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yakalskovich) wrote2011-11-20 08:10 pm
yakalskovich) wrote2011-11-20 08:10 pm
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The Mists of the Lady's Isle
Lindenwörth, the Linden Tree Island, is what Felix Dahn calls the Fraueninsel (Lady's Isle) in that lesser work that I found which is set here; he claims that the grove of old linden trees in the middle of the island used to be sacred to Berahta, an old Germanic fertility goddess. So, today I went to the island again to go and inspect the presumed goddess place in the middle of the nuns' island.
There were mists on the southern end on the lake, laying over the water; the mountain-tops were peeking over the solid banks of it.
Seagulls were following the boat. Or are these lakegulls?
As I was on Lindenwörth/Fraueninsel anyway, I walked all around it with my Nordic Walking sticks. This is the northern ferry station where boats from nearby Gstadt go in summer, at the far end of the isle from where the boat from Prien goes.
Look back towards the mountains from almost the same spot. The clump of trees in the middle is Krautinsel ('Herb Isle' because the nuns had a herb garden there in medieval times), the smallest of the Chiemsee islands.
Having walked around three quarters of the island, I went up the hill to the highest point of the island, where the grove is that I had come for. These are the oldest of the linden trees. The left one, the "Saint Mary Linden" (doesn't that feel as if it was re-named whenthe goddess was abolished?) is so old, it is actually dying now; the big one in the middle still has green leaves, even today on November 20th. It was very palpable that this is a special place.
They tried putting up a Christmas tree in the grove, but it totally lost among the ancient trees. That place still doesn't like Christianity, after 1200 years of having it all around.
The gate house, the one building surviving from the original 8th century convent. I read a small monograph about that which I found cheap in a book shop in Prien, so I wanted to have another look as well.
According to that monograph, the bronze lion's head door-pull is Byzantine and was brought north from Italy which at that time was ruled by the Lombards, and the threshold was part of the original 8th century church as well. For over 1200 years, feet have worn down that stone almost to the ground.
A look back to the Lady's Isle, from the dock. The tree in the background on the left is one of the lindens of the grove, most likely the biggest one.
And now for something completely different: - a shelf in my room. I can't even be a fortnight in some new place without books accreting around me as if I had a book magnet built in. I swear, I do nothing! They just come by themselves. The critter keeping them in order is my night light, a hattivatti from Ikea.-
There were mists on the southern end on the lake, laying over the water; the mountain-tops were peeking over the solid banks of it.
Seagulls were following the boat. Or are these lakegulls?
As I was on Lindenwörth/Fraueninsel anyway, I walked all around it with my Nordic Walking sticks. This is the northern ferry station where boats from nearby Gstadt go in summer, at the far end of the isle from where the boat from Prien goes.
Look back towards the mountains from almost the same spot. The clump of trees in the middle is Krautinsel ('Herb Isle' because the nuns had a herb garden there in medieval times), the smallest of the Chiemsee islands.
Having walked around three quarters of the island, I went up the hill to the highest point of the island, where the grove is that I had come for. These are the oldest of the linden trees. The left one, the "Saint Mary Linden" (doesn't that feel as if it was re-named whenthe goddess was abolished?) is so old, it is actually dying now; the big one in the middle still has green leaves, even today on November 20th. It was very palpable that this is a special place.
They tried putting up a Christmas tree in the grove, but it totally lost among the ancient trees. That place still doesn't like Christianity, after 1200 years of having it all around.
The gate house, the one building surviving from the original 8th century convent. I read a small monograph about that which I found cheap in a book shop in Prien, so I wanted to have another look as well.
According to that monograph, the bronze lion's head door-pull is Byzantine and was brought north from Italy which at that time was ruled by the Lombards, and the threshold was part of the original 8th century church as well. For over 1200 years, feet have worn down that stone almost to the ground.
A look back to the Lady's Isle, from the dock. The tree in the background on the left is one of the lindens of the grove, most likely the biggest one.
And now for something completely different: - a shelf in my room. I can't even be a fortnight in some new place without books accreting around me as if I had a book magnet built in. I swear, I do nothing! They just come by themselves. The critter keeping them in order is my night light, a hattivatti from Ikea.-
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The nightlight can slowly change colour from purple to red and back again, or you can keep it at one of the colours if you want to. The Nazgul has one as well, but it's long instead of short and round, and on the blue/green spectrum.
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