Sauna
“You can’t be serious? Build Spirit House in Iceland? What makes you think it would be a good idea?”
“Well, Iceland has the largest population of...”
“Finland has the largest population of people who commune with spirits! Your arrogant seiður laugh at us!”
“No, listen to me. Iceland has the largest population of people and therefore most potential students.”
“What good is it to have students, if you don’t have teachers!”
“At the moment the only teacher will be you. I’ll help of course, if you think I can.”
“Of course you will teach too. In Finland.”
“Onni, be reasonable. Iceland is safe. Any students from other countries can come here, but many of possible Icelandic students can’t go to live in Finland. You know that.”
“I guess that’s a valid argument. But teaching is very stressful for me. Near unbearable, if many of the students are like you! I need to be able to relax and recharge in my forests.”
“We can find a place near a forest here. There are some you know!”
“But it’s... it doesn’t seem right to teach about the spirits in Iceland! I’m sure our gods won’t like it.”
“Are you quite sure it’s not Onni Hotakainen who won’t like it? It was your gods after all who led us on this path.”
“Why must you be so...*grumble grumble*
“Reasonable? Wise? Right?”
“Seriously though, I refuse to live anywhere without a sauna”
“Sauna? That’s your main point now?”
“Sauna is extremely important! Actually I think it’s instrumental in reaching sufficient purity and relaxation to allow for..”
“Oh two-bearded Odin in a tree! We can build a sauna here!”
“There are no proper materials available, and no one here knows how to!”
“Tell you what. Lalli supports this too. I will ask him to hire a Finnish crew of sauna-builders, who can travel here and bring whatever materials with them.”
“Come here? They’ll be months”
“Yes. But they have money, and Lalli especially couldn’t care less about it. Actually I happen to know he has already promised funding for the construction work.”
“Lalli is ok with Iceland?”
“Well, that part hasn’t been discussed yet. But I’m sure he’ll agree with me!”
“Probably will too, to make sure he never needs meet the students.”
“And just think how it will irritate the Academy folks!”
“Hmmm... indeed. That would be a bonus.”
“Ok, so, can we please at least agree to look for a place? Best case scenario, we can get both a hot spring and a sauna there! You can’t build a hot spring in Finland.”
*grumble grumble* “Ok. But the spring must be big enough to fit at least two people.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Promise!”
You can’t just build a sauna of any wood. Or, you can, but if you want it to be nice and stay nice, you have to use suitable woods. Birch for example (which Iceland has) deteriorates easily and also feels hotter to the touch. Usually walls and ceiling are covered in panelling of fir or black alder, occasionally pine. The benches are usually made of aspen or black alder. Sometimes fir is used too, but resin is unpleasant on the bench (not nice on the walls either, it gets burning hot).
Nowadays exotic woods are also uses in saunas, but those are out in this case.
