plenilune:

brain-food:

This awe­some pack­ag­ing series, Folksaga, was designed by by Caleb Heisey.

Folksaga is a Swedish dis­tillery of akvavit, a tra­di­tional scan­di­na­vian liquor fla­vored with ingre­di­ents such as car­away, anise, or gin­ger. The con­cept behind the project was to broaden akvavit’s appeal to an American mar­ket while main­tain­ing its rich, nordic roots. Each bot­tle fea­tures a pop­u­lar folk tale from Sweden. Ranging from murky mer­maids to ter­ri­ble trolls, these mytho­log­i­cal char­ac­ters are always up to no good — prey­ing upon trav­el­ers lost in the wild. The project was art directed by Paul Kepple of Headcase Design.

…oh.

it’s only everything I’ve ever wanted. is all.

Agreed. Evan we have to try these!

(via goddess29)

I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
In summers that have been;

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.

bythegods:

Huldufólk 

I’m sure that most of you have heard tell of the elves and faeries who live in woods and dells, dwelling just beyond the reaches of human perception right? Right! Well, the Nordic peoples who spread across Western Europe brought with them the tales of their elves (or alfar) wherever they went, and those stories persist even to this day, though in some places they’re closer to the cultural surface than they are in others. 

Germany and Scandinavia have hidden alfar or elves (or a close Germanic derivative), but Iceland is an interesting example of further cultural intermingling with their Huldufólk. Norse settlers had their alfar, but Irish settlers out of the more separate Celtic tradition had their hill folk. Some tradition even attaches the Huldufólk to Adam and Eve in Christian mythology, as the second string of “unclean” children Eve bore and tried to hide from God, who then declared “What man hides from God, God will hide from man,” demonstrating what can only be described as a firm grasp of reason and judgment. 

Depending on who you ask (and when you were asking them), the various breeds of hidden people in germanic myth can be good or wicked. The Huldufólk seem to be less malicious than some mischievous elves have been known to be, and indeed are respected in much of the Icelandic cultural tradition. Some folk have even built tiny lil’ dwellings for the little people to reside in!

The origins and attitudes of the Huldufólk can change dramatically depending on who you ask about them, but their existence in Icelandic folklore can certainly be traced back a long way, even as far back as in the verses of the Eddas.