On Yule Lads, Alðingi and BCPPs

On our way to Đingvellir, the old site of assembly of the Icelanders, our guide Andrí pampered us with stories about the 13 Icelandic Jólasveinar (Yule Lads) or Christmas trolls.

Our itinerary outlined by the tireless Andrí

The Yule Lads are the sons of the fearsome troll Grýla and her lazy husband Leppalúði. They live in the mountains with their terrifying pet, the Yule Cat Jólakötturinn, who is said to eat anyone who doesn't receive a new piece of clothing for Christmas.

Beginning on December 12, one Yule Lad comes down from the mountains each night. Children place a shoe on their windowsill, and each Lad leaves either:

- a small gift for well-behaved children, or

- a rotten potato for naughty ones.

Here is a list of the 13 Yule Lads:

Arrival on   Icelandic name    English name      Favorite mischief

Dec. 12        Stekkjarstaur        Sheep-Cote Clod     Bothers sheep

Dec. 13        Giljagaur              Gully  Gawk            Steals milk from cows

Dec. 14        Stúfur                  Stubby                   Eats food stuck to cooking pans

Dec. 15        þvörusleikir          Spoon Licker            Licks wooden spoons

Dec. 16       Pottaskefill            Pot Scraper              Scrapes leftovers from pots

Dec. 17       Askasleikir            Bowl Licker               Steals and licks food bowls

Dec. 18       Hurðaskellir          Door Slammer          Slams doors at night

Dec. 19       Skyrgámur          Skyr Gobbler             Eats skyr, the Icelandic yogurt

Dec. 20       Bjúgnakrækir       Sausage Swiper         Steals sausages

Dec. 21       Gluggagægir        Window Peeper          Sneaks around peering through windows

Dec. 22       Gáttaþefur           Doorway Sniffer   Uses his big nose to sniff out Christmas bread

Dec. 23       Ketkrókur             Meat Hook               Hooks and steals smoked meat

Dec. 24       Kertasníkir           Candle Beggar          Steals (edible) tallow candles from children

The Yule Lads stay for 13 days. The first one leaves on Christmas Day, and the others one after the other during the twelve nights of Christmas until January 6, Epiphany.

At the Đingvellir National Site, on top of the Hallurinn slope near the rocky ledge, the Icelandic flag is supposed to mark the former Lögberg. An elected Law Speaker standing on the Law Rock recited aloud the laws to the Alðingi (Icelandic early parliament).

At the Law Council, the chieftains sat on a central platform, while the followers were seated in front and behind. Since the Icelanders did not have a written language at that time, the rules of their society were passed on orally.

The Alðingi, founded around AD 930, held legislative and judicial power. It was the heart of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth that lasted until 1262. At the Law Rock in late June, important speeches were made regarding the affairs of the country's inhabitants; the podium was also open to all who wished to address the assembly.

The Law Council enacted new laws and ruled on legal disputes. It had no power of enforcement, however, and the parties themselves had to ensure that judgments were enforced. Vengeance was a strong tradition, leading to many bloody conflicts, which are recounted in the Sagas of Iceland and the "contemporary" sagas of the 12th and 13th centuries.

Here is an artist's view bearing the title: "We shall go to Lögberg tomorrow and move the courts out for challenging at the latest when the sun is on the western ravine crag, seen from the Law Speaker's seat at Lögberg."

The laws of the old Commonwealth were partly written down in the early 12th century when writing had arrived in Iceland with the adoption of Christianity. That written law code became known as Grágás.

Walking up the old main public road through the Đingvellir site.

The old Icelanders had chosen for their Alðingi a dangerous place where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet.

On March 31st 2011, a pothole suddenly opened up in the middle of the old road through the Đingvellir area. Luckily, the passage had been closed to vehicles on November 1st 1967. The hole eventually opened up into a long, deep crevice.

The fault was about 10m deep and extended 15 m southwest under the now gravel trail.

The impressive fault

Iceland is rich in energy. Abundant water power is directly fed into turbines producing electricity.

Heating of the nearby greenhouse

As you have seen in the previous Iceland blog, the ground is steaming in many places, and geothermal energy in the form of 80–100 °C hot water is used for residential heating in over 90% of all households, swimming pools, thermal baths, snow-melting systems for roads and sidewalks, and heating greenhouses.

Not far from our hotel: During 24 hours for maximum output,
the vegetables in the greenhouse get the right temperature.
The LED light is tuned to the wavelength for optimal chlorophyll production.

Electricity-generating turbines require hot steam of usually 180–300 °C. In geothermal power plants such as Hellisheiði or Nesjavellir, water is extracted from depths of several kilometers, where temperatures exceed 200 °C. As the hot water rises, it expands into steam, which drives a turbine powering a generator.

What about water heated to 80 °C? It can be used too to generate electricity in so-called binary-cycle power plants (BCPP) using the Organic Rankine Cycle. Water at 80 °C heats a liquid, whose boiling point is much lower than that of water (e.g., isobutane or pentane). These organic liquids vaporize, drive a turbine, and are then condensed, i.e., liquefied again. However, the efficiency of BCPPs is low, at 8 to 15%. This only makes these plants economically viable under certain conditions.

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The Buried Treasure

The Gospel reading for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time is found in Matthew 13:44–52.

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it

47 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

51 “Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asked.

“Yes,” they replied.

The clothes are just right (©Katholisches Bibelwerk)

Red Baron didn’t understand, but he attended Sunday Mass, where the officiant was expounding on the Gospel - yet he was working in the style of Bismarck back in the days of the Ems Dispatch: The preacher omitted the last part of this Sunday Gospel.

So he could make his point: Seize God’s treasure at any cost; don’t miss the opportunities. Do everything in your power to acquire it.

As a child, I was offered intensive religious instruction that weighed heavily on me rather than training me to be a treasure hunter. So, as a young student, I turned my back on the church - and with it, on God - though with the firm resolve to grapple with the subject at a later date. My numerous blogs on the topic of religion bear witness to this.

Have I found and recovered the treasure? I am still digging it up.

Actually, it was the third part of the Gospel - which the preacher omitted so as not to complicate his central message - that preoccupied Red Baron.

In the third parable, the Last Judgment presided over by Christ ultimately divides people into two groups: the good to be kept and the evil to be thrown away.

Dramatic depictions of the Last Judgment are found in all medieval churches. Nothing preoccupied people back then as much as how they might attain eternal bliss.

Martin Luther is by far the most visible tip of the iceberg in this regard. He came to the conclusion that it is God’s grace alone that enables us humans to become treasure hunters.

The gracious God continually invites us to seek. In his play Faust II, Goethe has the choir of angels sing as they welcome Faust’s soul into heaven: “Whoever never ceases to strive, him we can redeem.”

So, keep seeking, hoping to find the treasure. In the end, Jesus, the fisher of men, will become the Judge of the World and divide his catch.

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My Icelandic Diary

Actually, Red Baron didn’t want to fly anymore in this lifetime, but who can resist a charmingly presented suggestion to visit Iceland?

In the background, the Mainhatton skyline at dawn

So at 7:25 a.m. in Frankfurt, we boarded an Icelandair plane for the three-and-a-half-hour flight to Reykjavik.

I tasted and tested Icelandic ESJA beer on the plane

The international airport is no longer near the city center but at Keflavik about 50 km to the west, so after a 45-minute drive we - having been woken up at 4:00 a.m. - arrived at our Reykjavik hotel quite tired.

There we realized that the winter clothes we’d packed weren’t enough for the windy, rainy, and chilly 13 °C weather. So Red Baron bought a bonnet, which he didn’t end up needing at all in the days that followed.

For we’d brought the warm, Central European weather with us; during the trip to Iceland’s east coast, we had sunshine and temperatures as high as 25 °C.

After our first night in Reykjavik, our small group traveled in a minibus with a luggage trailer to the Gullfoss waterfall and the Strokkur geyser.

Thanks to our tour guide, Andrí, our trip to Iceland became an unforgettable experience. As a native Icelander with a German education, he knew exactly how to bring his homeland to life for us in all its facets. Even when answering difficult questions, his explanations were seamless. Lucky are those who travel with this multitasker - that is, he was also the driver and the one who took care of our luggage.

Over millions of years, the Hvítá River had carved a deep canyon into the ancient lava rock. Upstream, we caught sight of the imposing Gullfoss waterfall. 

A text from a 1907 travel book reads:

 
No waterfall in Europe can match Gullfoss. In both ferocity and fury, it outdoes Niagara Falls in the United States. The power of thousands of untamed horses flows down into the gorge, year in and year out. Gullfoss will surely be harnessed for electricity production to supply the inhabitants of the southern part of the country with an abundance of light and heat.

But Sigríður from Bratthold was against it. She fought for the preservation of this cultural monument:

The weather was cold and windy.

King Christian X of Denmark visited Gullfoss on June 19, 1936:

A last look back on Gullfoss before we left for Geysir.

In contrast to Gullfoss, the Strokkur geyser was a disappointment.

An information panel at the entrance to the site stated: A geyser erupts intermittently and spits hot water to heights ranging from several centimeters up to tens of meters. Strokkur does it every 8 to 10 minutes, reaching heights of 25 to 35 meters.

Click to enlarge

The base of a geyser is a long column of water. A vent extends several tens of meters into the earth, where temperatures reach up to 100°. When the water at the bottom is heating up and subjected to too much pressure from the water column above, it superheats, abruptly forming steam and releasing the pressure by ejecting the water column above as a geyser.

Visitors waited patiently, cameras on their cell phones ready, for Strokkur to erupt.

Finally, the geyser emitted a small puff of steam. Was Strokkur suffering from the weather?

Having experienced Old Faithful at Yellowstone, an American tourist voiced his disappointment. Well, Old Faithful has eruptions of 25 to 55 meters but only at intervals of 30 to 100 minutes.

More impressive was the steaming landscape.

The Litli Geysir by the side of the trail was trying its best and cheered us up.

On the map above, the Geysir proper is marked nearby, which, however, only erupts following earthquakes, like in 1896 and 1930. The last time the Geysir erupted was in 2000. We didn’t have time to wait.

Stay tuned for more.
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Nancy

On the second day of the Museumsreise 2026, our group explored Nancy, Lorraine's capital.

  

The first stop was the Musée d'École in the Villa Majorelle. Its interior was crammed with Art Nouveau furniture, paintings, and other objects.

Portrait de M. et Mme Corbin by Victor Prouvé painted in 1906

This eyecatcher is an example of the Nancy School. The painting depicts the wealthy class, with a newspaper-reading husband and Madame striking a pose. The background is filled with decorative glass art, an Art Nüoveau rose window. 

An Art Nouveau vestibule

Marcel Corrette: Le goûter sur la terrasse 1938

And here are Mr. and Mrs. Corbin again, shortly before World War II, having a snack on the terrace.

Rich people lived in style and sat on a canapé whose back was decorated with a hard-working Lorraine miner.

Victor Prouvé: Portrait des Demoiselles Moulins, 1903

And again, Victor Prouvé: He painted the granddaughters of the orchestra director at the Nancy Opera, all of whom, of course, play the piano.

Then we went up a flight of stairs to the first floor, where we met ...

 

... a cluttered bedroom ...

... a bathing paradise (?) ...

... and a contemporary stained-glass window.

It was hot, and those saturated with Art Nouveau gathered in the shade in front of the museum before the scheduled departure time. Our bus took us next downtown to Square Stanislas.

 

We had to walk a few meters and passed the Prefecture of the Department of Meurthe-et-Moselle.

And there it was in all its splendor, Square Stanislas. For its history, you may wish to consult the information (in German) that Professor Asch sent to the participants as an email attachment before the excursion.

To Stanislas, the Benefactor, from a Grateful Lorraine, 1831

In the background, the rather grand city hall.

The corners of the square are richly decorated with golden arches and fountains.

In the distance, a slender, pointed, tall church tower could be seen. I left Square Stanislas, walking down along a street lined with magnificent buildings and through a triumphal arch, heading in the direction.

Saint Épvre (©Krzysztof Golik/Wikipedia)

Suddenly, I found myself standing in front of a Neo-Gothic church. Built in the 19th century, the cathedral is dedicated to Saint Épvre and is a landmark of Nancy.

Épvre comes from the Latin aper, which literally means "boar." Saint Épvre was a bishop of Toul in the 5th century. He is regarded as a particularly compassionate pastor and is said to have been especially dedicated to helping the poor and the sick.

Unusual depiction of the Holy Trinity in the Typanon of St. Épvre

After lunch, the Museum of Fine Arts, located on Square Stanislas, was the penultimate stop on our excursion. I took many photos, and while looking through them, I realized that I could use them to illustrate the story of salvation. Here we go:

Frans II Pourbus (1569-1622): Annonciation, 1619

Anonyme flamand XVIe siècle: Adoration des bergers

Gerard Seghers (1591-1651): Le Christ après la Flagellation, 1525.

With the pillar of scourging in the background, Jesus bends down to pick up his clothes.

Giampietrino (1508-1549): Christ au roseau

As King of the Jews, Jesus wears a crown of thorns and a reed. Is he contemplating a second Gethsemane: "Father, must this be?"

Scene of crucifixion in St. Épvre

Wilhelm Stetter (1487-1552): Apparition du Christ à Marie-Madeleine, 1523

The risen, triumphant Christ.

Luca Giordano (1634-1705): Conversion de Saint Paul, 1685

The spread of Christianity began with Saul's conversion near Damascus.

Here are some other painting highlights.

Paolo Girolamo Piola (1666-1724): Susanne et les veillards, 1700.

Lecherous old men are much older than in the Old Testament, but here, two of them try to seduce Susanna in the bath. 

Georges de La Tour (1593-1652): La femme à la puce, 1638

Here, you are possibly wrong. The girl isn't unbuttoning her bodice; she's crushing a flea between her thumbnails.

Lorraine clearly is the "missing link" between Charles' territories in Flanders and Burgundy.

Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was nicknamed "The Turk of the East" because of his drive for territorial expansion. In his quest, Charles fought three decisive battles (Read more in German).

On March 2, 1476, at the Battle of Grandson against the Swiss Confederates, he lost his (Hut) hat.

On June 22 of the same year, at Morat against the allied Swiss, Lorraine, and Further Austrian troops, he lost his (Gut) estate.

The following year, the duke, in a final desperate effort, staked everything on a single gamble. On January 5, 1477, in the Battle of Nancy against the allied forces, he lost his (Blut) blood and with it all his possessions.

Auguste Feyen-Perrin (1826-1888): Charles le Téméraire, 1865

The duke was found naked on the battlefield. Why hadn't the looters also taken the ring from him - the one that a servant is holding out to the approaching victors as a sign of identification?

The church rises majestically above the village

Our last stop was the basilica, St. Nicolas in St. Nicolas de Port.

St. Nicolas' altar

As early as 1093, the first church was built to house a finger from Saint Nicolas' blessing hand, which the crusader Aubert de Varangéville had brought from Bari in 1090. Due to the large influx of pilgrims, a second, larger church was built beginning in 1193. It is said that Joan of Arc prayed there in 1429 before she saved France.

A breathtaking view toward the high altar

The present-day late-Gothic basilica was built starting in 1481 on behalf of the Duke of Lorraine, René II, and consecrated in 1560. It is said that the duke was thereby fulfilling a vow he had made in prayer in 1477, should he defeat the enemy Burgundians - which he did with the help of his friends in the battle of Nancy.

Only a glance at the floor plan reveals that the church building has a slight bend. According to ChatGPT, the most likely explanation for the bend is a combination of structural factors and the lengthy construction period. The interpretation of it as a symbol of Christ's bowed head is widespread and theologically appealing, but there is no historical evidence to support this interpretation for this basilica.

Storks perched on a distant corner of a roof clattered their "Que Dieu vous protège."

 Thank you, organizers, for this remarkable excursion.

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