp, quite educating. And I am most sure that when approximately twenty or so minutes were left of the movie he farted. Because the air basically heated considerably up at that time with quite a malodious results. Disgusting!!!
The movie, aftur á móti, was incredibly fun. It is sort of based on the tv series Firefly (created by Josh Whedon, who created Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel). I just recently bought the Firefly episodes and loved it. I loved it so much I had to go see the movie and I do not regret it, mostly I regret and mourn the fact that they discontinued with the series. They were really good. Took a while to get into but as soon as you figured out what was happening it really made it obvious what a diamond in the rough the series are.