Alfheimr Renaissance

Female complications, day 7

Finally over

It feels wonderful to know that every guest have gone home. Well, Olafr and his housekeeper-maid Bekkhilda are still here living in the village, but the feast is finally over. Such long feasts and get-togethers is not my thing, and I prefer something like the autumn Tosra gathering. Shorter time, more spread out, and not in my home. Asbjörn and Haera is nice, but it's a relief they have left. But they will be back for Kari's wedding, probably with his son Hagthorn and his wife, and I need to have more stuff prepared until then. Many activities will be repeated, because so many of the guests have given more or less subtle hints that they hope to participate in future weddings, and have realised that there is a good chance that Kari will become a wife in the near future. At least the feast, accommodations and everything has been very successful and appreciated. This have been an unusual wedding in the middle of winter, but oh so successful and special. So much sejd and comforts. And the guests don't know how we usually live, like the electric light we all look forward to using again.

As expected, everything about the mansion has been very appreciated. Its windows and overall lights. The comfortable interior heat. Hot and cold water always available, even in the morning to wash hands and face. The toilets. The art and decorations. Many have mentioned the paintings, art, carpets, crystal chandeliers, pendulum clocks, etc. Even the view from the attic has been appreciated. There isn't much up there besides being the usual games room and for music, but still appreciated. Most longhouses have only one floor with a high ceiling, perhaps with a small dark loft for servants and storage at the ends. Some larger feast halls and mansions do have a second floor with balconies, but not like Thrymheim. Thrymheim is so highly appreciated and impressive, and it's more or less a fact that the mansion have been named Thrymheim. Bodil has already made a finely carved wooden sign to hang above the front door, and 'someone' has explained road signs and road stones to my women. Bodil loves using the band saw and router to make nice shaped edges that are perfect, and most rooms have been given nice signs to match. Many don't understand how she was able to make them so precise, but the carpenters on the island understand that we have prototypes for machines that the village's carpentry shop will get.

Of course the guest mansion and so on also needs to be named, and Borgheim is likely for the B-mansion. There have been many many suggestions, but it basically is a castle, a borg, even though the word 'borg' usually refers to the height more than the fortifications, and the manor is also in Borgarsandr. Heim basically means home. Borgheim might as well becomes official, and it's not like I really care as long as the name isn't annoying or just dumb.

It's not official yet, but Digraldi and Ima have connected and spent a couple of nights together. Olafr thinks it's great for both of them, and me and my sambos agree and are also happy for them. Digraldi discretely made sure that there was nothing between me and Ima or someone else, and it seems that Ima is going to become a kept woman come spring, or maybe even Digraldi's concubine. Ima would probably have preferred to become a wife, but unfortunately she has no land, family, and so on, and with her background, she must be very happy for the fairly high status as a kept woman or concubine to a skilled craftsman in Borgarsandr, and she looks happy. I'm happy if Digraldi and Ima have found each other and become happy together. I'm also glad if Ima is no longer my problem.

Before the feast, I didn't knew that Digraldi is a widower after his wife died in childbirth a few years ago, and he has not remarried and seems to have mourned his wife deeply. We've only really talked about work before. Besides the slave woman who was with him here, he has an elderly female relative living in his house who takes care of the household and helps raise his son Albriktr. If I had known, I would of course have invited the son to the feast as well, and then Siri wouldn't have been the only child here, even if there is a couple of years between them where Siri is older and a girl. At least we sent a kite as a gift to Albriktr.

Ima was so happy when she accompanied the boat back to Borgarsandr and Borgheim, and when I think back, Digraldi seems to floated on clouds for the last two days. It was frankly amusing how completely uninterested he was in the crypto disc, and I ordered 60 parts with a little trickery and details so they don't seem like they're going to fit together, and I included a template, drawing and directives to get the angles and runes right. I've actually ordered a lot of weird stuff from Digraldi without explaining the purpose, like parts for more weather vanes with anemometers, thermometer housings, orienteering compasses, pendulum clock parts, bell striking mechanisms, blocks to become typefaces for a printing press, lots of funny wooden blocks for metalworking machinery and tools, and two enlarged pendulum clocks with matching enlarged bell systems to be used in clock towers. So many parts for pendulum clock mechanisms have been ordered, but everyone really like how convenient the clocks were.

Not entirely surprisingly, there's been a new little deal with Digraldi to make clothes irons and mangles, and Ovdhon will get a few to show and try to sell, and at least the royal family wants all of it. Haera and Sefa really liked the look of ironed clothes and although they don't do the laundry, the tools have impressed the visiting maids too. Ima can use both, and of course it was enough for Digraldi to look at it assembled, for him to understand what he contributed to and how they should be built. Of course he has saved the molds because I might want more of them, and now there might be quite a lot more, and a new product line.

Asta brought the signed contracts for corsets, saddles and so on back to Borgarsandr, and has a long list of places to visit, order to do or stuff to collect and return with. She will browse my Merchant Company and shops, and leave orders. So many orders. Like, to cabinet makers for beautiful cases for pendulum clocks and barometers. I prefer function over form, but a lot of people here like to cover surfaces with squiggly animal shapes and other decorations, and there's a pretty good chance we'll replace what I've already built with something more beautiful. The stuff we have can be moved to other houses. Carpenter will also make wind turbine parts, covers for weather station parts with good ventilation, and more deck chairs, and furniture. And much more.

Asta will also leave work to the glass maker to mass-produce the parts for thermometers, barometers and rain gauges, as well as glass bottles, plus larger glass plates to be used for pendulum clock cases and other things. I also need more laboratory glasswares, and things like a fractional still and other things, because I need to distil alcohol and get a purer alcohol for more efficient sterilization. I can measure the temperature now, and have the beginning of laboratory glass and hopefully have cork on the way. An efficient fractional still can be used both for making the distillation of pure alcohol more efficient, and avoid the methanol that boils away first. I can make the condenser itself out of wood or ceramic around a glass tube, because I don't care if it leaks a bit as long as it works, but there are designs of condensing solutions that can be easier to build and clean. I also need 10 large glass vessels, simply as large as he can, where the shape isn't very important. I have planned for some to become terrariums as a part of the Academy's future biology education. I really should have waited to start the Academy until the autumn. So much stuff needs to be ready.

Asta is also visiting the copper guild and talking to its manager Einar to try to get them to manufacture two four-wire 500 meter underwater cables to my specification. The finished cable will be quite thick as each conductor will be relatively thick, double varnish insulated and then insulated and protected separately with fabric, before they are tied together and sealed with wrapped fabric and tar in several layers. Asta will also try to get them to manufacture two twelve-wire 700 meter cables, which needs less protection, but they are less prioritised, because there is 8.5 km of copper wire in each cable, and then all the insulation work add up. It will be expensive and take time. Hanging telephone wires are quite ugly when they become as many as there is likely to be from Thrymheim if we have the exchange there, and sooner or later I will try to bury wires in the ground. So the idea is to bury two cables. One towards the harbour, and one towards the village. It also helps against sabotage if few know where the underground cables go or terminate. I would prefer to protect the cables more, because I don't know what roots and so on can do long term, and it can be practical if I need to run more cables in the future, so my 'clay men' will make pipe segments for the buried cable. Lots of segments. There will also need to be something like 60 segments with an opening to be able to split away a wire, troubleshoot or just to make it easier to add another cable in the future. Since the clay men may not make it, Asta will talk to potter Ruskva to help make pipes and segments with openings. Of course they will be standardised.

I know that the seamstress guild will get more work as fashion teddy has become a hit with my sambos and Jane has made many sketches of different designs. Not unexpectedly, Iselin, Kari and Ciara liked it very much, but they all appreciate something luxurious and special to sleep in, while Jane herself apparently prefers a t-shirt with a thong if she is not 'au naturel'. TMI. Even Haera and Myrun have looked with interest at the fashion teddies and corsets. More unnecessary TMI.

If I understand Iselin correctly, high heels are something that seem to appeal to a couple of others as well, and we think Jolfr Lum has a growing fetish for them as Jane very pleased told me she had received separate questions from his wife, concubine and maid how they were to walk and move in, and that Jolfr Lum asked them to speak to her. Myrun was uninterested but Siri seemed to like them, although that's probably just because she felt taller and more grown up in them, and Siri looks up to Jane, Iselin, and Kari. I don't think stiletto heels will be a great success because they are basically for indoors use only and only in houses that have suitable floors for it, although wider heels or wedge heels might be a better seller. Jane has already reluctantly sketched what she calls block heels, because Jane thinks block heels are generally so ugly. For Jane it's all about stilettos, although wedge heels are acceptable in some designs and situations. Jane accept that some have bad taste and other heels are more practical for a wider range of floors and outdoors, but if they start walking in heels, they might eventually understand 'the true faith'. I hadn't even considered that some of the clogs we gave away had a lower wedge or block heel, but I'm not surprised it was made or noticed.

Clogs in general seem to be quite popular. Jane still thinks they are ugly but has a 'cunning plan' about it. Because it is possible to make clogs entirely in wood according to the classic old style from the Netherlands and more, slaves and poorer people might make their own in that style, while richer people aim for more decorated and lighter weight with leather uppers. So Jane's hope is that stilettos and the like with minimal wood and more leather, fabric and jewellery will be considered the highest status shoe.

Iselin is really looking forward to getting her heels and stilettos. Ciara and Kari wants it because the others wanted to get shoes like that, but both know that I don't care whether they wears them or not. Caecilia wants it because I said it looked good on Iselin and Jane. Caecilia seems to see it as her duty and opportunity to be the sexiest of my women. I have to try to remember being careful about complimenting things when Caecilia is around, because combined with Kari's desires that can be misinterpreted, Caecilia might end up walking around looking like fetish queen, and that would just feel wrong.

In any case, Kari said that Haera, Sefa and Ulfarna was looking forward to ordering clothes once back in Borgarsandr, and Myrun, Siri and Liv always planned to visit Borgarsandr before they returns home as well. Siri was instructed on how to build paper lanterns as she loved that, so there might be quite a lot of paper brought.

Liv, Myrun and Siri loved the marriage feast and it has been so very different and worthy of my status as Sejdmann. Myrun laughed when she told us she need to spend silver upgrading her home too. Every time she's been here, she gets new ideas for improvements, and come spring, there will be lots of work done. She really wants to get a couple of fireplaces with chimneys installed along with a cold and warm water system, and we had some exotic dishes that more or less require a kitchen like Thrymheim. She will also see to it that the lighthouse are built, and hopefully the construction and installation will be ready before next autumn. Myrun have high hopes for lighthouses, and that more will be built.

Myrun is also interested in seeing that a bridge is built over the larger river outside Skiringsalr. It will make transport and trade easier, and the river is less deep and a shorter distance than the harbour-bridge construction between the islands I've had built, but for the river, a slightly higher middle section will be made so that small boats without a mast can easily row underneath. She has thought about a bridge before, but it just never really happened. As far as Myrun is concerned, the fact that a lower non-opening bridge blocks the river passage for larger ships isn't negative, rather the opposite. Few are affected, and it gives her more control over the river transport, so it goes via her town, and a bridge also makes transport along the coast easier for a lot of people, which makes the road more important. Myrun is considering making a better paved road for a few kilometers in both directions along the coast, as well as an inland road. A good road and bridge would make it very clear to travellers that they are now on her turf, and be a visual brag for how rich and powerful she is. Just for bragging right and more control, a section of the bridge might have a drawbridge, which would also allow boats with a mast to pass. She might improve the bridge over the other river dividing Skiringsalr in two, and make that too a drawbridge.