- WELCOME -

The bestselling novel Clan of the Horses/Hestenes klan, was published in Norway in 2010 and is out in it's fifth print. The novel is also available in German under the title "Zwischen Himmel und Erde".

In this blog you can read omitted elements from the book. You can also read about women and horses as they are described through written mythological and historical records, but more importantly you are invited to read excerpts of a completely different story: A story that women have preserved through the centuries solely by oral traditions.

In Bonnevie's enchanting story, she speaks of the pitfalls related to the common human error of trying to live up to the expectations of others - and thus losing one's innate intuition and wisdom. Bonnevie speaks of the search for your inner, true voice - and the journey of becoming who you are meant to be.

torsdag 11. mars 2010

Clan of the Horses/Hestenes klan – the energy

Some years ago I made a drawing in black and white of an open landscape bathed in moonlight. On the nightly sky I then drew the constellation Big Dipper (the plough/Karlsvogna) and someone pointed out to me that the constellation was facing the wrong direction, like a mirror image. My reply was, and still is: If seen from the other side, this is what the Big Dipper would look like.

What you see is very influenced by where you stand, by your point of view. There are always - at least - two sides to every story.

When women riding astride are depicted in art or described in historical and mythological records, we often find them where men traditionally have spent a lot of time and energy: In the battlefields, where a significant part of human history is written. Women included in these arenas are depicted as fighting shieldmaidens or as Valkyries, who bring the dead to Valhalla. And in some cases women’s presence have changed the course of history in eg battles or conflicts, like Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc) and Lady Godiva did - in their own unique way.

But these are known historical facts and legends well preserved. The story I want to share is a story that has never been revealed before; a story gathered from the unwritten pages of the history books and the paintings on canvases that were never used: Stories of horsewomen from a secret tradition, known as Clan of the Horses/Hestenes klan.

These horsewomen approach horses in a very different way. They use a soft-spoken language from another time, another place and another energy. You rarely find these horsewomen in the centre of attention. They have traditionally met in the woods, in the fields and on the steppes, far away from battlefields, tournaments and competition arenas, although there are historical and present exceptions.

You can recognize them by the bracelet some of them wear around their left wrist, but above all you can recognize them by the way they handle their horses. They are usually not very sociable when they spend time in the stable, and they are often regarded as a bit “strange” and somewhat "untraditional". They never use much tack on their horses and they seem to prefer trail riding (but their horses are often trained at very hign levels). You are not likely to bump into them in the forest because they tend to choose the paths less travelled, or the narrow paths made by wild animals. They often keep to themselves and they are likely to come to the stable at odd times, when few people are there. If they run stables they usually prefer to ride after closing time, when it is quiet and they can spend time with the horses without interference or interruptions. To these women, riding is meditation. Not static, immobile and rigid, but as part of the horse’s movements, with energy flowing freely and unhindered between horse and rider. Some think of them as loners, but nothing could be further from the truth. They are, however, very strict about what kind of human energy they allow around their horses whilst riding, since they mainly use energy to communicate with their horses.

onsdag 3. mars 2010

Nótt


NÓTT (Old Norse: Night) is the personified night in Norse mythology. She is the daughter of a jotne (“troll”) named Nörvi from Jötunheimr (Jotunheimen).
In the Prose Edda we find details about Nótt including records of her three marriages. Nótt's third marriage was with the god Dellingr and resulted in their son Dagr, the personified day. So, according to Norse mythology day is born out of night - night always precedes day.

Both in Poetic and Prose Edda (written in the 13th century), Nótt is associated with the horse Hrímfaxi ("rime mane" or "frost mane"). It was believed that the foam created when Hrímfaxi was chewing on the bit as he ran over the nightly sky, gave us morning dew in the summer and frost in the winter. The morning dew/frost was also the only food for Lif (which is the origin of my name, Live) and Liftharsir, the two sole survivors of Ragnarok (Doom of the Gods, end of the world).

Nótt’s son Dagr is associated with the horse Skinfaxi ("shining mane"). It was believed that Skinfaxi pulled Dagr’s chariot across the sky every day and that it was Skinfaxi’s shining mane that lit up the sky and the earth below. The myth of Skinfaxi and Hrimfaxi is believed to have its roots in Nordic Bronze Age religion, from which there is strong evidence of beliefs involving a horse pulling the sun across the sky (see: The Trundholm Sun Chariot). Both the sun and the precious metal gold are symbols closely connect to the horse in various cultures.

Source: Wikipedia, Lexikon der Symbole - Hans Biedermann
Painting by Peter Nicolai Arbo

mandag 1. mars 2010

The Trundholm sun chariot


THE TRUNDHOLM SUN CHARIOT (solvognen) is a late Nordic Bronze Age artefact found in Denmark. This artefact is a depiction of the sun being pulled by a mare, and is believed to have relation to later Norse mythology attested in 13th century sources (Edda). It is a possible Bronze Age predecessor to Skinfaxi, the horse that pulled Dagr, the personification of day, across the sky.

The sun chariot was drawn by a single horse, but there are indications that it might have been pulled back across the sky from west to east by a second horse.
Related are Arvak and Alsvid, the horses of the chariot of Sól. In Norse mythology, Sól is the personified goddess of the Sun. Every day Sól rode through the sky on her chariot, pulled by the two horses Arvak and Alsvid. The sun chariot has been interpreted as representing a Bronze Age predecessor to the goddess.

Source: Wikipedia