MY ADVENT CALENDAR

LET’S LISTEN to some stories together! I don’t have anyone to open Advent Calendars with this year either (I don’t even have a calendar 😢), so I decided to make an alternative one and share it with you.

Given that it’s alternative, I’m not sure how many days we get to open something. It’s gonna have to be a part of the surprise. What I do know is that we have a theme.

I am going to take you on a musical mood board tour of Ulfrheim and my neck of the woods in Sweden. The songs will (probably) all be in Swedish, but I’m pretty sure I’ve written translations to most of them at some point, and new lyrics to some of them.

In other words, this can turn out to be one of my best blog ideas yet. Or it can become a complete disaster. It’s like when you’re baking pavlovas. WYSIWYG. Aren’t you excited? 😏

Anyway, I’ll try to stick with some kind of format for this. There will be a link to the song, maybe a video, a brief intro to the artist with copyright info etc and, of course, the lyrics. In English. Translated or rewritten by me.

The difference? Well, a translation tells you what the original lyrics mean, but it may not allow you to sing along as syllables, and even word length, can differ a great deal. A rewritten version lets you sing along. It may be very close to the original or a completely free interpretation. I’ve been known to do both, but where I deviate from the original, I always make sure to include a direct translation too. Words are important.

So, why am I adding music to a blog about creative writing? Gee, let’s see… Because music is just another form of storytelling, and lyrics are (or can be) poetry. Trust me, I’m Swedish. We know these things. That’s why Bob Dylan got the Nobel Prize in Literature, innit.

But back to the format. Last but not least, I’ll add something about why I picked that song. As I said initially, all these songs will be a musical mood board for my Ulfrheim saga. But I’ll still explain what it is about each song that fits the bill, so to speak.

Right, I think that’s it.

Questions? Well, you know what to do.

Now, let’s get this party started…

Puss och kram,

//Evalena 😘