Nordic on Tap - the podcast

Artist Jana Peterson joins Eric Stavney to explore how art can connect people to a homeland they may know through family stories, memories, and imagination. Drawing on more than four decades of painting, Jana shares how her Norwegian heritage, training in dance and interior design, and love of vivid color, shape her work and elicit viewer emotion.

Additionally, we hear an accordion rendition of the exciting Trommelvalsen dance piece.

Links, Extras, and a Transcript on this accessory page.

Timestamps

What if the trolls, hidden folk, and forest spirits of Nordic folklore respond to how humans treat them? In this episode we explore eerie and surprising tales where courtesy, greed, boundary-breaking, and respect can mean the difference between help and havoc.

From a wandering child phantom and a mysterious troll wedding to a dangerous encounter with the skogsrå, these stories reveal supernatural beings who are neither simply good nor evil. They may bless, deceive, punish, or protect—depending on human behavior.

Host Eric Stavney connects these legends to the Golden Rule, showing how Nordic folklore encourages respect for nature, honest labor, and unseen boundaries. If you enjoy folklore, Scandinavian mythology, and stories where supernatural beings reflect human behavior, this episode offers wonder, mystery, and just enough menace to make you think twice before entering the woods.

For the podcast transcript, see our Extras page for Trolls, Trouble, and the Golden Rule.

Timepoints

Think Scandinavians don't have a sense of humor? Think again. In this episode of Nordic on Tap, Eric Stavney uncovers the hilarious side of Nordic folklore through stories packed with lovable fools, clever tricksters, boastful husbands, and animals that outsmart everyone around them. Journey from Denmark's famous Molbo tales to Norway, Finland, and Sápmi, where centuries-old stories reveal that people have always made the same wonderfully ridiculous mistakes. Along the way you'll discover why these tales have endured for generations—and why you may recognize a little of yourself in every character. If you enjoy folklore, history, and a good laugh, this episode is for you.

Transcript on our Extras page: https://nordicontap.com/p/extras-for-humorous-folktales/

Show Notes

Exploring Nordic Humor: Folktales, Silliness, and Human NatureDiscover how Nordic folktales and humor reflect deep cultural values and human nature. Join Eric Stavney as he shares amusing stories and insights into Scandinavian humor, revealing that silliness and logic coexist in timeless tales that mirror our own behaviors.

00:00 - Introduction to Nordic humor and folktales

Enjoy the humor and wisdom of Nordic folktales and remember that sometimes life’s silliness offers the best lessons. Until next time, embrace your own silliness — it's part of what makes us human.

Enjoyed this episode? Be sure to subscribe to Nordic on Tap on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review!

What does it take for an immigrant inventor to change the course of history?

In this episode, we explore the remarkable life of John Ericsson, the Swedish engineer who arrived in America virtually unknown and became one of the nation's most celebrated innovators. Best remembered as the designer of the revolutionary ironclad USS Monitor, Ericsson helped transform naval warfare during the American Civil War and played a pivotal role in one of history's most famous naval battles.

But Ericsson's story extends far beyond the Monitor. From surveying Sweden's Göta Canal as a teenager to building locomotives in England, pioneering the screw propeller, surviving professional setbacks, and battling skeptics throughout his career, Ericsson was a brilliant, stubborn, and relentless inventor whose ideas were often years ahead of their time.

Combining personal travel experiences, historical research, and interviews with experts at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, and walking the deck of a full-scale replica of the USS Monitor, this episode uncovers the fascinating life, achievements, and enduring legacy of the man whose inventions changed the world.

See also Extras for John Ericsson, the USS Monitor and Me episode.

The episode transcript is Transcript for John Ericsson, The Monitor, and Me.

Saving Snorkel the Tortoise: Compassion, Science, Community, and the Exotic Pet Trade

In this episode, we explore the fascinating life of Snorkel, a sulcata tortoise living in Washington State, and discuss the importance of responsible exotic pet ownership, conservation, and ethics. Linnea Stavney shares her insights on teaching students about sulcata tortoises, caring for these long-lived creatures, and the challenges and opportunities of keeping exotic animals as pets or ambassadors for conservation. This episode is available as an audio podcast, as usual.

Main Topics:

Full transcipt at https://nordicontap.com/p/transcript-for-saving-snorkel-the-tortoise/

Timestamps:

Resources & Links:

Connect with Linnea Stavney:

This episode underscores the importance of ethical, informed, and compassionate care for exotic animals and emphasizes the role of community and education in conservation efforts.

Link to photos and links about Snorkel the Tortoise and CWU

https://nordicontap.com/p/picture-and-links-for-snorkel/

I remember when I first saw 7 people line up at a table, pick up two bells with each hand, and proceed to make music unlike anything I've heard before or since.  Not a single one of them played the melody. They created the melody and chords by coordinated movements and exquisite timing.  They played hymns, popular songs, you name it. And the sound of bells was magical and enchanting.

Imagine being in a choir without having to sing a single note. But you sure have to be able to concentrate, and read music.

Join me as we dive into the world of a handbell choir, how the bells work (more complicated than you'd think), and how with lots of practice they learn to play together.  You'll get to meet Matt Weed, a long-time handbell player who really knows his way around the bells. Like Matt, many of those in the Faith Lutheran Church Handbell Choir of Redmond, Washington, have been playing in the choir for 40-50 years. What is it that motivates these people to take time out at the end of their workdays to play bells? 

They say it's a lot of fun. And they invite anyone to experience handbell playing, including with digital bells online or on your phone. But it's more fun with a group of people!

Links and pictures for this Handbell podcast (https://nordicontap.podbean.com/p/links-and-pictures-for-making-joyful-music-the-handbell-choir/)

Join us for an interview of Danish composer, musician, and journalist, Morten Alfred Høirup. We find out what the folk music scene is like in Denmark and how state-sponsored radio funding is somewhat dependent on the political views of the current government. Morten also describes his work as a composer for film, especially on esoteric topics like animals (he's composed for Animal Planet, for example). What kind of music does he write to accompany a squirming snake or a jumping frog? Listen and find out!

We finish with a live recording of the guitar-duo, Høirup and Dornfeld, playing a delightful medley of Ingela's Vals (by Morten Alfred) and Meget Gammel Vals fra Vendsyssel (traditional).

See links and pictures for this episode at: Links and Pictures: Høirup

A “national treasure” is an artifact with significant cultural history associated with a particular country.

The Norwegian primstav certainly qualifies. It’s a kind of perpetual calendar or almanac stick originating around 1100 was used to track important agricultural and religious dates through symbols used in particular communities.  

The Golden Horns of Gallehus were exquisite artifacts discovered in 1649 and 1734 in Southern Denmark.

They show the first use of runic Germanic writing (Proto Norse) in the form of a full sentence. Their display in Danish museums was interrupted by a horrible event.

Join me as we learn about these two national treasures and hear a Nordic song from 1300 written in runes with notes.  These are two famous cultural icons that you’ve probably never heard of. Visit our episode page at nordicontap.com for pictures, links, and notes.

Visit our home page for this episode to to learn more and to leave a comment.

If you like what you hear, please follow us in your favorite podcast service or app!

A transcript of this episode is here.

Follow us on: Apple Podcasts * Spotify * Podbean * Overcast * Pandora * Podcast Republic * Tune In * Audible * Pocket Casts *

What is the Primstav? is a great website by Anne-Ki Magraff that describes the use and symbology on these perpetual calendar sticks. Some variations of symbols for 4 different days on the calendar.

A large variation of symbols. Kåre Hovind, a retired office manager from Steinkjer, Norway drove among the Norwegian museums in in 1980 where primstaves were among their collection. Because the perpetual calendars made of symbols always reflected the date, season, the local community, and local priorities, Hovind discovered that the symbols for the same dates varied, sometimes dramatically so. October 14th, for example, Winter’s Day (Vetramesse) usually was some sort of mitten but sometimes a tree with no leaves. This is a sheet from his notebook where he drew out 455 examples, after the Store Norske Leksikon article on Vinternatt.

How does the primstav reflect the rhythms of regular life? I found parts of the book Changing Seasonality (De Gryter, 2024) to offer a good discussion of this. This book includes some of the research done by Dr. Scott Bremer’s group at the University of Bergen and the CALENDARS project. You can download the eBook pdf here.

In Part I, Chapter 2, researchers Jena Brune and Maureen Springer discuss the cultural and personal value of the primstav

—The primstav, a calendar dating back potentially as far as 11th century Norway , contains a rich store of folk knowledge for understanding humans’ relation-ship to the natural world.  

–One of the most powerful aspects of the primstav study for me, has been the practice of paying attention to what is happening on the land around me through-out the year.


—The primstav has helped me to understand the rhythm of the seasons: which
trees hold onto their leaves the longest in the fall?


—Community around the primstav has been an invitation to relationship and to responsibility. It reminds me to slow down and spend time with the kin outside. Sketch their details, learn their cycles, and reciprocate the gifts offered. It encourages me to ques- tion and to research. What words for these times and tasks are used in Norway?

In Part I, Chapter 3, see Thinking with the Primstav Today by Elisabeth Schøyen Jensen for an excellent and insightful history of the primstav and what this cultural device means for us today.

The Primstav is the blog post by Fiona McKinna at Living a Nordic Life where I first heard about the primstav. Fiona interviewed me about Nordic Folklore in one of her podcasts. When you visit her website, she’ll offer you bits of her blog as teasers, inviting you to become a subscriber. She’s written a book, Friluftsliv: How to love the outdoors like you’re Nordic. Check out her website!

You can get a copy of Kathleen Stokker’s Marking Time: The Primstav Murals of Sigmund Aarseth from the Vesterheim Museum directly, which shows all the murals that he and De Reus painted of major days on the primstav. See the video section below for the Vesterheim video on this.

The National Museum of Denmark has several pages on the Golden Horns in their collection.

The website Satyren “reported” in 2021 that “Kirsten Svendsdatter is furious: She was robbed of a dress for a gold horn”. A delightful send up of how Kirsten didn’t get the 200 rigsdaler, but should have gotten 500 instead. Harald Slott Møller‘s painting of Svendsdatter shows just how disgruntled she is. The website Satyren means “the satyr” but also it’s a pun on the word “satire”)

Kari Tauring, who has written books on runes and the primstav has a website describing her books, dances, and other events that she is part of. A very talented lady.

The horns have fantastic chased (repousse) figures from German mythology, with one (on the right, below) bearing the inscription “ek hlewagastiR holtijaR horna tawido” in Elder Futhark. (From Wikipedia, 2025, The Golden Horns of Gallehus). It means “I, Hlewagastir Holtson made this horn.”

Vesterheim’s Gathering Room: Primstav Murals, a 10 minute video shows the dramatic murals of Sigmund Aarseth’s depicting primstav events, at the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah, Iowa, USA. Martha Griesheimer narrates. This is the next best thing to visiting the Vesterheim in person.

The Golden Horns of Gallehus, a 30 minute video by Martin Højbjerg of the Norse Mythology website, Skjalden, provides the history and closeup views of the horns.

The Primstav Calendar. The proprietor of Norskwear (link to her Facebook site), a company selling (among other things) lovely Nordic sweaters, asked me to explain the primstav replica that I brought to a Sons of Norway Heritage Day. This is the video she filmed.

The song Eg Drømte Mig En Drøm comes from the Codex Runicus around 1300 where the words are in runes (Elder Futhark – Proto Norse) and the notes were actually on a musical staff. The Italian monk Guido d’Arezzo is credited as pioneer in the writing of music on staves around 1000 CE. The recording used in the podcast was from a video made by a Swedish early music group, Mare Balticum. The video has several versions of this short song performed by voices (what I play in the podcast), harp, modern band, bells, and bone flute.

Making your own primstav by Kari Tauring and Eric Stavney (2026)

Dybdahl, Audun and Falk, Eivind. “Primstav” in Den Store Norske Leksikon. Updated 2024. This article describes the “marking days” on primstavs along with the person being honored (not always a saint), and a short description of the symbols used (not pictured).

Magraff, Anne-Ki. “What is the Primstav?“. Same webpage cited at the top this page but repeated here because it’s so informative. Accessed Jan 2026.

Dybdahl, Audun (2011). Primstaven i lys av helgenkulten: Opphav, form, funksjon og symbolikk. Trondheim. Tapir Akademisk Forlag og forfattern (behind a pay wall at Academia.com, but probably similar to the first Dybdahl citation abov e)

Search on your favorite web browser for “symbols primstav drawings”. I got many primstavs and symbol images from Google in Jan 2026.

H F M Simpson (1891) “On two rune prime-staves from Sweden and three wooden almanacs from Norway” Proceedings of the Society of Antiquities of Scotland. pp. 358-378. Click the link to download a PDF. Note this was published in the late 1800s when photographs were not as common in scientific papers as today. Consequently, the drawings of the primstavs (some ovals) and symbols are superb. Some but not all symbols are named and no stories are given about those dates (that I could find).

Smith, Janet (1999). Primstav, the ancient Norwegian calendar stick. Plainview farm website. https://www.angelfire.com/sd2/PLAINVIEWFARM/primstav.html. Some parts appear be identical to that in Florence Ekstrand’s book of the same name (out of print), as well the discussion in Arthur Miller’s book.

Miller, Arthur. (2006) Primstav Explanations: Ancient Norwegian Legend and Lore. A pamphlet since gone out of print. Much of what Miller found is written in other citations in this list. It’s hard to tell who wrote the original stories for the saint days.

Haugen, Einar. (1947) “A Norwegian Calendar Stick in Wisconsin”, Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 31, Nr. 2, December 1947, pp. 145-167. Digital reprint viewable at the Wisconsin Magazine of History archives as of Jan 2026. Haugen’s article on pg. 145. Since this was penned in 1947, the stories he tells are probably the basis for other reference sources since then. Many primstav symbols and their stories are found here. (Einar Haugen’s name is well known to me for his Norsk-Engelsk dictionary I used in the 1980s).

Torvik, Lisa. (2019) “Primstav and Textile Production in Scandinavia”. The Norwegian Textile Letter. Vol 3:2., online. https://norwegiantextileletter.com/article/primstav/. Ms. Torvik shows 14 different saint days with three different symbols found on primstavs drawn from Haugen, Miller, and Ekstrand (and credited) see above.

Risåsen, Geir Thomas. “Anniversaries in the Pre-Christian Period”. Den Norske Folkemuseum. Website accessed Jan 2026. https://norskfolkemuseum.no/merkedager-i-forjulstiden. Discusses Dec 6, 8, and 9 dates found on one of the three original circular primstavs in their collection.

Published November 1, 2021

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A "national treasure" is an artifact with significant cultural history associated with a particular country.

The Norwegian primstav certainly qualifies. It's a kind of perpetual calendar or almanac stick originating around 1100 was used to track important agricultural and religious dates through symbols used in particular communities.  

Then there's the Golden Horns of Gallehus, exquisite artifacts discovered in 1649 and 1734 in Southern Denmark. They show the first use of runic Germanic writing (Proto Norse) in the form of a full sentence. Their display in Danish museums was interrupted by a horrible event.

Join me as we learn about these two national treasures and hear a Nordic song from 1300 written in runes with notes.  These are two famous cultural icons that you've probably never heard of.

We also play the oldest song written in Proto-Norse runes entitled, "Drømde mik en drøm i nat" by Ensemble Mare Balticum.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A transcript of this Primstav and the Horns of Gallehus podcast can be found here.

Visit our Extras page for pictures, links, and notes on Primstavs and The Horns.

The heart has long been associated with heavy emotions, from joy to the deepest sorrow.  Why is that?  How long have humans even known there was this organ inside all of us? 

In this program we explore the history of what we believe about the heart and the many Nordic and English expressions that refer to the heart.  Then we turn to Nordic folklore to learn what folk belief says about the necessity of having the organ called the heart, even if you are a troll. What might you sacrifice or gain by magically living without a heart (i.e. without a conscience)? 

We find out in the stories, "The troll who didn't carry his heart with him", and "The man without a heart."

Why is this question about "having a heart" so important today?

If you like what you hear, please follow us in your favorite podcast service or app!

Links and Pictures for Nordic Folktales of the Heart  (https://nordicontap.podbean.com/p/links-and-pictures-for-man-without-a-heart/)