May 21, 2020 • 55 mins
Maybe it's not always a bad idea to climb into a sack in Iceland. A tale with twists and turns and a good old grey man from Icelandic Legends by Jon Arnason.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Straw Hut Media.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The mountain has turned gray, and autumn winds whip sharply
between buildings. Yet I look forward to the coming winter,
when rivers channel through border ice, and voices carry far
away in the stillness between us, in the months with
iron names, when words are like cold steel and leave
(00:28):
a metallic taste between my teeth. That poem is called
Winter Thoughts by Magnus Sigurdson.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Glorica.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
You want to start us off?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Sure, Hello, and welcome to Folklorica.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Welcome to Folklorica.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
That's right again.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
I'm gonna start us off because I feel like you
have a hard time.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I always do.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Yeah, Hello, and welcome to season two, episode one of Folklorica.
I'm your host Maggie Bowls.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
And I'm your host Clayton Stucker.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
We're both hosts and we're ready.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Let's do one more time.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Welcome to Folklorica, the podcast about folk tales. I'm your host. Okay, hello,
and welcome back to Folklorica. I am one of your hosts,
Maggie Bowls, and.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I am the other one of your hosts, Clayton Stucker.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
That was perfect. So this is the first episode of
season two of Folklorica Clayton, You've chosen a very special
story for us. What have you chosen.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Today's story I'm very excited about comes from Iceland. You
and I have talked about doing Iceland for a while,
and so I'm very happy to finally be traveling to
that part of the world. And today's story from Iceland
is called Gray Man.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Have you ever been to Iceland?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
No, but it is a bucket list for sure. Have
you ever been?
Speaker 4 (02:28):
No, but my one of my colleagues just went to
Iceland for the weekend, and that's how I knew he
was paid a lot more than I was.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
That's how that's how you found out the pay differential
was because he got to go to Iceland.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
He just on a whim decided to go to Iceland
for the weekend to.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Even have that as an option, Yeah, I see, I see.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
So I was like, looks really fun. I'm so happy
for you.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
But really just had spare cash laying around from all
the money I was just doing the same job. Yeah,
just jealous, I get it. Actually, it's funny. I had
a friend who is just in Iceland as well, and
he's doing an Iceland Ireland tour and I'm quite envious.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
That's very fun. Are they close geographically?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
They must be, They're They're not far and actually they
actually they have an intertwining history.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
And they share some folklore, some folk mythical creatures. They
share some mythical creatures. They do, yes, they do.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Oh like what.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Like? They both have uh I think we actually talked
about this on the water Kelpy episode. But they have
a similar horse that like lures you onto its back
and then runs you into the water and drowns you.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Oh, I see, they have their own water the core.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Yeah, I mean, they don't have the same names, but
they have similar similar names. That one's has a the
eker has backwards feet. You remember that, I think I'll
talk right. And then they also have their equivalent of
the Lockness Sponster, called the forgive my pronunciation lagar fliote worm.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
In logar fliote worm.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah, they call it a worm, which is honestly really
hilarious to.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Me, given the shape of what we know the Lockness monster.
That's that's not surprising, I know.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Well, that's the thing. And actually the crazy thing about
the worm capital w worm is that people have been
seeing it since like the fourteenth century is like when
the first recorded spotting of the worm was and then
they still spot it today. And there's actually a YouTube
(04:46):
video of a compilation of people spotting the worm.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
And you actually see the worm in the video kind of.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
I mean, okay, here's what we should do is you
should watch this right now, okay, but really quickly. Where
it lives Lager Flat. Where it lives is a fresh
water below sea level, glacial fed lake, so it's like
it's melted glaciers and there's a lot of silt so
(05:14):
there's like very poor visibility, so the water's super murky.
So it really is like a log exactly. So if
you go to this link, okay, okay, and you can
just describe to us what you're seeing.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Maybe, yeah, so this is Icelandic lake monster lager float
worm scene again. Okay, So what I'm seeing is a
(05:50):
handycam is filming a lake or a body of water,
and there's definitely something moving.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Would you say that it's worm shaped?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I mean, what the rippling effect that's happening in the
water would lead me to believe that it's worm shaped?
I agree, it's very long, very newtly is this music
in the video I don't.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Know when they talk.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So they're filming this thing, and also someone is playing
let it be in yeah, Icelandic. The worm loves it.
I think, is this how they you bring the worm out?
Speaker 4 (06:52):
I like that they sing let it be in English,
but then they switch right back to Icelandic.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, And I.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Do think that I was thinking about let it be
with worm, like they're like, let the worm be, you.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Know, I see, I see.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Like let him live his worm life.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
While we film him and put him on the internet.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Right. But like you know, because one of the things
that I read a lot about Icelandic folk tales is
that they okay, so you know, the the Hulda folk, right,
the hidden people. The hidden people slash the Icelandic elves.
So they live supposedly all over Iceland in these like
(07:35):
little rock formations. And in nineteen ninety eight they did
a survey and more than half of Icelanders believed in elves.
And then later on they did it again and the
number was lower, but still people didn't want to say
that they didn't believe in elves, like they wouldn't say
they wanted they did believe in elves, but they wouldn't
(07:56):
say they didn't.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
And apparently it's bad luck to say elves don't exist.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Interesting, it's like a very specific regional superstition.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Well yeah, I mean not even regional, but like the
whole country, you know. And so there was a spot
where apparently a lot of elves lived, and there was
like an elvin church, which was just a rock.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Fai oh, I thought it was going to be a
tiny church.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
No, but some people say they can feel the energy
of the elves. So in twenty fifteen, the city wanted
to build this road and it would break through. It
would basically like displace all these rocks where supposedly elves lived.
And all these things went wrong, like people got injured
and the machinery broke down and all kinds of stuff
(08:45):
happened until they just finally gave up and they didn't
do it, and they think it was the elves.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
That's weird, kind of like Ferngully.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
It is kind of like fern Gully.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Actually, yeah, yeah, I'd heard a story that they were
trying to build a road through uh and they wanted
to build a road and in order for it to
be like I guess, the easiest route went to go
through a mountain. But the people of Iceland believe that
the mountain was inhabited by trolls or or the Holdo folk,
(09:15):
and so they actually had the road go around the
mountain instead of cutting through it because of that. But
then if I guess, the Icelandic Road Administration actually after
this story kind of circulated that they had gone around
this troll mountain instead of going through it, the Icelandic
Road Administration has actually called these media reports about building
(09:36):
and road projects being altered to prevent damaging the rocks
where hidden people live a misrepresentation. So it's like you said,
like people weren't willing to deny else it's almost like
they recognize that maybe you won't be taken seriously if
you're like, no, we actually do renavigate or redirect where
we build things because of mythical creatures, Like, no one's
(09:58):
going to take you seriously after that stuff to be
like we don't. We don't technically do that, but really
they do that.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
They all like they're like, no, that's not why we
went around the mountain, Like, yeah, there happened to be
elves that live in the hill, but we're not scared
of them. We just went around because like we didn't
want to deal with it, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
No, we we wanted to go around. It was our choice.
Had nothing the trolls.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
That it made a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, but it's interesting to have such a like they
like you said, what was the statistic of that's wild?
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Yeah, a little more speaking of trolls, the trolls. Uh
So I was looking at some pictures of places where
there are trolls, and apparently like a lot of them
were just like weird faces in uh, like landscapes and stuff.
(10:49):
So there's stories of trolls that there was one area
where the trolls they lured a boat in, uh, and
then the sun came out and they turned a stone
and so that's why the stones up trolls. And I
was realizing that it's the same in Lord of the
Rings where the trolls, right, is that Lord of the Rings?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's in the Hobbit.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Yeah, in the Hobbit the trolls. That's how Bilbil gets out.
He tricks the trolls in the hanging out till sunlight
and so same thing.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah. I mean, if you I know, we're we're not
going to get too deep into it. But the entire
Volsung saga is just the entire history of this family
lineage that starts, I mean thousands of years ago, and
then they have every generation covered and every generation has
a story, and it's very very similar to the Silmarillion
(11:40):
and him wanting to expand and have that sort. But
we also know that Tolkien actually wrote Sigurd and the
Dragon or his own interpretation of it. Oh yeah, so
there's going to be He.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Also wrote a lot of stuff he did like or
he did he did a lot of.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
He did Beowulf right.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
He was a scholar of sorts. He liked folklore.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, but it's easy to see where he got all
of his A lot of his inspiration is definitely like
Icelandic mythology is very very heavily rooted in it.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
You know what's funny is that I will so Tolkien.
We know that Tolkien took all of this or took
a lot of inspiration from old stories. But then and
we're like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. Tolkien was a
scholar and he took all this, you know, inspiration. But
then when I think about someone like JK. Rowling and
(12:33):
I read her stories and I read and I notice
like all these parallels between like like I'm reading Jane
Eyre right now, and the whole introduct like the first
like three or four or five chapters are so Harry Potter.
It's like so weird. And then also there's all this
like Lord of the Rings like lining up and like
all of these like tropes and stuff that she uses.
(12:53):
And I feel like maybe I'm sexist because I'm like, oh,
JK Rolling, she's like stealing blah blah blah. But like
Jared Tolkien, I'm like he was a scholar, you know
all these things. Isn't that fucked up?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I mean we're all we all steal
from everything we've ever that's ever given us inspiration. I
guess you don't even realize like how often you're using
tropes in anything you write, or I mean that I've
I heard someone say that we're all just trying to
copy the people that we idolize, and the ways in
(13:25):
which we mess it up or fuck it up is
what makes it our own.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Oh, which I like.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah, but it's yeah, I think. Yeah, anytime you read
something whatever inspires you to do, whatever your creative medium is,
you're probably absorbing a lot of information from anything you
loved and then it somehow it will end up in
what you're making.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Yeah, except for me, because I'm one original.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Wow. That's hard.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Yeah, it is hard in a good way. That was creepy.
That was that was a creepy choke.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
That made me uncomfortable. I started to sweat. He said,
it's hard in a good way. Yeah. But anyway, So
speaking of authors, let's so let's talk about this guy.
Let's talk about Uh, we'll go with Yan arnas Son Arnison.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
That was good. He did good with that.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
He's our ethnographer of the day who collected the story
that we're reading today.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Would you call him an ethnon griffer.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
If you can do that two times in a row,
we keep it.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Because his first name is Yan, I like it.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
But Yan was born August seventeenth, eighteen nineteen in hof
And He was an Icelandic writer, a librarian and museum
director who made the first collection of Icelandic folk tales.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
I read that. He was the first librarian at what
became the National Library of Iceland and Raykovic. Yeah, also
the first librarian of the Icelandic branch of the Literary
Society or something like that. And then he was also
the first curator at what's now the National Museum of Iceland.
So he was just like this killer librarian slash curator.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
He was like Iceland's official librarian.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
He really was. Yeah, he seemed like a nice guy.
He didn't seem like he had very much money though.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
No, but that's like a classic for our characters in
our everything we learn about, as far as the stories
and the ethnographers we cover, there always broke and they
always spend a lot of time in libraries.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
What about the brothers Grimm or they broke?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
They might have been the exception.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I think they were the exception, always an exception.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
But even if you according to the Wikipedia.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Peg because J. J. Arnison apparently was inspired by the
Grim Brothers.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Exactly right, which just is just another sign that we're
seeing the Grim fairy tales are inspiring everyone. I did
want to point out this part. My favorite thing about
Wicked Pedia pages is they break it down. They do
like different sections of your life. But for Yon, there's
two sentences in his personal life section and it said
(16:09):
Yan married late in life, but his son died before
he did. He died after a long illness.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Yeah, I read that on the Wikipedia.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
That's all they have on in as far as his
personal life went.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Yeah, and all that is from obituaries written, so.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Like, all we know is that his son died before
he did, and he eventually died after being sick for
a while.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Everything we know about his personal life was from his obituary,
which is two sentences. Kind of sad actually, you.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Know, but I mean, considering how much we're we have
of his professional life, I guess I think you'd be
all right with that.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Yeah, Okay. One one thing I found interesting about the
way that they gathered their stories, so him, both him
and Magnus, his friend Magnus Grimson, were pretty like they
didn't have much money, and so because they couldn't travel
around Iceland to collect stories, they just since his friend
(17:10):
was a teacher and he was a librarian, they just
like found people they knew to send them the tales,
to write them down and send them to them.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Oh okay, And.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Then apparently Yawn made a few changes. He may have
spiced things up a little bit, but apparently not too much.
But you know, he probably did some you know, copy editing,
maybe like moving a few things around, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, I mean, if he's inspired by the brothers Grim,
I mean, that's definitely something that they did.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Yeah, you got to write, you got to.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I mean, just if you're dealing with like six slight
variations of one story, you kind of have to smash
them together.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
Yeah. Yeah. Oh. So here's another thing I read is
that him and Magnus published their first collection and no
one cared, like literally nobody gave any oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
any shits about it. And so they were like, well, okay,
I guess no one cares about it. And then some
guy I can't remember who it was, but some guy
(18:08):
came over and he was like, no, no, this is cool,
you should keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
And Conrad Mauer.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Yeah, Conrad Maer who's Conrad Mauer.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
He was the German legal historian and scholar of Icelandic
literature who had toured the country in eighteen fifty eight
and encouraged them to keep doing what they were doing.
And that ties into so basically, yeah, they had printed
out their first collection that you said no one cared about,
and Conrad Maher comes in, He's like, just keep doing
what you're doing. And so then they put out a
basically a second volume, and the story that we are
(18:38):
reading today is from that second volume.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Great stick around, because after a very quick break, we
will be reading gray Man. That's right, gray Man. Stick around,
gray Man.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
From Icelandic Legends by Jan Arnison, there were once a
king and queen in their palace, and a carl and
his old wife in their cocked. The king was wealthy
in herds and cattle. He had one daughter, a loan
of children, who lived in a costly bower with her maidens.
The karl was poor. He had no child, and the
(19:18):
only support for him and his old wife was a
single cow.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Quick question, what is a carl?
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I think a carl might just be a farmer, or
maybe like the head of his household.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Maybe I should just google carl.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I tried good luck.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Definition a peasant or a man of low birth.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Oh you found it cool?
Speaker 4 (19:43):
All right, now we know what a carl is. Let's
move on, okay.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Once the old man went to church, and the priest
had taken as a text to preach from the virtue
of generosity and the promise it had. When the old
man came home from the church, his old wife asked
him what good things he had to tell her from
the preacher. The old man said that there were a
great many good things to be told from it. For today,
it had been a delight to listen to the priest,
(20:07):
as he had said that whosoever gave should receive a thousandfold. Again,
the old woman thought this rather too much, and said
she fancied that her husband must have heard wrong, or
that he had not attended properly to the priest's words.
The old man was quite sure that he had listened well,
and she doubted it, And so they quarreled about it
for a while, both sticking to their own views of
(20:30):
the matter. The next day, the old man hired numbers
of workmen to build for him a cow house enough
for one thousand cows. This the old woman did not
at all like. She called it folly and would not
have it. But nothing could dissuade the old man from
his purpose. When the building of the cow house was finished,
the old man began thinking about to whom he should
(20:52):
give his cow. He knew none rich enough to give
him a thousand cows for it, save the King himself.
But to go to him person, the old man had
no courage. At last, He decided upon going to the priest,
for he knew that he was well off and thought
he would be the last to let his own words
come to naught. Now, the karl went off, leading his
(21:13):
cow in a cord to the priest and paying no
heed to his wife's against words. He found out the
priest and gave him the cow. The priest wondered at
this and asked him what he meant by it. The
carl told him all his reason for doing so. The
priest grew peevish and rebuked the karl for wrongly listening
and for hair splitting mistreatment of his words, and drove
(21:35):
him away back with his cow.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
This is very funny. So first of all, this is genius,
Like the carl like, this sounds dumb, but actually this
is genius. You know when someone says like, if you
do this for someone, they will give you this, and
then you actually take it to the person who said that,
and he's like, what, no, not me, he's why you like,
I meant like a thousandfold, like metaphorically, not like you know, literally.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
But also this priest not super nice.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
No, And it's funny. They've pointed out too that the
priest was actually pretty well off.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Yeah, exactly like most priests were back then.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Mm hmm. Some evangelical qualities to this priest.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
He's like, yeah, go out and give a way and
you'll get all that back. But what he really meant
to church? Give it to the church. That's they've been
saying that forever.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Mm mmmmm.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
The karl went back, dragging his cow after him, but
highly ill pleased with the upshot of his journey. But
on the way home he was overtaken by a coal
black north snowstorm and hard frost. He lost his way
and thought he must without doubt lose his cow, and
(22:47):
likely enough lose his own life too. While he was
thus thinking about his difficulties, a man came towards him,
walking with a large bag on his back. The man
asked how the carl came to be traveling with a
cow here in such weather. The carl told him the
whole reason for it. The stranger said he would be
(23:07):
sure to lose the cow, and it was very doubtful
whether he would escape the storm alive. It is far
better for you, he said, poor old man, to give
the cow up to me in exchange for this sack,
which you can easily carry on your back, it holds
only flesh and bones. Now, whether they had a long
or short discussion about this, the bargain was made. The
(23:31):
stranger took away the cow and the coral walked off
with the sack, but he found it fearfully heavy. When
he got home he told his wife how it had
fared with the cow, But about the bag, he was
mightily puffed up and proud. The old woman, on hearing
the story, grew very cross with her carl, but he
bade her not be angry, and rather put on the
(23:51):
hearth a big pot with water in it. She put
on the biggest of all her pots, and filled it
with water. When the water boiled, the carl began undoe
the mouth of the bag, and busy enough he was
and proud of his bargain. But when he had opened
it up, jumped from it a full grown man dressed
in gray clothes from head to foot, and said they
(24:11):
had better boil something else than him.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Oh my god, there's a man in the bag, gray man.
Is it like slender Man? No? Okay, all right, all right,
I can't wait to see what happens next.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
The old man sat astonished, But his old wife said, ah, there,
that is just like you, fool that you are. First
you have deprived us of the only beasts that supported
our lives, so that now we are utterly without support.
And then you have added a whole man to the
family to be fed. Now, the carl and his wife
quarreled for some time about this, until gray Man said
(24:45):
that this would not do at all. He would go
out in search of something to eat for them all,
for this grumbling would be food of little nourishment to them.
Now gray Man ran away into the darkness and came
soon back again with a full grown, fat weather, which
he bade them care hill and make a good dish
out of.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Wait, what's a weather?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
A castrated ram?
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Oh, how did you find one of those?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Do you think the ram was already castrated when he
found it?
Speaker 4 (25:12):
I sure hope. So.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
At first they had great unwillingness to do this, saying
they knew well that the weather must be stolen. Yet
they yielded at last. Now in the cot folk lived
a high life while they were eating the weather, And
when it was finished, gray men fetched yet another, then
a third, a fourth, and fifth. For this the old
couple liked much the gray Man, and they lived now
(25:37):
richly upon real good mutton. The story now turns to
the king's court. The king's herdman was soon aware that
weathers were missing from the flock.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Aha, they are stolen.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
They are stolen.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Of course they're stolen.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
He did not understand this, and once told the King
that five weathers were missing. These he said, had been
lost one after the He knew not how, but he
thought there must be some thieves in the neighborhood. Then
the King began to find out whether any person had
lately moved into the parish, and discovered at last that
to the carl and his wife in the cot there
(26:13):
had come a man of whom nobody knew anything. He
sent a message to the man to come and appear
before him in the court. Gray Man went at once,
but the man and his wife feared that they should
lose their supporter, as he must thought they be hanged
for his theft. When gray Man appeared at court, the
king asked him if he had stolen from him five weathers,
(26:33):
fat and full grown, which were now missing from his flock.
Gray Man answered, yes, sire, that I have done. Then
the King asked why he had done so. Gray Man answered,
I did so because the old Carl and his old
wife and Walnook were dying from want, having nothing whatever
to their hand in the way of food. But you, King,
have abundance of everything and far more than you use,
(26:56):
being unable to consume more than a tithe of your
food stores. Now, it seemed to me far more just
that the Karl and his old wife should have something
from that which you did not use, than that they
should starve while you had more than you wanted.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
So gray Man is like a little robin Hood.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah, it seems like it. So robin Hood from there.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
One family and give to the needy.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Steal from the king and give to these two.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
Yeah, I'm into him. I like him. He seems nice.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
And the fact that he's just telling the King like
it is. He's like, you have more than you need,
and they're over here, they might die if they don't
have food.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Yeah, he's like, what you're going to tell me you
need those five weathers? They need those five weathers, bro.
You know, I can't wait to see what the King does.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
The King was half startled at gray Man's words and
asked if it was his only, or his best accomplishment
to steal. To this, gray Man gave a vague answer.
Then the King said he would pardon him if he
could tomorrow steal his five year old oks, which he
was going to make his folk take out into the forest.
But if you cannot do it, said the king, you
(28:03):
shall be hanged. Gray Man said that this was a
plain impossibility, for the king would tell his people to
watch it. The King answered that he should be ready
for that. Now. Gray Man returned home and was fondly
welcomed by the Carl and his old wife. Gray Man
told the Carl to have in readiness for him a rope,
for he was going to use it early tomorrow. Karl
(28:25):
did as the other bade him, and all slept quietly
the night through. Next morning, gray Man got up, took
the rope and went away. He went into the forest
where he knew the King's men must pass, and, turning
to a large oak by the wayside, hung himself in
it by the rope. Soon after, the King's men came
passing by with the ox. When they came to the oak,
(28:47):
they looked and saw where gray Man was hanging, and said, ah,
gray Man as surely played his tricks on somebody else
besides the king. For there someone has hung him up.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Wait, so she hung himself from a tree like in
a noose.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yeah, sounds like, oh, gray man, he's committed. We shall
scarcely have to fear that he will now steal our ox.
After this they paid no more attention to the thief,
but went on their way. When the king's men had
passed out of sight, gray men got down from the oak, and,
running through a hidden path a good long way past
the king's men, hung himself up again in an oak
(29:22):
by the wayside. The king's men coming then saw, to
their great astonishment gray men hanging there again. This they
could not understand at all. Is it possible that they
are too, these wretched gray men, They said to one another,
It would be curious to know for certain. Let us
run back and see how the other gray man is,
(29:43):
and if he is the same as this one. So
they tied the ox to an oak and went back.
But when a hill hid them from sight, gray man
jumped down from the oak and took the ox with
him to Carl's Cot as quickly as he could. Easy easy,
just had to hang himself twice as a destruction.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
He just had to hang himself twice far away. And
these suckers did accept that he had them eating out
of the palm of his hand.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Mm hmm. He bade the Carl and his old wife
slaughter the ox speedily and skin it without splitting the skin,
and make candles out of the fat. At this there
was great glee in the Carl's cot. Now he must
return to the King's men. When they came to the
oak whereon the first gray Man had been hanging, there
was no gray Man to be seen at all. Then
(30:31):
they ran to the other oak, but there they found
nothing either, for no gray Man was there, and the
ox had already vanished from the oak to which he
had been tied. Now, for the first time, the king's
men saw what trick gray Man had played on them,
and went home and told the King how matters stood.
The King ordered gray Man at once to appear before him,
(30:53):
and the Carl and his old wife became deadly frightened,
for now they thought, surely and without mercy, what gray
Man be hanged. But gray Man, taking them matter very coolly,
went to the king at once, then said, the King,
did you steal my ox. Gray Man, Yes, sire, answered
the thief. I had need to do so in order
(31:15):
to save.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
My life, as you know.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Then the King said, I will pardon you this time
if you will steal tonight the sheets from the bed
of myself and my queen.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Oh, I say so, he's changed in the rules now,
the king.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Mm hmm, it's up in the stakes.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
It's also kind of funny that the king said he
would hang him if he didn't steal the ox, and
then he hung himself in order to steal the ox.
Oh that's kind of funny, right.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
That's interesting. Yeah, I didn't even think about that.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
Yeah, this also sounds like it might be like a
really stealthy way to invite him to a three way,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, And I mean I was going to ask what
the relationship is with the gray Man and the carl
and the wife me too?
Speaker 4 (31:59):
Do they all sleep in one bed? It must be
a small place they live.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I'd imagine, I think, Yeah, like they'd have to have obviously,
being poor peasant folk farmer people, they'd have like one
house basically, no spare bedrooms. It's all one big room,
one room. Yeah, three way spoon.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Three way spoon. Who do you think is what do
you think the order is of the spoons?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
I'd say I think the Carl is the smallest spoon.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Carl the smallest spoon, big big gray Man is big spoon.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Definitely man.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
He likes a nustle in between them.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Oh maybe he's like they're gray baby, great baby, they're
great spoon baby.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Also because they keep calling it his cought. I assume
caught means like like a hovel or something like a
little house. But I just keep imagining them all like
in a military cot, like all squashed in.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Together on a twin mattress.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Yeah, on like a twin mattress, like Allah Charlie and
the chocolate factory, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Mm hmmm hmmm, all the grandparents.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Yeah, like, except that they're like spoons.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Carl is definitely Grandpa Joe.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Then the King said, I will pardon you this time
if you will steal tonight the sheets from the bed
of myself and my queen. Why nobody can do that,
you know? For however should I manage to get into
the palace, said the other. That you must tell yourself,
said the king. But I tell you that your life
is at steak. At this they parted, and gray Men
(33:28):
went home to Walnook. Carl and his old wife thought
they had got him again from the jaws of death,
and received him with great joy. Now gray Man took
some few pounds of flour and asked the old wife
to make for him a stir about rather thick. When
she had done this, gray Man put the stir about
into a little pale with a lid over it, so
(33:48):
that it should not cool too quickly.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Do you know what a stir about is? There's a
lot of words in this that I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, I would say stir about is probably like probably
like a cream of wheat.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
Yeah, I would imagine in like an oatmeal of some kind. So, yeah,
you must be right.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Some sort of porridge, just because it's flower and hot water.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
Oh yes, yes, yes, a stir about, so it's just
flower and water.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Mm hmm. He walked off with the pail and got
into the King's palace on the sly so that nobody
saw him, and hid himself in a dark corner. Soon
the king's court was strongly bolted, for it was not
meant that gray Man should get inside for nothing. But
when gray Man knew that all the people in the
court were fast asleep, and also the King and Queen.
(34:30):
He stole silently to their bed, and, moving the bed
cloths off them down to their waists, poured the sturabout
gently down between the King and queen, and then got
away into a corner of the room. When the sturabout.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Wait, wait, so he undressed them to the waist.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I think he just brought the blankets down. Okay, yeah,
moving the bedcloths off them down to their waist. Okay,
he pulled their.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
Pants down like their pajamas. They pulled their pants down
and then poured hot porridge over him. And I was like, oh,
this is definitely going to turn into a weird three way.
But no, okay, So he just pulled the blankets down
and then poured porridge between them. Mm hmm, okay, yeah,
that's normal. Okay.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
When the storeabout touched the queen, she was startled and
awoke the King, saying, what is this you have done
in the bed, my love? So she immediately blamed him
for whatever this MUSHes that's in the bed.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
She assumes he pooped.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
I guess, yeah, you're my love, You're excreting thick liquids.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
Ew, it's all warm too.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Mm hmm. What is this you have done in the bed,
my love? The King would not confess to having done it,
and they quarreled a little about it, till at last
they took the sheets from the bed and flung them
on the floor, and then they went to sleep again.
They just move on immediately, just like you think.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
You think they would have been like, wait a second,
m hmm, weren't we supposed to tell a guy to
steal our sheets? Isn't it weird that something weird is
happening to our sheets right now?
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, you know that's.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
The thirst that I would have.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
But that's a classic relationship. You just like want to
blame the other part. It's like I didn't put the
this isn't me, this is you.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Yeah, and you don't want a communication.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
M now. Graymon took the sheets and rolled them up
under his arm and walked off with them to the
carl's cot and bade the old folk clean the stir
about out of them and then use them for their
own bed. Next morning, when the King and queen awoke,
they saw that the sheets were gone. The king understood
how it was then that gray Man would most likely
(36:36):
have stolen them. He caused him to be called for,
and the Carl and his wife, thinking that he was
called away to be hanged, bade along and last farewell
to him. Gray Man walked without delay up to the King,
who asked him, did you gray Man steal the sheets
last night from the bed of myself and my queen? Yes, sire,
he said, I was forced to do so, for I
(36:57):
must needs save my own life. Well, answered the King,
I will pardon you if you will tonight steal both
myself and my queen from our bed.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
When is he going to learn his lesson here? You
know what I mean? He's obviously a very good burglar
mm hmmm, and he's just tempting the fates now he
knows he can steal both him and you know, like also,
the rules keep changing, you know. He says, like, uh,
you can have your life if you just do this
one thing. But then he keeps doing it, and it's
(37:28):
the rules keep changing. How's Grahamon supposed to succeed?
Speaker 2 (37:33):
What does seem like the king is too right? Well,
but he's definitely like he really wants to test his skills,
and he just keeps challenging him further, just like you're
not going to be able to do this next one,
but then he does.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Does it?
Speaker 4 (37:45):
M Yeah, big mistake, big mistake. Mm hmmm, all right,
let's see what happens.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Well, answered the King, I will pardon you if you
will tonight steal both myself and my queen from our bed.
But if you do not succeed, you shall be hanged
without mercy. Nobody can do that, said gray Man. That
I leave with you, replied the king. After this, they parted,
and gray Man went home to Walnuock. He was hardily
(38:12):
welcomed by the caral and his old wife, who thought
he had returned from unavoidable death. In the evening, when
it was dark, gray Man put on his head a
hat which belonged to the coral. It had an immensely
high and broad crown and a very broad rim. He
pierced with holes through and through both the crown and
the brim, and stuck into them candles that had been
(38:33):
made of oxes fat. And besides these he fixed a
countless number of candles to his clothes all over his
body from head to foot. In this attire, with a
hat on his head and an ox skin sack in
his hand. He went to the King's court and into
the chapel, where he put down the sack in the choir. Then,
lighting all the candles, he went to the bells and
rang them well. The King and his queen awoke at
(38:56):
the sound of the bells and got up to the
window to see what was going on. Then they saw
standing at the door of the church a shining figure
of a man, throwing beams from it in every direction.
At this the King and Queen were astonished and thought
it was undoubtedly an angel who had come down from
heaven to tell some great tidings on earth. They deemed
it best to welcome such a guest, signally ask mercy
(39:19):
an intercession of him, and shew him due reverence. They
put on their royal attire in all haste, and then
walked out to the angel. Kneeling and lowly. They addressed
him and asked him for forgiveness of all their sins,
entreating him at the same time for grace and mercy.
He answered that he could grant their prayer nowhere but
at the altar in the church. They followed now the
(39:42):
angel up to the altar, and when they came there.
The angel turned round and said he was ready to
give them forgiveness for all their sins on one condition.
They asked him what the condition was. He said it
was that they should both creep into the sack that
was lying beside them on the floor of the choir.
It's almost too easy.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
It's like it take a candy from a baby. M
He also, if an angel tells you to climb into
a sack, you say no. It doesn't matter who the
angel is, you say no, you don't climb into the sack.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
These are different times. I think that's how angels brought
people around, and they put you in a little bag.
But it also is interesting that that's how we were
introduced to Gray Many. A man just passing through a crazy,
deadly storm, seemingly unfazed by it, and he gives the
sack to the caral.
Speaker 4 (40:36):
Ah, so good things come in sacks.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Mm hm. They found the condition a good one and
crept both together into the bag. No sooner were they
in the bag than the angel sees the opening of
it and tied it tightly up. The king asked what
this meant. The angel answered, shaking off all the candles
at the same time, my good King, I am no
angel at all. I am, on the contrary, the friend
(41:00):
master gray Man from Walnook. I have now stolen you
and your queen as you bade me last night, and
I'm going to give you a pardon for your sins
by destroying both of you. Here. He dragged the sack,
without mercy, all along the floor of the church, except
you grant me at once a request I have to
make of you, and swear before you leave the bag
(41:21):
that you will fulfill it. The King, seeing that nothing
was to be done but to grant all that gray
Man might ask for, made an oath that he would
grant all gray Man's wishes. Whereupon gray Man undid the
bag and let out the King and queen. Then gray
Man said to the King that he wished him to
give his daughter to wife, and with her the half
(41:41):
of the kingdom, allowing him moreover to keep with him
the old carl and wife from Walnook.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
So that's a.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Little strange and phrasing. But what he's asking for their
daughter to be his wife.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Yeah, that seemed to have escalated very quickly. I didn't
realize that gray Man was looking for a wife.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
I know doing real well for himself. All this the
king promised, and they made an agreement together that so
this should be. Now gray Men went to Walnock, and,
finding the Karl and his old wife, bade them with
a lofty and important air, to cleanse themselves a little
and put on better clothes, for now they had to
make a little migration. Hearing this, they wondered what would
come next, But their astonishment is not to be told.
(42:22):
When they heard all that was coming to pass in
the day, gray Man brought the Carl and his old
wife up to the palace, as they were well received.
He married after this the King's daughter and got with
her the half of the kingdom. But at the wedding
feast he amused the guests by telling them that he
was the son of a neighboring king. He had got
news of the intentions of the old Carl in Walnook
(42:43):
and had come to an agreement with the priest to
make his words upon which the Karl had based all
his plans, come true, saying that he hoped the old
man had now got his cow paid one thousandfold. So
basically this was a long con on the gray Man's.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
Part, so serious. So wait, is he really the son
of a neighboring king.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
According to this, Yeah, he's the son of a neighboring
king who had convinced the priest to say the thing
in his sermon about giving and getting, which convinced the
Karl to do what he was going to do. And
then somehow all of this was a ploy to marry
the king's daughter and get half the kingdom.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
Wow, genius, this guy is an evil genius.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
M h.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
I didn't see that. That was a twist. I did
not see that coming.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Yeah, that was a good one.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Gray Man lived long and happily with his wife and
had the whole kingdom after the days of the king
his father in law, and governed it ably till his death.
The Karl and his old wife lived with him to
their death in great prosperity, and thus ends the story
of gray Man. So I have a very specific sound
(44:15):
effect as I'm reading that story, and every time the
king gets fooled, when the king and the queen are
in the bag and he's like, ah, it's me, the
gray Man, and there's just this moment of yeah, that's
(44:35):
all I kept hearing each time, Like by that one
it's just like, oh my god, he got us again.
Speaker 4 (44:41):
He got him again. Yeah, that gray man who.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Ended up being a neighboring king's son.
Speaker 4 (44:48):
Yeah, but like, do you think that's true? So this
is okay. This is the first time ever that I
can remember finishing a folk story and and feeling like
there was a twist.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Oh yeah, that's true. Usually they're like wear clued in
as readers the whole way through.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
Yeah. I thought gray Man, you know, like just the
fact that there's like a man inside of a sack
that randomly gets given to an old man for a
cow like I uh, I thought he was gonna be
kind of magical, and he does seem kind of magical.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Yeah, I mean the hanging thing alone is I mean,
that's like the most magical quality. But other than that,
he seems very human. I mean he didn't really like
he would actually hide, you know, when he like just
snuck in before they locked the kingdom. There wasn't any
magic there. He just hid in the shadows when he
after he pored the porridge in their bed.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
It's interesting because initially I was thinking maybe he was
one of the hidden people or like Hulda folk, but
turns out he's just one of the Uh, he's just
a regular dude.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
But he's also a special guy.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Truly is. He's very smart.
Speaker 4 (45:56):
He is very smart, very clever.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Mm hmm. But are you thinking that maybe he just
like threw that in because he doesn't go back to
his kingdom?
Speaker 4 (46:04):
He stays, Oh, yeah, he just takes so yeah, I
don't Actually, I'm not convinced he is the son of
a neighboring king.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
That whole thing from the beginning, I knew it was
going on, that was this is all a ruse. You
all fell into it.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
I don't believe you, Gray Man.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
I'm impressed by you, but I also don't believe you
knew this was going to happen the whole way through.
Speaker 4 (46:27):
M I wonder how the king's daughter took it all in,
you know what I mean? Like, how did she feel
about it?
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Given what we know about the select people that we've
come across in this story, there are quite a few dummies.
You think she's a dummy, No, I think that. I
don't know about her. She's probably fine, but she's probably
I would say, impressed by this guy, Like it could
have just been some dude at that IQ level that
(46:59):
everybody else is at where they're all like the king,
I mean, him constantly throwing these things out there and
getting bested. And then she's like, well, at least the
guy I'm getting I'm being forced to marry rather is
he's quick witted.
Speaker 4 (47:10):
You think that's what she was looking for in a husband.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
If she was looking for a husband.
Speaker 4 (47:17):
Oh yeah, So I'm like, my mind is blown by
this story. I felt like I had a really good
handle on it until the end, and then I got
real confused because it got kind of convoluted, you know.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Yeah, and then yeah, we're left without a lot. But
I mean, that's something that's kind of that they mentioned
in the preface of this translation. Let me see if
I can pull it up.
Speaker 4 (47:40):
Yeah, what did they say in the preface?
Speaker 2 (47:42):
So this is written by George J. E. Powell. We
have thought fit as this is our final selection for
mister Arnison's work, to introduce it with an essay which
shall enable our readers to take a general and comprehensive
view of the popular fancy of Iceland, of its mode
of regarding the world of wonders, visible nature in the
various phases of human life, life and character to students
of folklore. In all its bearings, we sincerely trust that
(48:04):
this introduction may prove valuable to the general reader. We
doubt not that it will be interesting and amusing. We
have purposely avoided entering into minute details, preferring to give
a broad and clear outline of our subject, rather than
to exhaust the pith or spirit of the tales which
constitute our volume. By doing so, we believe that the
yessa it will rather enhance than detract from much interest
(48:28):
as the stories may possess to students of folklore. Let
us point out that many of the tales in this
book have a far deeper moral and meaning than may
appear on their surface or to the reader who glances
superficially over them, with a view to wiling away a
spare half hour. Upon this undercurrent, we should have dwelt
in our introduction had we not found early in the
(48:48):
day that by doing so we should have converted an
essay into a volume almost as large as the one
it was intended to preface. Moreover, we should thus have
overstepped the limits of our plan. We have therefore thought
it better to leave our readers fancy and ingenuity to
color and shade in our outline. So basically they're saying,
we really whittled this thing down, really trimmed out the fat,
(49:09):
and without meaning to. Our preface is almost as long
as the book, which is really funny.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
It's a little tongue in cheek, is it really?
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Yeah? I mean that's what they're saying. It's very long,
Like there's a preface and then there's an introduction and
both are many pages.
Speaker 4 (49:24):
Wow. I relate to that.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
Just wanting to over explain. Okay, I wrote this thing, guys. Yeah,
it's it's it's pretty wild. Let me just take it's
ten pages long, but let me take ten pages to
explain what it's.
Speaker 4 (49:37):
About, right. I also like that they're telling us how
to read it. They're like, okay, so here's the thing.
Don't just like read it for fun. Although they are fun,
you're also going to get a moral and also, like
if you're like not that interested, like we did leave
out some stuff, so like you got to use your
imagination a little bit.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Yeah you know.
Speaker 4 (49:57):
Yeah. So then I like that the they say specifically
there is definitely some moral information here.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Yeah. Yeah, it's like it's these stories are much deeper
than we've written them out to be. But you know,
if you're a folk or lover, you'll know what to do.
If you're a general reader, you won't carry either way.
Speaker 4 (50:17):
Right, So have we come to any kind of conclusion
when it when we're talking about the moral of this story.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Yeah, let's uh. I mean there was the It really
throws a wrench in our whole philosophy, the fact that
he said he was playing a long con because it
would have been our robin Hood theory of taking from
people who have too much and giving to people who
have too little. But he's like, no, this was actually
all for my benefit to become king of this territory too,
since I'm the son of a king. So I don't know.
Speaker 4 (50:44):
Also, I feel like they make it sound like maybe
he's just saying that to like amuse people. I can't
remember how they word it, but they say, let's see,
maybe I can pull it back up. Oh yeah, But
at the wedding feast, he amused the guests by telling
them that he was that he was the son of
a neighboring king. So it says he amused the guests.
(51:08):
You know what I mean. It's like, I mean, obviously
there's some questions as to like what it what those
words mean to me versus like the translation. But it
sounds to me like he's just like entertaining them and
saying like yeah, and turns out I'm just a rich
guy who saw an opportunity. Yeah. Maybe, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
No, it definitely feels like the end of a sitcom
from the nineties when one character would have that final
line and the whole room would laugh and there'd be
this freeze frame and everybody and then the credits roll
in the audience is like he's like, yeah, actually, guys,
the whole time, I knew what was going on.
Speaker 4 (51:47):
That's the end of the Do do do do?
Speaker 2 (51:49):
Dude?
Speaker 4 (51:51):
Like that Instagram filter that used to exist? Do they
still do that? The super zoom with the TV show
Super Zoom?
Speaker 2 (51:59):
I don't know if it's still on there. I do
have a bunch of like backlogged Instagram videos of that,
like Nicole sleeping in various places with her mouth open
and it's just that slow zoom in yep, that's just
for me forever. So so you gotta say, morally give
(52:21):
to give to the people who need it.
Speaker 4 (52:23):
I don't know, Uh, the concept that it's okay to
lie if it's for a good cause. Oh yeah, yeah,
we talked about that, right or no, I don't know
if we talked about that in the beginning.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
But yeah, that's a that's good I guess anything that's
for the betterment of humanity.
Speaker 4 (52:41):
Yeah, that that whole sort of socialist notion we get,
where what's good for the gander is good for the goose,
rather than the individualistic look at it, which is what's
good for the goose is good for the gander. Case
you wanted to hear about geese in capitalisms of economic models.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah, yeah, be a socialist goose, not a capitalistic goose.
Speaker 4 (53:12):
And lord knows, don't be a duck because they're scary.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
So yeah, I feel good. I feel like we got
what we wanted out of this story.
Speaker 4 (53:20):
Yeah. You know, listeners, if you have any thoughts, it
was a confusing story. There was a twist. I feel
like there's probably a lot of different interpretations that I
would believe to be true. So if you have any
thoughts and you want to share them with us.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
Please do Yeah, reach out to us on the Twitter
at Folklorica pod and just let us know what you thought.
Of this whole thing.
Speaker 4 (53:47):
Hit us up on Instagram and help us grow that
organic following. You know, maybe some day will get sponsored
by Puro.
Speaker 3 (53:55):
Yeah, they're doing real well.
Speaker 4 (53:57):
That'd be a big one in this time.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
At the handle is Folklorica dot pod.
Speaker 4 (54:03):
Easy to remember, guys.
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Yeah, all right until next week, guys, So you thanks
for listening. Today we read The Gray Man from My
Icelandic Legends by John Arnison, published in eighteen sixty two.
Speaker 4 (54:20):
We used a lot of different sources which you actually
will be able to find on our show notes at
straw hupmedia dot com slash Folklorica.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
Bye Glorica, and now for your moment of Zenyo moncone.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
Wo wo.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
Whoa wo.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
Really whoa whoa whoa whoah.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
Me really.
Speaker 4 (55:08):
Whoa whoa.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
That's the best one yet.
Speaker 4 (55:15):
Yeah, I thought that turned out well
Straw Hut Media.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The mountain has turned gray, and autumn winds whip sharply
between buildings. Yet I look forward to the coming winter,
when rivers channel through border ice, and voices carry far
away in the stillness between us, in the months with
iron names, when words are like cold steel and leave
(00:28):
a metallic taste between my teeth. That poem is called
Winter Thoughts by Magnus Sigurdson.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Glorica.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
You want to start us off?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Sure, Hello, and welcome to Folklorica.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Welcome to Folklorica.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
That's right again.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
I'm gonna start us off because I feel like you
have a hard time.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I always do.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Yeah, Hello, and welcome to season two, episode one of Folklorica.
I'm your host Maggie Bowls.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
And I'm your host Clayton Stucker.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
We're both hosts and we're ready.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Let's do one more time.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Welcome to Folklorica, the podcast about folk tales. I'm your host. Okay, hello,
and welcome back to Folklorica. I am one of your hosts,
Maggie Bowls, and.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I am the other one of your hosts, Clayton Stucker.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
That was perfect. So this is the first episode of
season two of Folklorica Clayton, You've chosen a very special
story for us. What have you chosen.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Today's story I'm very excited about comes from Iceland. You
and I have talked about doing Iceland for a while,
and so I'm very happy to finally be traveling to
that part of the world. And today's story from Iceland
is called Gray Man.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Have you ever been to Iceland?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
No, but it is a bucket list for sure. Have
you ever been?
Speaker 4 (02:28):
No, but my one of my colleagues just went to
Iceland for the weekend, and that's how I knew he
was paid a lot more than I was.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
That's how that's how you found out the pay differential
was because he got to go to Iceland.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
He just on a whim decided to go to Iceland
for the weekend to.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Even have that as an option, Yeah, I see, I see.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
So I was like, looks really fun. I'm so happy
for you.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
But really just had spare cash laying around from all
the money I was just doing the same job. Yeah,
just jealous, I get it. Actually, it's funny. I had
a friend who is just in Iceland as well, and
he's doing an Iceland Ireland tour and I'm quite envious.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
That's very fun. Are they close geographically?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
They must be, They're They're not far and actually they
actually they have an intertwining history.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
And they share some folklore, some folk mythical creatures. They
share some mythical creatures. They do, yes, they do.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Oh like what.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Like? They both have uh I think we actually talked
about this on the water Kelpy episode. But they have
a similar horse that like lures you onto its back
and then runs you into the water and drowns you.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Oh, I see, they have their own water the core.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Yeah, I mean, they don't have the same names, but
they have similar similar names. That one's has a the
eker has backwards feet. You remember that, I think I'll
talk right. And then they also have their equivalent of
the Lockness Sponster, called the forgive my pronunciation lagar fliote worm.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
In logar fliote worm.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah, they call it a worm, which is honestly really
hilarious to.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Me, given the shape of what we know the Lockness monster.
That's that's not surprising, I know.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Well, that's the thing. And actually the crazy thing about
the worm capital w worm is that people have been
seeing it since like the fourteenth century is like when
the first recorded spotting of the worm was and then
they still spot it today. And there's actually a YouTube
(04:46):
video of a compilation of people spotting the worm.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
And you actually see the worm in the video kind of.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
I mean, okay, here's what we should do is you
should watch this right now, okay, but really quickly. Where
it lives Lager Flat. Where it lives is a fresh
water below sea level, glacial fed lake, so it's like
it's melted glaciers and there's a lot of silt so
(05:14):
there's like very poor visibility, so the water's super murky.
So it really is like a log exactly. So if
you go to this link, okay, okay, and you can
just describe to us what you're seeing.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Maybe, yeah, so this is Icelandic lake monster lager float
worm scene again. Okay, So what I'm seeing is a
(05:50):
handycam is filming a lake or a body of water,
and there's definitely something moving.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Would you say that it's worm shaped?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I mean, what the rippling effect that's happening in the
water would lead me to believe that it's worm shaped?
I agree, it's very long, very newtly is this music
in the video I don't.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Know when they talk.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So they're filming this thing, and also someone is playing
let it be in yeah, Icelandic. The worm loves it.
I think, is this how they you bring the worm out?
Speaker 4 (06:52):
I like that they sing let it be in English,
but then they switch right back to Icelandic.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, And I.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Do think that I was thinking about let it be
with worm, like they're like, let the worm be, you.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Know, I see, I see.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Like let him live his worm life.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
While we film him and put him on the internet.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Right. But like you know, because one of the things
that I read a lot about Icelandic folk tales is
that they okay, so you know, the the Hulda folk, right,
the hidden people. The hidden people slash the Icelandic elves.
So they live supposedly all over Iceland in these like
(07:35):
little rock formations. And in nineteen ninety eight they did
a survey and more than half of Icelanders believed in elves.
And then later on they did it again and the
number was lower, but still people didn't want to say
that they didn't believe in elves, like they wouldn't say
they wanted they did believe in elves, but they wouldn't
(07:56):
say they didn't.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
And apparently it's bad luck to say elves don't exist.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Interesting, it's like a very specific regional superstition.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Well yeah, I mean not even regional, but like the
whole country, you know. And so there was a spot
where apparently a lot of elves lived, and there was
like an elvin church, which was just a rock.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Fai oh, I thought it was going to be a
tiny church.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
No, but some people say they can feel the energy
of the elves. So in twenty fifteen, the city wanted
to build this road and it would break through. It
would basically like displace all these rocks where supposedly elves lived.
And all these things went wrong, like people got injured
and the machinery broke down and all kinds of stuff
(08:45):
happened until they just finally gave up and they didn't
do it, and they think it was the elves.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
That's weird, kind of like Ferngully.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
It is kind of like fern Gully.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Actually, yeah, yeah, I'd heard a story that they were
trying to build a road through uh and they wanted
to build a road and in order for it to
be like I guess, the easiest route went to go
through a mountain. But the people of Iceland believe that
the mountain was inhabited by trolls or or the Holdo folk,
(09:15):
and so they actually had the road go around the
mountain instead of cutting through it because of that. But
then if I guess, the Icelandic Road Administration actually after
this story kind of circulated that they had gone around
this troll mountain instead of going through it, the Icelandic
Road Administration has actually called these media reports about building
(09:36):
and road projects being altered to prevent damaging the rocks
where hidden people live a misrepresentation. So it's like you said,
like people weren't willing to deny else it's almost like
they recognize that maybe you won't be taken seriously if
you're like, no, we actually do renavigate or redirect where
we build things because of mythical creatures, Like, no one's
(09:58):
going to take you seriously after that stuff to be
like we don't. We don't technically do that, but really
they do that.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
They all like they're like, no, that's not why we
went around the mountain, Like, yeah, there happened to be
elves that live in the hill, but we're not scared
of them. We just went around because like we didn't
want to deal with it, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
No, we we wanted to go around. It was our choice.
Had nothing the trolls.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
That it made a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, but it's interesting to have such a like they
like you said, what was the statistic of that's wild?
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Yeah, a little more speaking of trolls, the trolls. Uh
So I was looking at some pictures of places where
there are trolls, and apparently like a lot of them
were just like weird faces in uh, like landscapes and stuff.
(10:49):
So there's stories of trolls that there was one area
where the trolls they lured a boat in, uh, and
then the sun came out and they turned a stone
and so that's why the stones up trolls. And I
was realizing that it's the same in Lord of the
Rings where the trolls, right, is that Lord of the Rings?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's in the Hobbit.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Yeah, in the Hobbit the trolls. That's how Bilbil gets out.
He tricks the trolls in the hanging out till sunlight
and so same thing.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah. I mean, if you I know, we're we're not
going to get too deep into it. But the entire
Volsung saga is just the entire history of this family
lineage that starts, I mean thousands of years ago, and
then they have every generation covered and every generation has
a story, and it's very very similar to the Silmarillion
(11:40):
and him wanting to expand and have that sort. But
we also know that Tolkien actually wrote Sigurd and the
Dragon or his own interpretation of it. Oh yeah, so
there's going to be He.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Also wrote a lot of stuff he did like or
he did he did a lot of.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
He did Beowulf right.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
He was a scholar of sorts. He liked folklore.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, but it's easy to see where he got all
of his A lot of his inspiration is definitely like
Icelandic mythology is very very heavily rooted in it.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
You know what's funny is that I will so Tolkien.
We know that Tolkien took all of this or took
a lot of inspiration from old stories. But then and
we're like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. Tolkien was a
scholar and he took all this, you know, inspiration. But
then when I think about someone like JK. Rowling and
(12:33):
I read her stories and I read and I notice
like all these parallels between like like I'm reading Jane
Eyre right now, and the whole introduct like the first
like three or four or five chapters are so Harry Potter.
It's like so weird. And then also there's all this
like Lord of the Rings like lining up and like
all of these like tropes and stuff that she uses.
(12:53):
And I feel like maybe I'm sexist because I'm like, oh,
JK Rolling, she's like stealing blah blah blah. But like
Jared Tolkien, I'm like he was a scholar, you know
all these things. Isn't that fucked up?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I mean we're all we all steal
from everything we've ever that's ever given us inspiration. I
guess you don't even realize like how often you're using
tropes in anything you write, or I mean that I've
I heard someone say that we're all just trying to
copy the people that we idolize, and the ways in
(13:25):
which we mess it up or fuck it up is
what makes it our own.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Oh, which I like.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah, but it's yeah, I think. Yeah, anytime you read
something whatever inspires you to do, whatever your creative medium is,
you're probably absorbing a lot of information from anything you
loved and then it somehow it will end up in
what you're making.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Yeah, except for me, because I'm one original.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Wow. That's hard.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Yeah, it is hard in a good way. That was creepy.
That was that was a creepy choke.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
That made me uncomfortable. I started to sweat. He said,
it's hard in a good way. Yeah. But anyway, So
speaking of authors, let's so let's talk about this guy.
Let's talk about Uh, we'll go with Yan arnas Son Arnison.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
That was good. He did good with that.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
He's our ethnographer of the day who collected the story
that we're reading today.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Would you call him an ethnon griffer.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
If you can do that two times in a row,
we keep it.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Because his first name is Yan, I like it.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
But Yan was born August seventeenth, eighteen nineteen in hof
And He was an Icelandic writer, a librarian and museum
director who made the first collection of Icelandic folk tales.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
I read that. He was the first librarian at what
became the National Library of Iceland and Raykovic. Yeah, also
the first librarian of the Icelandic branch of the Literary
Society or something like that. And then he was also
the first curator at what's now the National Museum of Iceland.
So he was just like this killer librarian slash curator.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
He was like Iceland's official librarian.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
He really was. Yeah, he seemed like a nice guy.
He didn't seem like he had very much money though.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
No, but that's like a classic for our characters in
our everything we learn about, as far as the stories
and the ethnographers we cover, there always broke and they
always spend a lot of time in libraries.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
What about the brothers Grimm or they broke?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
They might have been the exception.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I think they were the exception, always an exception.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
But even if you according to the Wikipedia.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Peg because J. J. Arnison apparently was inspired by the
Grim Brothers.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Exactly right, which just is just another sign that we're
seeing the Grim fairy tales are inspiring everyone. I did
want to point out this part. My favorite thing about
Wicked Pedia pages is they break it down. They do
like different sections of your life. But for Yon, there's
two sentences in his personal life section and it said
(16:09):
Yan married late in life, but his son died before
he did. He died after a long illness.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Yeah, I read that on the Wikipedia.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
That's all they have on in as far as his
personal life went.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Yeah, and all that is from obituaries written, so.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Like, all we know is that his son died before
he did, and he eventually died after being sick for
a while.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Everything we know about his personal life was from his obituary,
which is two sentences. Kind of sad actually, you.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Know, but I mean, considering how much we're we have
of his professional life, I guess I think you'd be
all right with that.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Yeah, Okay. One one thing I found interesting about the
way that they gathered their stories, so him, both him
and Magnus, his friend Magnus Grimson, were pretty like they
didn't have much money, and so because they couldn't travel
around Iceland to collect stories, they just since his friend
(17:10):
was a teacher and he was a librarian, they just
like found people they knew to send them the tales,
to write them down and send them to them.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Oh okay, And.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Then apparently Yawn made a few changes. He may have
spiced things up a little bit, but apparently not too much.
But you know, he probably did some you know, copy editing,
maybe like moving a few things around, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, I mean, if he's inspired by the brothers Grim,
I mean, that's definitely something that they did.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Yeah, you got to write, you got to.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I mean, just if you're dealing with like six slight
variations of one story, you kind of have to smash
them together.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
Yeah. Yeah. Oh. So here's another thing I read is
that him and Magnus published their first collection and no
one cared, like literally nobody gave any oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
any shits about it. And so they were like, well, okay,
I guess no one cares about it. And then some
guy I can't remember who it was, but some guy
(18:08):
came over and he was like, no, no, this is cool,
you should keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
And Conrad Mauer.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Yeah, Conrad Maer who's Conrad Mauer.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
He was the German legal historian and scholar of Icelandic
literature who had toured the country in eighteen fifty eight
and encouraged them to keep doing what they were doing.
And that ties into so basically, yeah, they had printed
out their first collection that you said no one cared about,
and Conrad Maher comes in, He's like, just keep doing
what you're doing. And so then they put out a
basically a second volume, and the story that we are
(18:38):
reading today is from that second volume.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Great stick around, because after a very quick break, we
will be reading gray Man. That's right, gray Man. Stick around,
gray Man.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
From Icelandic Legends by Jan Arnison, there were once a
king and queen in their palace, and a carl and
his old wife in their cocked. The king was wealthy
in herds and cattle. He had one daughter, a loan
of children, who lived in a costly bower with her maidens.
The karl was poor. He had no child, and the
(19:18):
only support for him and his old wife was a
single cow.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Quick question, what is a carl?
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I think a carl might just be a farmer, or
maybe like the head of his household.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Maybe I should just google carl.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I tried good luck.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Definition a peasant or a man of low birth.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Oh you found it cool?
Speaker 4 (19:43):
All right, now we know what a carl is. Let's
move on, okay.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Once the old man went to church, and the priest
had taken as a text to preach from the virtue
of generosity and the promise it had. When the old
man came home from the church, his old wife asked
him what good things he had to tell her from
the preacher. The old man said that there were a
great many good things to be told from it. For today,
it had been a delight to listen to the priest,
(20:07):
as he had said that whosoever gave should receive a thousandfold. Again,
the old woman thought this rather too much, and said
she fancied that her husband must have heard wrong, or
that he had not attended properly to the priest's words.
The old man was quite sure that he had listened well,
and she doubted it, And so they quarreled about it
for a while, both sticking to their own views of
(20:30):
the matter. The next day, the old man hired numbers
of workmen to build for him a cow house enough
for one thousand cows. This the old woman did not
at all like. She called it folly and would not
have it. But nothing could dissuade the old man from
his purpose. When the building of the cow house was finished,
the old man began thinking about to whom he should
(20:52):
give his cow. He knew none rich enough to give
him a thousand cows for it, save the King himself.
But to go to him person, the old man had
no courage. At last, He decided upon going to the priest,
for he knew that he was well off and thought
he would be the last to let his own words
come to naught. Now, the karl went off, leading his
(21:13):
cow in a cord to the priest and paying no
heed to his wife's against words. He found out the
priest and gave him the cow. The priest wondered at
this and asked him what he meant by it. The
carl told him all his reason for doing so. The
priest grew peevish and rebuked the karl for wrongly listening
and for hair splitting mistreatment of his words, and drove
(21:35):
him away back with his cow.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
This is very funny. So first of all, this is genius,
Like the carl like, this sounds dumb, but actually this
is genius. You know when someone says like, if you
do this for someone, they will give you this, and
then you actually take it to the person who said that,
and he's like, what, no, not me, he's why you like,
I meant like a thousandfold, like metaphorically, not like you know, literally.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
But also this priest not super nice.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
No, And it's funny. They've pointed out too that the
priest was actually pretty well off.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Yeah, exactly like most priests were back then.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Mm hmm. Some evangelical qualities to this priest.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
He's like, yeah, go out and give a way and
you'll get all that back. But what he really meant
to church? Give it to the church. That's they've been
saying that forever.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Mm mmmmm.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
The karl went back, dragging his cow after him, but
highly ill pleased with the upshot of his journey. But
on the way home he was overtaken by a coal
black north snowstorm and hard frost. He lost his way
and thought he must without doubt lose his cow, and
(22:47):
likely enough lose his own life too. While he was
thus thinking about his difficulties, a man came towards him,
walking with a large bag on his back. The man
asked how the carl came to be traveling with a
cow here in such weather. The carl told him the
whole reason for it. The stranger said he would be
(23:07):
sure to lose the cow, and it was very doubtful
whether he would escape the storm alive. It is far
better for you, he said, poor old man, to give
the cow up to me in exchange for this sack,
which you can easily carry on your back, it holds
only flesh and bones. Now, whether they had a long
or short discussion about this, the bargain was made. The
(23:31):
stranger took away the cow and the coral walked off
with the sack, but he found it fearfully heavy. When
he got home he told his wife how it had
fared with the cow, But about the bag, he was
mightily puffed up and proud. The old woman, on hearing
the story, grew very cross with her carl, but he
bade her not be angry, and rather put on the
(23:51):
hearth a big pot with water in it. She put
on the biggest of all her pots, and filled it
with water. When the water boiled, the carl began undoe
the mouth of the bag, and busy enough he was
and proud of his bargain. But when he had opened
it up, jumped from it a full grown man dressed
in gray clothes from head to foot, and said they
(24:11):
had better boil something else than him.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Oh my god, there's a man in the bag, gray man.
Is it like slender Man? No? Okay, all right, all right,
I can't wait to see what happens next.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
The old man sat astonished, But his old wife said, ah, there,
that is just like you, fool that you are. First
you have deprived us of the only beasts that supported
our lives, so that now we are utterly without support.
And then you have added a whole man to the
family to be fed. Now, the carl and his wife
quarreled for some time about this, until gray Man said
(24:45):
that this would not do at all. He would go
out in search of something to eat for them all,
for this grumbling would be food of little nourishment to them.
Now gray Man ran away into the darkness and came
soon back again with a full grown, fat weather, which
he bade them care hill and make a good dish
out of.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Wait, what's a weather?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
A castrated ram?
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Oh, how did you find one of those?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Do you think the ram was already castrated when he
found it?
Speaker 4 (25:12):
I sure hope. So.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
At first they had great unwillingness to do this, saying
they knew well that the weather must be stolen. Yet
they yielded at last. Now in the cot folk lived
a high life while they were eating the weather, And
when it was finished, gray men fetched yet another, then
a third, a fourth, and fifth. For this the old
couple liked much the gray Man, and they lived now
(25:37):
richly upon real good mutton. The story now turns to
the king's court. The king's herdman was soon aware that
weathers were missing from the flock.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Aha, they are stolen.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
They are stolen.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Of course they're stolen.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
He did not understand this, and once told the King
that five weathers were missing. These he said, had been
lost one after the He knew not how, but he
thought there must be some thieves in the neighborhood. Then
the King began to find out whether any person had
lately moved into the parish, and discovered at last that
to the carl and his wife in the cot there
(26:13):
had come a man of whom nobody knew anything. He
sent a message to the man to come and appear
before him in the court. Gray Man went at once,
but the man and his wife feared that they should
lose their supporter, as he must thought they be hanged
for his theft. When gray Man appeared at court, the
king asked him if he had stolen from him five weathers,
(26:33):
fat and full grown, which were now missing from his flock.
Gray Man answered, yes, sire, that I have done. Then
the King asked why he had done so. Gray Man answered,
I did so because the old Carl and his old
wife and Walnook were dying from want, having nothing whatever
to their hand in the way of food. But you, King,
have abundance of everything and far more than you use,
(26:56):
being unable to consume more than a tithe of your
food stores. Now, it seemed to me far more just
that the Karl and his old wife should have something
from that which you did not use, than that they
should starve while you had more than you wanted.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
So gray Man is like a little robin Hood.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah, it seems like it. So robin Hood from there.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
One family and give to the needy.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Steal from the king and give to these two.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
Yeah, I'm into him. I like him. He seems nice.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
And the fact that he's just telling the King like
it is. He's like, you have more than you need,
and they're over here, they might die if they don't
have food.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Yeah, he's like, what you're going to tell me you
need those five weathers? They need those five weathers, bro.
You know, I can't wait to see what the King does.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
The King was half startled at gray Man's words and
asked if it was his only, or his best accomplishment
to steal. To this, gray Man gave a vague answer.
Then the King said he would pardon him if he
could tomorrow steal his five year old oks, which he
was going to make his folk take out into the forest.
But if you cannot do it, said the king, you
(28:03):
shall be hanged. Gray Man said that this was a
plain impossibility, for the king would tell his people to
watch it. The King answered that he should be ready
for that. Now. Gray Man returned home and was fondly
welcomed by the Carl and his old wife. Gray Man
told the Carl to have in readiness for him a rope,
for he was going to use it early tomorrow. Karl
(28:25):
did as the other bade him, and all slept quietly
the night through. Next morning, gray Man got up, took
the rope and went away. He went into the forest
where he knew the King's men must pass, and, turning
to a large oak by the wayside, hung himself in
it by the rope. Soon after, the King's men came
passing by with the ox. When they came to the oak,
(28:47):
they looked and saw where gray Man was hanging, and said, ah,
gray Man as surely played his tricks on somebody else
besides the king. For there someone has hung him up.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Wait, so she hung himself from a tree like in
a noose.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yeah, sounds like, oh, gray man, he's committed. We shall
scarcely have to fear that he will now steal our ox.
After this they paid no more attention to the thief,
but went on their way. When the king's men had
passed out of sight, gray men got down from the oak, and,
running through a hidden path a good long way past
the king's men, hung himself up again in an oak
(29:22):
by the wayside. The king's men coming then saw, to
their great astonishment gray men hanging there again. This they
could not understand at all. Is it possible that they
are too, these wretched gray men, They said to one another,
It would be curious to know for certain. Let us
run back and see how the other gray man is,
(29:43):
and if he is the same as this one. So
they tied the ox to an oak and went back.
But when a hill hid them from sight, gray man
jumped down from the oak and took the ox with
him to Carl's Cot as quickly as he could. Easy easy,
just had to hang himself twice as a destruction.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
He just had to hang himself twice far away. And
these suckers did accept that he had them eating out
of the palm of his hand.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Mm hmm. He bade the Carl and his old wife
slaughter the ox speedily and skin it without splitting the skin,
and make candles out of the fat. At this there
was great glee in the Carl's cot. Now he must
return to the King's men. When they came to the
oak whereon the first gray Man had been hanging, there
was no gray Man to be seen at all. Then
(30:31):
they ran to the other oak, but there they found
nothing either, for no gray Man was there, and the
ox had already vanished from the oak to which he
had been tied. Now, for the first time, the king's
men saw what trick gray Man had played on them,
and went home and told the King how matters stood.
The King ordered gray Man at once to appear before him,
(30:53):
and the Carl and his old wife became deadly frightened,
for now they thought, surely and without mercy, what gray
Man be hanged. But gray Man, taking them matter very coolly,
went to the king at once, then said, the King,
did you steal my ox. Gray Man, Yes, sire, answered
the thief. I had need to do so in order
(31:15):
to save.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
My life, as you know.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Then the King said, I will pardon you this time
if you will steal tonight the sheets from the bed
of myself and my queen.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Oh, I say so, he's changed in the rules now,
the king.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Mm hmm, it's up in the stakes.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
It's also kind of funny that the king said he
would hang him if he didn't steal the ox, and
then he hung himself in order to steal the ox.
Oh that's kind of funny, right.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
That's interesting. Yeah, I didn't even think about that.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
Yeah, this also sounds like it might be like a
really stealthy way to invite him to a three way,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, And I mean I was going to ask what
the relationship is with the gray Man and the carl
and the wife me too?
Speaker 4 (31:59):
Do they all sleep in one bed? It must be
a small place they live.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I'd imagine, I think, Yeah, like they'd have to have obviously,
being poor peasant folk farmer people, they'd have like one
house basically, no spare bedrooms. It's all one big room,
one room. Yeah, three way spoon.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Three way spoon. Who do you think is what do
you think the order is of the spoons?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
I'd say I think the Carl is the smallest spoon.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Carl the smallest spoon, big big gray Man is big spoon.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Definitely man.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
He likes a nustle in between them.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Oh maybe he's like they're gray baby, great baby, they're
great spoon baby.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Also because they keep calling it his cought. I assume
caught means like like a hovel or something like a
little house. But I just keep imagining them all like
in a military cot, like all squashed in.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Together on a twin mattress.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Yeah, on like a twin mattress, like Allah Charlie and
the chocolate factory, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Mm hmmm hmmm, all the grandparents.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Yeah, like, except that they're like spoons.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Carl is definitely Grandpa Joe.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Then the King said, I will pardon you this time
if you will steal tonight the sheets from the bed
of myself and my queen. Why nobody can do that,
you know? For however should I manage to get into
the palace, said the other. That you must tell yourself,
said the king. But I tell you that your life
is at steak. At this they parted, and gray Men
(33:28):
went home to Walnook. Carl and his old wife thought
they had got him again from the jaws of death,
and received him with great joy. Now gray Man took
some few pounds of flour and asked the old wife
to make for him a stir about rather thick. When
she had done this, gray Man put the stir about
into a little pale with a lid over it, so
(33:48):
that it should not cool too quickly.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Do you know what a stir about is? There's a
lot of words in this that I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, I would say stir about is probably like probably
like a cream of wheat.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
Yeah, I would imagine in like an oatmeal of some kind. So, yeah,
you must be right.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Some sort of porridge, just because it's flower and hot water.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
Oh yes, yes, yes, a stir about, so it's just
flower and water.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Mm hmm. He walked off with the pail and got
into the King's palace on the sly so that nobody
saw him, and hid himself in a dark corner. Soon
the king's court was strongly bolted, for it was not
meant that gray Man should get inside for nothing. But
when gray Man knew that all the people in the
court were fast asleep, and also the King and Queen.
(34:30):
He stole silently to their bed, and, moving the bed
cloths off them down to their waists, poured the sturabout
gently down between the King and queen, and then got
away into a corner of the room. When the sturabout.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Wait, wait, so he undressed them to the waist.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I think he just brought the blankets down. Okay, yeah,
moving the bedcloths off them down to their waist. Okay,
he pulled their.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
Pants down like their pajamas. They pulled their pants down
and then poured hot porridge over him. And I was like, oh,
this is definitely going to turn into a weird three way.
But no, okay, So he just pulled the blankets down
and then poured porridge between them. Mm hmm, okay, yeah,
that's normal. Okay.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
When the storeabout touched the queen, she was startled and
awoke the King, saying, what is this you have done
in the bed, my love? So she immediately blamed him
for whatever this MUSHes that's in the bed.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
She assumes he pooped.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
I guess, yeah, you're my love, You're excreting thick liquids.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
Ew, it's all warm too.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Mm hmm. What is this you have done in the bed,
my love? The King would not confess to having done it,
and they quarreled a little about it, till at last
they took the sheets from the bed and flung them
on the floor, and then they went to sleep again.
They just move on immediately, just like you think.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
You think they would have been like, wait a second,
m hmm, weren't we supposed to tell a guy to
steal our sheets? Isn't it weird that something weird is
happening to our sheets right now?
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, you know that's.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
The thirst that I would have.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
But that's a classic relationship. You just like want to
blame the other part. It's like I didn't put the
this isn't me, this is you.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Yeah, and you don't want a communication.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
M now. Graymon took the sheets and rolled them up
under his arm and walked off with them to the
carl's cot and bade the old folk clean the stir
about out of them and then use them for their
own bed. Next morning, when the King and queen awoke,
they saw that the sheets were gone. The king understood
how it was then that gray Man would most likely
(36:36):
have stolen them. He caused him to be called for,
and the Carl and his wife, thinking that he was
called away to be hanged, bade along and last farewell
to him. Gray Man walked without delay up to the King,
who asked him, did you gray Man steal the sheets
last night from the bed of myself and my queen? Yes, sire,
he said, I was forced to do so, for I
(36:57):
must needs save my own life. Well, answered the King,
I will pardon you if you will tonight steal both
myself and my queen from our bed.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
When is he going to learn his lesson here? You
know what I mean? He's obviously a very good burglar
mm hmmm, and he's just tempting the fates now he
knows he can steal both him and you know, like also,
the rules keep changing, you know. He says, like, uh,
you can have your life if you just do this
one thing. But then he keeps doing it, and it's
(37:28):
the rules keep changing. How's Grahamon supposed to succeed?
Speaker 2 (37:33):
What does seem like the king is too right? Well,
but he's definitely like he really wants to test his skills,
and he just keeps challenging him further, just like you're
not going to be able to do this next one,
but then he does.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Does it?
Speaker 4 (37:45):
M Yeah, big mistake, big mistake. Mm hmmm, all right,
let's see what happens.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Well, answered the King, I will pardon you if you
will tonight steal both myself and my queen from our bed.
But if you do not succeed, you shall be hanged
without mercy. Nobody can do that, said gray Man. That
I leave with you, replied the king. After this, they parted,
and gray Man went home to Walnuock. He was hardily
(38:12):
welcomed by the caral and his old wife, who thought
he had returned from unavoidable death. In the evening, when
it was dark, gray Man put on his head a
hat which belonged to the coral. It had an immensely
high and broad crown and a very broad rim. He
pierced with holes through and through both the crown and
the brim, and stuck into them candles that had been
(38:33):
made of oxes fat. And besides these he fixed a
countless number of candles to his clothes all over his
body from head to foot. In this attire, with a
hat on his head and an ox skin sack in
his hand. He went to the King's court and into
the chapel, where he put down the sack in the choir. Then,
lighting all the candles, he went to the bells and
rang them well. The King and his queen awoke at
(38:56):
the sound of the bells and got up to the
window to see what was going on. Then they saw
standing at the door of the church a shining figure
of a man, throwing beams from it in every direction.
At this the King and Queen were astonished and thought
it was undoubtedly an angel who had come down from
heaven to tell some great tidings on earth. They deemed
it best to welcome such a guest, signally ask mercy
(39:19):
an intercession of him, and shew him due reverence. They
put on their royal attire in all haste, and then
walked out to the angel. Kneeling and lowly. They addressed
him and asked him for forgiveness of all their sins,
entreating him at the same time for grace and mercy.
He answered that he could grant their prayer nowhere but
at the altar in the church. They followed now the
(39:42):
angel up to the altar, and when they came there.
The angel turned round and said he was ready to
give them forgiveness for all their sins on one condition.
They asked him what the condition was. He said it
was that they should both creep into the sack that
was lying beside them on the floor of the choir.
It's almost too easy.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
It's like it take a candy from a baby. M
He also, if an angel tells you to climb into
a sack, you say no. It doesn't matter who the
angel is, you say no, you don't climb into the sack.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
These are different times. I think that's how angels brought
people around, and they put you in a little bag.
But it also is interesting that that's how we were
introduced to Gray Many. A man just passing through a crazy,
deadly storm, seemingly unfazed by it, and he gives the
sack to the caral.
Speaker 4 (40:36):
Ah, so good things come in sacks.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Mm hm. They found the condition a good one and
crept both together into the bag. No sooner were they
in the bag than the angel sees the opening of
it and tied it tightly up. The king asked what
this meant. The angel answered, shaking off all the candles
at the same time, my good King, I am no
angel at all. I am, on the contrary, the friend
(41:00):
master gray Man from Walnook. I have now stolen you
and your queen as you bade me last night, and
I'm going to give you a pardon for your sins
by destroying both of you. Here. He dragged the sack,
without mercy, all along the floor of the church, except
you grant me at once a request I have to
make of you, and swear before you leave the bag
(41:21):
that you will fulfill it. The King, seeing that nothing
was to be done but to grant all that gray
Man might ask for, made an oath that he would
grant all gray Man's wishes. Whereupon gray Man undid the
bag and let out the King and queen. Then gray
Man said to the King that he wished him to
give his daughter to wife, and with her the half
(41:41):
of the kingdom, allowing him moreover to keep with him
the old carl and wife from Walnook.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
So that's a.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Little strange and phrasing. But what he's asking for their
daughter to be his wife.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Yeah, that seemed to have escalated very quickly. I didn't
realize that gray Man was looking for a wife.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
I know doing real well for himself. All this the
king promised, and they made an agreement together that so
this should be. Now gray Men went to Walnock, and,
finding the Karl and his old wife, bade them with
a lofty and important air, to cleanse themselves a little
and put on better clothes, for now they had to
make a little migration. Hearing this, they wondered what would
come next, But their astonishment is not to be told.
(42:22):
When they heard all that was coming to pass in
the day, gray Man brought the Carl and his old
wife up to the palace, as they were well received.
He married after this the King's daughter and got with
her the half of the kingdom. But at the wedding
feast he amused the guests by telling them that he
was the son of a neighboring king. He had got
news of the intentions of the old Carl in Walnook
(42:43):
and had come to an agreement with the priest to
make his words upon which the Karl had based all
his plans, come true, saying that he hoped the old
man had now got his cow paid one thousandfold. So
basically this was a long con on the gray Man's.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
Part, so serious. So wait, is he really the son
of a neighboring king.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
According to this, Yeah, he's the son of a neighboring
king who had convinced the priest to say the thing
in his sermon about giving and getting, which convinced the
Karl to do what he was going to do. And
then somehow all of this was a ploy to marry
the king's daughter and get half the kingdom.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
Wow, genius, this guy is an evil genius.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
M h.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
I didn't see that. That was a twist. I did
not see that coming.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Yeah, that was a good one.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Gray Man lived long and happily with his wife and
had the whole kingdom after the days of the king
his father in law, and governed it ably till his death.
The Karl and his old wife lived with him to
their death in great prosperity, and thus ends the story
of gray Man. So I have a very specific sound
(44:15):
effect as I'm reading that story, and every time the
king gets fooled, when the king and the queen are
in the bag and he's like, ah, it's me, the
gray Man, and there's just this moment of yeah, that's
(44:35):
all I kept hearing each time, Like by that one
it's just like, oh my god, he got us again.
Speaker 4 (44:41):
He got him again. Yeah, that gray man who.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Ended up being a neighboring king's son.
Speaker 4 (44:48):
Yeah, but like, do you think that's true? So this
is okay. This is the first time ever that I
can remember finishing a folk story and and feeling like
there was a twist.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Oh yeah, that's true. Usually they're like wear clued in
as readers the whole way through.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
Yeah. I thought gray Man, you know, like just the
fact that there's like a man inside of a sack
that randomly gets given to an old man for a
cow like I uh, I thought he was gonna be
kind of magical, and he does seem kind of magical.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Yeah, I mean the hanging thing alone is I mean,
that's like the most magical quality. But other than that,
he seems very human. I mean he didn't really like
he would actually hide, you know, when he like just
snuck in before they locked the kingdom. There wasn't any
magic there. He just hid in the shadows when he
after he pored the porridge in their bed.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
It's interesting because initially I was thinking maybe he was
one of the hidden people or like Hulda folk, but
turns out he's just one of the Uh, he's just
a regular dude.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
But he's also a special guy.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Truly is. He's very smart.
Speaker 4 (45:56):
He is very smart, very clever.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Mm hmm. But are you thinking that maybe he just
like threw that in because he doesn't go back to
his kingdom?
Speaker 4 (46:04):
He stays, Oh, yeah, he just takes so yeah, I
don't Actually, I'm not convinced he is the son of
a neighboring king.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
That whole thing from the beginning, I knew it was
going on, that was this is all a ruse. You
all fell into it.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
I don't believe you, Gray Man.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
I'm impressed by you, but I also don't believe you
knew this was going to happen the whole way through.
Speaker 4 (46:27):
M I wonder how the king's daughter took it all in,
you know what I mean? Like, how did she feel
about it?
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Given what we know about the select people that we've
come across in this story, there are quite a few dummies.
You think she's a dummy, No, I think that. I
don't know about her. She's probably fine, but she's probably
I would say, impressed by this guy, Like it could
have just been some dude at that IQ level that
(46:59):
everybody else is at where they're all like the king,
I mean, him constantly throwing these things out there and
getting bested. And then she's like, well, at least the
guy I'm getting I'm being forced to marry rather is
he's quick witted.
Speaker 4 (47:10):
You think that's what she was looking for in a husband.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
If she was looking for a husband.
Speaker 4 (47:17):
Oh yeah, So I'm like, my mind is blown by
this story. I felt like I had a really good
handle on it until the end, and then I got
real confused because it got kind of convoluted, you know.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Yeah, and then yeah, we're left without a lot. But
I mean, that's something that's kind of that they mentioned
in the preface of this translation. Let me see if
I can pull it up.
Speaker 4 (47:40):
Yeah, what did they say in the preface?
Speaker 2 (47:42):
So this is written by George J. E. Powell. We
have thought fit as this is our final selection for
mister Arnison's work, to introduce it with an essay which
shall enable our readers to take a general and comprehensive
view of the popular fancy of Iceland, of its mode
of regarding the world of wonders, visible nature in the
various phases of human life, life and character to students
of folklore. In all its bearings, we sincerely trust that
(48:04):
this introduction may prove valuable to the general reader. We
doubt not that it will be interesting and amusing. We
have purposely avoided entering into minute details, preferring to give
a broad and clear outline of our subject, rather than
to exhaust the pith or spirit of the tales which
constitute our volume. By doing so, we believe that the
yessa it will rather enhance than detract from much interest
(48:28):
as the stories may possess to students of folklore. Let
us point out that many of the tales in this
book have a far deeper moral and meaning than may
appear on their surface or to the reader who glances
superficially over them, with a view to wiling away a
spare half hour. Upon this undercurrent, we should have dwelt
in our introduction had we not found early in the
(48:48):
day that by doing so we should have converted an
essay into a volume almost as large as the one
it was intended to preface. Moreover, we should thus have
overstepped the limits of our plan. We have therefore thought
it better to leave our readers fancy and ingenuity to
color and shade in our outline. So basically they're saying,
we really whittled this thing down, really trimmed out the fat,
(49:09):
and without meaning to. Our preface is almost as long
as the book, which is really funny.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
It's a little tongue in cheek, is it really?
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Yeah? I mean that's what they're saying. It's very long,
Like there's a preface and then there's an introduction and
both are many pages.
Speaker 4 (49:24):
Wow. I relate to that.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
Just wanting to over explain. Okay, I wrote this thing, guys. Yeah,
it's it's it's pretty wild. Let me just take it's
ten pages long, but let me take ten pages to
explain what it's.
Speaker 4 (49:37):
About, right. I also like that they're telling us how
to read it. They're like, okay, so here's the thing.
Don't just like read it for fun. Although they are fun,
you're also going to get a moral and also, like
if you're like not that interested, like we did leave
out some stuff, so like you got to use your
imagination a little bit.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Yeah you know.
Speaker 4 (49:57):
Yeah. So then I like that the they say specifically
there is definitely some moral information here.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Yeah. Yeah, it's like it's these stories are much deeper
than we've written them out to be. But you know,
if you're a folk or lover, you'll know what to do.
If you're a general reader, you won't carry either way.
Speaker 4 (50:17):
Right, So have we come to any kind of conclusion
when it when we're talking about the moral of this story.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Yeah, let's uh. I mean there was the It really
throws a wrench in our whole philosophy, the fact that
he said he was playing a long con because it
would have been our robin Hood theory of taking from
people who have too much and giving to people who
have too little. But he's like, no, this was actually
all for my benefit to become king of this territory too,
since I'm the son of a king. So I don't know.
Speaker 4 (50:44):
Also, I feel like they make it sound like maybe
he's just saying that to like amuse people. I can't
remember how they word it, but they say, let's see,
maybe I can pull it back up. Oh yeah, But
at the wedding feast, he amused the guests by telling
them that he was that he was the son of
a neighboring king. So it says he amused the guests.
(51:08):
You know what I mean. It's like, I mean, obviously
there's some questions as to like what it what those
words mean to me versus like the translation. But it
sounds to me like he's just like entertaining them and
saying like yeah, and turns out I'm just a rich
guy who saw an opportunity. Yeah. Maybe, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
No, it definitely feels like the end of a sitcom
from the nineties when one character would have that final
line and the whole room would laugh and there'd be
this freeze frame and everybody and then the credits roll
in the audience is like he's like, yeah, actually, guys,
the whole time, I knew what was going on.
Speaker 4 (51:47):
That's the end of the Do do do do?
Speaker 2 (51:49):
Dude?
Speaker 4 (51:51):
Like that Instagram filter that used to exist? Do they
still do that? The super zoom with the TV show
Super Zoom?
Speaker 2 (51:59):
I don't know if it's still on there. I do
have a bunch of like backlogged Instagram videos of that,
like Nicole sleeping in various places with her mouth open
and it's just that slow zoom in yep, that's just
for me forever. So so you gotta say, morally give
(52:21):
to give to the people who need it.
Speaker 4 (52:23):
I don't know, Uh, the concept that it's okay to
lie if it's for a good cause. Oh yeah, yeah,
we talked about that, right or no, I don't know
if we talked about that in the beginning.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
But yeah, that's a that's good I guess anything that's
for the betterment of humanity.
Speaker 4 (52:41):
Yeah, that that whole sort of socialist notion we get,
where what's good for the gander is good for the goose,
rather than the individualistic look at it, which is what's
good for the goose is good for the gander. Case
you wanted to hear about geese in capitalisms of economic models.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah, yeah, be a socialist goose, not a capitalistic goose.
Speaker 4 (53:12):
And lord knows, don't be a duck because they're scary.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
So yeah, I feel good. I feel like we got
what we wanted out of this story.
Speaker 4 (53:20):
Yeah. You know, listeners, if you have any thoughts, it
was a confusing story. There was a twist. I feel
like there's probably a lot of different interpretations that I
would believe to be true. So if you have any
thoughts and you want to share them with us.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
Please do Yeah, reach out to us on the Twitter
at Folklorica pod and just let us know what you thought.
Of this whole thing.
Speaker 4 (53:47):
Hit us up on Instagram and help us grow that
organic following. You know, maybe some day will get sponsored
by Puro.
Speaker 3 (53:55):
Yeah, they're doing real well.
Speaker 4 (53:57):
That'd be a big one in this time.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
At the handle is Folklorica dot pod.
Speaker 4 (54:03):
Easy to remember, guys.
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Yeah, all right until next week, guys, So you thanks
for listening. Today we read The Gray Man from My
Icelandic Legends by John Arnison, published in eighteen sixty two.
Speaker 4 (54:20):
We used a lot of different sources which you actually
will be able to find on our show notes at
straw hupmedia dot com slash Folklorica.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
Bye Glorica, and now for your moment of Zenyo moncone.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
Wo wo.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
Whoa wo.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
Really whoa whoa whoa whoah.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
Me really.
Speaker 4 (55:08):
Whoa whoa.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
That's the best one yet.
Speaker 4 (55:15):
Yeah, I thought that turned out well
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