In some folk traditions spring wasn’t only the time to open and clean the windows, shake out heavy quilts and rugs, sweep the floors, clear away accumulated clutter and empty the junk drawer. It was also a good moment to thank your household brownie.
These moody spirits putter around your home at night and do little chores or keep up the morale. You can offer a gift of porridge with a pat of butter or an oat cake as a gesture of thanks to keep the little creature happy. A happy brownie means good fortune. If you neglect or anger the little spirit in the shadows, beware. You might find broken dishes and unexplained messes around the house, or important items might go mysteriously missing.
There are many manifestations of household spirits that are generally benign, though short tempered. Along with the English brownies or hobgoblins there are Slavic Domovi, Trasgu in Spain, Heinzelmännchen in Germany and Tomte are the Finnish “old man of the house.” Recently, the Norwegian house spirits, Nisse, popped up on that modern folklore device, the internet.
The Nisse are classically temperamental but useful household guardians that resemble garden gnomes. They are also the inspiration for the “nisselue” red knit caps that proliferated in 1940s Norway and again this winter in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Read about the history and resurgence of the hat here and find the knitting pattern here on Ravelry. I’m working on my fourth hat now!
Illus. bottom left by Kristin Kwan from ‘Fairylore’ by Brittany Warman & Sara Cleto
As winter ice thaws and spring blooms start to peek from the tips of the bare branches, we can take a moment to consider all the quiet presences that have helped from the shadows. Like honoring household spirits, let’s consider what we can do to help honor our neighbors and community so that we thrive together.
See you next month!
inspiration this month: the TBR
Spring cleaning is toughest when it comes to the bookshelves. My to-be-read (TBR) pile is a thing of beauty and pressure. Not least because it spills off the shelves into actual piles here and there around the house. I am in awe and a little envious when someone says they are looking for something new to read. As though they didn’t have teetering columns of books waiting for attention at home.
The top titles on my TBR right now, in order of time spent lingering there:
Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Krasznahorkai
My friend Greg gave me this copy of The Melancholy of Resistance a decade ago and I’ve meant to read it since. I bumped this up on the pile after re-watching the mesmerizing Bela Tarr film based on the novel. A circus with a giant whale rolls into a small town in Hungary, and the tensions of the people snap in catastrophic mayhem.
Sylvia Townsend Warner’s first book, Lolly Willowes
Lolly Willowes, about a spinster who escapes the strictures of society to live in the woods alone where she discovers that she is a witch, has been on my pile since last summer. I picked it up after finishing Townsend Warner’s nun-core classic, The Corner That Held Them, which was recommended by my bookseller friend Emma, of the great Norwich Bookstore in Vermont.
Goose of Hermogenes by Ithell Colquhoun & The Dance of Moon and Sun
Emma also sold me on Goose of Hermogenes by Ithell Colquhoun as a surreal feminist fable. I still haven’t read it because Colquhoun’s The Living Stones: Cornwall jumped the queue.
Then I went and added a new book to the TBR pile, The Dance of Moon and Sun: Ithell Colquhoun, British Women and Surrealism–a beautifully made book of essays from Fulgur Press that now wonders when I’ll read more of it than just the image captions.
Queer as Folklore by Sacha Coward from University of Manchester Press
The latest arrival to the TBR, Queer as Folklore, is a look at villains and monsters in folktales & mythology as coded references to gender and sexuality. I was immensely proud that this was the only galley I brought back from the mountains on offer at the annual American Booksellers Association Winter Institute conference. Thanks to the expert eye of bookseller friend Sarah of Dragonfly Books in Iowa for spotting it! Booksellers are the best friends to feed a habit.