Mistletoe and Rust

by Randi Grace Nilsberg

Title

Mistletoe and Rust

Artist

Randi Grace Nilsberg

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

The mistletoe is a protected in Norway, but you may take any windfall. I couldn't figure out what exactly the rusty piece of metal was, but it looked like some sort of shelf or maybe a ladder. It must have been left on the beach just to make a great backdrop for me.

Mistletoe is a small parasitic shrub that grows on trees.It is winter green and gets green-white berries, and in some parts of the Oslofjord grows wild. The main population is in Horten, mostly in the apple trees in people's gardens. It thrives also on linden trees, maple, rowan and asal, etc. In Norway Mistletoe is strictly protected, in fact, the trees mistletoe live in the protected too and it is thus forbidden to pick mistletoe or remove the host tree. I was lucky and found this on the ground.

The Norse god Balder was the best loved of all the gods. His mother was Frigga, goddess of love and beauty. She loved her son so much that she wanted to make sure no harm would come to him. So she went through the world, securing promises from everything that sprang from the four elements--fire, water, air, and earth--that they would not harm her beloved Balder.

Loke, a sly, evil spirit, was envious of Balder. He found that the tiny mistletoe had not been taken into oath by Frigga. He made an arrow from its wood. To make the prank nastier, he took the arrow to Hod, Balder's brother, who was blind. Guiding Holder's hand, Loki directed the arrow at Balder's heart, and he fell dead.

Frigga's tears became the mistletoe's white berries. In the version of the story with a happy ending, Balder is restored to life, and Frigga is so grateful that she reverses the reputation of the offending plant--making it a symbol of love and promising to bestow a kiss upon anyone who passes under it.

In Victorian England, kissing under the mistletoe was serious business. If a girl refused a kiss, she shouldn't expect any marriage proposals for at least the next year, and many people would snub their noses at her, remarking

Uploaded

February 1st, 2016

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