Re: Re: Saunas

From: Taneli Taira <tantai82_at_VkJezXt8_C7HMVcdXtcbKIxP51vsWEBSAmrFsNranvU1sBEiMSsBHUAPD3Ui9FZF5du>
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 00:07:31 -0800 (PST)


As a Finn I have a lot of experience on saunas. Today, at least, sauna is a very masculine place, although it seems to be a place of thinking, which on the other hand does suit women more in Heortling society. A couple of traditions might make it more plausible as a masculine place HW:
1) Afterwards we go outside and let the wind and other forces of nature (be it rain, freezing cold or a snow storm) cool our steaming bodies. If there's snow, we roll on it, if there's a lake however cold (we often make a hole in the ice to in winter to be able to swim in it), we swim in it.
2) Besides a place of thinking, it sometimes is also a place of boasting.
3) We hit ourselves with birchtwigs (or -branches forgive my English) to cleanse our bodies. It would go nicely as a mythically hostile environment that we deny by making it even harder to stand with those twigs.

I loved some of Peter Larsen's ideas. Especially the one about clan ring politicing and the other about scorn toward lowland Lunarized cold saunas that are only 50-60 degree celcius. Call me a fanatic, but it's no sauna if it's belove 90 and you spend there less thatn 20 minutes. (That takes a bit of getting used to already but there's still no danger to health if you drink no less than you normally would. My preference is to reserve the whole day for sauna and have long pauses with cold beer and cider close at hand and a bunch of good friends.)

-Taneli Taira

> Peter Larsen wrote:
> >I was trying to get a sense of what "Airy" men
> would
> see in such a practice. I think the Heorlings ought
> to have saunas ... So how to get around the "runic
> issues?"
>
> Agreed, my point too. It is a nice image, but
> someone
> else will raise this problem and ask us to justify
> ourselves if we do not. The airy freedom loving men
> need a reason to enter the sauna - now it may be
> that
> entering the sauna is seen as eidfying becuase it
> demonstrates the stultifying Golden Age and men try
> to
> endure it as long as possible before leaving and
> re-entering the Storm Age when they leave. YMMV. But
> we need a justification.
>
> > "Procopius! I asked for a nice steam bath, and
> they
> tried to roast me! There were no scraper-boys! Then
> they beat me! Call the centurions!"
>
> LoL. 'Stwike him wuffly, centurion'
>
> =====
> Ian Cooper
> 0208-672-0717(H)
> 07970-411892 (M)
> 0207-337-6217 (W)
>
> "Women as well as men were recruited to restrain
> combatants, sometimes dampening their weapons by
> throwing clothing over them. Peacemaking of this
> sort required srength and courage more than
> negotiating skills...The clothing was more sign than
> substance, like the bell signalling the end of a
> round, and it seems that the sign was not without
> significant cultual force." - Bloodtaking and
> Peacemaking by William Ian Miller
>
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