About a beard
Tell me ANOTHER story!
What about?
About a beard.
Okay. Once there was a man who had a ship. He would sail in the ship to Iceland and Greenland and Vinland, which was the name he had for Canada. And every time he went, he was away for months and months, a whole long time, and his wife would miss him very much. Her name was Bergthora.
One day, the man (his name was Thorbjorn) was going to sail to Iceland to discover some ice, and Bergthora was feeling sad that he was leaving already. So she asked him to cut off some of his hair, and she put it in a necklace around her neck. (Thorbjorn had very long, bouncy hair, a bit like mine.) And so, all the time that Thorbjorn was away, she could run her finger through the hair in the little purse around her neck and pretend she was running her finger through his hair for real.
Thorbjorn came home again and had a party-- in those days you had parties whenever you were happy-- and then stayed at home for a while; but soon he had to sail to Greenland to get some green things. Before he went, he asked Bergthora whether she'd like some more of the hair to put in her purse, and she said she would-- even though she still had all the hair he'd given her before, because she'd been careful with it. So he cut off some more of his hair and she put it in the purse around her neck. And all the time he was gone, it reminded her of him.
Well, this went on for a while, but after a bit, Bergthora's purse was full and Thorbjorn had no hair left on his head except his beard-- and some of his friends were laughing at him, which I think was very rude of them. Thorbjorn didn't even want to sail anywhere any more; so, while his hair grew back, he stayed at home for a whole year with Bergthora. They were very happy together and became even better best friends than before, which I think is a good thing for husbands and wives.
One day, after the year was over, Thorbjorn decided to sail to Vinland to get some presents for Bergthora. He thought he ought to give her some of his hair again, but he didn't like to cut the hair from his head because it had only just grown back; so he shaved the hair off his chin and gave her that instead. Then he sailed away.
Bergthora went to put the hair in her purse, but of course the purse was full. So she wondered what to do about it, and looked it up in the old books. The old books told her to get some water and boil it up, then add sugar and barley grains and the yeast you use to make bread, bottle it all up and leave it for a month. That way, she could drink the beard instead of wearing it around her neck: then she would be wearing it inside herself.
Bergthora waited a month, then opened the bottles of beard. Every time she drank some, she was reminded of Thorbjorn; often she would invite all her friends and neighbours around and they would talk about Thorbjorn and drink his beard. And so the house was still full of happiness and laughter when he was away, though she was still always glad when he came home. And that's the end of the story.