Saturday, March 26, 2016

Polsk and Springarbo from Unprotected Females in Norway, 1857, Helen Lowe


  Unprotected Females in Norway,  1857,  1859  Helen Lowe

   Page 108.    Almost verbatim of Edward Price's   Norway and its Scenery 1853
     Story of the Hulder,     ( with the addition that the fiddler uses a Hardanger fiddle )

   Page 83,  Dancing on Sunday  or  Sunday Amusements  in Jerkin

Sliding along, her hair often waving from beneath her head-dreass,
the girl follows her partner
round the room till she catches his extended hand;  they then join in the lively “polztanz”
together;  separating afterwards,   except by the one hand,
 she turns beneath his raised arm
with a charming movement,  and then goes off with him again
doubly quick in the “springarbo.”
After each dance, the men, walking around with their partners,
laid a small coin before the musician; so there was no difficulty
as to who was to pay the piper. This is the Norwegian
peasants' way of spending Sunday afternoon, when they can manage it.

 Page 211,    Hallingdal,   description of Halling dance,  and belt fights  to be repeated in
 travelogues for many decades.

  The lively airs (Slot) express in the most perfect manner the agility, the boldness,
  and singularity of the dance and never fail to exercise a powerful charm on
  all those who are acquainted with them.
  You feel yourself, as it were, raised from the floor, and wish, like the practiced
Halling dancer, to touch the rafters of the ceiling with your toes.   The dancer jumps
up light as a feather, turns round in the air,  and descends again standing on one leg;
on the floor he curves also,  resting on one heel while his jacket  describes a circle
 around him like a bell.    Then he makes a jump to the opposite side of the room
 and goes on as before.

  Page 239,   Hitterdal,   Telemark,   ( Hitterdalsvatn I assume )
… and get up to a grand dance to celebrate the event,  the national “Eismel,”
 which is the same nature as the “Halling,”  being danced alone,
and when by a fine stalwart peasant in his best,  is an animating sight.

 Comments

  Note the use of the polztanz instead of the Danish polsk or Norwegian pols.
  I have  not found any other references using  "springarbo".  
  Interesting is the nomenclature by Lowe describing the "polztanz"  and "springarbo".
  Lively may refer to the feet in the air of the half quick dance turn.
  Eismel perhaps translate as "ice bound"  or "captured by ice".   Again this is a term
  that I have only found in this work.   Lowe is not writing in a vacuum,  she takes Price's
  story of the Hulder almost verbatim.   Frederika Bremmer's descriptions of the
  "halling polska"  were available from about 1839 to an English translation in 1852 or so.
  Her use of Jerkin locale for the dance description is an echo of the
  1820 visit by Arthur de Capell Brooke.
 

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