Scandinarnia copertina

Scandinarnia

Scandinarnia

Di: Lena Heide-Brennand
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Scandinarnia: Unlocking the Dark & Mystical North

What if the stories we were told as children were never meant for children at all?

Scandinarnia opens the door to the older, darker layers of Scandinavian mythology, folklore, and cultural history—before they were softened, simplified, and made safe. This is a podcast for those who want to understand not only the stories themselves, but the world that created them.

Each episode explores a creature, a place, or a tradition from the North: the Nøkken who inhabits rivers as both musician and predator; the Huldra, whose beauty conceals something deeply inhuman; the Myling, a voice of guilt and unresolved justice; and countless other figures drawn from oral tradition, archival sources, and historical accounts.

But these are not simply stories retold.

Through a blend of narrative, anthropology, and cultural analysis, Scandinarnia examines:

  • how folklore functioned as social control and moral instruction
  • how fear, landscape, and survival shaped belief
  • how Christianity reshaped older mythologies
  • and how these figures continue to live on in modern imagination

You will hear not only the tales themselves, but the meanings beneath them—the anxieties they reveal, the behaviours they enforced, and the realities they reflect. Rivers become thresholds. Forests become spaces of transformation. The supernatural becomes a language for very human fears.

Drawing on historical texts, folklore collections, and lived tradition, Scandinarnia invites you to step into a world where myth and reality were never clearly separated.

Lena Heide-Brennand 2026
  • Heiemo and Nøkken- Translated to English
    Apr 24 2026

    This is a freely translated and adapted English version of the folk ballad Heiemo and nøkken. Translated, sang, performed and adapted by Lena Heide-Brennand. Guitar/drum/production: Johnny Williamsen. All rights reserved and copyrighted 2022.

    Heiemo walked by the riverside

    The day was falling still

    When from the dark and silent stream

    There rose a creature by his will

    Stay, stay far Heiemo and listen to me

    For I can teach you songs so deep

    No living soul will ever see

    That you learned those hymns from me

    If you learn my hidden tunes

    And play and sing as none before you

    You must give me what I ask

    And I am asked to be loved by you

    He drew the bow across the strings

    The water froze as stone

    And all the world grew strange and still

    As if it were no longer its own

    Heiemo stood and could not move

    Nor turn herself away

    For once you hear the Nøkkens tune

    You don't leave unchanged

    Then she took a knife from her pocket

    And tried to stab this creature in his heart

    But down into the water the creature rocket

    And she was certain he was no more

    She thought the Nøkken had fallen still

    And that all of his songs were gone

    She turned her back upon the stream

    And stepped to find her way home

    But from the depth a claw rose cold

    And took her where she stood

    And no one saw more of fair Heiemo

    But at midnight there might be some ripples of blood

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    4 min
  • Folk song: Heiemo og Nykkjen ( Norwegian version)
    Apr 24 2026

    The ballad from Denmark/Norway about the young and beautiful girl Heiemo who sings so beautifully that Nøkken shapeshifts to go snd kidnap her from a party. Nb! Norwegian original text.

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    5 min
  • Episode 2: The Nøkken
    Apr 24 2026

    Who is Nøkken? The Nix? The evil but spellbinding creature of the northern forest waters that lures people into his lair.

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    21 min
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