FJELL-LJOM.. (MOUNTAIN ECHOES).. BLÅFJELL LODGE 3-646
September2015
President: Sharon Rohrback540-774-0006
Vice President: Joann Barfield540-380-2926
Secretary: Kathy Clark540-977-2349
Treasurer: Robert Rohrback540-774-0006
Editor: Robin Lambert 540-904-1817
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Blåfjell's website:sonsofnorwayblafjell.org
Facebook group:
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Mission Statement:
“The mission of Sons of Norway is to promote and to preserve the heritage and culture of Norway, to celebrate our relationship with other Nordic Countries and to provide quality insurance and financial products to our members.”
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Regularly scheduled meetings:
Fourth Saturday of each month, 3:00 PM,
College Lutheran Church, 210 South College Avenue, Salem
(except for special events)
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NEXT MEETING:
SATURDAY, September26, 20153pm-5pm
Program:Nordic auction, dessertwalk and white-elephantsell
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BLÅFJELL PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE:
Well, it's time to get into all post-vacation Blåfjell, school, church and otherevents. Be sure to keep up your health and strength.
Thank you Joann Barfield for hosting our August picnic gathering. Good food; good fun.
Blåfjell Lodge is ready to have some fun times. It will be good to see everyone again.
This month,remember these two important fund raisers for your participation.
1. Saturday, September 19 Yard Sale, 7am-1pm rain or shine.At Cheri Johnson's home.
2. Saturday, September 263-5pmmeeting at College Lutheran Church. This is our annual
Nordic item silent auction, dessertwalk, and some white-elephant items.
In October, our 19th Anniversary gathering at The Glebe.
In November,our meeting at College Lutheran during which we will honor all veterans, and we have a speaker from the 99th Infantry Battalion Independent Foundation.
In December, we will have our Julefest potluck.
At any/all of these meetings, don't forget to bring your stamps for Tubfrim. I will take the collection with me to a Zone 7 Lodge meeting November 6 & 7.
Submitted by Lodge President, Sharon Rohrback
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BLÅFJELLVICE-PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE:
You heard me when I said, "Each One,Invite One" ..but, rather than bringing one guest or prospective member, everyone brought two or three dishes of food!!What a feast we had at our summertime picnic last month, and I thank everyone who came and brought such delicious food ..Takk for matten! Thanks, also, to Kathy for bringing the very entertaining Norsk Language Game to kick off the monthly Norwegian Language Lesson that she will be preparing for us ..this is your opportunity to brush up on your Norsk!
More fun and games are in store for us, as we enter our busy fall season of meetings and activities ..good times to invite those family, friends, and prospective members to share in the celebration of our common heritage and culture.. EACH ONE, INVITE ONE!
Submitted by Lodge Vice President/Membership Chairman Joann Barfield
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CULTURAL DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE:
September is a busy month for our lodge. We have 2 fundraising events that require help from our members. We agreed to have a yard sale in the fall to raise $300.00 towards our expenses and donations. In order to do that, we need to have donations for the yard sale. It is important to have a quantity of "stuff" to sell so people will stop to look and buy. Otherwise they will just drive on. Board members should try to gather 50 items to donate starting us off at about 300 items. Other members could try to gather 10 items. Furniture, jewelry, books, kitchen items, and linens always sell. Clothes, baby items, toys, tools, sports gear also sell. We all have too much in our houses and this is a good reason to clean out and simplify our places. Call me ...Cheri Johnson...989-6330.... And I will come get your donations. Thanks! This is pure profit!
The second big event for September is the Viking Auction. It's so much fun! We bring items from home with a Nordic background and buy them through a silent auction. Then we have a dessert walk and try to go home with a fresh made cake, pie, or bakeryitem. We need donations to the Auction and dessert walk. All of this generates pure profit to the lodge and everyone goes home with some real goodies! It's a lot of fun! Please donate and help our lodge.
Submitted by Lodge Cultural Director, Cheri Johnson
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THIRD DISTRICT PRESIDENT’S MARY B. ANDERSON’S MESSAGE:
I hope everyone had a chance to sit back, relax and enjoy the summer! Please remember to send photos of your summer picnics and other summer lodge activities to Ron Martinsen, our Publicity Director.
The activity and excitement level always seems to pick up around the District at this time. The Third District will have a table at the 2015 Scandinavian Festival at Budd Lake, NJ this year (September 6th, 10 am to 6pm).
Board members have been busy over the summer with the affairs of the District.
Committees have been established to take a look at LOV, the Charitable Trust, the 3D website and the 2016 Convention. Work is progressing on a new lodge in the Atlanta area too! The Financial Advisory Committee has been busy with beginning work on Convention budgets, 3D LTD (LOV) projections and of course the 3D financials. The membership committee is also taking a hard look at our lodges and assessing the lodge leadership situation. You will be hearing more about all this soon!
Speaking of the 2016 Convention, this year we will have a District Nominating Committee. We will be working out the details of the Nominating Committee at the Fall Board meeting and will keep you posted.
Land of the Vikings opened and youth camp was held! I was happy to be part of a work weekend; the LOV Board has accomplished a lot! You can read more about it in Roy’s report.
Well that’s about it for now, much more to come!
Høsthilsen,
Mary
Submitted by Lodge President, Sharon Rohrback
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MINUTES OF AUGUST MEETING:
Because of the Blåfjell Lodge annual picnic, there was no lodge meeting held during the month of August.
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Member News: Gratuleer Med Dagen
Septemberbirthdays:
DorritGrina9/1
Lawrence(Larry)Norman9/12
Wallace Hanson9/18
Lars Hagen9/24
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How well do you know your Norwegian?
- god dag_____ butter
- god ettermiddag_____ beer
- god kveld_____ stove
- god natt_____ good night
- kjoleskapet_____ milk
- komfyren_____ go home to bed
- vinen_____ good night (Icelandic)
- ølet_____ refrigerator
- melken_____ good day
- smøret_____ good evening
- go hjem de legge_____ wine
- gotha not_____ good afternoon
This game was introduced at our annual Lodge picnic. Place the number from each Norwegian word with the corresponding English word. You will find the answers at the end of the Newsletter. Congratulations to Helen DeVries who earned a perfect score!
Submitted by Lodge Secretary Kathy Clark
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Here is how you can type the Norwegian letters that we do not use in the English Alphabet:
Hold down the alt key and type on the number pad:
Alt 0216 = Ø
Alt 0248 = ø
Alt 0197 = Å
Alt 0229 = å
Alt 0198 = Æ
Alt 0230 = æ
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BOOK CORNER: God's Daughter(Vikings of the New World Saga #1)byHeather Day Gilbert
One Viking woman.One God.One legendary journey to North America.
In the tenth century, when pagan holy women rule the Viking lands, Gudrid turns her back on her training as a seeress to embrace Christianity. Clinging to her faith, she joins her husband, Finn, on a voyage to North America.
But even as Gudrid faces down murderous crewmen, raging sickness, and hostile natives, she realizes her greatest enemy is herself--and the secrets she hides might just tear her marriage apart.
Almost five centuries before Columbus, Viking women sailed to North America with their husbands. God's Daughter, Book One in the Vikings of the New World Saga, offers an expansive yet intimate look into the world of GudridThorbjarnardottir--daughter-in-law of Eirik the Red, and the first documented European woman to have a child in North America.
This novel is based heavily on the Icelandic Sagas and is written from a Christian worldview.
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Nordic Recipe:
Nässelsoppa (Nettle Soup)
- 2 quarts fresh nettles
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons wheat flour
- 1 quart good bouillon
- salt
- 1/2-1 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2-1 teaspoon marjoram
- 1/3 cup chopped chives
- 4 cooked egg yolks, chopped finely
- Washnettles well. Cover nettles with bouillon and boil for 5 minutes or until just tender. Drain the liquid off the nettles and save it. Chop the nettles. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add a little flour to the butter and stir until it starts to brown, then gradually add the bouillon. Add the nettles back in, then cook at a simmer for 3 to 4 minutes. Season to taste with salt, thyme, marjoram, and chives. Place into individual bowls and garnish with chopped egg yolk.
- Makes 4 servings.
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The Vikings
Think you’ve got the Vikings pegged? With all the caricatures and stereotypes out there, there’s probably a lot you’ve never heard about the seafaring Scandinavians who raided and settled coastal sites in the British Isles and beyond between the ninth and 11th centuries. Explore 10 surprising facts about the Vikings below.
1. Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets.
Forget almost every Viking warrior costume you’ve ever seen. Sure, the pugnacious Norsemen probably sported headgear, but that whole horn-festooned helmet look? Depictions dating from the Viking age don’t show it, and the only authentic Viking helmet ever discovered is decidedly horn-free. Painters seem to have fabricated the trend during the 19th century, perhaps inspired by descriptions of northern Europeans by ancient Greek and Roman chroniclers. Long before the Vikings’ time, Norse and Germanic priests did indeed wear horned helmets for ceremonial purposes.
2. Vikings were known for their excellent hygiene.
Between rowing boats and decapitating enemies, Viking men must have stunk to high Valhalla, right? Quite the opposite. Excavations of Viking sites have turned up tweezers, razors, combs and ear cleaners made from animal bones and antlers. Vikings also bathed at least once a week—much more frequently than other Europeans of their day—and enjoyed dips in natural hot springs.
3. Vikings used a unique liquid to start fires.
Clean freaks though they were, the Vikings had no qualms about harnessing the power of one human waste product. They would collect a fungus called touchwood from tree bark and boil it for several days in urine before pounding it into something akin to felt. The sodium nitrate found in urine would allow the material to smolder rather than burn, so Vikings could take fire with them on the go.
4. Vikings buried their dead in boats.
There’s no denying Vikings loved their boats—so much that it was a great honor to be interred in one. In the Norse religion, valiant warriors entered festive and glorious realms after death, and it was thought that the vessels that served them well in life would help them reach their final destinations. Distinguished raiders and prominent women were often laid to rest in ships, surrounded by weapons, valuable goods and sometimes even sacrificed slaves.
5. Vikings were active in the slave trade.
Many Vikings got rich off human trafficking. They would capture and enslave women and young men while pillaging Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Slavic settlements. These “thralls,” as they were known, were then sold in giant slave markets across Europe and the Middle East.
6. Viking women enjoyed some basic rights.
Viking girls got hitched as young as 12 and had to mind the household while their husbands sailed off on adventures. Still, they had more freedom than other women of their era. As long as they weren’t thralls, Viking women could inherit property, request a divorce and reclaim their dowries if their marriages ended.
7. Viking men spent most of their time farming.
This may come as a disappointment, but most Viking men brandished scythes, not swords. True, some were callous pirates who only stepped off their boats to burn villages, but the vast majority peacefully sowed barley, rye and oats—at least for part of the year. They also raised cattle, goats, pigs and sheep on their small farms, which typically yielded just enough food to support a family.
8. Vikings skied for fun.
Scandinavians developed primitive skis at least 6,000 years ago, though ancient Russians may have invented them even earlier. By the Viking Age, Norsemen regarded skiing as an efficient way to get around and a popular form of recreation. They even worshipped a god of skiing, Ullr.
9. Viking gentlemen preferred being blond.
To conform to their culture’s beauty ideals, brunette Vikings—usually men—would use a strong soap with a high lye content to bleach their hair. In some regions, beards were lightened as well. It’s likely these treatments also helped Vikings with a problem far more prickly and rampant than mousy manes: head lice.
10. Vikings were never part of a unified group.
Vikings didn’t recognize fellow Vikings. In fact, they probably didn’t even call themselves Vikings: The term simply referred to all Scandinavians who took part in overseas expeditions. During the Viking Age, the land that now makes up Denmark, Norway and Sweden was a patchwork of chieftain-led tribes that often fought against each other—when they weren’t busy wreaking havoc on foreign shores, that is.
PBS link to see Viking Sword NOVA show
Here is the link:
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Nordic Humor:
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MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR
UPCOMING MEETINGS AND EVENTS
August 22, 4-6pmBlåfjell Lodge picnic.
Location: At the home of Joann and HughBarfield
September 19, 2015Blåfjell Lodge Fall Yard Sale fundraiser
Location: At the home of Cheri Johnson
Time: 7am- 1:00pm
September 26,3-5pm SON Meeting
Location: College Lutheran Church
Program:Nordic auction, dessertwalk and white-elephant sell
October 24,3-6 pm:BlåfjellLodge 19th Anniversary Dinner
Location: The Glebein Daleville
Program:TBD
Cost including meal, dessert and tip $16.00
November BlåfjellLodgeAdopt-a-School Viking Day
Location: Faith Christian School
Date and Time TBD
November 21, 3-5 pmSON Meeting
Location: College Lutheran Church
Veterans Recognition
Program:Presentation on the 99th Infantry Battalion by Erik Brun
December 5 or 12:3-5 pmJulefestAnnual Dinner and St. Lucia procession
Location: College Lutheran Church(Date to be confirmed)
MARK YOUR 2015 CALENDARS NOW
THIRD DISTRICT/INTERNATIONALNEWS:
For President’s letter, see the Third District Events Calendar:
District 3 events:
Land of Viking (LOV) camp and conference center in Pennsylvania:or
New Sons of Norway E-Post:
Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington:
Nordic News from theIcelandicEmbassy:
NEWEST NEWS:New newspaper ... Welcome to Norway Today:
FULL LISTING OF EVENTSaround the U.S:wwwnorway.org/calendar
SONS OF NORWAY MEET ON THE FOURTH SATURDAY OF EACH MONTH !
PLAN TO ATTEND EACH AND EVERY LODGE MEETING AND ACTIVITY!
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For the Love of Norway!!
Answers to the word match game:
- god dag= good day
- god ettermiddag= good afternoon
- god kveld = good evening
- god natt = good night
- kjoleskapet = refrigerator
- komfyren = stove
- vinen = wine
- ølet = beer
- melken = milk
- smøret = butter
- go hjem de legge= go home to bed
- gotha not= good night (Icelandic)
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