August 20, 2023 | Awake & Dreaming

Iceland has always has an otherworldly feel to the land The tale of Gunnuhver is an example of classic Icelandic folklore, tying together the harshness of life on the island, ghosts, curses. It was said that a woman called Gunna lived on a farm on the Reykjanes Peninsula about four hundred years ago. She was tied to the land in poverty, under the authority of a wealthy lawyer. One day, she was unable to pay her rent, and her landlord took one of her only possessions, a cooking pot, as payment. She was enraged, and said she would starve herself until it was given back. Neither relented, and she died of hunger.

When her coffin was being carried to her grave, however, those holding it noticed it suddenly grow light. Then, a whisper echoed to the congregation: ‘No need deep to dig, no plans long to lie’. The body of her landlord was later found mutilated, and all who heard the whisper suspected the ghost had killed him. Unfortunately, Gunna’s vengeance did not end there. She killed his wife in a similarly brutal attack, then began to haunt the peninsula, driving many residents to madness. This continued until the arrival of a priest, Eirikur, to the peninsula. Considered a sort of holy sorcerer, the locals begged him to help. He came up with a plan, involving a ball of yarn. He gave the ball to the locals, left one end where Gunna was known to haunt, and told them to take it to the nearby hot spring and toss it in. They walked off with it, and Gunna picked up the end to follow their trail.

When the yarn was thrown into the hot spring, it took the spirit with it. It is still said that through the mist of the pools, it is possible to see her fighting to escape, and as such, the hot springs took her name. The Reykjanes Peninsula is highly volcanic, due to the fact that the Mid-Atlantic rift runs right through it. This leads to many hot springs, with others occurring at Krýsuvík and beneath Lake Kleifarvatn. These springs are beautiful, but unpredictable. In one of the mud pools, it is possible to see the engulfed remains of the old path, which was consumed by it expanding.

It’s not cut and dry but I think there are a couple of ways to end a show and make a good tv series finale. How do you end a sit-com for example? Think in particular shows like Friends or TBBT and see how their last episode was. In Friends, The series finale closes several long-running storylines. Ross Geller confesses his love for Rachel Green, and they decide to resume their relationship; and Monica Geller and Chandler Bing adopt twins and move to the suburbs. The episode’s final scene shows the group leaving Monica and Chandler’s apartment for the final time and going for one last cup of coffee together.

You’d like to think that despite Chandler & Monica moving to a home in the suburbs, that the group continued to remain very close and got together quite often and their kids also grew up together. However we also know that Joey gets his own show and moves to Los Angeles to further his acting career. Doesn’t seem like something he would do. I dunno. And in TBBT the show ends with Sheldon & Amy getting the Nobel prize and Sheldon giving an emotional speech in which he individually acknowledges each of his friends and Amy as his other family who always support him, apologizing to all of them for not being the friend they deserved. The last scene is the gang is eating in Apartment 4A which leads me to believe that things continue to being the same after the show ends and the gang gather every couple of days or week to hang out, while also raising their families. And Raj eventually finds someone for himself.

I didn’t like the ending to Frasier. Marty & Ronnee get married and Daphne goes into labour, giving birth to a baby boy. Roz gets promoted, getting the job of station manager at KACL and Frasier feels they each have begun a new chapter in their lives and that he wants that for himself now. Frasier’s agent Bebe Glazer gets him an offer to do a television show in San Francisco, which Frasier initially declines but after realizing that he wants to start a new chapter in his life, he accepts. However he ends up leaving for Chicago to pursue a relationship with Charlotte, leaving us hanging. Ideally he should have gotten together with Charlotte and stayed in Seattle. I still imagine that the two brothers are very close and living in Seattle, raising their families, still close with Roz and they meet ever so often to have drinks and dinners.