Light

The Light of Santa Lucia

I have always loved the lights at Christmas time.  I even wrote a blog about them several years ago.  Light brings warmth, hope…and it symbolizes an indescribable longing.  A longing that maybe – just maybe – the Light will overcome the Darkness.    

Is it any wonder light is tied to Christmas?  We longed for a Savior – even the Gentiles had this longing.  We longed for Light to triumph over the Dark forces of this world.

And then the Light of the World came, and He dispelled the Darkness from our souls, giving us the hope of Life (John 8:12).

This longing for light is universal, and never more so than in the winter months, when light (before the advent of electricity) was scarce.  The pagans had their traditions about winter and Light…and God used that in a very special way.  One of those ways was through Santa Lucia…

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Mermaids of the Deep Logo

Svané and Rosmer the Merman

“Then wrought proud Lady Svané lyle what Rosmer little wist; for she’s tane out the goud sae red, and laid herself i’ the kist”[1] ~ describing Svané’s ruse to escape from Rosmer (i.e. she took out the gold and put herself in the chest)

Not all kidnapped women were mermaids; occasionally, mermen would capture mortal women and take them into the sea.  Such was the case of Svané, who was stolen from her mother’s home in Denmark.

The story of Rosmer Hafmand was written down in the Kaempe Viser, a Danish work composed in the early 1500s, and finally written down in 1591.[2]  It has three renditions of this tale, two with an “Eline,” and one with Svané.  The only one in my collection was Svané’s story, and I could not find the other two anywhere except in summary.  It is, however, the first of the collection,[3] and from what I can go off of, it seems the most authentically Danish.  After all, “Eline” is not really a Danish name…

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