With WHAT in your mouth?

[mrissa]

In between bits of writing "Riding Death's Elk" and reading The System of the World, I decided to try to cure my headache this afternoon with food, Advil, and Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend by Reimund Kvideland and Henning K. Sehmsdorf. I think the Advil was more the key to the headache than the book, and I do wish the handling of Finnish stuff was better (eighth verse, same as the first!), but I was extremely amused by this bit:

If a guy can catch a live swallow, cut out its tongue, and, with the tongue still in his mouth, kiss a girl, she will be consumed by such desire that she will not give him peace until they are married.

I'll tell you this much. Any guy who was allowed to come within ten feet of kissing me with a fresh raw swallow tongue in his mouth would have to be someone for whom I was already consumed with desire anyway. Consumed and totally irrational. Because..."What's that smell? Oh, no matter. Mmmm, you kiss like--aaaaaagh!"

I'll bet that trick worked every single time someone managed to do it from beginning to end. Every single time. It is a miracle my ancestors managed to procreate at all.

Can I say how wonderful a world it is when I can classify this sort of discovery as "work-related"?

Comments

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

That is the most bizarre thing I've read all day. And the funniest.

I needed the laughter tonight. Thanks. :)

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

I wonder what is the basis of this belief? was it proven experimentally (ew)? OR it is based on some kind of swallow symbolism?

When I start thinking about old believs and superstitions, magic looks closer than I expect it to be.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This book said that swallows and starlings were very commonly used in folk spells in this region. It does not venture a guess as to why, sadly.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if the translator left out the line about first transforming the girl into a Norwegian sheepdog.

(Picturing Abby in a similar situation. She'd be ecstatic.)

[pariyal.livejournal.com]

Oh, aargh! It's a good thing that B didn't know that or I'd never have married him.

[cadithial.livejournal.com]

probably because the people had an overabundance of them :P

[greatestofnates.livejournal.com]

It's the pre-industrial version of tying a cherry stem in a knot with your tongue.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

So sad for gaaldine that you're already married and can't do the experiment. Soooooo sad.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I hate to be pedantic -- oh, what am I saying? I love to be pedantic! -- but cherry stems are not a product of industrial society.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That makes a certain amount of sense: "We've got all these damned birds! Too small to make a good meal, too annoying to leave alone...I know! They're magic!"

[timprov.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure they are in Finland.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

If they can grow in NB and Newfie, Wisconsin, here, etc., why not Finland?

[timprov.livejournal.com]

Yes, but how did they get there? (Or here?)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Black cherries are native here. I'm not sure about Finland, but there are cherry and other berry recipes from clear back.

I raise you one pedant.

[greatestofnates.livejournal.com]

The concept of French Kissing wasn't really popularized until the 20th century (I'm sure it was practiced earlier). The value of a partner with a dexterous tongue would not be as apparent to earlier societies.

Re: I raise you one pedant.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Do you want to have a conversation with me about why previous human beings might have wanted a dextrous tongue in a partner even if they hadn't been French kissing? Because I think we can skip that conversation entirely. I think everybody will be happier if we do.

I'm extremely dubious about the tongueless previous kissing idea. I've seen enough references to items passed along with a kiss etc. in pre-20th cen. folklore that I'm skeptical that it was as rare as all that.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

When I start thinking about old beliefs and superstitions, magic looks closer than I expect it to be.

That's the beauty of them, I think.

My grandfather used to get upset if I opened an umbrella or whistled in the house, and he used the phrase "Kin ahera" freely (his pronunciation: I've seen it written as "kayn ayn hora" - it means something like "the evil eye shouldn't see") whenever talking about a possible good thing happening. My grandmother made me spit after I sneezed in a cemetary. I don't think they really believed all this - but all those little actions tell me they weren't far from belief in the Evil Eye, and if you can believe in that, you can believe in wonders and marvels as well.

I suck at pedantry

[greatestofnates.livejournal.com]

I meant to say that the term "french kiss" became popular in the 20th century. I'm sure people kissed with tongues before they had a name for it. And I agree without further discussion that tongues are for other things too.

Maybe pre-Victorian/Elizabethan societies were not that prudish, but I still think that advertising skillful tongue dexterity would have been too much. Then again, I don't know much at all about real history except what I see on TV or read while in school.

Re: I suck at pedantry

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Elizabethan society was extremely bawdy. So were various other eras in various other histories. The Lokasenna? Umm. All the sexploits of the gods, sung out for the enjoyment of the whole hall. Skillful tongue dexterity is more a class issue, I think, than a time issue: in any society, there would be people who would find that sort of thing a little crass, but there would also be people who would think it was fun or who would rely on that kind of advertisement to survive.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I wish I thought that was true, but there seem to be plenty upon plenty of people who can believe in supernatural evil and misfortune but not wonders and marvels. More's the pity.

[greykev.livejournal.com]

prolific certainly, and if shallows have a nice song to attract mates I could see the tongue/mouth connection, though why it'd be kissing instead of singing to her.. ::shrug::

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I almost never am.

But you do know the story about your wife in that direction, right? I'm not telling it on lj if you don't, but I'll tell you on the phone or e-mail or something if you don't know what I'm talking about.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

bird cherry seems native to Finland, but it is a slightlly different tree.

http://www.suomenluontolehti.fi/artikkeli.php3?a=168

Regular cherries ("domesticated") grow, I think in most Europe, Asia, and America. At least it was for centuries grown in Northern Russia,then why not in Finland as well?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Considering the title of the story, it's probably good information to have about someone you're dating.