Ⓐ - Ⓩ ~ Q for Questions

This is a series of studies for my long-time-in-the-writings book about the magic in the Nordic countries.
  We are in the 70es on Unicorn Island, an island off the coast of southern Zealand. A handful of teachers have gathered the broken threads of magic once again, trying to revive the magic in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Faroes and partially Greenland.
  Our main protagonist is Susan (me) from Elsinore and her three co-apprentices and friends Heidi, Tage and Lis living at Unicorn Island.
  I grasped the chance to write a little bit about some of the lesser known apprentices in this A-Z challenge.

 Ⓐ - Ⓩ

Q is for QUESTIONS

Q: From River: Why would Olav's father try to keep his magic secret and not tell his wife who surely would understand?
A: In one of the first chapters Thora tells us why the Unicorn Farm is situated in Denmark. Talking about magical animals, giants and such she says:

  "Such creatures need two things: Wild forests, vast, desolate areas, and for people to believe in them. In days of old there were Little People at the farms, elves on Møn, trolls in the forests and goblins along the beaches. The Klabautermann, mermaids, and the flying Dutchman thrived and threatened people at sea. People respected such creatures, even feared them.
  But now? Forests are tamed, fields are ploughed right up to the rivers and forests. Radar, radios and GPS systems have taken the mystery out of seafaring life.
  If you said you'd met a troll or an elf in the forests here, people would laugh at you and say you had a vivid imagination. They would never believe you.
  The school is located here for exactly the same reason. People here in Denmark don't believe in anything supernatural any more. That's why it's easy to hide here. At most they half-believe in ghosts like the white lady in the manor house. Otherwise, everything has a rational explanation. And people very much see what they think they see or want to see."

But to really understand why I'll have to tell a bit about Denmark, this goes for Norway as well, and to a lesser degree for Sweden.
  Olav's father, and with him many other fathers and mothers who knows about, or even suspect the magic in the family, tries to suppress it. They have read all about the persecutions and the witch-burnings under Christian IV (King of Denmark and Norway from 1588 to 1648). They remember lynchings and mobs when people deviated too far from the norm, and even in the 70es  in little happy, frivolous Denmark, it was easy to cross the line. People fear what they do not understand. People - especially in Denmark, because of the law of Jante - kills anything bigger and better than themselves. Actually I think the law of Jante, is the best explanation to this question.


Q: I have one myself. Always at the Unicorn Farm we see the apprentices have trouble remembering the Icelandic words for things and to pronounce their spells the right way. Why is this when Gylfi every morning cast the Mál sameinast - the language spell, allowing the apprentices to understand one another?
A: Because the Mál sameinast only allows the professors and apprentices to understand the spoken word. They cannot for instance read Japanese or Arabic if they do not know the letters. And they still speak their own languages. Also the casting of spells is so to say immune to the language spell, they still hear the word said in Icelandic whenever anyone is casting a spell.


Q: From Mesymimi: it would be nice to have a list of which apprentices survive to join Birch Manor.
A: I fully understand that you do not feel like reading through the chapters Finding out I & II and compile one yourself   😉. I actually do have such a list. Nnn Mmmmm means dead.

In Finding out II, Knud has this comment to the list:  "Actually an incredible number of apprentices have died. I let my former colleague do the maths. Out of 39, far more than 19 should be alive today. 33 would be the expected number. I have not counted in the teachers, as they were older."

An even more extensive spreadsheet over only the living and their spouses, children and grandchildren can be found at my Unicorn Farm/Birch Manor Blog.

Susan Olsen	Main person - storyteller
Fiona Andersen	Painter and healer in Hundested
Veronika Andersen	Dead in a traffic accident
Heidi Bach	Now Tanja
Tage Bach	Now Svend. Stage magician like his dad
Lis Bach	Now Ida
David Hansen	Joined the squatters and suffered a cannabis psychosis. He jumped out the window one day the police stormed the building
Knud Thorsen	Married to Susan
Sarah Poulsen	Drunkard, consprationist 2 children with magic.
Josh Traustason	Shot in bande rivalries (not magic related accident)
Kirstin Jonsdottir	Almost drowned, severely handicapped.
Rósa Sigurdsdottir	Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft
Selma Finnbogadottir	Married Grani, died on honeymoon
Sif Reynisdottir	Flew hanggliders, crashed
Elvin Reynisson
Finnbogi Yngvason	Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft
Grani Starrason	Married Selma, died on honeymoon
Helge Nyström	Alive
Harald Eklund	Died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a summerhouse
Bo Eklund
Lukas Eklund
Britta Eklund
Kalle Berggren	Died much later from a disease (not magic related)
Anna Berggren	Alive in Helsingborg
Ingrid Karlsson	Died in a traffic accident
My Birkeland	Alive
Marit Ravndal	Married to Jan-Wine and party
Astrid Ravndal	Travelled to India with Nata - found dead in Goa
Olav Ravndal	Wine and party Married to Monica
Hilde Westvold	Head nursie in Nordnorge, last name Haugen.
Monica Bakke	Married to Olav-Wine and party
Terje Myhre	Dead from drugs
Bjørn Anderson	Dead from drugs
Jan Espedal	Wine and party married to Marit
Jouka m Mustonen	Dead from drugs
Nata Kanerva	Travelled to India with Astrid - found dead in Goa
Marja Koivu	Dead with parent, aunt and her children wen a summerhouse burned.
Paula Koivu
Aamu  Raita	Now Clara Married to Uwe Weber in Shiltach.
Niklas Joensen	Unknown
Sanne Joensen	Unknown

 

Ⓐ - Ⓩ ~ P

This is a series of studies for my long-time-in-the-writings book about the magic in the Nordic countries.
  We are in the 70es on Unicorn Island, an island off the coast of southern Zealand. A handful of teachers have gathered the broken threads of magic once again, trying to revive the magic in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Faroes and partially Greenland.
  Our main protagonist is Susan (me) from Elsinore and her three co-apprentices and friends Heidi, Tage and Lis living at Unicorn Island.
  I grasped the chance to write a little bit about some of the lesser known apprentices in this A-Z challenge.

 Ⓐ - Ⓩ

P is for Paula & Marja Koivo from Finland

Their last name means birch, and they are also known as the Birch sisters. They are born almost two years apart and lives with their mother and two older siblings in a small town near Rovaniemi in Northern Finland.
  Their father died some years ago from a work related accident at the Rovaniemi airport. Mother Irja manages the house and works part time out of home. The four daughters work in the big garden and helps out how ever they can. The two older sisters, Pihla and Pirjo are much older than Paula and Marja. They both work in town and are not very much at home. Paula and Marja are both blonde, blue eyed and clear skinned. Looking a bit like a birch would, if it was turned into a human being; they are a bit like a Finnish movie, long, elegant and melancholic.
  Paula loves to play in the river and go fishing, whereas Marja climbs trees and roams the woods looking for berries. Mama Irja often teases them saying that they take after her mother's family, where family legends will have it that there's both dryads and naiads in the ancestry.

"Mami," Paula said one morning, "I think I have a noisy feather in my doona. When I compose myself for sleep it goes eeek-skreeek-skreek, like a nail on a slate. And when I go to sleep, I wake up myself by snoring!"
"That sure sounds like a noisy feather," her mother said. "Do you want me to sing it out."
"Yes please, and before you ask. No I do not know who has picked it. There were lots of loose feathers laying about, and they were easier to collect, but it is harder to see, if they are one of the noisy ones. It could have been any one of us."
Paula looked at her mother: "When can I have my own wand?" she asked.
"Soon," her mother answered, "but first you'll have to study, and then I'll have to ask the Kuusisaaris over so that Tähti can sing you a wand."
"Oh, Mami, studying is so boring to do alone," Paula complained. "Can't Marja do it together with me?"
"Let's see. Now you're off to school, you'll have to hurry to get there in time.
Marja hurried out the door with Paula lagging after.

When they came home from school, mother Irja had some news for them: "The Kuusisaaris will be over this weekend, that is in two days. It seems they want to open a school in the holidays. A school for magic, so you won't be studying all alone. But they'll both be here Saturday morning to tell more, and to test you. We've better get working to make the house shine."
"More work!" Paula said. "Don't forget my noisy feather, I'll be no use half asleep!"
"I did already, you can see them there on the table," she pointed at three slender, white feathers. "They really had it in for you. Now throw them into the fire outside. and you'll sleep well."

 - - - - -

As we know, Marja and Paula both stand the test and go to Unicorn Farm, where we find them in the first day's wandsinging session with Tähti Kuusisaaari and Thora.
I'll let Gylfi, the wand measurer, do the presentation, we also meet Lirfan, his living tape measure. This is a bit from one of my unpublished chapters. For any new readers, Susan is the main person and teller of the story.
  Gylfi is here Measuring the wands of the Potions team and of the Nature team, Paula, Marja and Susan are all members of the latter.

Gylfi turned to the two Finnish girls. "Your wands sure matches your name, don't they, Marja and Paula?"
They nodded in unison: "Yes, our surname, Koivu, means birch in Finnish," said Marja, the younger of the two.
Susan watched with interest as Lirfan, the thick green caterpillar moved like an accordion and grew exactly as long and thick as the wand. It looked funny. With its back legs, the caterpillar held onto the end of the wand and then it curled up slightly. The front end shot through the air, the caterpillar grew longer and longer and thicker and thicker. Then it sat still for a brief moment before reading its measurements with a small, tinny voice. Then, holding on with its front legs it shrunk until it finally reached its normal size at the opposite end of the wand.
Paula's stick was a centimetre shorter than her younger sister's, but they were exactly the same thickness.

Paula's sparks were silvery, and Marja's green. None of them survived losing their magic.

 - - - - -

A note on Noisy feathers. This is my translation  of urofjer, According to old Nordic superstition these were certain feathers from the wings of geese and hens, that when used in pillows would not allow sleepers to find rest or dying people to die. If they exist and have a name in English, I have been unable to find it, so please help.

And tomorrow is Q.
I can find no apprentices, places, Nisser, teachers, or parents with Q.
So Q is for QUESTIONS. Do you have any? Please post them in the comments, and I'll try to answer the day after tomorrow.

Words for Wednesday ~ The Words

 This challenge started a long time ago. Now it has turned into a movable feast with Elephant's Child as our coordinator; and the Words are provided by a number of people.

The general idea of this challenge is to make us write. Poems, stories, subtitles, tales, jokes, haiku, crosswords, puns, ... you're the boss.
Use all Words, some Words, one Word, or even none of them if that makes your creative juices flow. Anything goes, only please nothing rude or vulgar.

 It is also a challenge, where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true.

So please, remember to follow the links, go back and read other peoples' stories. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrive on interaction, feedback and encouragement. And we ALL need encouragement.

-- 🏅 --

The Words for the Wednesdays in April are provided by Elephant's Child.

For today we had:

    Antique
    Guide
    Celebration
    Journal
    Expressive
And/or
    A little bird told me
    Cat got your tongue?
    Every dog has his day

I have been busy gardening in the sun and writing the A-Z chapters - but these words did not fit today. I hope to use them in the coming chapters.

Ⓐ - Ⓩ ~ O

This is a series of studies for my long-time-in-the-writings book about the magic in the Nordic countries.
  We are in the 70es on Unicorn Island, an island off the coast of southern Zealand. A handful of teachers have gathered the broken threads of magic once again, trying to revive the magic in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Faroes and partially Greenland.
  Our main protagonist is Susan (me) from Elsinore and her three co-apprentices and friends Heidi, Tage and Lis living at Unicorn Island.
  I grasped the chance to write a little bit about some of the lesser known apprentices in this A-Z challenge.

 Ⓐ - Ⓩ

O is for Olav Ravndal from Norway.

Olav lives in Oslo, the capital of Norway. He is an ordinary Norwegian boy, living an ordinary life in one of a row of semi-detached houses. Olav is an only child and the cousin of the two sisters I did not present under M,  Marit and Astrid Ravndal. They visit the same school, Marit in the 6th form, and Olav and Astrid in the 5th, but not in the same class.
Olav is often bored at school, he knew how to read before school even began, he is not mad at maths or languages either. Often he is reading books having no bearing whatsoever during lessons. Books his teacher calls penny dreadfuls, mostly their subjects are magicians saving ladies in distress from fire sprouting dragons, defeating the evil sorcerer or saving the day, swooping in on broomsticks in the nick of time. On his way home, Olav often recounts these books for his cousins, adding his own touches, and they play at casting spells and defeating dragons in the small park where they have to part ways going home form school.

One day in early June on his way from school alone, Olav sat down on a bench near the park. The sun was warm, and he was in no hurry t get home. He pulled up the book he was reading, it was thicker, darker than those he normally read, and it had the school librarian's recommendations.
Soon he was transported to another world, and did not see or hear anything, until a shadow fell over the book. A woman sat next to him, almost crowding him, and casting shadows over the book. He remembered seeing her in the Syttende Mai Parade, she was ... pretty ... was the only word Olav found. Young, with thick yellow hair and blue eyes. In her Bunad she had looked like something from a painting.
"What are you reading?" she asked.
As an answer Olav turned the book covers up for her to read.
"Hmm, a book about magic. Do you like magic?" she asked
"Yes I do," Olav answered, "it's fun to pretend to do magic as well. I do so wit my cousins, sometimes on our way home from school, but magic is not real, unfortunately."
"Who says so?" The woman asked.
"My dad," Olav answered. "When I was small, he told me that it was as likely that I could cast spells, as I would learn to fly. I found this totally reasonable. After all we walk on the ground, and we can learn how to swim in the water, why not also learn how to fly in the air. I practised for weeks and weeks. When dad found out he laughed and laughed."
The lady sat quiet for a bit. "But magic can be evil, black magic, like in the book about Krabat and the Sorcerer's Mill that you're reading."
"I do not think so," Olav said slowly. He was afraid to scare off the woman, or to offend her, but somehow he felt that she was really interested in what he thought, and dared to continue: "An axe can chop wood, and even build houses and boats. But an axe can destroy as well, and kill. That does not make axes evil."
"tell me a bit about your cousins," the woman raid. "How are you related to them, and do you have any sisters or brothers or other cousins?"
"That's quickly done." Olav answered, relieved at talking about lighter matters that dark magic and the existence of evil. "I am an only child, my mother has no sisters or brothers, and only her mother, my grandmother, is still alive. My father still has both his parents, and a brother. He is the father of Marit and Astrid - those are my cousins. They do not have any other siblings or cousins. Their mother has almost no family, and old uncle, and mother and father, both very old. We all meet every time there is a birthday in the family, because we're all we have."
"Yes that is a small family indeed. I'd like to meet your cousins as well."
"That should be easy," Olav said. "school's out in a few minutes, and then they'll come past here on their way home. Why do you want to meet them?"
"I'd like to wait, and only tell my story once," the woman said. "By the way, my name is Martine."
"That name suits you. I think I saw you in the Syttende Mai Parade," Olav said.
"Really, you did," Martine smiled. "All of Oslo is in that parade, all the children at least, and you remember seeing me."
"I remember your hair," Olav said, but was spared closer explanations as Marit and Astrid came and sat on the bench as well. "Hello Olav," Astrid, the oldest said. "Are you discussing the Parade?"
"You seem to all have noticed me," Martine said with a happy smile. "No, not really, we were discussing magic."
"Magic!" Astrid exclaimed. "But dad always says that magic is just mirrors and strings, in short cheating."
"He is not right," Martine said. "He only says this to keep you from trying. You seem to all remember me from the Syttende Mai Parade because of my hair. Now look at it."
Martine's hair was long, golden and flowing. As the children looked, it slowly changed colour, growing darker and thicker. "This is my true hair colour," Martine said as her hair was very dark, almost back. But I do not like it. People stare, not many people in Oslo have long, black hair like this, so I change it."
Olav noticed the stick in her hand. "Is that your magic wand?" he asked.
"Yes it is, but don't tell anybody." She changed her hair back to the golden yellow colour, and turned to Olav:  "Olav, I'll like to come with you home, and Marit and Astrid, I'd like you to come with us, I have to talk to your father."
Olav and the girls nodded, and they walked together to Olav's home in the row of ordinary, semi detached houses. Olav's father was at home, and Martine asked him if he had time for a small talk.
"What now," Olav's father said, "Did Olav once again but read one of his terrible books during lessons?"
"No, it's a bit more serious," Martine said, her smile disarming poor Frede totally. 
"Do tell," he said
"I'd like Olav to join our summer school in magic and witchcraft during the holidays, and most probably Astrid and Marit as well. There's no reason in trying to keep it hidden from you, as you and your brothers are wizards as well, and I need your support."
Frede sat down hard on a chair. "What did you say?"
"You are a wizard, Frede, and you can do magic. At a later time we would like to teach you as well, but we have decided to begin with the children," Martine explained.
"Are you mad?" Frede asked. He rose and his voice turned shrill and loud.
"No I'm not," Martine said and pulled out her wand. She swished it through the air and flowers began falling, interspersed with small Norwegian flags, and they kept falling, and falling and falling. "You can not explain this by mirrors or some such," Martine said, "furthermore you always kept the old rules."
"I surrender," Frede said, sinking back into the chair. "Don't tell Flora, that's his mother. My brother and I always tried to  squash it out. It seems we did not succeed.  I'll phone Gustav."
"No," Martine said smiling, "magic will out."
Astrid and Marit's father came over, and was more cooperative, But then he had had the time walking there to think.
Olav, Marit and Astrid all promised to be at Martine's flat early in the morning the first day of the Summer holidays.


Olav is fabulous at transformation, and really shines, earning the respect of Heidi when he transforms a branch into a key on the night before the broom race, thus admitting the conspirators to the locked broom shed to prevent a total disaster during the broom-race. Astrid and Marit joined the yellow group, both flying for The Opposition in the broom-race.

Ⓐ - Ⓩ

Tomorrow P for Paula & Marja

And the day after tomorrow is Q.
I can find no apprentices, places, Nisser, teachers, or parents with Q.
Q is for QUESTIONS. Do you have any? Please post them in the comments, and I'll try to answer the day after tomorrow.

Ⓐ - Ⓩ ~ N

This is a series of studies for my long-time-in-the-writings book about the magic in the Nordic countries.
  We are in the 70es on Unicorn Island, an island off the coast of southern Zealand. A handful of teachers have gathered the broken threads of magic once again, trying to revive the magic in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Faroes and partially Greenland.
  Our main protagonist is Susan (me) from Elsinore and her three co-apprentices and friends Heidi, Tage and Lis living at Unicorn Island.
  I grasped the chance to write a little bit about some of the lesser known apprentices in this A-Z challenge.

 Ⓐ - Ⓩ

N is for Nicklas and Sanne Joensen from the Faroes.

These two siblings are among the more anonymous apprentices at the Unicorn Farm. The come from the small township of Leirvík situated on the second greatest of the Faroese isles, Eysturoy.
Nicklas and his 10 months older sister, Sanne, lived ordinary, but relatively tough lives in the small community in Leirvik, every workday morning they trudged hand in hand off to the local school, every afternoon, they walked home again, did their chores, tended the chickens, and started cooking dinner, looking after their smaller siblings, the two year old twins Elias and Simun, and baby Trina, called after grandmother Trina, who lived in the house as well. Grandmother Trina was very old, and could hardly walk, but she was clear of mind, and could always tell Sanne and Nicklas what to do.

They counted themselves lucky that their father was not a fisherman, but worked at one of the fish canning facilities, same as their mother. When the other children from school teased them and said that as their father was not a real man, and doing a woman's job he ought to wear skirts as well, the two siblings just shut up, very happy to have a father at home, and not being scared to death with every stormy day. They had all lost uncles and friends to the sea. Every evening after dinner, their father read to them from one of the many books in the house, ant they spoke of far away countries and strange things happening, their mother always happy to bring out the old, heavy encyclopedia and read aloud from its long sentences in old fashioned, knotty Danish.

And the family had a secret. They were wizards, or at least their grandmother insisted that they were. The only problem was that they were not able to do any magic.

One early spring, when they were both 12, and the town was about to celebrate Sólarkaffi (sun coffee) as every year, Grandma Trina had two guests when they came home from school. Grandma Trina introduced Sanne and Nicklas  for Gylfi and Thora, two old friends of her from long ago. Trina told that thy could do real magic, and were here to teach the children of the family. The grown ups talked long into the night or what you may call it, because Sólarkaffi, the next day was held  to celebrate the return of the Sun after three months of night.

Grandma was carried in a special chair, Sanne and Nicklas held the hand of one twin each and Gylfi carried baby Trina, who slept from most of the festivities in his strong, gentle arms. Everybody gathered in the town hall, where big plates of every conceivable kind of pastries and cakes stood ready at the tables. But first they had to listen to a speech, look at exhibitions of craft and arts and listen to music. Then, a little before noon everybody went outside, saw the sun rise and set again and sung the national anthem accompanied by different musical instruments. Thereafter everybody stuffed themselves with delicacies from the tables, and coffee and tea in large amounts. Next up were chain dances led by the Eysturoyar Dansifelag, but rain showers led to an early stop to the fun.

In the afternoon, Thora and Gilvi told the Joensen family about their plans for a school in magic, and Sanne and Nicklas happily accepted to be the two first students inscribed.

Nicklas has blonde hair, brown eyes and dark skin. His sister has the same dark complexion, but her blue eyes and chestnut brown hair makes her look very much like her father, who to the outraged protests of Granny Trina tells whoever wants to listen that he owes his dark looks to a French pirate back in history.
Their wands are made of Juniper, Sanne's emitting sea blue and Nicklas' sea green sparks. We meet them only fleetingly one of the first days, where the apprentices learn how to count in Icelandic, a language quite close to Faroese.
Nicklas joins the Potions team, while Sanne is better at Nature magic.

Ⓐ - Ⓩ

O for Olav.