ellefolk quarterly newsletter v.8

Ellefolk v.8, the quarterly newsletter from Under The Root, is 
running around the world now.  A fresh discount code, 
little peoples perspective, lemons, and a gigantuan hello.

http://eepurl.com/CB_BL

fairytale friday and icelandic huldufolk

The Fairy Tree by Richard Doyle

Huldufólk
Icelandic hidden people from huldu, pertaining to
secrecy, and folk, people, are one of the 13 types
of elves in Iceland.  Their dwellings are in mounds, 
and they are also called elves.  Official opposition to 
dancing may have begun in Iceland as early as the 
12th century, and the association of dancing with elves 
can be seen as early as the 15th century.  One folktale 
shows the elves siding with the common people and 
taking revenge on a sheriff who banned dance parties. 

"The Huldufólk are... not so much supernatural as
ultranatural, representing not an overcoming of nature 
in the hope of a better deal beyond but a deep reverence 
for the land and the mysterious powers able to cause 
fertility or famine."
Michael Strmiska

John Bauer

Although there is not a common origin on their 
true nature or shape, it is broadly accepted that these 
beings live in the underworld and keep a close relation 
with natural elements.  Many Icelandic sources describe 
them as quite similar to humans... according to the 
descriptions from the ones whom have been able to see them.

"The Nickur, Ninnir, and Hnikur, one of the Eddaic 
names of Odin.  He appears always in the form of a fine 
apple-grey horse on the seashore; 
but he may be distinguished from ordinary horses by the 
circumstance of his hoofs being reversed.  If any one is so 
foolish as to mount him, he gallops off, and plunges into 
the sea with his burden.  He can, however, be caught in a 
particular manner, tamed, and made to work."
Thomas Keightley

Richard Doyle

love from the lemon verbena

Lemon Verbena Love Poem by Wrigley

If you look, at the end of the day
after words are spent,
and memories begin their journey.

And the wisp that was once a
brilliant, iridescent flame,
retires to a loft of curling
lemon verbena smoke...

You'll see that I will, as on the very
first day, search for the never
written words, the one's never learned.

The one's I've yet to invent,
the one's you'll make me see,
to celebrate the 'us' that we've become.

'Till occasion brings language with the
sound of you,
I will continue to amuse every candle
with your shadow...
and begin another memory.

Lemon verbena, sometimes called vervain, 
is one of the most strongly scented and intense 
of the lemon scented plants. The essence,
both crisp and relaxing at the same time.
It is perfect for relieving indigestion,
heartburn, and as a toner for the digestive tract. 
It is also great for soothing anxiety and 
as a sedative it is helpful in insomnia.
It has uses in making perfumes and toilet water,
flavorings in baking, jelly and preserving, tea,
ice cream, or spellcasting. The flavor is similar 
to oregano, licorice, and camphor. 
The plant is native to Chile and Peru.

Lemon Verbena tree and bicycle

margaret morris and the nature winds

Margaret Morris

This body mover was a British dancer, choreographer, and teacher. 
It seems that every moment of this womyn's life was centered
around sharing the arts of dance.  Margaret had been dancing 
from a very young age and by the precocious age of twelve had 
begun to reject the strict nature of classical ballet.  In 1909 she met 
Raymond Duncan, brother of Isadora Duncan, who taught her the 
six Greek positions, adapted from images on ancient Greek vases. 
She elaborated on these to produce her own dance system aiming at 
naturalism and freedom. 
In 1922 is when she started the first educational school in England 
to combine educational subjects with educational training in 
dancing and acting.  John Fergusson Duncan became the 
art director of all her schools.  The students' curriculum included 
acting, dance composition and improvisation, Dance Notation,
design, and painting.
She was the first proponent of the Isadora Duncan technique 
in Great Britain.  She founded the Margaret Morris Movement, 
Celtic Ballet, and two Scottish National Ballets in Glasgow (1947) 
and in Pitlochry (1960).
I am in awe of her curriculum for the educational school.
As of 1925, the syllabus included all of the following:

1. The Margaret Morris method of physical culture and dancing
2. Dance composition
3. Theory of movement : Breathing
4. Theory of practice of teaching
5. Paining, design and sculpture
6. Notation of movement
7. Property and mask making
8. Dressmaking
9. Music training
10. Class singing
11. Musical composition
12. Literature; study of words; writing of plays and poems; essays
13. Diction and acting
14. Lecturing and discussion
15. Stage management, including lighting
16. Production of play and ballets
17. General organisation and business management
18. Swimming
19. Ballroom dancing

claude cahun put pepper in my milk

Claude Cahun 
One of the first female photographers to devote most of her 
image production to the self-portrait.  Her distinctive feature 
was that she used herself as a model to present a number 
of experiments with identity and gender – both as a reflection 
on her own search for an identity and as a comment on the 
social gender perception of the time.
Cahun staged herself beyond the familiar gender roles as an 
androgynous or transexual being in a surreal world.  
André Breton (1896-1966) and others admired her for the 
distinctive way she problematized female identity and the 
female gender.  Her self-portraits are among the most important 
and radical expression of the re-examination of female identity 
in the 1930´s.

fairytale friday and scandanavia

King Olof and The Little People by W. J. Wiegand

Scandinavian
The Norwegians call the Elves Huldrafolk.
The little underground Elves, who are believed to dwell 
under the houses of mankind, are described as sportive 
and mischievous, and as imitating all the actions of men. 
They are said to love cleanliness about the house and place, 
and to reward such servants as are neat and. cleanly.  

The Elves are extremely fond of dancing in the meadows, 
where they form those circles of a livelier green which from 
them are called Elf-dance (Elfdans).  When the country 
people see the morning stripes along the dewy grass in the 
woods and meadows, they say the Elves have been 
dancing there.  If any one should at midnight get within 
their circle, they become visible to him, and they may then 
elude him.  It is not every one that can see the Elves; 
and one person may see them dancing while another 
perceives nothing.  Sunday children, as they are called,  
i.e. those born on Sunday, are remarkable for possessing this 
property of seeing Elves and similar beings.  The Elves, however, 
have the power to bestow this gift on whomsoever they please. 
People also used to speak of Elf-books which they gave to those 
whom they loved, and which enabled them to foretell future events.
The Elves often sit in little stones that are of a circular form, 
and are called Elf-mills (Elf-quärnor); the sound of their voice 
is said to be sweet and soft like the air.

Sir Olof he rode out at early day,
And so came he unto an Elve-dance gay.
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.

The Elve-father reached out his white hand free,
"Come, come, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.

"O nought I will, and nought I may,
To-morrow will be my wedding-day.'
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.

And the Elve-mother reached out her white hand free,
"Come, come, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.

"O nought I will, and nought I may,
To-morrow will be my wedding-day."
The dance.it goes well,
So well in the grove.

And the Elve-sister reached out her white hand free,
"Come, come, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.

"O nought I will, and nought I may,
To-morrow will be my wedding-day."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.

And the bride she spake with her bride-maids so,
"What may it mean that the bells thus go?"
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.

"Tis the custom of this our isle," they replied;
"Each young swain ringeth home his bride."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.

"And the truth from you to conceal I fear,
Sir Olof is dead, and lies on his bier."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.

And on the morrow, ere light was the day,
In Sir Olof's house three corpses lay.
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.

 It was Sir Olof, his bonny bride,
 And eke his mother, of sorrow she died.
 The dance it goes well,
 So well in the grove.

Svenska Visor, iii. 158, as sung iii Upland and East Gothland

illustrated world of virginia frances sterrett

Blondine and the Tortoise

Europa and the Bull

Old French Fairy Tales

Blondine Threw Her Arms Around the Deer

Medea and the Snakes

Proserpina and the Sea Nymphs

Virginia Frances Sterrett
When Sterrett reached 19, two things happened: first, she received 
a commission to illustrate her very first book called Old French 
Fairy Tales by Comtesse de Segur.  Second, she came down with 
tuberculosis which soon began to sap her strength.  The race was on.
For the rest of her short life, Sterrett worked as hard as her failing 
strength would allow, illustrating Tanglewood Tales, 
the Arabian Nights, and Myths and Legends.

By the time she turned 22, she had to enter a sanatorium where she
could only work for short periods of time before resting.  Yet, Sterrett's
exhaustion does not show up in her pictures.  You do not see her
taking shortcuts or compromising the quality of her work.  She seemed
intent on making her pictures perfect, to isolate them from the 
limitations and frustrations of her life.
Virginia knew the game was fixed against her; she will not have a 
lifetime to improve her skills or compile a major body of work.
The work under those restrictions might have made sense to give
up or resort to drink, but still she persisted.  The time was devoted to
making pictures. She was almost finished with Myths and Legends when she passed 
into the spirit world.

The local newspaper, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, ran an obituary that
remarked upon the disparity between her life and exotic world
she drew:

Virginia's life spent in prosaic places of the West and Middle West,

she made pictures of haunting loveliness, suggesting Oriental lands

she never saw and magical realms no one ever knew except in the 

dreams of childhood....Perhaps it was the hardships of her own life

that gave the young girl's work its fanciful quality.  In the imaginative

scenes she set down on paper, there must have been an escape from

the harsh actualities of existence.