So it's you.

[mrissa]

Here's another bit from Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend that really shows an understanding of how my relatives communicate today:

When they entered the stable, the master told the boy to take the blanket off so that he could really see the horse. But as soon as the serving boy did this, his mistress appeared in the stall where the horse had been.
"Well, well," said the farmer, "so it's you."
"Yes," she said. "I've been out on Easter night."
Well, there was nothing more to be said about it.

You've been turning into a horse and running around at night and coming home with the servants riding you? What would there be to say, really? "That's different," probably. "That's different" covers a multitude of situations.

I just love this story: "So it's you." When a horse turns into your spouse, what do you say? "ACK!" "Oh my God!" "[thunk]" "What the hell? How long have you been a horse? What happened to you?" No, no, you say: "So it's you." Not even with an exclamation point. Probably with a tiny little nod.

I don't know if it'd be harder to deal with if someone you know turned into an animal or vice versa. Hmmm.

Comments

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

So that's why people tend to think I under-react.

Huh.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Uh, yah. It's what we do.

I often warn people that I get more quiet, terse, and polite as I get angry. I can also get knocked into deadpan by large good things, which is occasionally useful but sometimes misleading.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Yep. What you said.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I think the best part is "Well, there was nothing more to be said about it."

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I so understand that story.

Signed, Danish-American

[loup_noir]

Love the story, but it sure doesn't match up to my mom's side of the family. They dissect everything to the nth degree and then won't let it die. All in Sweden, originally from way up north.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Saami, or just northern Swedes?

[loup_noir]

Northern Sweden. She comes from Okelbo (sorry for the lack of diacritical marks), which is north of a town pronounced "Yahv-lay," but I have no idea how it's spelled. Close to Lappland. I know that her accent is considered "hick" by the people from Stockholm.

[touch-of-ink.livejournal.com]

This could have been my grandfather. I don't remember him ever talking at all. My mom (his daughter) rarely heard him speak. She does vividly remember the day he lost it, though.

One day, while drawing a blueprint (back in the days when it was all done by hand and had to be perfect) he was almost at the end of a job that had taken weeks. At the very end, the pen blurbed. This meant having to start the whole thing over again. He looked at it and said, "Well".

I tell yeah, the man knew how to make a word work!

(I'm here courtesy of matociquala.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My dad's uncle Fred was like that the other way. Dad was one of his favorite nephews, and they'd been really close but hadn't seen each other for five years. And when he saw Dad at the family reunion, he said, "Well. Dan'l." And stuck out his hand to shake and grinned. And that was it, but that was really all it took.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

I've got that story started! but I can't figure out what all happens in it, and thus we're still at the horse fair.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Assuming you preferred the person in human form (I'm thinking with a spouse you [generic 'you'} probably would though if not I definitely don't want to think about the implications) then it would be better to see the animal turn into the person. At least then you know that the transformation is reversible, and doesn't require seven years of silence and sewing nettles.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Heh. True, but you don't know how controllable it is, how long the spouse has kept it secret, etc.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Or whether they've recently birthed an eight-legged foal?

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Well, then.