Freya's Falcon Cloak

"Freya" by Marc Potts

Freya, the Germano-Norse goddess of fertility, was said to possess a magical falcon cloak. Wearers of the cloak were transformed into a falcon.

The poem Þrymskviða features Loki borrowing Freyja's cloak of feathers and Thor dressing up as Freyja to fool the lusty jötunn Þrymr. In the poem, Thor wakes up to find that his powerful hammer, Mjöllnir, is missing. Thor tells Loki of his missing hammer, and the two go to the beautiful court of Freyja. Thor asks Freyja if she will lend him her cloak of feathers, so that he may try to find his hammer. Freyja agrees:

Benjamin Thorpe translation:

"That I would give thee, although of gold it were,

and trust it to thee, though it were of silver."[6]

Henry Adams Bellows translation:

"Thine should it be though it of silver bright,

And I would give it though 'twere of gold."[7]

Loki flies away in the whirring feather cloak, arriving in the land of Jötunheimr. He spies Þrymr sitting on top of a mound. Þrymr reveals that he has hidden Thor's hammer deep within the earth and that no one will ever know where the hammer is unless Freyja is brought to him as his wife. Loki flies back, the cloak whistling, and returns to the courts of the gods. Loki tells Thor of Þrymr's conditions.[8]

Resources:

Wikipedia contributors. "Freyja." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 16 Apr. 2015. Web. 18 Apr. 2015.

[6]Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1866). The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson. Norrœna Society.

[7]Bellows, Henry Adams (Trans.) (1923). The Poetic Edda. American-Scandinavian Foundation.

[8]Larrington, Carolyne (Trans.) (1999). The Poetic Edda. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-283946-2.

Spring robins and silkie chicks: a personal note

Winter has finally come to an end here in Alabama (fingers crossed), and the birds are returning in droves. On a drive back from Sewanee, TN, my family and I found a robin standing in the middle of the road. It didn't fly as cars drove by, and I watched in horror, waiting for it to be crushed by an oncoming car. We turned our car around, put on the hazard lights, and I scooped the robin up in my hands and carried it back to the car, wrapping it in my son's t-shirt. It was obviously in shock (probably hit a car windshield), and its eye was scabbed over. We placed the robin in a bottomless flight cage my husband had built for our diamond dove, and let it wait out the night in the garage. The next day, the robin was alert and anxious to get out of its cage, so I put some antibacterial ointment on its eye and set it free in our backyard, where after a few moments, it flew off. Hopefully its eye will get better and it will make a full recovery. One can only hope. 

My 8 year old daughter, being obsessed with silkie chickens, finally got two of them from a local silkie breeder, and she's besotted with the fuzzy chicks. Our four laying hens (Red Stars) will remain in the main coop and yard, while the silkies (when it's warm enough for them to leave the garage) will inhabit a separate coop. 

Celebrating E.A. Poe's 206 Birthday on January 19th with artwork

Print by Robotic Ewe available here

Penny Printable's E.A. Poe--The Raven print available through Society6

Abigail Larson's "Edgar Allan Poe" print available at Society 6

Deck the hens with crocheted sweaters

It has been unseasonably warm here in North Alabama, with early January temperatures reaching the mid-sixties. That has changed this week, however, and temps are dropping to the single digits, so I decided to crochet our 4 hens sweaters to keep them extra warm over the next couple of days. I found the free crochet pattern here, and they've turned out wonderful (except my hens required less length than the pattern called for). Check out the pic below!