torsdag 27. november 2014

A sample from "The Dragon Leaves"

            SAMPLE
 


The Dragon Leaves
By Filidh Lochlannach


The Dragon Leaves
Copyright: Hege Fossum
Published: 2014
Publisher: Fossum Books

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Cover design: Filidh Lochlannach
Cover photo: Thomas O. Stenberg
Find out about the author and her upcoming books online at http://www.ormegarden.blogspot.no
Send her an e-mail: hege_fossum@hotmail.com
or
like her on facebook: Filidh Lochlannach













This book is respectfully dedicated to the Spirit of Place,
an entity of history, truth and great inspiration.


Table of Contents



The Past meets the Present

It's late at night. It's cold and the stars are shining high above me. I have found myself a hilltop deep in the woods and it is far away from the settlement. There is no light pollution here. I can see into the realms of the Gods. I light up a fire so I can keep myself warm, and hang my coffee pot on a stick above the flames. The smell of the fatwood mixed with the freshly made coffee is spreading around the camp. It always has a relaxing effect on me. I sense the wellbeing all around me. It’s almost as if time stands still. It is so wonderful to slow down after a stressful day at work, and to have left all the house chores behind. The smells make me feel fresh and the sounds make me vigilant. I am so alive here. So unlike how I feel after hours on the couch at home in front of the narcotic television shows.

Great thoughts can take place when I am alone in the great void. Right here is the truth to be found. Above me the night is black, and when the Sun is gone it gives me the opportunity to look far back in time. I see all the stars, and Jupiter reigns over the night sky again. The big and shiny giant is the ruler of darkness. I think about his role to protect us from being crushed by asteroids. I think about how this powerful ball can make me feel so small, yet so safe and so taken care of, as if I were a little baby. The gas giant is like a loving father whose main mission in life is to protect his children. He holds the Universe together with his strong belt of many moons.

Time... Can we humans really comprehend what time is? Milky Way winds like a snake over the night sky. The Earth spins around herself somewhere in the body of the snake. I am a part of that snake, and I meander around its pupil in the center of the Universe. What is the snake keeping? I am never coming back to where I started. And all revolutions the Earth has done have created invisible veils of time, and that seems impossible to penetrate. Yet I know that when I look at the stars far up there - way out there it is not the present moment I see. I look far into the past many light years backwards in time.



  Door bell is ringing
  Two friends are hugging
  We are consuming coffee and chocolate
  Tongues are training
  Lights are changing
  The air is shining
  Contrasting
  Mood is changing

 In seconds, the room is loading as if a thunderstorm is just about to come hammering us. The invisible ions in the space around us are making our hairs rise like alerted dogs, but where is the sultry feeling that is so characteristic for a coming storm? We are light headed like on a sunny day – easy - almost flying.

We are looking up to the ceiling at the same time.
We are glancing at each other and we are noticing that the other is noticing:
The net.
There is a thin and waving net up there.
We understand that what we see is real.
We are two.

A strong wave of heat is striking my back. It is rising up my spine and to the top of my head, and then suddenly - my living room is filled up with knights in shining armours. They are aligning behind me, and one of them is stepping forward and is laying his hand softly on my left shoulder. They are ready for battling, and they are waiting for my command.

On the floor is standing a man and he seems to be a kind of a mighty leader. He is asking me to rise from my chair, and I do. He has placed a sword for me on my living room table. I am picking it up. He is asking me to kneel. I am kneeling.

He is saying: “I am Aidan. I am not the Aidan you think. Don’t mix me up with the other. My ruler symbol is the deer.”

Then all of them are disappearing.
Puff.
They are gone.
The lights are normal again.

I am writing.


mandag 24. november 2014

NOW!!! - The Dragon Leaves - 40 % OFF - give as a Christmas gift

NOW!!!

My collection of vignettes "The Dragon Leaves" will be discounted on Amazon between 5th and 12th of December 2014.

Buy the e-book here

It is possible to give the e-book as a gift by clicking on the "give as a gift" button on the book's page on Amazon.
Remember to register the receiver's e-mail address when prompted and not your own. Then you can schedule when the gift should be sent.

If you don't have a reading device for e-books, or you're not sure if the receiver of your gift has one, you should know that  it is easy to get one for FREE by clicking on "send me the link" button on the book's page on Amazon.


xxx

48 pieces of short prose and poetry from the Norwegian poet Filidh Lochlannach is now available in e-book format. "The Dragon Leaves" is a collection of stand alone texts that tell an entire story if read together. Unpack the flashes of beautiful nature and wonderings of what happened when Christianity suppressed Paganism, all wrapped up in a poet's paper. 
xxx 

About "The Dragon Leaves" 
"Your book draws me in. It's like a mystery I know I will not solve, but it keeps me turning the page of my kindle all the same. I love entering your vivid world of poems and vignettes. You are such a confident traveller in this landscape and its shadows. I feel safe as I travel with you through the smoke and fire to learn and to forget so much!" - a reader's review 

xxx 

Go for a walk in the woods, find the old pathway up the hills, and follow it up to the old hill forts. By the steep trail, you see the ground all covered with Dragon Leaves. Pause for a while, watch them, kneel and turn them. Read the stories of the people that once lived there, of their world view and their relationships to Nature. Read the poems of how they revered Women and Female properties in the world around them, and learn a lesson of why humans today create their own sorrows. 

This hill of poems and stories features a panoramic view into the past, including history, ecology, philosophy and religion. Throughout, these tales of an ancient culture reveals conflicts, greed, despair, but also a hope of love, harmony and peace as the Dragon is about to return.

lørdag 26. april 2014

Press Release - Updated

November 2014 

The Dragon Leaves: Now on Amazon
48 pieces of short prose and poetry from the Norwegian poet Filidh Lochlannach is now available on Amazon in e-book format. "The Dragon Leaves" is a collection of stand alone texts that tell an entire story if read together. Unpack the flashes of beautiful nature and wonderings of what happened when Christianity suppressed Paganism, all wrapped up in a poet's paper.

The e-book can be downloaded here: The Dragon Leaves

xxx

About "The Dragon Leaves"
"Your book draws me in. It's like a mystery I know I will not solve, but it keeps me turning the page of my kindle all the same. I love entering your vivid world of poems and vignettes. You2014 are such a confident traveller in this landscape and its shadows. I feel safe as I travel with you through the smoke and fire to learn and to forget so much!" - a reader's review 
xx

Go for a walk in the woods, find the old pathway up the hills, and follow it up to the old hill forts. By the steep trail, you see the ground all covered with Dragon Leaves. Pause for a while, watch them, kneel and turn them. Read the stories of the people that once lived there, of their world view and their relationships to Nature. Read the poems of how they revered Women and Female properties in the world around them, and learn a lesson of why humans today create their own sorrows. This hill of poems and stories features a panoramic view into the past, including history, ecology, philosophy and religion. Throughout, these tales of an ancient culture reveals conflicts, greed, despair, but also a hope of love, harmony and peace as the Dragon is about to return

xx

"Time... Can we humans really comprehend what time is? Milky Way winds like a snake over the night sky. The Earth spins around herself somewhere in the body of the snake. I am a part of that snake, and I meander around its pupil in the centre of the Universe. What is the snake keeping? I am never coming back to where I started. And all revolutions the Earth has done have created invisible veils of time, and that seems impossible to penetrate. Yet I know that when I look at the stars far up there - way out there it is not the present moment I see. I look far into the past many light years backwards in time." - from The Past Meets the Present

xx

"In seconds, the room is loading as if a thunderstorm is just about to come hammering us. The invisible ions in the space around us are making our hairs rise like alerted dogs, but where is the sultry feeling that is so characteristic for a coming storm? We are light headed like on a sunny day – easy - almost flying." - from The King of Harts

Read more from the book...

xxx

About the author
Filidh Lochlannach is the pen name for the Norwegian author Hege Fossum (1974) when she writes poetry and vignettes. Hege has studied natural philosophy at OBOD, and her works are inspired by her studies.
Find out more on her Amazon blog

lørdag 29. mars 2014

Under the Leaves 2 - Jupiter - a planet and a god

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. He is entirely made up of gases and has a belt of at least 67 moons around his waist. He has a big red "eye" on his surface that can be seen from space that is a huge storm centre in his atmosphere. Jupiter plays an important gravitational role for us. He is actually holding our solar system together and the planets in the right place. His force is stopping asteroids and meteors from crashing into the Earth's surface, his gravitation pulls in most of them so they stay away from us. Jupiter is easy to spot in the night sky in the winter half of the year. He looks like a big, bright star, and he is almost always up there if you look closely. If you're not sure if it's him you have seen, you can check it up on different phone apps.

I don't know who gave Jupiter his name, or why, but I can understand why they did. Jupiter is the name of the Roman God of sky and thunder. Well it actually fits very well with the eye of the storm and the matter of fact that the planet easily could be associated with a ruler of the sky, being the largest, shining object, always to be seen travelling over our heads.

In Celtic mythology, the God of thunder was called Taranis. He was often depicted with a thunderbolt and a wheel, just like Jupiter. The wheel could be an early symbol of his journey over the sky, but it is also a symbol of the circular movements of everything in the Universe. Celtic polytheism ( the several Gods of the Celts) has a wheel God that is a sky-, thunder- or sun God. This is proably coming  from an earlier indo-european culture and the carvings of sun crosses, the wheels with four spokes, are often seen in petroglyphs from the bronze age. His sacred tree was the oak.

In Norse mythology, the God of thunder, lightning, storms and oak trees was called Thor. Besides his famous hammer, he also had a strength belt that doubled his strength when he wore it. It just links him so well to the Jupiter's belt of moons, I think. Thor also rode a wagon over the sky when he was out fighting giants. The wheels made sparks of lightning and the beating of the hammer made the incredible loud and scary sound that was thrown between the mountains. His wagon can be seen in the night sky as the big dipper, or the "Karl's wagon" as it is called in Scandinavia. Thor was the God of the "Karls" of the Norse people, or the farmers.

Most of the short term comets is believed to come from Jupiter, and it is most likely that life on Earth came from a comet, so the old stories of Mother Earth and Father Sky are probably very valid tales and is certainly still working.

The Roman, the Celtic and the Norse mythologies are all evolved from the Proto-Indo-European religion. That is why we find all these similarities in these three (and more) mythologies and traditions. I don't know if the ancient Europeans based their stories on astro-theology, but I like to wonder. So I wonder.

People's worldviews seem to expand just like the Universe. As above, so below.

You can look inside my books on my author profile on Amazon Filidh Lochlannach

søndag 23. mars 2014

Under the Leaves 1 - Filidh

"Filidh" is a Scots-Gaelic word deriving from proto-Celtic and meaning "seer" or "seeing".

There is reason to believe that the "Filidhs" were people who worked in society as prophetic poets and philosophers who foretold the future in verses and riddles, rather than in simple poetry. The word could also be written like this: "file". 

The Filidhs kept the oral traditions of the pre-Christian Ireland alive. Telling stories by verses accompanied by music would make people better understand and remember the messages they wanted to get through.Their deeds were not only meant to entertain but also to teach. 

Another group of poets was called bards, and the Norse culture had a similar function called "skalder". Snorri Sturlusson became the most famous among them for writing his "Edda". 

Many of the filidh's manuscripts have survived and can tell us something about druids, Celtic religion and the Celtic world. 

You can find out more about the Filidhs at the digital gaelic dictionary Dwelly-d

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Under the Leaves is a series of articles about the subjects that inspired the poetry in "The Dragon Leaves".

You can buy "The Dragon Leaves" on Amazon.