This week i have been mostly listening to ........

An ancient Finnish Lullaby  played on the Kantele by Merja Soria.

(Not sure why i like this, perhaps i have some Nordic roots? )

In the mythology of Finland,  the first Kantele was made by Wainamoinen - a primordial god of chants, poetry and song, who helped bring life to the world. When he played the kantele all creatures would come to listen to him.

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 (By way of a change, and to complement the folklore posts, i am trying an occasional link to some of the things that have caught my eye on Youtube in the past. Hope they are of interest.)

The Fairy Butter Tree - Scugdale

Looking down Scugdale

  Scugdale is a long valley cutting into the Cleveland Hills just to the South of Swainby village, ten miles to the south of Middlesbrough.

 The first edition OS map (1857) marks a 'Fairy Butter Tree' alongside Rank Crags at the head of the Scugdale valley. This curious name does not appear on later edition maps, so in order to get a grid reference for its location, the old map was overlaid as accurately as possible onto the newer OS map. This, combined with the Google Earth images, seemed to suggest that a tree still exists at that location (SE 52801 99357). Could it possibly be the same tree all these years later?