Corpselamb, Hellhorse and Gravesow

Church grim

There is a peculiar, but fascinating Scandinavian folklore about a thing called kirkevaren, which means a church guard (or actually a church warning) in Danish. It is a ghost of an animal or human buried alive to protect the church and warn about a fortcoming death. In Swedish this creature is called kyrkogrim, kyrkovård or kyrkrå: the guardian of the church. Outside Scandinavia it is known only in the Northern England, where it is called a church grim or church genius.

In Finland they had something equivalent in plural called kalman väki (death folk) or kirkonväki (church folk). Death folk were ghosts of the desceased or other spirits. They were mouldy, putrid and hollow voiced and they had their High Mass in the church at nights. They were not directly protecting the church, just dwelling there. It is told, that they easily could stick on the living and follow them giving illnesses and other burdens. Sometimes they would come as church grims warning about a fortcoming death.

Illustration by Hans Schmidt for St. St. Blicher's book: Mowns, 1886

Church grim's other tasks were to protect the church treasure and to take care of peace and silence at the graveyard at night-time. It also gave a sign to a priest if the departed person would go to heaven or hell, and had to prevent people burying somebody or something secretely into the graveyard.

The myth originates from a very old belief, according to which all dead creatures are the most luck-bringing amulets for the living. In the best case they are martyrs, who have given up their lives so that others could live. Thus humans and animals buried alive had a very special magic power. It was assumed they could prevent catastrophes and protect buildings and people. They were like seeds sown in the ground and dying, while giving life to a whole new plant. Like Jesus says in the Bible (John 12:24):

I can guarantee this truth: A single grain of wheat doesn't produce anything unless it is planted in the ground and dies. If it dies, it will produce a lot of grain.

Catholics are still worshipping the powerful dead in their churches as martyrs and their relics. However, even before the first Scandinavian churches were built by the Catholics for thousand years ago, someone had to give up his life. While building a church, an animal was buried alive under or in the foundation for protecting the church against evil. (Attacks from the so-called pagans were normal. No wonder, because churches were usually built over old pagan shrines).

Once the church grim was not an animal. It is told in a place called Vejlby the church architect promising to bury alive the first creature walking by the church. Unluckily it was his own son and he had to bury him alive!

This is not as unbelieveable as it may sound. There is solid documentation of common people burying animals alive under their doors as late as in the 19th century. Dogs, cats, snakes, chickens, horses, cows and geese were used for getting their ghost to guard the house.

Corpselamb

The church grim was quite often a lamb, Corpselamb (in Danish: liglam). The Lamb of God - Agnus Dei, is a known symbol of Jesus Christ and his role as a sacrifice. Therefore it is not strange to think of it as a protector of a church. The Christ-lamb is depicted with a gloria and one leg up holding a cross. Occasionally, the lamb may be bleeding from the area of the heart. Usually the picture of Agnus Dei is located just atop the the main door in a church. It is stated in the Bible (Revelation 5:6 and John 1:29):

And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Corpselamb is a ghost of a lamb buried alive. It had only three legs, was shining white and long-haired. It could be seen on the graveyard by night-time, and it was an omen of death. Corpselamb was living in the church in the tower or in domed arches. Once a year people left hay for him inside the church.

Illustration by O. A. Hermansen for Ingvor Bondesen's book: Æventyrets Dyreverden

Hellhorse

Hellhorse (in Danish: helhesten, hellen) had flaming eyes and was a three-, two- or even one-legged ghost of a horse buried alive — sometimes with, and sometimes without a head. The horse was believed to be not only a death omen, but actually Death himself as a horse. Actually one should rather say 'herself', because Hel is an old Nordic goddess of death. When people got mortally ill, they used to say: "Now the Hellhorse is going around!"

However, usually the Hellhorse stayed at the churchyard jumping around the graves. The most well-known Hellhorse is buried under the famous cathedral of Roskilde. It lies under a blue stone inside the church. Every time people went by the stone, they spat on it for shielding themselves from all the disasters the Hellhorse could bring, should he appear.

Illustration by Niels Skovgaard for Drachmann's book: Troldtøj

Gravesow

The third popular church grim was Gravesow, the ghost of a sow buried alive. She is as lethal as the two others, having sharp bristles. In Danish she is called gloso (shining sow), gravso (grave sow), gråso (grey sow) or glumsoen (dark sow). In Swedish she is gräf-, grubb- or gropso. People thought it was easiest to see her at the time of Yule, and they left her the last corn on the cultivated field as a sacrifice. This leads my thoughts to the goddess Mother Earth, whose alter ego a sow is, and who was worshipped by corn products at winter solstice.

Illustration by O. A. Hermansen for Ingvor Bondesen's book: Æventyrets Dyreverden

Old Yule 4: The World Tree

Origin of Everything

The purpose of all the evergreen Yule plants — mistletoe, fir tree and holly — is to activate the life energy and to remind about the new beginning of the life and the year. Of these three plants, the fir tree is most important. It is an old Indo-European symbol of the World Tree.

The World Tree is a family tree and the origin of everything. It is a cosmic order that supports the whole universe, holding chaos at a distance.

Yggdrasil

The World Tree was called Yggdrasil ash by the Scandinavians, and Irminsul by the Germanic tribes, and its representations were the cross and the gallows. Askr (Adam) and Embla (Eve), the first humans, were born from this tree. Morover, Yggdrasil had three roots, one in every one of three worlds and the three times. The root in the land of the gods got water from Urd’s well of Destiny, which gives the wisdom of the past, in other words, wisdom of the ancestors. The shaman — or actually Father Yule — carried this wisdom in to our world under the Yule rituals as a Yule present.

Here is a Swedish picture stone describing the World Tree having a horned shaman on the top. The shaman is here in contact with the ancestors by means of the World Tree.

The World Tree Yggdrasil was believed to be an evergreen ash, but as we know, ash trees let their leaves fall every autumn. Therefore the fir tree is used in Yule rituals instead of ash. Both the ancient Romans and the Nordic people had fir tree as their holy midwinter tree.

O Yule Tree, O Yule Tree, Your boughs can teach a lesson
That constant faith and hope sublime
Lend strength and comfort through all time.
O Yule Tree, O Yule Tree,
Your boughs can teach a lesson

Fir branches were brought inside the house in the evening of 23rd of December, a day before the reincarnation of Balder. Balder is the representation of the future generations and a crown prince, and he was thought to be born from the base of the Yule Tree. This is the reason why the Yule presents are still being placed under the fir tree.

Cakes, Apples and Candles

The World Tree of an old Yule was decorated with honey cakes as the ash tree is a ‘honey tree’. That is to say it was believed by Indo-Europeans to give honey and therefore mead to gods, humans and ancestors. By means of the sacred honey they all could be in contact with each other across time and worlds.

Before the plastic balls, the Yule Tree was decorated with candied apples. On the Mother’s Night people went out and took the last apples (left behind in the autumn) from the trees. Afterwards, the stubs of the apple trees were wrapped with straw in hope of getting more fruits the following year. Therefore the obligatory apple decorations at Yule are actually a sacrifice to Mother Earth.

The first picture of a Danish Yule tree. Frølunds og Flinchs ABC, 1842

Yule has always been a festival of light, because daylight is increasing after the winter solstice. The Yule Tree was illuminated with wax candles or wood shingles. Candles were actually placed everywhere to attract the Sun, so that its male divine energy would be able to come back in the spring. They would also show the way to the dinner table for the good ancestral spirits.  On the other hand, lights and candles would hunt down evil spirits at this most sensitive time of the year.

However, the Yule Tree is not only a decoration to be watched. It is a living tradition; people are still dancing around it and singing. Thus the Yule Tree is the ancient World Tree and a symbol of the whole universe and its fertility, and we are honoring her by celebrating around her.

Viggo Johansen (1851-1935): Glade Jul, 1891

Christenized Tree

Christianity took over the Yule trees by fabricating a story about Saint Boniface (672–754 CE), who had prohibited pagans to sacrifice for their World Tree Irminsul by destroying the whole tree. It was told that a little fir tree grew up from the stub of the pagan tree as a new symbol of Christianity. Candles were placed on the branches of that fir tree  to make it possible to preach to pagans also after dark. No wonder that Saint Boniface was finally killed by the pagans.

The first historical evidence about Yule trees was written in Germany five hundred years ago. The first Yule trees found their way to the Nordic countries in 1820s, but became common about a hundred years later.

Martin Luther, the religious reformer, is told to be the first one in the protestant countries who took the tree inside and decorated it with candles. This can hardly be true. It is more likely that the tradition of the Yule tree has always been around, for thousands of years; sometimes in fashion, sometimes forgotten. However, it is true that the Yule trees first came inside people’s living rooms in the beginning of the 19th century.

To be continued in a subsequent blog.

Old Yule 3: The Yule Feast

Saturnalia

In ancient Rome the saturnalia was celebrated for honoring Saturnus (god of fertility, harvest and time), his wife Ops (Mother Earth), Consus (god of storage bins) and the winter solstice, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti(Latin: the birthday of the unconquered Sun). This happened between 17th and 25th of December.

The Romans used to visit their friends and family, give presents, decorate evergreen trees with stars and suns, decorate houses with evergreen branches, burn candles, gamble and have costume parties. At this time, the normal conceptions of moral and class were abandoned. Furthermore the Romans ate voraciously, drank alcohol excessively and danced exactly the same way as in the Nordic countries at the time of Yule.

All these pastimes were sacred rituals and grave duties guaranteeing the continuation of life. That is why they where same both in the Northern and the Southern Europe.

The Nordic Yule feast (old Scandinavian; jólaveizla) began in the evening of winter solstice 20th-23rd December, when the holy boar (castrated male pig) was sacrificed to Mother Earth. This was ment to give strength to Mother Earth (Frigg, Freja, Nerthus, Erce), so that she could give birth to her Son (Balder) on 24th of December. He was a symbol of next generations, eternal soul and light.

Sacrifice of Atonement

It is the most valuable of all the sacrifices, when a god himself is sacrificed for recreating the divine energy. It was called a sacrifice of atonement(old Scandinavian; sónarblót), and those who ate of it received a part of its divine power. Thus the death of one creature gave live to all the others. For ancient farmers, this was a completely normal idea: they ‘sacrificed’ and sew the seed in spring to earth, where it ‘died’, giving life to so many new seeds in a corn. The principle is the same in the Christian atonement sacrifice of the Christ and the ritual of Eucharist.

The holy boar was carefully chosen. It had been pampered and fed as if it were a god. When he came in the house in the evening of December the 23th, everyone paid him respect. The men put their hands on his back and took holy oaths. Following the boar was blessed, slaughtered and eaten. The participants drank beer to the health of the new year and peace from a holy drink horn.

Mother's little piglets are we all, are we all, are we all!
Mother's little piglets are we all, are we all — we all!
You are, and I am — you are, and I am.

(Scandinavian folksong. Translation: Author)

The ham as a Yule dish is therefore not a coincident, because pig is the holy animal and personification of Mother Earth, symbolizing her fertility. In many languages Mother Earth is called sow, like the Scandinavian mother goddess Freja is Syr or So; the sow. Thus the Yule ham is Mother Earth herself.

It's Christmas again, it's Christmas again, and bowls are filled with porridge,
Now one can have it, now one can have it, have his stomach full of porridge.

(Scandinavian folksong. Translation: Author)

The holy Yule porridge was as important as the sacred boar. Originally it was not made of rice, but other cereals. The insane eating and drinking on Yule was thought to guarantee the fields were giving a good harvest and the animals prospered. As told before, there were twelve Yule days, and it was assumed that if one then had food and drink all the while, one would have them the next twelve months of the new year.

Predictions

The old Yule was the time of many kinds of predictions. One could for example tell one’s lifespan by watching how a candle burned. Sounds of the animals might tell about what would happen next year. Peasants made twelve circles on the ceiling for predicting the next year’s weather. The circles symbolized the twelve Yule days and the twelve months of the year. If the first Yule day was cloudy, the peasant filled the symbol with chalk and it meant that the month of January would be cloudy. These circles were called Yule marks.

Concept of Yule

The concept of Yule peace is as old as the Yule itself. Originally it began from the Mother’s Night and continued the next twelve plus one days. At that time any crime was a severe sacrilege and was punished with death or outlawedness. Still the Yule was a time of wild games and uncontrolled sexuality, when the normal moral was forgotten. This duty was meant to strengthen the fertility of all living beings. Nowadays, because of the Christian resistance, there is nothing left of these Yule games but kisses under the mistletoe and the Scandinavian pre-Christmas parties (Finnish: pikkujoulu. Swedish: lilla jul. Danish: julefrokost.)

Yule was also a celebration of ancestors. They were present and participating at Yule as much as the living. A table, for example, was set for them with food and drink. As late as the 20th century, food and gifts were brought to the old megalithic tombs on midwinter.

Even nature spirits were believed to celebrate Yule in the same way as the living and the dead. For example, the holy elder tree had to be given her Yule beer every year. The common folklore about nature spirits tells of them intruding a home at the Yule evening in an attempt to steal the holy drink horns that were originally taken from them. The story might reflect the period of time when Christianity took over the pagan traditions giving, them new Christian names.



Above is a description of Yule from 400 AD. It was carved on a golden drink horn found in Denmark. On the left side one can see the holy boar, a horse and a fish to be sacrificed. The horse would be sacrificed on the Boxing Day. The animals are situated between two octagrams representing Mother Earth. The grains between the man and the horse symbolize the beginning of the new ceremonial year, and the days getting lighter. On the right side the effects of the Yule are to be seen. Nature wakes up from her hibernation and all the animals beget offspring.

To be continued in a subsequent blog.

Old Yule 2: Roots of the Yule

Pagan Traditions

Despite the common beliefs, the so-called Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity. It was not until year 354 AD when the West Roman Catholic church decided this day to be Jesus’s birthday. However, in the Nordic countries, this time of the year had been celebrated as Yule (old Scandinavian; jólahald, jolu) long before Christianity. In the ancient Rome, this festivity was called saturnalia.

This old pagan tradition has lost its original name in the most European languages, and has a term coming from the latin natalis, which means birthday, like nöel (French), natale (Italian) and navidad (Spanish). The Germanic terms for Christmas are Kers(t)fees(Kristus-fest) or Weichnacht (Holy Night). The Catholic Church tried to change the pagan name also in the North Europe for the better suitable Cristes maesse. However, this worked only in England, where we have Christmas.

The autentical concept of Yule is to be found today only in Scandinavia (jul, yule), Finland (joulu, juhla) and Estonia (jõule). All these words originate from an old Nordic word, iuhula, meaning wheel or turning of the year.

The Winter Solstice

The winter solstice (old Scandinavian: vetrarsólhvarfr; turner of the Sun) occurs between 20th and 23rd of December. This evening was called (Earth) Mother's Night in the Northern Europe (old Scandinavian: Modra-niht), and this was the first day of the twelve plus one days of Yule. The last 13th day was added because thirteen was a holy number.

Sun Enters the Goat

There was a celebration resembling Yule in the old India. This was the most important festival of the year. The new ceremonial year began from the winter solstice (mahāvrata, makara sankranti or uttarAyaNa; a movement or shift), when the Sun enters the makara raasi, the Zodiac sign of Capricorn (the goat).

To be continued in a subsequent blog.

Old Yule 1: The Mother and the Deadly Midwinter

Turn the whole Universe upside down,
turn all Things upside down.
Turn as well the World upside down,
because it is wrong and empty,
but do not touch my old Yule!

(Danish song: Sikken voldsom trængsel og alarm. Melody and lyrics: Peter Faber 1850. Translation: Author)

How sad it is before the Christmas, snowstorm and short days
Minds bend down, not knowing where to find courage
The light of the day vanishes more and more
Hearts tremble cold and desperate
The year that flourished bright between the flowers of midsummer
is now without the Sun and brilliance,
it lays and decays under the snow
It freezes and feels his strength is finished
And that is how it should be before the Christmas can come

(Danish song: Ind under jul hvor er det trist. Melody: Morten Eskesen 1876. Lyrics: Jonas Lie 1865. Translation: Author)

From Stone Age to the 1850’s, Europeans had the one and the same religious principle: The continuation of life and the species as a whole had to be ensured. Nothing was more important than guaranteeing the fertility of humans, plants and animals in fighting for survival.

It was believed that life and vitality originated from the earth, and earth as a giver of life was the great Mother Earth. She was worshipped with many names everywhere, where people got their nourishment directly from the nature. As powerful and almighty as Mother Earth was, she could not create life alone, but needed help from the heavenly male Sun god. These two in turn needed help from people to be able to join together in giving fertility to the world.


Another of Mother Earth’s weaknesses was that she too was under the laws and cycles of nature, just as all the other living creatures. In other words, Mother Earth was born, grew up, reproduced, got tired and old — and finally died. That is why her vitality had to be renewed in the midwinter, when darkness and coldness take over lands, and everything seems to be dead and inert. Then people’s holy duty and responsibility was to revive the nature again by celebrating the Yule. It was thought the spring could not come without this celebration of midwinter.

When there is snowdrift and lakes are frozen
and the Sun’s eye has passed out
When a swallow is far away
and the forest is deserted and without a song
Then there is a warm breath in the winterweather
when there is Yule

(Finnish song: Kun joulu on. Melody: Kotilainen, Otto. Lyrics: Noponen, Alpo. Translation: Author)

To be continued in a subsequent blog.

North of the Moon

When thinking rationally, no real place can exist that would be situated North of the Moon. If we were to follow the Moon with our eyes, we’d see it moving and changing its location all the time. North of the Moon is therefore a place that disappears every time one tries to rationally catch it.

Wisdom of the Magical World

For me, North of the Moon is a place where the hero in a fairytale finds his treasure, and a princess her prince. It is a direction to the magical world that our world embodies, a world our existence requires. It is a way to our past, where the creation and her creatures are subconsciously entangled together.

It is not unnatural to bind the past and the nature together — even if it may sound as it were. Death, growth and wisdom form a wholeness dwelling under the earth. The bodies and experiences of our ancestors have become one with earth, and are a part of our phenomenal surrounding. Thus the nature contains the wisdom of our ancestors in every grain of sand and in every drop of rain.

After Die Nornen (1889) by Johannes Gehrts (1855-1921)

Silent Language of the Past

The past is both far away and immanent, just as the present and the future are. Nevertheless, many feel that the past is not as valuable as the latter two. However, none of the Norse destiny goddesses, the norns, is more unworthy than the others. Wyrd (Urðr, Fate, Become) sees the past, Verðandi (What Must Be) the present and Skuld (Becoming) the future. They can’t survive without each other: Together they are more powerful than all the other gods and goddesses together in their wisdom.

Our difficulty is in the most of us having lost our ability to understand the silent language of the past and the nature. This language transcends the boundaries of time and different species of living entities. It is a forgotten language still coded deep in our souls. We can try to remember it again.

One way for understanding the past and the nature may be found in our dreams, fairytales and beliefs. North of the Moon is a world of dusk, where truth and illusion mix together, giving a whole new understanding of the world.

Kingdom of Enchantmend

Our ability to see the past rationally and objectively is as limited as our capacity to predict the future. Still the domain of the nature and the past is unlimited – in time, place and richness all alike, if we just open our heart and intuition.

Our own world is lacking tangible meaning and enchantment, but we can find the enchanted kingdom of North of the Moon inside our own world. We just have to stay still, be quiet, follow the ceremonial cycles in the nature and explore the natural wisdom of old traditions.

Sitting outside

Udesidning (Norse: útiseta) means ’sitting outside’. It is an ancient nordic hobby, which was the first thing the Christian laws forbade in Scandinavia. But still, generations before and after generations went outside at night for example on the burial mounds, megaliths or to the holy places in the nature to gain wisdom.

You see, if you want to see the essence of the world, the soul of the very being – you have to go outside when it is dark and you can’t see any forms or colours of the world. In fairytales the trolls always turn into stone when the Sun comes up. Therefore one can only see stones and surfaces in the daylight, whereas in darkness there is a different living world filled with magic and wisdom.

There are many things, connections and feelings one cannot see or feel in the light. Only in darkness under the peaceful stars one opens to the hidden secrets of the life.

There is no words for describing how beautiful the world is in the darkness. Everything smells different, no lights other than the stars, no sounds other than grasshoppers and bats. The presence of the Mother Earth is overwhelming around me. The darkness of my daylight sorrows disappears from my heart in the darkness of the night. My tears become twinkling jewels under the glance of the distant galaxies. My mind becomes one with everything and with nothingnes. This isútiseta.

It's alive!

Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in it highest sense, the physical secrets of the world...

Learn from me[...]how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow[...]Seek happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries (Mary Shelley: Frankenstein, 1818)

As you can see - I both love and hate my work...

The Chestnut Tree

This is my dear chestnut tree in the garden. We love each other. She is so old, wise and beautiful. Her long hanging branches touch the ground and the pond giving shelter to the small ducklings - and to me. To sit under her is like to be in a little hut. It doesn't matter even if it would be raining - one will still be dry under her big green leaves.

It is also relaxing to lean towards her smooth trunk and feel how energy flows from her roots to the high tree top in the sky. One can almost hear her heartbeat and her silent voice when the dusk falls and all other sounds cease.

At the moment she is filled with some heavy white flowers, which are like foam in her green ocean.

The Mountain

One can see the Mountain (Klippinge Bjerg) in the horizon of Varpelev. It has been fascinating me a very long time - always rising from the flat fields like a huge monster of ancient times. So I decided to make a little walk and find out, how it really was like at close quarters.



An old spiral road leads to the top of the Mountain in the middle of the woods. There is some beautiful oak trees and big beeches which cover one in a greenish dusk. The sun gets in on the top of the Mountain and suddenly one can see the almost the whole Stevns down below: undulating fields, ancient stone churches, cute little farmhouses and the Beechforest at the beach.

The Mountain feels like it is an energetic spot of the Stevns. The atmosphere is almost electrical. I wonder if the legendary medieval hero and leader Holger Danske is sitting and sleeping here as the late local author Martin A. Hansen writes in his novel of Varpelev: When he wakes up [to help the country in need], one doesn't know.

There is just a single megalite stone left of the huge stone circle which was on the top of the Mountain, almost like at Stonehenge. Alone and alienated it rises from the forest floor like a finger of a dead giant. Pointing something.

The World Beyond

The Tryggevælde River moves slowly like a giant and lazy serpent through the valley before emptying into the Baltic Sea. One day for many thousand years ago the Valley was dominated by hundreds of megalithic tombs (dolmens), barrows or burial mounds, which were strategically positioned on ridges and fords, appearing above the landscape dotted with smaller mounds, earthworks and standing stones (menhirs).

Even if 95% of the megaliths are gone today, the remaining continue to be an impressive feature of the landscape. They are among the world's oldest remaining buildings. And - aligned to the position of the rising sun and other astronomical features.

The world as we know it ends when entering the ritual place. Sun, light and heat disappeares. Like in a tomb there is nothing else than a moist and chilly darkness. A smell of ancient times. Almost all sense impressions die. There is no happiness, no joys of the natural world, no pain or no sorrow. Also reminiscences of those disappeares. One can only feel one's bare soul in the darkness surrounded by the spirits of distant ancestors and heavy stones.

Peace. Existence beyond life and death. Heart beyond love and hate. But just for a moment, before entering the world of living again.

The association with the megalithic tomb me 5000 years back in time and makes this increable time frame insignificant. Time explodes. I am right here as my ancestors stood right here. They made this fantastic piece of holy architecture which is still so fresh, magical and powerful. My hands touch the same stones as my ancestors. We are together. It is a great feeling of meaningful continuation.

Give me some better Fairytales!

I love fairytales, folklore and old songs. But I am not always happy about how they end. Ok, the human prince gets his kingdom and a beautiful human princess, that's fine. But that is quite boring. I think it is more fascinating when some so called mythological creatures fall in love with humans or in each other. But those stories always have such a sad and cruel end.

Why couldn't Menninkäinen (pixie) have his Päivänsäde (kind of fairy) in the Finnish song?

Why couldn't the nice elf girl dance with Herr Olof and why couldn't they be happy ever after in the world of fairies?

Why couldn't the the loving Corpse Bride have his bridegroom and why couldn't they be happy ever after in the world of the dead? (Picture from the movie).


Why couldn't Agnete stay with her handsome waterspirit and make love the rest of her live instead of running away when hearing the churchbells?

Now - finally, thanks to my sweetheart - I got a new version of Menninkäinen and Päivänsade. Link

Now I can have some peace in my heart.