from Jerry BAker, formerly of Cresco, Ia:
The late Jean Hall, believed that the "snakes" thatSt. Patrick drove out of Ireland were really a kind of cult with a serpent as its symbol. The "dragon ships" of the Vikings had that kind of symbol carved on their prows.
The famous battle of Clontarf, between the Irish and the Vikings, took place on April 23, 1014. It was both St. George's Day and Good Friday. St. George, a solar symbol, is noted as a slayer of dragons, a kind of serpents that may in this case represent cold weather.
The battle ended with the Vikings still in possession of the cities, and the Irish still in possession of the rural areas.
When King Aella of Northumberland captured the Viking Ragnar Lodbrok, he had him thrown into a snake pit.
Subject: St Pats
The reason the Irish celebrate St. Patrick's Day
The reason the Irish celebrate "St. Patrick's Day"
is because this is the day when St. Patrick drove
the Norwegians out of Ireland.
It seems that some centuries ago, many Norwegians
came to Ireland to escape the bitterness of the
Norwegian winter. Ireland was having a famine at the
time, and food was scarce. The Norwegians were
eating almost all the fish caught in the area,
leaving the Irish with nothing to eat but potatoes.
St. Patrick, taking matters into his own hands, as
most Irishmen do, decided the Norwegians had to go.
Secretly, he organized the Irish IRATRION (Irish
Republican Army to Rid Ireland of Norwegians). Irish
members of IRATRION passed a law in Ireland that
prohibited merchants from selling ice boxes or ice
to the Norwegians, in hopes that their fish would
spoil. This would force the Norwegians to flee to a
colder climate where their fish would keep.
Well, the fish spoiled, all right, but the
Norwegians, as every one knows today, thrive on
spoiled fish. So, faced with failure, the desparate
Irishmen sneaked into the Norwegian fish storage
caves in the dead of night and sprinkled the rotten
fish with lye, hoping to poison the Norwegian
invaders.
But, as everyone knows, the Norwegians thought this
only added to the flavor of the fish, and they liked
it so much they decided to call it "lutefisk", which
is Norwegian for "lucious fish".
Matters became even worse for the Irishmen when the
Norwegians started taking over the Irish potato crop
and making something called "lefse". Poor St.
Patrick was at his wit's end, and finally on March
17th, he blew his top and told all the Norwegians to
"GO TO HELL".
So they all got in their boats and emigrated to Iowa,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, or the Dakotas ---- the only
other paradise on earth where smelly fish, old
potatoes and plenty of cold weather can be found in
abundance.
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1 comment:
From Dudley Hanson:
Pat, and everyone, this story definitely has the ring of authenticity to it. Believe me, I've got lots of dead fish in our house, both new and pre-owned. One of the reasons that I like lutefisk so much is that I can be pretty sure that my Grandkids are not going to eat up our supply.
A few years ago, we went to a family reunion in Wisconsin, taking along our contribution to the potluck in a cooler. On the way we stopped at a fish place and I bought a couple pounds of smoked carp. I ate a couple of ounces and stuck the rest in the cooler. When we got to the reunion, I set the the carp on the dessert table. It was gone in maybe three minutes. Dem Norskes really vent for it, yeah, sure, you betcha.
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