Welcoming our baby girl

Our baby girl was born the 8th of June at 1:35 in the night, the labor started at the same hour her brother was born (on his birthday the 7th). She is perfect and healthy, weighed 4525g and 53cm long. We have had some wonderful midsummer days and we are all happy and well! 🌸🌿💜

I did a little photoshoot in the garden underneath our big purple rhododendron, which has been blooming just around the same time both of my children were born.

Mother Blessing

This weekend in late April I experienced one of the most magical and uplifting days of my life. Some of my friends decided to host a Mother Blessing for me! Most people have never heard about this before, but many are familiar with baby showers. This concept is an alternative to baby shower, where the mother is in focus.

I’ve personally felt a bit uncomfortable with baby showers, as I felt somewhat weird about the way it is usually conducted. I didn’t know much about Mother Blessings, but I had convinced myself I was not really interested, and deep down I thought it would never happen to me anyways, so I had kind of forgotten about it. I was so surprised when I heard that some friends really wanted to do this for me, it touched my heart but I really didn’t feel as if I deserved it. I had felt sad, anxious and lonely while being pregnant with my firstborn, even more so after giving birth, living far away from everyone I loved. In the time that followed I got busy trying to create networks and meetups of other people and mothers who think more like me, who want to raise their children more in tune with nature, and who are into gentle parenting, homeschooling and creating strong caring families. And have since found a little tribe of other mothers and families which I absolutely adore!

The Mother Blessing was held at the homestead farm of my friend Marie who is homeschooling 3 (soon 4) children! She is amazing and I admire what she does so much. The ceremony was lead by my dear friend whose name is also Marie, and the amusing thing is that we are all 3 pregnant and due this summer! We were all new to Mother Blessings, so it was really awesome to get to try it out, finding the path and doing it in a way that felt right and natural to us.

I was 8 months pregnant at the time, and was lead into a green room decorated with flowers, petals, crystals, soothing music, beautiful bunted flags and just a very comfortable atmosphere with a view towards forests and mountains and a lake. After being greeted and hugged by my friends and chatting briefly, we all sat down on pillows in a circle, where we were served cacao and having a grounding meditation to settle into our bodies and the atmosphere.

Then everyone introduced themselves (not everyone knew each other beforehand), telling how we met and a few words about our friendship and what they liked or felt inspired of about me. This touched me deeply! I’m always nervous about “being too much”, or that other people are barely tolerating my company and that I’m bad at friendships and so on. Hearing my friends heartfelt words about what I meant for them blew my mind! Sometimes I get long messages online from people I never met in reality which are super heartwarming and comforting as well, but it is something else hearing it from people I actually meet, it’s as if it makes it more real.
I love these people so much, I adore them and if you too have my friendship, I’m ridiculously loyal and will most likely love you forever. Even if I’m bad at expressing it.

I struggled to not cry tears of gratefulness and happiness so many times, afraid of tears pouring down for the rest of the day.

Afterwards, everyone got aquarelle colors and brushes to paint a little card for me, with birth affirmations… and they were all so beautiful and I’ll bring them for my labor!

Some examples of birth affirmations:

Then I got to experience the surreal but highly enjoyable sensation of being placed in this gorgeous velvet purple chair with a footbath full of herbs and flowers! While simultaneously getting my head massaged, hair gently brushed and braided, while some other friends made such a pretty flower wreath which later adorned my head! And Marie painted my belly in a beautiful pattern with henna! I got massage on my hands and shoulders and Camilla joked by feeding me grapes like a spoiled royal 😉 I was also given raw cacao energy balls.

Then we all sat down in a circle again, and everyone was asked by turn to bring me their gifts, and words of wisdom, encouragement and good vibes. I will treasure those words forever. It was as if everyone was speeching from something higher than themselves, and those words reached directly into my and the other women’s hearts, bringing many of us to tears. It was about birth, about becoming a mother of 2, about strength and courage and a beautiful future. About the combined power of all these strong powerful souls and mothers and what we can accomplish!

I got so many great things! For a Mother Blessing, you bring gifts for the mother, especially for before and after the baby is born. I got various herbs (for tea, herbal baths etc), balms, dandelion oil, soap, a green knitted shawl, a plant, a baby wrap, beautiful things like candle holder, a peacock feather, pinecone, wooden mushroom, fairy keychain…

I also got a poem, one of my favorites:

Everyone attending the Mother Blessing got their own white candle to light when I go into labor. The purpose of this is to think of the birthing mother and support her through those hours, sending her positive thoughts and wishes and prayers, and let the mother know she is being supported from near and far. You keep the candle lit until the safe arrival of her baby happens. Positive energy and thoughts matters and can make an impact in this world.

A beautiful way to close the circle is by having a spool of yarn or thread which each woman wraps around her own wrist before passing it to the woman next to her who does the same. Once it has gone around to each woman in the circle including the mother several times, weaving both in the front and the back, some words can be spoken about the web of connectivity and support within her circle of woman friends. This intentionally weaves a web of loving care around the pregnant woman, imbuing her with an energy that will carry her forward into her postpartum days.

Then each woman takes a turn to help cut the strings of the woman next to her. Most of us braided or finger crocheted the thread. Everyone ends up with a string bracelet that stays on until the mother goes into labor. Whenever her community looks at the thread, they will think of the mother. (Perhaps send a text or make a phone call.) The mother will be in their thoughts and prayers continually leading up to the birth.

A communication system can then be set up where the mother or father-to-be lets one person from the community know when birth is happening, and then that person is in charge of texting or calling the rest of the women to let them know.
The thread joins all the women in a circle… everyone continue wearing the bracelet and send the mother positive, loving thoughts and helping her release the baby until they hear the joyous news that the baby is born, only then is the thread removed.

The thread also symbolises our lineage of ancestors, the matriarchal line, recognising the incredible strengths of our foremothers in pregnancy, birth and in daily life. As we sit in circle we call on this strength of the feminine and we ask that healing flows back down the line to our grandmothers, and that it flows forward in time to our children and grandchildren we are yet to meet. (I wore an amethyst necklace I inherited from my grandmother this day.)

“Before we were conceived, we existed in part as an egg in our mother’s ovary. All the eggs a woman will ever carry form in her ovaries while she is a four-month old fetus in the womb of her mother, our grandmother.”

Then we went to sit by the table and eat a super delicious dinner! It was spicy tomato sauce with moose meat, beans, rice, and a beautiful salad in my favorite colors; green and purple.

Afterwards we went to sit in the circle again, eating raw cake, energy balls, fruit, berries and drinking herbal tea. I got to read aloud all the birth affirmation cards they painted. We talked and chatted about pregnancy, birth and children until well into the evening, then it was time to take the journey home. It wasn’t that late into the evening actually, but it was the first time I was not at home in the evening putting my soon-to-be 4 year old to sleep. His grandpa took care of that. A surreal and freeing feeling!

The next days I was glowing and my heart felt so warm from all that had happened during the Mother Blessing. My heart was overflowing with love and gratitude for these beautiful women in my life, and knowing they were thinking of me and sending love every time they looked at their bracelet meant so much. I felt so empowered and cared for. I’ll forever be grateful for this! And I hope my yet unborn daughter will get to read this some day and be fortunate enough to experience something similar before giving birth herself.

I wish every mother-to-be would get to experience something like this! Have you heard about a Mother Blessing before? Or done something like it?

Pregnancy announcement and a maternity photoshoot in the beautiful spring forest

I’m so happy to share with you that we are expecting a baby girl in June (due on the summer solstice)! Our son will become a big brother and this is all so exciting! It’s hard to imagine what life will be like, but we are following our dreams and feel truly blessed. Now we’re going to enjoy our last weeks as a family of 3, and do quite some preparations before the little one arrives. Feels great to finally tell you these news!

I felt slightly inspired by art nouveau for this look… except I didn’t wear one of those iconic headdresses… but I definitely dream about making one in the future. My necklace is also in the art nouveau- style. What else to say, than I can assure you not many of my clothes fit me at the moment.

These pictures were taken in the area where we live, while walking a path along the fjord, where lots of wild garlic are growing.

Forever barefoot!

And here is a picture I took after our ultrasound scan when it was confirmed we are expecting a little girl. These were the only girl’s clothing items I had laying in our house at the time. But I have lots more already stored in my parents house, which I’ve collected over the years… because it seems I actually insisted on having a girl one day. Although I have loved being just a boy’s mom so much: I think boy’s are the coolest most amazing beings… and my heart breaks thinking it won’t just be us two anymore. Anyways… having one of each feels so right, and is what was meant for us.

Why Tolkien’s elves had long hair: The final evidence!

“He wore his long dark hair in great plaits braided with gold.” Fingon, High King of the Noldor


“The hair of Olwë was long and white, and his eyes were blue.” Olwë, king of the Teleri


“His golden hair flowed shimmering in the wind of his speed.” Glorfindel of Rivendell

J.R.R. Tolkien

Whenever Tolkien described a specific elven character he always wrote long hair. In the only drawing we know of where Tolkien painted an elf, he had long dark hair flowing behind him.

“Beleg in Taur-na-Fuin” illustrated by J.R.R. Tolkien

In the wake of Amazon Prime’s Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power teaser trailer being released, and the pictures that’s been published this past week, we can safely say that they have chosen to predominately make the male elves have short hair, in sharp contrast to Peter Jackson’s adaptations. So who is right and who is wrong?

Amazon has so far shown us 4 male elves with short hair, and only one with long hair.
This is Arondir, ‘unknown elf’, Elrond and Finrod.
A bunch of male elves in Lindon with super short American haircuts. Screenshot from the teaser trailer.

If the above quotations and Tolkien’s own illustration are not proof enough that the hair of elves were long, here are some further evidence from his writings:

“But most it was their wont to sail in their swift ships upon the waters of the Bay of Elvenhome, or to walk in the waves upon the shore with their long hair gleaming like foam in the light beyond the hill.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

This statement regarding Elvish long hair is made in Quenta Silmarillion phase 1 texts, given in History of Middle-earth 10, regarding the Teleri elves.

Elwë himself had long and beautiful hair of silver hue, but this [hair color] does not seem to have been a common feature of the Sindar, though it was found among them occasionally, especially in the nearer or remoter kin of Elwë. – J.R.R. Tolkien, The War of the Jewels, “Quendi and Eldar”

“Then Celegorm arose amid the throng” (p. 169). In Quenta Silmarillion this is followed by ‘golden was his long hair‘. – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lost Road and Other Writings: the Commentary to “On Beren and Tinúviel”

Fingon wore his long dark hair in great plaits braided with gold.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Peoples of the Middle-earth: “The Shibboleth of Fëanor”. Fingon was a High King of the Noldor.

The hair of Olwë was long and white, and his eyes were blue” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The War of the Jewels: “The Grey Annals”. Olwë was the younger brother of Elwë.

“The hair of the Lady was of deep gold, and the hair of the Lord Celeborn was of silver long and bright” Celeborn has long hair.

His golden hair flowed shimmering in the wind of his speed.” Glorfindel of Rivendell (The Fellowship of the Ring)

Glorfindel’s hair had to have been pretty fabulous, because Tolkien just won’t stop talking about it. First of all, Glorfindel’s name literally means “golden hair/goldtress”. In fact, his hair was so fabulous that it killed him. He was fighting a balrog along a cliff, and when he managed to stab the balrog, it fell off the cliff. But as it was falling, it reached up and “clutched Glorfindel’s yellow locks”, and the two fell to their deaths.

Glorfindel’s hair had to be long enough to be grabbed securely by a balrog, which might have had much bigger hands than a human. So the hair should have been long enough to hold securely. Maybe you could try grabbing people’s hair to see how long it has to be to get a good grip, a grip strong enough to pull someone off a cliff instead of having the hair slip through your fingers or rip out of their scalp. Hair also has to be fairly long for it to flow shimmering in the wind!

The Elves of Valinor: ‘With their gleaming hair in the wind flying(The Lays of Beleriand);

The Silvan Elves in Mirkwood (Teleri) have hair long enough to twine flowers into: “Their gleaming hair was twined with flowers; green and white gems glinted on their collars and their belts; and their faces and their songs were filled with mirth.” –The Hobbit, Flies and Spiders

Long hair for Elves implied by them unbraiding it and letting it blow freely in the wind, in The Song of Aelfwine:

There blowing free unbraided hair
is meshed with beams of Moon and Sun,
And twined within those tresses fair
a gold and silver sheen is spun
,
As fleet and white the feet go bare,
and lissom limbs in dances run,
Shimmering in the shining air:
such loveliness to look upon
No mortal man hath ever won.

Lost Road, FNII

Ingwë had curling golden hair. Finwë (and Míriel) had long dark hair, so had Fëanor and all the Noldor, save by intermarriage which did not often take place between clans, except among the chieftains, and then only after settlement in Aman. Elwë and Olwë had very pale hair, almost white. Melian was dark-haired, and so was Lúthien.”
– The Nature of Middle-earth – “Hair”

Finwë’s hair was no longer than other elves:

“All the Eldar had beautiful hair (and were especially attracted by hair of exceptional loveliness), but the Noldor were not specially remarkable in this respect, and there is no reference to Finwë as having had hair of exceptional length, abundance, or beauty beyond the measure of his people.”

The Peoples of Middle-earth – “The Shibboleth of Feanor”

So Tolkien stated that all the Noldor had long dark hair, and that Finwë (one of the Noldor) did not have longer or more beautiful hair than the other races of elves. Thus, it seems quite clear that all elves must indeed have had long abundant hair!

It’s also the case that many of the Noldor have “hair names” – Finwë, Fingolfin, Finarfin, Findis, Fingon, Finrod, Finduilas, all contain “fin” which is “hair”. This is no doubt significant. In The History of Middle Earth Vol. XII, The Peoples of Middle Earth, “The Shibboleth of Fëanor,” there’s a discussion of the name Finwë and whether or not his name had anything to do with the word element for hair (fin). It’s mentioned that all the Eldar had beautiful hair and that especially nice hair was a mark of physical attractiveness. It’s said that Finwë’s hair was not remarkable for length, color, or thickness. This suggests that in elves, extra length, unusual color, and/or abundance were prized. There are 29 hits for ”hair” in the Silmarillion only, describing how the hair of elves was ”long” and of ”great length”.

The elves even made bowstrings out of elf hair: “To Legolas [Galadriel] gave a bow such as the Galadhrim used, longer and stouter than the bows of Mirkwood, and strung with a string of elf-hair.– Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 8

“In western lands beneath the Sun
the flowers may rise in Spring,
the trees may bud, the waters run,
the merry finches sing.
Or there maybe ’tis cloudless night
and swaying beeches bear
the Elven-stars as jewels white
amid their branching hair.”

In Western Lands (J.R.R. Tolkien)

Amroth, the last elven king of Lórien was portrayed with flowing hair:

The wind was in his flowing hair,
The foam about him shone;
Afar they saw him strong and fair
Go riding like a swan.

J.R.R. Tolkien The Song of Nimrodel

“The face of Elrond was ageless, neither old nor young, though in it was written the memory of many things both glad and sorrowful. His hair was dark as the shadows of twilight, and upon it was set a circlet of silver; his eyes were grey as a clear evening, and in them was a light like the light of stars. Venerable he seemed as a king crowned with many winters, and yet hale as a tried warrior in the fullness of his strength. He was the Lord of Rivendell and mighty among both Elves and Men.” – J.R.R. Tolkien.

While the length of Elrond’s hair is not mentioned (besides Tolkien stating that all the Noldor had long beautiful hair and Elrond is a Noldo), it is otherwise indicated by wearing a circlet around his head, which is normally used to keep long hair in place. Other male elves are also said to wear a circlet around their hair, as well as Tolkien’s long-haired human kings.


If you were an elf, why would you choose to have short hair?

The elves are specifically designed in the books as ethereal beings with powers and physique far surpassing humans, even supernatural in many ways. This probably includes the ability to keep long silky hair in good repair even during battle and harsh conditions, far away from any salons and hair-grooming servants.

Here is a conjecture made with Lord Elrond as an example. At the time he left Middle-earth, he was 6,000 years old. Let us make the following calculation:

1. Elves, being naturally healthy, have fast-growing hair that grows long and beautiful. If they let it grow, they don’t need haircuts.
2. If they want a short hairstyle, let’s say they need to get a haircut at least every two months. Being beautiful elves, they want a bit of styling.
3. A haircut takes about half an hour.
4. That’s six haircuts, or three hours of getting a haircut, per year.
5. That’s 3 hours times 6,000 years, or 18,000 hours at the barber shop.
6. 18,000 hours is 750 days, about two years.

Would you want to spend 2 years getting your hair cut? Elrond had better things to do! Just imagine living for all eternity and having to go to the hairdresser every month or so.

To function visually on film and for the pointy ears to show, the actor either need to have really short hair or really long hair, anything in-between and the hair would mostly get in the way. Just a theory of why Amazon chose those really short haircuts.

Very short hair you can have trimmed back once a month or so, but you have to keep on top of it or it grows out. Long hair is more manageable because after a certain length its weight keeps it out of the way, or you can just tie it back if necessary. Mid-length hair is the most difficult to deal with. Long hair is easier to bind back and less likely to get in the eyes than medium-length hair. So either the elves should have really short hair or quite long hair for practicality reasons.

Choose which one you would prefer if being immortal: having effortlessly long hair of terminal length, or struggling to constantly keep it short (against its nature)? As a primeval creature who is depicted as living in graceful harmony with nature I think the choice would be easy. Cutting the hair of elves is like mutilating the branches of a tree, it just looks wrong. Depicting elves as having long hair accentuates their timelessness, longevity and the lack of a need to primp and flaunt their physical form, which is said to be already perfect.


The history and psychology of short hair

Short hair was originally a war haircut in human history, especially among the Romans. “The short hair and beardless fashion we see today didn’t become commonplace until during WWI, both for purposes of hygiene and to ensure a good seal on the gas mask. It was also psychological: everybody looks the same, individuality becomes irrelevant.” Elves on the other hand, live for thousands and thousands of years… they would never be bothered by lice or bad hygiene, and they spend a very small percentage of that time fighting. If they like long hair, they aren’t going to get rid of it because it might be annoying in a hypothetical battle that they might be involved in in a century or so. Besides, hair of some length was actually an asset when wearing certain types of helmets.

It’s worth noting that most of the characters in The Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion are high-status individuals (lords, nobles, princes, kings, etc.) for whom any difficulty in maintaining long hair wouldn’t be a serious worry.

Long hair has historically stood for health, nobility, strength and power

The out-of-universe explanation is that in the mythical material Tolkien loved and wanted to imitate, long hair for men wasn’t considered at all unusual. It might often even be described as one element of his good looks. Meanwhile, through the early Middle Ages, short hair or even a shaved head was usually considered a mark of servitude or slavery, or of sickness/bad health.

Tolkien’s main goal was always to link our history with that of Middle Earth. Lord of the Rings originated as a sort of replacement mythology for Celtic myths that had been largely lost (as well as other Norse myths). That particular culture favored long hair, particularly for warriors. It was hardly unique in this; similar patterns show up across millennia on basically every inhabited continent.

The earliest preserved descriptions of elves comes from Norse mythology, where they are known as álfar (meaning white). They are commonly described as semi-divine beings associated with fertility and the cult of the ancestors. In the High Middle Ages, germanic cultures valued long hair, especially for warriors: vikings were known to comb and groom their long hairs, and frankish lords valued their long braids sometimes above their own life, because short hair was considered as the mark of peasants or clerics. The Iliad uses the epithet “long haired Achaeans”, for those manliest of men, the dark age Greeks. The Spartans purposefully grew their hair long to intimidate their enemies. So “hero” equals “long hair” as often as not in our myths, stories and legends.

Ultimately though it’s just a cultural thing. Fashions swing constantly. Reasons behind the fashion choices vary as well… there are both practical and cultural status reasons that could be given for anything. At the moment we’re going through a phase for men to have short hair, but that’ll swing back round. In most other time periods men with long hair wouldn’t draw a second glance. There are some cultures where long hair is still the norm for men, and it has generally been common in most cultures. During the period(s) that LotR was aiming to invoke, both books and films, long hair among men was unremarkable, if not normative. It don’t seem like short hair was considered “masculine” on every social level before WWI and II. On the contrary, many people think long hair look far more masculine and powerful. The elves had no reasons to differentiate gender on hair length, why would they? That’s a purely modern social construct.

Elves are depicted as fearless and bold. Why would they succumb to fear or (modern human) societal conformist standards and cut off their hair?

Long hair is associated with wisdom, spirituality and intuition

Long hair has always been associated with wisdom. And the elves were said to be wise and deeply in tune with the spiritual sides of life.

Many ancient cultures maintain that hair is an extension of not only the human nervous system but also the soul. Long uncut hair is said to act as antennas that transmit important information to the brain stem, the limbic system, and the neocortex.

Many years ago I read an article called “The Truth About Hair and Why Indians Would Keep Their Hair Long”. It told about how some Native American men with outstanding, almost supernatural, tracking abilities were recruited to serve in the Vietnam War. “When questioned about their failure to perform as expected, the recruits replied consistently that when they received their required military haircuts, they could no longer ‘sense’ the enemy, they could no longer access a ‘sixth sense’, their ‘intuition’ no longer was reliable, they couldn’t ‘read’ subtle signs as well or access subtle extrasensory information.” An institute then initiated tests in multiple areas, and found significant differences in the men with intact hair.

We usually think of hair as just being a matter of personal preference, but in reality its much more than that. Nature (or Ilúvatar according Tolkien) put every hair on your body for a reason. In Native cultures, men and women are recognized by the length and glory of their hair. The cutting of hair by oppressors has long represented the submission and defeat of a people, through humiliation. The way a people comb, braid and tie their hair is of great significance. Hair is just not a fashion accessory for aesthetic advancement, it’s literally the pinnacle of their spiritual expression and is a source of their strength, intuition and power.

Some more examples of how long haired males were the norm in Tolkien’s Middle Earth:

In fact, the only reference or race who seem to have ever been described with short hair according to Tolkien are hobbits. Long hair wasn’t reserved for elves, but seems to be common all over Middle Earth:

“The men that rode [the horses] matched them well: tall and long-limbed; their hair, flaxen-pale, flowed under their light helms, and streamed in long braids behind them; their faces were stern and keen.” The Rohirrim had long hair.

His white hair was long and thick and fell in great braids from beneath a thin golden circlet set upon his brow.” (Theoden – TTT)

‘Proud and tall he seemed, the hair that flowed beneath his high helm was like snow; and many marveled at him and took heart to see him unbent and unafraid.’ (TheodenROTK)

Plenty of human warriors in LotR have long hair too, like Èomer; they either tie it back in battle or it lies on their shoulders below the helmet. Bard’s hair was long enough to ‘fall over his face and shoulders’. The Southrons that Gollum sees have long hair, and Sam sees one having plaits with gold braided into them. Aragorn had hair blowing in the wind. Boromir and Faramir are other examples, they too have remnants of elven blood, and are noted for their fair looks of long dark hair and no beard.

“And so they [Faramir and Èowyn] stood on the walls of the City of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air.” For Faramir’s hair to be mingling with Èowyn’s, it must have been really long, as he was much taller than her. For further exploration, read this.

Boromir: “They combed his long dark hair and arrayed it upon his shoulders.” (LOTR, The Departure of Boromir, p. 416).

Tuor: “his hair streamed from his head(UT, Part One, I. Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin, p. 32)

Túrin:‘For his garb was of the wild woods and his hair was long(The Book of Lost Tales)

Eorl the Young: ‘His yellow hair was flying in the wind’ (TTT)

Sam observed that the Haradrim had “black plaits of hair braided with goldTTT, LoTR Book 4, Ch 4

[Gandalf’s] long white hair, his sweeping silver beard, and his broad shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient legend.”

The Witch-king of Angmar: ‘His hair was long and gleaming’ (FOTR); in an earlier draft of the scene, Tolkien wrote that all the Ringwraiths had long hair: ‘Upon their long grey hair were crowns and helms of pale gold’

Even the Balrog is described as having long hair: ‘Its streaming hair seemed to catch fire, and the sword that it held turned to flame’ (The Return of the Shadow)

These are obviously some very few examples, as I didn’t delve as deep to find these. But if long hair was so common and prized even among men, just imagine how it would be among the elves! Did Tolkien ever even describe a character as having short hair? I don’t think so and couldn’t find any, except for hobbits. But we have numerous descriptions of long hair, both in elves and men.

But wHY DoeS it MAtteR?

Or this other statement that’s been going around: “That doesn’t have to mean that some elves didn’t have short hair, since Tolkien never specifically stated that ALL elves had long hair?” No, not necessarily, but there simply are no evidence for short haired elves whatsoever, in contrary to the heavy proofs stating that they had indeed long hair. We don’t have any evidence that some elves didn’t have purple hair either, and it would be weird to make it the new standard, when hair colors they actually had is regularly described.

The only place we see a short haired elf is in fandom by the artist Jenny Dolfen, where the character Maedhros’ red hair is cut as a form of humiliation when he is captured by orcs and hanged by the wrist of his hand at the mountainside of Thangorodrim for 30 years in torturous agony as a captive of Morgoth:

“Maedhros was ambushed, and all his company was slain, but he himself was taken alive by the command of Morgoth, and taken to Angband.”

Are Amazon trying to provoke, or do they despise long-haired men?

Either the people in Amazon working on character designs have something personal against long-haired men, or they are just looking for ways to provoke the fanbase and put their own mark on it. One thing is certain: Amazon is definitely aiming to provoke on many levels, and I don’t think it will benefit them, as long as they don’t let it make sense lorewise. Only time will tell if they will give us any answers, and although it is unlikely, I’ll be fair and include it in this article. Update: They actually did, the showrunners kind of shrugged and said that they just thought that elves would get tired of having long hair all the time. But the thing is, long hair gives you endless variations of hair-do’s, short hair gives basically none. So no deep thoughts or research went into this. Besides, not a single female elf have short hair; why wouldn’t they get bored?

Middle Earth is supposed to be this lost ancient time missed by human history. There’s supposed to be something very archaic, graceful and deep about Tolkien’s world, something that’s gritty and realistic but at the same time larger-than-life, something that the movie trilogy absolutely nailed. A subtle sense of majesty and profoundness, magical and elegant, yet also lighthearted and wholesome.

Elves are “fair of face beyond the measure of Men”. In Tolkien’s writings that does not merely mean physically attractive, but also noble and virtuous. They exuded warmth and compassion. Their physical bodies were ‘a veil that did not wholly conceal their spirits’; and those among them who had lived in the Undying Lands and had seen the light of the Two Trees shone with an inner light that dazzled mortal eyes. They were joyful and full of life; not stonefaced, sullen, and humourless, as Peter Jackson unfortunately often portrayed them. Although most of us loved the way they appeared in the movies, and I think most can agree that their design were quite remarkable:

I would say Amazon seem to be greatly missing their chance to show us the rightful depiction of elves true to Tolkien’s legendarium, which we have waited for during all these long years. It’s not that fans necessarily want to see elves the way the film trilogy imagined them. But with today’s technology we expect something even more impressive and otherworldly than was made 20 years ago, something created with even more love and eye for intricate details.

Since diversity and representation seems to be important to Amazon, the fact that they are making a majority of their male characters short-haired are puzzling. In many parts of the world now, including America and Europe, men and boys have to fight for the right to grow out their locks. They are tired of being persecuted, ridiculed, bullied, harassed and threatened in their daily life, or forced to cut their hair to get a job or to join the army. Young boys and children especially are constantly pressured and bullied to cut off their hair. Lord of the Rings were one of the few things we had which made this situation easier, and brought hope and inspiration to all of us. Amazon are sadly obviously catering to the mainstream pop-culture in their view of appropriate hairstyles.

Amazon have however experienced lots of backlash from Tolkien fans all over the world, and this is a few of the reactions towards their predominantly short-haired elves:

“I am so not here for these modern, real world hair cuts I’ve seen in the elvish men so far.”

-“Who ever had the idea to give all the male elves short hair should be fired immediately. Give them long hair for pity sake.”

-“These elves are ridiculous and unimpressive, and the dignified aura is entirely absent.”

-“All of these characters look like cosplay. Like they went dumpster diving through the costume trunk in the attic. Why don’t the male elves have long hair?”

-“Therapist: “Short-haired Elrond isn’t real. He cannot hurt you.”
Short-haired Elrond: “……”

 
-“There is nothing ethereal or otherworldly about these shots. This could be a GoT set. I’m not convinced they are going to capture the scale, majesty or magic of the work at all.”

-“No ethereal elves, only manly men in t-shirts.”

-“Those elves really do have the most hideous haircuts I have ever seen.”

-“Its like Jeff Bezos is trying to normalize not having hair because he’s bald.”

Is Amazon ‘longhairophobic’? Or did Jeff Bezos (the owner of Amazon) feel offended because of all that long gorgeous hair?

If Amazon want to showcase less ethereal and intimidating elves to the world, maybe they should write their own fantasy book trilogy, or help making film adaptations of the Witcher or Dragon Age instead, because they are obviously creating fanfic in the wrong fandom.


Here you can see some more pictures of Tolkien’s characters masterfully brought to life by the fandom:

What’s your thoughts about all this? Do you have any more ponderings/reasonings/theories? Or even more examples from Tolkien’s writings and letters? Or what do you think of Amazon’s elves? I would love to hear from you!

Disclaimer: I’m not a Tolkien expert, just a lifelong fan who has read Tolkien’s works numerous times. Putting together this article took me weeks of research and writing. I couldn’t find any articles about this, that’s why I felt it was so important to write one. Here are some links/sources:

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/33693/do-male-elves-have-long-or-short-hair
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-the-elves-in-LOTR-all-have-long-hair-instead-of-short-er-hair-like-the-humans-Wouldnt-short-hair-be-more-practical-in-battle
https://askmiddlearth.tumblr.com/post/45860682877/elf-hair-length?
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?547104-Why-does-everyone-in-Lord-of-the-Rings-have-long-hair

Simon and Jasmine Dale’s hobbit house: An eco dream!

Most of us have heroes or people they look up to in life. For me, it is mostly people who lead the way towards a more green, beautiful and sustainable future. Ever since I discovered Simon Dale with his self-built hobbit house in 2007, he’s been the kind of person I highly admire, and I so wish everyone would aspire to become more like these amazing people. Simon Dale is basically like a rock star in the world of natural building and living. He is a true pioneer, as well as one of the most kind-hearted and inspiring people I have ever met. Whatever the situation, he seemed to be smiling, even though usually working tirelessly from morning till late evening.

Simon is known for his inspiring and innovative low-impact design and building techniques – especially his sculpted organic forms and rustic round-wood timber structures. He’s been setting new standards in the world of natural building for years.

“Since 2003 my family have been living and building on the land. We have found that for a few thousand pound and a few months work it is possible to create simple shelters that are in harmony with the natural landscape, ecologically sound and are a pleasure to live in. There is something powerfully alluring with such natural buildings. Their simplicity and cost makes them accessible; their beauty and use of natural materials remind us of our ancestral right and ability to live well as part of the landscape.”

Simon Dale

His wife Jasmine once said: «This romantic magical fairtytale is our home. We liked the idea of fairies, myths and things like that.» Together they have two children, named Cosmo and Elfie. «Looking after young children and having a huge mortgage is a recipe for stress. We didn’t want to expose our precious babies to a home full of toxic materials inherent in most buildings. This was some of the reasons why we decided to take the plunge and go off the beaten track.»

Although it seems like a dream, it has been a lot of hard work:

“Every spare moment is spent working on something, building, harvesting crops, it’s difficult but the eventual reward will be creating a home. So far we are producing 100% of our fuel needs, 100% of our electricity needs and 100% of our waste treatment,”

Jasmine Dale

They started on windswept, steep and bare fields with no road, water or electricity. But they found the steep hillside to be perfect for earth sheltered dwellings. «Through the permaculture design process, we were able to devise a creative design that would meet our wishes to transform the bare pasture into a diverse and resilient haven for ourselves and other species.»

Jasmine has done an amazing job with the gardens, the transformation over the years are truly impressive. She is a deeply skilled permaculturist and holds courses and writes books about it, really inspirational! In 2018, over 10,000 trees, shrubs and plants had been planted and 6 ponds created. This supplied them with thousands of pounds of vegetables and hundreds of jars of pickles and jams. A flock of sheep were grazing on one of their fields.

«Increasing numbers of small mammals, bird life and insects now reside on this plot. Creating micro-climates of sun and shade and shelter from wind have created a network of beneficial relationships, which in turn support the growing of less resilient crops. We’ve seen higher yields of food and a drastic reduction of pests and slugs as the restored ecosystems begin to thrive.»

Jasmine Dale

Simon and Jasmine built their home called the Undercroft in 2009; an earth sheltered roundhouse, protected from the wind and facing the sun. It cost about $6,000 to build, and took a few months of work. The building was constructed from local and natural materials, and heated with wood. The walls were built with logs, strawbales and plastered with lime, and there is a reciprocal roof. On the south side there is a reclaimed glasshouse, which captures and stores the sun’s energy and rain water and supplies them with food. There is also a bath in there for enjoying a sunset, sunrise or moonlight soak under the stars. Inspired by earthship principles, the glasshouse insulates the house, allowing winter sun in and keeping summer sun out. Dug into the hill, this little house requires little heating and keeps itself cool in the summer.

Simon Dale basically looks like a grown up version of how I envisioned Harry Potter (with that hair living its own life), but his personality is more like a happy, but wise, hobbit.

«You can see from the photos our home is unusual, but the aesthetic appeals to lots of people and perhaps touches something innate in us that evolved in forests. My aesthetic is generally soft and curved, coming mostly from the natural world. Between making my first and second houses I read Christopher Day who explains well the benefits of organic forms in architecture for our minds and soul. Rectangular rooms do feel box-like and slightly claustrophobic in comparison.

I think it touches something common, a romantic idea of some fantasy past/alternative. Everyone says it is like a hobbit house. I think Tolkien draws the hobbits as the innocent representation of humans in a wholesome natural state. People instinctively relate to this, especially in the context of modernity.

I believe we will see an increase in individually produced homes of natural materials, built out of what is around us and that are easily available. This in turn means more opportunities for creative, non-linear and organic designs. When we are working with, rather than against nature, the rest of nature works with us and things become easy. This is Permaculture.»

Simon Dale

Here you can see the greenhouse going around their house, in the front where it is not part of the ground. The last picture shows how it looks like on the backside, where the roof is one with the hillslope. It functions as a space for storage and air circulation. Nice and dry, like a tunnel.

Th cob veggie beds stores the heat of the sun.

Surrounded by magical Foxgloves!

A look at the interior of this small, but beautiful and functional home.

Gorgeous kitchen with numerous details.

The bedroom section of the house. Here you can see the reciprocal roof. It is a very strong, beautiful and easy type of roof which I highly recommend to study in more detail. They don’t have to be round, they also can be oval or in other organic shapes.

Above: How the house looks like from the back, almost invisible in the landscape, except for the little chimney and the little roof window. As with all of his houses, there is a green roof. We volunteers had lunch here together every day!

The Dale family’s dog and cat!

Here you can watch some youtube-clips about their beautiful house. Here is a link to the Norwegian version.

This little house was meant to be a temporary home while they built their bigger and very impressive “Hobbit Mansion”, which we helped buil, and which you can read all about in one of the next chapters of this blog!

DIY leaf crown: Enchanting autumn picnic with pumpkin pie in the forest

One of the last days of October I invited my friend @nolemire for an autumn picnic in the forest. You see, we happen to be almost neighbours a few times of the year, as she coinsidentally moved to the area my family’s seaside cabin is located, with basically just some fields and a little forest between her house and the cabin. And in the middle: a little forest owned by my parents!

The thought of owning my own forest has always felt so thrilling to me. We own some woodland around our current home, bordering to forests and fields, but not as much as I’d like…. The amount of forest I would prefer is endless (I have countless things I would like to use it for, for example inviting people to live there in harmony with nature and create a wondrous, magical, blessed life full og beauty and biodiversity)

Anyways, it was exactly in that little forest halfway between me and Nolemire that we decided to have a picnic. I woke up early that day together with my little toddler (as usual), and baked a pumpkin pie. We then travelled to our seaside-cabin, before venturing up towards the forest, bringing a picnic blanket and a tiny bit of decorations… As well as the leaf crowns I’d made a few days before.

It was wonderful to see Nolemire again, over a year since last time, due to lockdown and not getting to travel much lately… I hadn’t managed to go up north to meet my friends and family since last christmas, although a few have come visiting me.

Now the ground were covered in frost and Halloween was just a couple of days ahead. Nolemire always looks like the autumn queen herself, and here home is like a medieval autumn forest. She brought spicy tea to pour in wooden goblets, and leafy plates for the pumpkin pie and cream.

I also brought a copy of Enchanted Living @faeriemagazine for us to enjoy out in the forest. I’ve forgotten to show you, but I wrote an article with my best tips about how to make your home look and feel magical 🌿🍂🌸 It’s really personal to me and I rarely share this much about it, so I hope it can be useful for people. It’s in the Magical Spaces issue, available also as a digital download here.

We had such a cozy time! And we always have so much to talk about. I definitely fulfilled my picnic dreams among those trees 🌳🌲 And she captured these beautiful moments which I will cherish forever.

P.S. My velvet gold kimono was found on Etsy. The knitted flags are from Maileg. Everything else is thrifted.

How I made our maple leaf crowns:

I’d been seeing those gorgeous leaf crowns on some of those inspiring Waldorf kids accounts, and knew that when I one day got kids myself I would make them some. So when I randomly came across this illustration in a the book ”Linneas Årsbok” by Lena Anderson this autumn, I knew that the time had come. I absolutely adore the book “Majas Alfabet” from the same author by the way! If you need further tips about how to make such a leaf crown, check out this article:
How to make a crown of leaves. And this youtube video: Crown of maple leaves. They look a little bit more time consuming than the one from Maja, but they have a similar look.

I’ve also seen those gorgeous maple crowns in the books of Elsa Beskow, which I’m a huge fan of! The book above is titled “Christopher’s Garden”, and depicts the personification of September in the shape of a boy clad in a golden outfit.

And this, from the story “Görans bok”. The little knight Göran complains to the trees of a distinct lack of dragons in these woods, and they say there are dragons elsewhere in the world, and give him treats to take on his journey, among other things a rowan necklace for his princess to be.

The little knight Göran deep in the woods goes
looking for dragons among brush and shrubs;
Dear Uncle Pine and kind Uncle Fir,
I have looked for the dragon all day long,
big strong Uncle Oak and little sister Rowan,
beautiful and fine Sister Birch and Eversweet Maple,
I want to find the dragon, cut off his throat,
but I cannot find a dragon at all.

THE TREES REPLY:
There are no more dragons in these woods,
but in the wide world you will probably find them.
Listen little Göran, wait here and you will receive
something to bring with you, along the way.
A golden crown you’ll get from Uncle Maple
and a beautiful necklace from sister Rowan.
It will suit well, when you a princess have had
and become a ruler in your own castle.
Pine and Fir offer you cones big and small.
With them you should aim at the grey trolls.
The Oak gives you a cudgel, with it you will be safe.
The Hazel bestows rods to the dragon’s ugly back.
The Birch asks you take charge with a proper broom.
The Sallow gives you sly to catch the dragon.
Brown hazelnuts, red small lingonberries
you will have with you in your bag to eat on the road
Ride then little Göran out in the wide world!
The entire forest wish you good luck on your journey!

Winter Solstice – A Wild Adventure

I totally need to tell you this story about how I and my love and my baby got lost from each other far into the mountains!

We had been so busy with the last markets and orders for this year, so we didn’t have time to hike or spend much time in nature these last weeks. We always let our little boy spend some hours outdoors every day, both in the garden and in the forest, but we rarely get to do long hikes, at least not together as a family. But this year, with less orders than usual, we had managed to make space to celebrate the winter solstice!

The weather forecast was good, we could see the blue sky even though cloudy, but we needed to find the sun… as where we live, it disappears for some months every winter due to the tall mountains. So we made a plan to hike in a location in the area yet undiscovered, but where we knew we would find the sun. And also high enough up in the mountains to find some snow.

When we were starting our hike we were lucky to witness the sun laying low in the sky just between two mountain tops by the fjord at the exact moment of the solstice! From there we hiked through a truly beautiful and slightly magical forest. Everywhere there was something interesting to lay your eyes on, twisted trunks, gnarly roots, more diverse trees than usual, a temperate rainforest… because there were no snow this close to the fjord, it was dry and easy to walk. Although very steep! The path was zigzagging and we were almost climbing through parts of it, and it took hours.

We stopped by this old hut which was in complete disrepair, but interestingly mossy, about halfway up the mountainside.

We were getting closer to our main destination, an old mountain farm. Most Norwegian farms used to have a summer farm high up in the mountain where they went with their animals every summer to graze, consisting of a cottage and a building for the animals, where they were milking and making dairy products. Although I find it unreal that they got their animals up this particularly steep place… possibly goats? I need to learn more about this.

We entered something which to me strongly resembled a portal of big towering gnarly pine trees. It felt special and interesting, and Ruben said he felt it too. A portal to what I do not know, but this is where things started to go wrong. I needed a break, as I was suddenly feeling dizzy, and some unusual pain in my chest. So I fell behind, while Ruben kept walking, as he was carrying our little boy and he was sooo sleepy and crying a bit. The only thing to do in such a situation is to keep walking in a good tempo and he’ll soon fall asleep.

I made my way up the mountainside, but was taking some pictures of the sun, and unexpectedly found chanterelles along the path. I couldn’t see Ruben or Lindi anywhere, but I just kept going, thinking they were waiting at the top. I got to the old mountain farm, which was in a bit worse condition than I had imagined, as the log buildings had completely collapsed and they were slowly getting reclaimed by nature.

But Ruben was nowhere to be seen. I assumed he had kept walking out of the forest and towards the top of the mountain, both because he would just had to keep going so our son wouldn’t wake up (which he does when we stop). And also because the sun was setting/disappearing behind the mountains, and I knew Ruben really wanted to see the sun, which he would if he kept walking further up (and it wouldn’t be the first time he was chasing the sun). It was hard to see where he could have gone, as there were new hilltops everywhere and you couldn’t see what was behind the next one. So I left the mountain farm and kept walking, following a human track from there. Suddenly the tracks disappeared, but I continued on… reasoning I must have lost them, as there were many bare spots. Though mostly snow, snow that was totally crusty, like the type where you step through it every 3 steps or so. If you didn’t try it, it is totally exhausting. But I kept going at a fast pace, hoping to see them somewhere in the distance.

I just went on and on for a long time, sometimes looking behind me to enjoy the beautiful view. In the end I was near the top of the mountain, the landscape was wide and more open, and I still could not see them. I realized there was no chance they could be up there, and I decided to head back. I started getting worried, imagining him, the love of my life, laying dead in the mountainside somewhere, and that I could at least hope to find my baby alive. Other possible scenarios also crossed my mind, but for me this was incomprehensible and a mystery. We had never gotten lost from each other before, and we had never gotten lost anywhere in nature on any of our numerous hikes.

This is the last picture I took up there, as the battery suddenly changed from 48% to 0, and I took it out to warm it in my hands for a long time, hoping to save some battery for later.

Now you may be wondering why I didn’t just call him. I was carrying a big backpack with things such as firewood, candles, extra clothing, baby stuff, food… AND his phone 😉 I also called for him various times with high pitched sounds, to no avail.

I’m not kidding, I’d been frantically chewing on iced crunchy snow for hours at this point to help my overheated body due to the steep climbing and because we brought too little water because we always find some on our hikes… I was so thirsty when I finally found a water hole to stick my head into… lol!

And my earlier bright and happy mood was dropping because of my numerous times of stepping through the sharp snow, gliding on the ice, and a couple of times falling through the snow and into a wet and muddy pit, making me quite soaked. I noticed most of my fingers were bleeding because of the sharp and icy snow. And I was literally running/stumbling back down to the old timber buildings. Ruben was still nowhere to be seen, so I continued on through the forest, and called for him several times. Finally I heard him call back in the distance! It was so good to see him again! We reunited and shared our stories about what had happened. Turned out what was in the beginning a wide and really well made path, had become quite narrow and almost disappeared in the area where I last had seen him. The path had forked without me noticing, and we had gone separate ways. Both of the paths led to a mountain farm… but to two separate ones! I only knew it was one of them. Ruben had been watching the truly beautiful solstice sunset from the other one (waiting for me), while I was running around up in the mountains chasing the sun, and him. He then went searching for me further down, imagining me dead or something as well, because he knew I would never turn back 😉

Luckily we found each other again, our boy was so happy to see me! He actually hadn’t fallen asleep earlier, not until just before he got woken by our calls. We decided to make the campfire we would originally make by the mountain farm, right there in the forest instead. We gathered more firewood and kept it going, trying to prepare some food and rest a bit, ideally trying to have a cozy time by the fire.

I made the advent spiral I had been dreaming of, although just something simple this time… I find this tradition so beautiful and enchanting and heartwarming, I was lucky to experience it in 2006 and always wanted to make it a part of my future children’s life.

“The Advent Spiral is based on old German (Bavarian) traditions, where farmers would bring moss and twigs into their homes and fashion a garden on a table, which was lit with candles in apples. For them it was an expression of an old parable of Paradise.

“Evergreen boughs (a symbol of life everlasting) are placed in a spiral form on the floor with a large candle in its center. The spiral begins; one at a time each child walks into the spiral with a lantern in which sits an unlit candle, and make their way to the spiral’s center. There they find the large lighted candle and from it light their own. They place their lantern somewhere along the spiral’s path and then they walk their way back to their seat.

It is a special moment to watch a young child wend their way through the spiral’s path and find the universal light that they then take back to give to the world. The experience of the Advent spiral reflects the human experience at this time of the year; entering a time of darkness, of shorter days and longer nights and going forward with hope to welcome the light of the sun after the winter solstice.”


Source: https://www.waldorfschoolofcapecod.org/blog/why-we-walk-the-advent-spiral

I’m so happy I made it happen for my boy, although just in a simple and symbolic way. It is a beginning! He was tired and very moody due to lack of sleep unfortunately, so I can’t say any minute was particularly relaxing. But after putting out the fire, we lighted a torch and made our way down… and he quickly fell asleep on my back. Such an eventful day! Me and Ruben both agreed it had been a great day, however super exhausting and an emotional roller-coaster where nothing had gone according to plan 😉 Now I am excited for future years winter solstice celebrations! Who knows what may happen?

Do you have some things you like to do on the winter solstice, or some things you wish you were doing?

Before it’s too late: Merry Christmas! Snow and my baby “nisse”

A belated merry christmas/god jul to you all! With these pictures taken last winter 😅 Here’s a series of my baby chewing on a wooden spoon, orange, plushie and a pipe. It was the “nisse” outfit knitted by his great grandma which unfortunately arrived far too late into January because of a series of unfortunate events. We decided to take next year’s Christmas photos before the snow was gone and before he grew completely out of it 😉 We was visiting his other great grandma which lives in winter wonderland, and found these props.

Then when we went indoors, our baby’s grandparents found his great great grandfather’s old pipe on a shelf with old artifacts, and they thought it was so funny when he picked it up 😉 All clean of course.

He was approx 7 months old here. I really want to do another photoshoot with approx the same outfit, to see how much he has grown 😉

Christmas was extra magical this year, as about 15 cm of snow arrived on the morning of Christmas Eve! How special is that?

Trollfestivalen ~ The Troll Festival

I didn’t really expect to be attending any festivals this year. But when some friends took the initiative for a festival in one of the local valleys, we just had to be part of it! The concept and the location are stunning and amazing: a Troll Festival! Set in the beautiful valley Isterdalen by Trollstigen (the Troll Road), Romsdalen and the river Rauma.

The festival is brand new, and this year it was more like a test, with about 150 people attending, following all the corona guidelines. And it was a great success! Everyone was so kind and cosy, and it was all a collaborative labor of love.

The festival was kindly hosted at Trollstigen Camping, so the infrastructure was already there to accomodate lots of people, and Troll sculptures were placed around the area, with super epic mountains as a backdrop.

Me and Ruben had started the week before to prepare, because we were going to design and decorate the chillout area, called the Troll Forest. We wanted to create a really enchanting experience for people. Ruben carved 9 mushrooms with a chainsaw, which looked really cool. I made about 10 huge dreamcatchers. We did it all in pouring, intense rain. We worked so hard with putting it all up and improving it and maintaining it, we didn’t have much time to enjoy the festival or attending the concerts. But in the troll forest we got to have our own music playing through a large speacher/soundbox (magical mystical psychill with some folk elements). We had put up tons of fairylights and candle lanterns, and some other people provided colorful spotlights to light up the trees, and troll figurines. We got help putting up whimsical branch fences and many of our tapestries.

I made a whole bunch of huge dreamcatchers for the Troll Festival. Frantically and in a hurry and with just a rope, one old curtain and a few doillies. And with a baby running around, demanding my attention. I rather like weaving branches into circles and make them stay together without glue or thread. I wish I had more time to decorate them and do more advanced things, but I rather like the rustic look too. Some of these will stay in my garden. The old ones in my garden had almost disintegrated, so it’s definitely time for an upgrade.

We made a cozy chillout tent with wooden sofas covered in blankets and with pillows, with rotating purple lightbulbs in vintage lamps. And 3 portals with leaves, branches and fairylights. Although the Troll Forest looked beautiful in the daylight, it was meant to be truly impressive at night, with all the lights and lanterns. Even though the wind kept blowing out all my candles 😉 But it’s always hard to capture such things with a camera in the dark.

Needless to say, our baby became the little elfling troll mascot of the festival. People just fell in love with him, and many people said he was the cutest or most handsome little child they had ever seen… and various people also told me we were the most beautiful family they had met. I’m not used to this kind of attention and kindness. Sure, I have close to 40K followers here on instagram and you write lovely things to me every day. But for me that feels so unreal compared to strangers coming up to me in real life. (Social media only shows a tiny and glamorised aspect of us all.)

I do struggle with anxiety and insecurities, I’m always thinking that I’m bothering people by dressing unusual, or offending people, or provoking. I live far into the Norwegian countryside and people are not used to people like me. I’ve tried to fearlessly dress like this for most of my life, fulltime for over 17 years. I can assure you it is not always easy, at least when I don’t live in the city anymore. It takes a lot of courage, and still it is such a compromise to how I would ideally express myself. But if I dress otherwise I feel severely unhappy. So people showing so much love and acceptence means the world to me. Just the kindness of random strangers ♡

And just to say it, I don’t think I’m a beautiful person (I’m quite average) or that my baby is cuter than other babies 😁 But I think that sometimes, in the right setting, your courage to be yourself, to be genuine, when you feel free and relaxed, to express yourself from your soul… It can make an impact on people or touch people’s hearts.

On a less serious note, I think the majority of the festival attenders really want a baby of their own now 😅

I don’t know how big the enchanted forest was, but I think perhaps 100 metres long? It was a journey to discover many wonders!

This beautiful lighted heart was not made by us, but I think it was so pretty and a great idea!

I completely failed to take pictures from the actual concert area at night… so I’m simply borrowing the 2 pictures below from HiM Panorama, just to show you the mood. I honestly wasn’t there much, just briefly in a couple of occasions. I mostly took care of our baby boy. So not much time to dance this time.
Although there was this moment where my baby woke up, and I decided to put him in a wrap on my back… then play with my PodPoi (a really magical and electric soft poi). So I poied all the way through the festival site and to the end of the Troll Forest, before we went to sleep. That’s the most fun I managed to have 😉

I made a troll gallery! I gathered all the best troll art pictures in the world, in hi-res, and they were showcased on a wall with colored lights. Here’s but a few of them:

On Saturday morning everyone who wanted was brought by bus up the Troll Road (Trollstigen). There was going to be a concert at the top. The festival site lies just down the valley and really close to it! It’s the most famous road in Norway, and I think it’s truly impressive. My pictures does in no way make it justice, as there are a lot more to it than you can see. The road passes impressive waterfalls and has a view of many mountain tops, it is all so steep that several people on the bus felt really dizzy. There are numerous twists and turns which makes it challenging for a bus to drive there. The road is closed in the winter (half the year) because of the large amount of snow.

From the top, you can take a walk to a viewpoint, to get an unforgettable sight of it all. Highly recommend!

We totally missed the concert where someone played the transversal flute, beat-boxing the In the Hall of the Mountain king (click link to play the original song). But at least I got to watch a recording of the concert later. It was a sacrifice I made, to show you that beautiful view and our cute little tails 😉

We woke up to snow in the mountains one of the days! The festival was mid September, so technically many would call that autumn… but the autumn colors had just barely started showing.

I know the nature and the mountains look beautiful on my photos, but they truly don’t make it justice… my eternal sorrow or struggle in life is to not be able to translate the beauty I witness around me properly, or to manage to display my inner visions to you all. But hopefully more and more 🙂

Festival, social distansing style! It was the first year the Troll Festival was being held, and it was more like a test. We followed government regulations for events and everything was a great success. I didn’t even hear of any other festivals actually happen this year, so I guess we were really lucky!

This is Henrik, our lovely troll friend, who took the initiative for the festival.

Many people are curious about bringing a child to a festival. For the type of festivals I like attending (electronic/psytrance and world music), children are a natural part of it all. We do believe children to be an integrated part of life. In all tribal societies children will be part of the festivities. I think it is very healthy for them to see their parents having fun and enjoying life, and to experience something different. And meeting other kids living life in a multitude of ways. Of course you are then responsible for your child at all times. Personally I am one of the most sober persons on the planet, so that’s rather unproblematic for me 🙂 I shy away from the types of festivals where everyone is really drunk. The type of festivals I attend always have the kindest people, filled with so much love for life, nature and their fellow humans.

Anyways, it was a fun challenge to bring my 15 months old baby to this festival for 5 days. It was both very hard and very easy at the same time. Often easier and more chill than being at home, but challenging because it was a new setting for us, so my mind was constantly trying to figure out the flow of things and make it optimal for all of us. I like to think I’m a flexible person which is good at finding solutions and improvising, at least in many situations.

I just really want children to be more integrated into our society. I heard we are the most age-segregated country in the world, and it makes me really upset. I want to find ways to bridge the gap.

It all looks so nice and sunny on these pictures… but the weather is often quite unpredictable in the mountains and fjords of Norway. We had many days of extreme rain and wind the days before, but it luckily cleared up for most of the festival! We slept the first nights in a tent and me and the baby on mattresses in our van. Unfortunately the door might not have been closed properly, so in the morning the mattresses were absolutely soaked, and dripping with water. But someone kindly let us sleep in a room in the cabin where the musicians and firedancers stayed, and I am really grateful. Just sharing, because it’s ok if not everything turns out as planned 😉

And honestly though, we worked so hard with everything, we didn’t really have time to relax or have fun… we hardly had time to eat. Which was a bit unfortunate. But then again, I could have chosen not to spend my free moments taking pictures (and you would never know about this festival).

Just outside the festival area, I met some horses in this epic landscape. Made me really feel the magic.

The Troll Road (Trollstigen) as it looks in the evening, and the valleys Romsdalen and Isterdalen’s endless beauty. It’s like paradise on Earth, although sometimes a dark, wet and cold paradise… 😉 I can’t wait to show you more in later years!

So yes, the festival was a great success! Do you have any further ideas for things which should be part of a troll festival? How would you imagine it?

I’m having lots of ideas for deco, music, scenes, dancefloor, art galleries, sculptures and costumes! It could be so much fun 😀

How we go hiking/camping with a small baby

Camping with a newborn can seem like a bit of a challenge, but I want you to know it can actually be a wonderful experience, not that much more stressful than staying at home. But let’s be fair, I must admit we ended up more like glamping than camping 😉

Remember, the baby just need you and to be safe and warm. Babies are meant to be a part of everyday life, so try bring them along for all the activities you love, you don’t have to put everything on pause or adjust to what everyone else’s idea of life with a baby is. Babies absolutely love the forest and the elements of nature.

We tried to find a place to camp and hike close to home. We checked the map for lakes not too far from roads, and we went scouting for a good camping spot some weeks before. Fun fact; Norway has more lakes than Finland aka “The Land of 1,000 Lakes.” While Finland has more than 60,000 lakes, Norway surpasses it! There are 450,000 freshwater lakes in Norway and they’re really beautiful.

Then we waited for good weather forecast for several days in a row, as the weather is often somewhat rainy in our area. The little lake we decided for was merely a 20 minutes drive from home, which was about as long our infant would tolerate in a car at that age. He always hated being in the car, so we always reduced driving to a minimum.

What we packed:

  • 1 tent
  • 2 hammocks
  • 2 mattresses
  • 1 reindeer skin (to sit on)
  • A babynest
  • A little parasol
  • A nursing pillow
  • Cloth diapers
  • Towels and napkins
  • Fairylights, flags and a couple of tapestries
  • Clothing shifts
  • Speakers (we use a Braven)
  • Books/litterature
  • Poi
  • Camera
  • Pot/pan and bowl
  • Food
  • Knife
  • Axe/hiker’s saw
  • Lighter/firesteel
  • Basket for foraging mushrooms and plants

Setting up the camp: We carried all our stuff while walking back and forth a few times, then started finding some decent rocks for a campfire spot. Very important to make this safe and fireproof. We usually put a big flat rock in the bottom as well. And locate the campfire on a rocky surface. Then fetching firewood from dead branches around the area or bring our own.

We decorated the camp with fairylights, tapestries and banners. We laid out blankets and the reindeer skin, and made ourselves cozy. As our baby was only 8 weeks old, I was nursing almost constantly, always carrying him on me, and I only laid him down for a very few minutes during our 4 days in the woods.

How we spent the days: After waking up, getting ready and having breakfast (campfire with tea), we went for a hike further up the mountain or deeper into the woods, while carrying the baby in a wrap. For hiking it is really good to have a camp, as you don’t have to carry all that stuff around. We picked some berries and mushrooms, and went for a swim either in this lake or another one. Back at the camp, we listening to chillout music or fairytale music, and we listened to the Lord of the Rings audio-book, which really lifted the mood! We’re both massive fans, and have both read the books numerous times during the years. Earlier this summer we finished listening to the Silmarillion toghether, another legendary Tolkien book and one of our favorites ever!

Our little elfling… <3

The massive (Bbhugme) nursing pillow really saved me! Due to the constant nursing, I was quite stuck and not able to do a lot, or helping out much. But my partner is such a skilled wilderness man, he used to study primitive survival, and he always had some serious bushcrafting skills. So I felt very well taken care of.

At night he would entertain me with poi, the art of flow, while the fire was sparkling and insence was burning and the fairylights were twinkling. So magical! Dreaming of our previous years in the woods, when we used to dance all night!

Here you can see a sun umbrella which I used to shield my baby from the sun in daytime, when it was extra bright. And below is Ruben with Podpoi, which looks like little elven lanterns up close:

How we slept: My origianl plan was to set up a tent and to lay on sleeping mats, while my partner slept in the hammock. However, the weather forecast said ‘no rain’, and there simply were no bothersome insects, like mosquitoes or midges, around! So I decided to sleep on the ground, under the stars and in the mild summer breeze. But sleeping on mats were shockingly uncomfortable with a baby. He always woke me up every hour or more the first 6 months, and was constantly on my boob, so I went back to our car to fetch mattresses and pillows. Honestly this ended up being the most important thing for a successfull experience! (A life-saver, lol!)

What about bugs or dangerous animals? Mosquitoes and midges does exist in hordes in many parts of Norway, which can be extremely annoying. Fortunately, we don’t have a problem with them in our area. For some reason they are not that common in the fjords or along the coast, but there might be exceptions. We didn’t meet any during these 4 days. So I consider us truly blessed to live in such a place. If we travel to areas with itchy bugs, we use a roll-on called ‘Neo Siste Stikk’ (it’s organic). Works quite well. Or a mosquito net (Ikea has one extra big!).

Because of all the deer in the area, ticks may be a problem! During a day in the woods, it is not uncommon to find one or two ticks crawling up our legs. So the best thing is to check your body (and the baby) once every day. Other than that, I don’t really think about it. We don’t really have poisonous insects, snakes (except the not very dangerous European viper) or animals to worry about in the forests of Norway. The rare bears, wolves and lynxes are very shy and few has ever seen them, and they don’t live in our area (except maybe lynxes). But of course you won’t let your baby out of sight anyways. The vegetation here in Norway is fairly easy to walk in, even barefoot, and I often hike without shoes.

Camping with cloth diapers? Just as easy as being home! No smell and no garbage. I just put them all in a wetbag and brought them back home to my washing machine. If I stayed in the woods for weeks, I would have found a way to wash them in the stream. But I would prefer not to, haha!

Now I wish we had some pictures of our meals, which I sadly do not! But rest assured there were a lot of mushrooms.

I was reading my newest issue of Faerie Magazine/Enchanted Living, which featured a 12 pages article by me, about my visit to fairytale eco houses in Wales! It all turned out so beautiful, and the rest of the magazine looks stunning as well, and is full of treasures.

Enchanted Living are actually generously offering 9 of their earlier issues for free as a digital download in these quarantine times, included this one! My articles can be found in 3 of them, the Tolkien issue, the Into the Forest Issue and the Hygge Issue. Click here to find it: A gift to our readers

Our hammocks are from TicketToTheMoon, they are double hammocks because that is clearly the most comfortable. We just got them that previous winter, and I honestly didn’t try sleeping in them yet, due to being pregnant and having a baby. Sleeping with babies in a hammock is surely not safe or recommended! But you can still nurse and chill, cocoon style!

Before my baby was born, I got this beautiful rococo-ish babynest for him. I loved the idea, but honestly he’s barely been using it, as he always wanted to touch my skin. Still, it was really functional for laying him down briefly while camping. Soft, no bugs, no rolling 😉

Honestly though, I think most babies will be easier to bring along camping/hiking than mine was. He was very ‘high need’ and the only thing he ever wanted was to be constantly nursing 24/7, if not he would scream on top of his lungs. Most babies are not like this. So I think if I could do it, almost everyone can! Now, a year later, he is a lot more chill and I’m able to do many other things than just being there for him.

Babies and the heat: It’s always kind of cool here in Norway I guess, so the heat is always tolerable. On the warmest days I carry him only in a bikini, with a thinner babywrap or sling, and he’s wearing only a cloth diaper and a sun hat. It is best to have a thin layer of clothing between you and the baby. I drink cold refreshing water and go swimming/bathing often.

Camping with babies don’t have to be glamourous or hard work. You don’t even need a fire, decorations, music or hammocks. Just a tent and something comfy to sleep on, and food! No need for a lake, just a tiny spot of nature will do. And if you’re not comfortable with sleeping there, you can just go on daytrips, what’s important is to get out in nature and enjoy your time there!

I hope I inspired at least some of you to camp more with babies or children. Do you have any more questions?