West of the Moon (25 page)

TETANUS [LOCKJAW]

T
etanus is also known as lockjaw because the symptoms often begin with spasms of the jaw. Infection usually occurs with contamination of a wound by a bacterium that produces a neurotoxin that causes painful tightening of the muscles all over the body. The spasms can be so powerful that they tear muscles or cause fractures of the spine. Untreated, an infected person can die from breathing problems due to muscle spasms or from other complications. Svaalberd's case progresses perhaps more rapidly than probable, but his symptoms are real, and before the disease was understood and vaccine and treatment were available, death from tetanus was likely.

CHOLERA

C
holera, also poorly understood, was a scourge on immigrant ships. The disease spread easily in unsanitary and crowded conditions. Those who died, sometimes in just hours from the onset of the disease, generally succumbed to severe dehydration. It was known as the Blue Death because the skin and lips of a patient turned a grayish blue due to the loss of fluids. Although there was no cholera aboard the
Columbus,
many immigrant ship passengers at the time suffered from it.

ABOUT THE BLACK BOOK

I
n an era when so many illnesses and diseases were not understood, and when the closest doctor might be sixty or more miles distant, people turned to what help they could in a crisis.

Folk healers,
kloke koner
or
menn
(wise women or men), were relied upon to help with illnesses, injuries, births, and childhood maladies. These healers had knowledge of herbs and cures, as well as experience with all kinds of ailments, and often gave useful aid. Sometimes, however, it seemed that something
extra
was needed. So there were occasions, especially in the case of undiagnosed childhood illnesses (including rickets), when the
kloke kone
would come to the patient's house and perform rituals, perhaps involving melted lead—preferably taken from church windowsills or church bells at midnight. She might
have in her possession a Black Book, containing incantations, charms, and remedies for all sorts of ailments and problems.

These Black Books were in use throughout Norway from the 1500s through the late 1800s. A few of the books made it to America, even though they were considered dangerous, especially to the improperly initiated.

Although belief in supernatural beings and magical cures was declining during this time, “an almost unbelievable number of precautions, remedies, and occult tricks” were still in use among less-educated farm folk, according to P. C. Asbjørnsen, a nineteenth-century folklorist. Also deeply religious, these simple farm folk “found no conflict between folk beliefs and the pious Christian faith that they observed with equal devotion,” Kathleen Stokker points out in
Remedies and Rituals
.

ABOUT THE CHARMS, SPELLS, AND CURSES

T
he spells, chants, incantations, and curses used in this book are found in the following sources:
The Black Books of Elverum
, edited and translated by Mary Rustad;
Remedies and Rituals: Folk Medicine in Norway and the New Land
, by Kathleen Stokker; and
Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend
, edited by Reimund Kvideland and Henning K. Sehmsdorf. (Full references are in bibliography.) The descriptions that the goatman and
Astri give of the Black Book's contents are adapted from an 1816 history as translated by Kathleen Stokker. According to the quote, the Black Book was the “horrifying, nefarious tome known by everyone in the countryside as Cyprianus, whereby one can conjure up and put down the devil and get him to do just as one commands, and whose pages teach how to recover lost goods, cure all kinds of disease, remove curses, find buried treasure, turn back the attacks of snakes and dogs, and more.”

ABOUT THE FOLKTALES

T
his story relies heavily on the Norwegian folk and fairy tales my father used to tell in Norwegian (translating into English for us kids as he went along). As is common with such stories, some of these are known in other countries by other names.

Folktales referenced herein, among snippets of others (in no particular order):

—“East of the Sun and West of the Moon”

—“White Bear King Valemon”

—“Soria Moria Castle”

—“The Golden Castle That Hung in the Air”

—“The Three Princesses in the Mountain-in-Blue”

—“The Companion”

—“The Hare Who Was Married”

—“The Boy with the Beer Keg”

—“The Twelve Wild Ducks”

—“Peik”

—“The Three Billy Goats Gruff Who Went Up into the Hills to Get Fat”

—“Dapplegrim”

—“Twigmuntus, Cowbelliantus, Perchnosius” (Swedish)

FROM THE DIARY

S
ome portions of the story that take place on board the
Columbus
are directly lifted from my great-great-grandmother Linka's diary, including the sandwich-snatching rooster, the description of the Sunday shipboard congregants, and the passage about being “happy with the happy.” Linka also describes a Halling dance, storms, seasickness, and a steamer that passes by in heavy fog.

The sentiments about immigrating to America expressed by the pastor in the chapter “We Come to a Church” may have been picked up from a pastoral letter dated 1837 by Bishop Jacob Neumman titled “A Word of Admonition to the Peasants in the Diocese of Bergen Who Desire to Emigrate,” according to the book
The Promise of America
, by Odd Lovoll. Another widely spread rumor was that Norwegians were taken to Turkey and sold as slaves.

GLOSSARY AND APPROXIMATE PRONUNCIATIONS

ASTRI
(
AH
-stree): girl's name

BJØRN
(
BYORN
): boy's name; also means “bear”

DALE-GUDBRAND
(
DOLL
-eh good-
BRAHND
): an eleventh-century pagan chieftain of central Norway who was converted to Christianity by King Olaf

FJORD
(
FYORD
): a waterway, often narrow, that leads to the sea

GOD DAG
(
GOO DAG
): good day

GRETA
(
GREH
-ta): girl's name

HALLINGDAL
(
HALLING
-dahl): a specific valley in Norway

HUTETU
(
HOO
-tee-too): troll's nonsense word

I JESU NAVN
(
EE YAY-ZU NAVN
): in Jesus's name

JA
(ya): yes

KLOKE KONE
(
KLOH
-keh
KOH
-neh): wisewoman; healer

KNÄKKEBRØD
(
KNEK
-eh-breh): cracker-like bread

KRONER
(
KRO
-ner): monetary unit

MOR KLOSTER
(
MOOR KLOS
-ter): Mother Kloster

MUS
(
MOOSE
): mouse

ODIN
(o-dinn): a major god in Norse mythology; father of gods and men

SETER
(
SAY
-ter): mountain cheese farm

SKILLING
(
SHIL
-ling): small coin

SVAALBERD
(
SVAAHL
-baird): a name

SVEKK
(
SVEK
): weakness

TAKK FOR SIST
(tuck for sisst): thanks for the last time

TELEMARK
(
TEL
-eh-mark): an area (now a county) in Norway

Select Bibliography

BOOKS

Altar Book of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church: A translation
. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House. 1915.

Asbjørnsen, P. Chr., og Jørgen Moe.
Folke Og Huldre Eventyr.
Bind I og II. Oslo, Norway: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. 1932 (first published in 1845).

Asbjørnsen, Peter Christen, and Jørgen Moe.
East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon: 59 Norwegian Folk Tales from the Collection of Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe.
Translated by George Webbe Dasent. New York: Dover Publications. 1970 (translation of Asbjørnsen and Moe's
Popular Tales from the Norse
, as published by David Douglas in 1888).

Asbjørnsen, Peter Christen, and Jørgen Moe.
Norwegian Folktales
. Translated by Pat Shaw and Carl Norman. New York: Pantheon Books. 1982.

Bergland, Betty, and Lori Ann Lahlum, editors.
Norwegian American Women: Migration, Communities, and Identities
St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press. 2011.

Booss, Claire, editor.
Scandinavian Folk and Fairy Tales
. New York: Avenal Books. 1984.