Mother Christmas
Grýla, one of the trolls of Icelandic folklore, is first mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda in the 13th century & for Christmas hunts naughty children to boil them alive and eat them.
Hafnarfjörður, Iceland. Picture by Kai Müller for Sonic Iceland.
The wreck of the 115-foot whaler, Petrel (built in 1928), at Grytviken, South Georgia. Photo by Serge Ouachée.
October in the Chair
For some, like me, born in October, autumn comes early and stays throughout life. This is the time for rain. For listening to Elliott Smith. For pumpkin soup. For cold feet, a runny nose and headaches. For the smoke of coal and peat fires in the air, and red and brown and yellow leaves rotting in the gutter. For dark mornings and warm beds. For stories of faeries, dwarfs, and trolls. For skulls and spiderwebs and the first testing fingers of frost. For sausages and strong beer. For realising that winter, and death, is coming, after all.
