This year, 2023, marks the 30th anniversary of PostEurop, a successful platform for collaboration among Postal Operators in Europe. On this occasion the postage stamp, depicting the beautiful water lily, features PostEurop‘s 30th anniversary logo.
White-Water Lily (Nymphaea alba)The inspiration for the plant’s Greek name nymphaia and Latin name (nymphaea) stems from the nymphs in Greek and Latin mythology.
The white-water lily grows in our neighbouring countries, i.e., Norway, Sweden and England. It also grows in most European countries, in North Africa and the Middle East.Palli Clementsen grew up in Sandur on the island of Sandoy. He moved to Norway as a young man, according to his niece Anni Sólsker. He brought the white-water lily with him when he came back to the Faroe Islands for a holiday in 1976, and planted it in a lake called Nykutjørn, which belongs to a private property on Sandoy.
This stunningly beautiful flower only grows in Nykutjørn in the Faroes. The flower itself can reach up to 20 cm in diameter, and the heart-shaped leaves up to 30 cm in diameter. Both the flower and the leaves float on top of the water. A man residing in Sandoy said that when children played at Nyku-tjørn, they were told never to touch the white-water lily.
If we think about the metaphorical meaning of the name Nymphaia, we visualize a divine being of nature in the form a young maiden who lives in lakes or other natural places. This image may have been in Palli‘s mind when he planted the flower in Nykutjørn, because it fits perfectly with the name of the plant - everything came together in a higher unity. Perhaps Palli was also thinking about nature’s equilibrium, when he put this divine natural being into the lake of the water-kelpie with its dubious reputation.
Sandur is rumoured to have both the ogre Gorus and the old crone Gívrun, both facing west. Sandur also has the water-kelpie living in Nykutjørn, which faces northwest.The water-kelpie is known in folklore and legends in most of Scandinavia, the legends being quite similar. Most often the kelpie is said to have inverted hooves, rising halfway out of the water close to the shore.
”The water-kelpie lives in lakes, mostly down at the bottom, from where he often goes ashore. Meeting him may be quite dangerous. Sometimes he looks like a pretty little horse, which seems so friendly and tame that people are tempted to approach the adorable creature and pet it on the top of its head, but if they touch its tail, they get stuck, not able to come loose and the creature drags them down to the bottom of the lake.
Sometimes the water-kelpie meets people in the form of a handsome young man who lures the girls to the lake, promising them fancy things and lots of fun if they only will follow him. However, if they start to get suspicious of this good-looking and generous young man to whom they have almost surrendered, they can call out his proper name: ”Nykur” – which is the Faroese word for the water-kelpie. He then immediately loses his power, is forced to release them and go down alone into the depths of the lake.
It is said that the kelpie can change himself into any other four-legged animal, but he is unable to recreate the sharp tip of a twisted ram’s horn. In other cases when he has not changed form, he looks just like a horse, making it possible for ordinary humans to gain power over him by scratching a cross on his back. Then they can make him haul large stones bound to his tail down from the mountains in order to build fences or houses, which can still be seen in the village of Húsavík on Sandoy and in the village of Eiði on the island of Eysturoy. These large stones can still be found there and testify to his strength. At Takmýrar on Sandoy there is a large stone which they wanted the kelpie to haul all the way to Húsavík but the horsetail broke and the stone is still there with a part of the kelpie‘s tail stuck to the stone and still visible”.
V.U. Hammershaimb: ”Faeroese Anthology I”, 1891. Source: Snar. With thanks to: Anni Sólsker, Hanna and Julianna Joensen.
Marita Gulklett
