Yuletide 2024

[Jitter]

Such great expressions again! I can hear Onni’s pfft

[Buteo]

This Yule celebration was such a wonderful idea! It has resulted in a collection of many of my long-time favorites with some marvellous new treats added.

I have something here that is not specifically Yule-themed; but a holiday celebration must have some drinking, right? And therefore, there must be drinking songs, right?...

Well, anyway:

Spoiler: show

Health To The Company
Traditional tune


Kind friends and companions, come join me in rhyme
Come lift up your voices in chorus with mine
Let us drink and be merry all grief to refrain
For we may or might never all meet here again

Here's a health to the company and our captain most best
Let us drink and be merry and outshout all the rest
Let us drink and be merry all in her mead-hall
Without her we might never have come home at all

Here's a health to the company and one to our scout
Let us drink and be merry ‘til the kegs all run out
Let us drink and be merry, no longer to roam
For we may yet have need of his guidance back home

Here's a health to the company and our doctor and cook
Let us drink of the physick that he learned from a book
Let us drink and be merry but look not in the jug
For we may not want to know what he pours in our mug

Here's a health to the company and our driver and scribe
Let us drink and be merry as our deeds she’ll describe
Let us drink and be merry as our glasses we raise
For we may or might never again hear such praise

Here's a health to the company and our cleanser with his fire
Let us drink and be merry as our hearts may desire
Let us drink and be merry admiration to show
For we may end up sunburned by his hair’s golden glow

Here's a health to the company and to our stowaway
Let us drink and be merry, for he’s lived through the fray
Let us drink and be merry and toast his brave heart
For we may owe our survival to his late-wakened art

Here's a health to the company and one to our cat
Let us drink and be merry, fear no grossling nor rat
Let us drink and be merry as we stroke her soft fur
And we may or might never sing as loud as she’ll purr

Here's a health to the company and one to our tank
Let us drink and be merry our dear transport to thank
Though we’ll nevermore find her by land or by sea
She has done all the legwork and left the drinking to me

Here's a health to the company and the sad Finnish mage
Let us drink and be merry his griefs to assuage
Let us drink and be merry and wish him to find
Some peace for his spirit and joy to his mind

Our footsteps may falter, our wits they may fail
Our course may be challenged by the wintery gale
Our fortune may prove to be friend or be foe
But this crew will be with us wherever we go

Here's a health to the company and one to my friends
Let us drink and be merry without any end
Let us drink and be merry all grief to refrain
For we may or might never all meet here again

[wavewright62]

*hic* What a splendid drinking song!


But who's going to clean up all these empty glasses?

[JoB]

But who's going to clean up all these empty glasses?

Just saying, concentrated alcohol is a better disinfectant than dish soap ... 

[Buteo]

Thanks to you both, wave and JoB!

[Jitter]

Wonderful, thank you Buteo for the merriment!

This prompts me to repost a very early attempt of mine, this is from 2019 and I’m not sure if it’s been posted here or in the comment section.

Troll under the table (drinking song)

You can fight and you can wrestle
You use your sword and you cause a hassle
When you lead we can swarm a castle
But can you drink a troll under the table?

You can smuggle yourself on ships
Your fylgja gives you some good tips
The powerful runes are in your grips
But can you drink a troll under the table?

You can run fast and hide and scout
Bad and loud noises may make you pout
From any tight spot you can get us out
But can you drink a troll under the table?

You make things go boom in the air
You have wonderful golden hair
Your hand is fast and your heart is fair
But can you drink a troll under the table?

You can mend us, our wounds you heal
You can’t really cook but we’ve learned to deal
You balance our team with your nerves of steel
But can you drink a troll under the table?

You are Grade B no mere amateur
You warn us by hissing and puffy fur
We can rest easy whenever you you purr
But can you drink a troll under the table?

As a team we stand or sink
Together we travel to Tuonela’s brink
But tonight we rest and we sing and drink
But first lets kill the troll under the table!

(I can hear it as a somg in my head but I never found the tune, so, sorry about that)

[wavewright62]

Ohh yeahh, I tried to figure out a tune to this as well back in the day, because I was so taken by it.  hrmhrm...

[Buteo]

Oh, I missed this one! Thank you for reposting it, Jitter!

We should have a songbook, with space by each posted poem/song for suggestions anent suitable tunes.
There are websites where we could record tunes, and link them...

[wavewright62]

Okay, I've finsihed the b&w drawings for the puzzle time mini-comic (there was much rejoicing)(yayyy)

When we left off, Onni & Mikkel were deeply into assembling the puzzle, although they both seemed to play by the 'don't look at the box for clues' code.  Life in the lodge went on around them.
Next.... well, they've been at it awhile (a little worse for wear), and while they've made some progress, there seems to be some disagreement about how the image is developing.  What is everybody else looking at outside the windows? They're too focussed, they don't even notice.  Lalli finally comes over to have a look.


Lalli picks up and places one piece.  Emil calls over to him to come see what's going on outside.


It was just one piece, but that one piece changes how Onni & Mikkel look at the entirety in a different light.  Lalli goes off to see what Emil wanted to show him. Onni realises that his big section fits if he turns it 90 degrees, while Mikkel starts finding and placing all sorts of pieces now.


It's finished! It's finished! Onni & Mikkel are not themselves, forgive them their excesses (and get them some food already).  Reynir comes over to admire the finished work. Meanwhile Kisu has also finished her work.  Who knew a näkki could hide in a painting of a river?  Well, Kisu did.


 

I was expecting to get this far by the end of my summer break, but to be fair I also wanted to do other things with my summer break, like get outside and do some gardening tasks and read library books and y'know, stuff.  This last batch of pictures, I wanted to post together even though I've been finishing them a bit at a time.  So it's taken 5 weeks instead of 2. 
I do intend to do some colours btw, flat colours, which is why the assembled bits of the puzzle are blank - there will be a picture there.  I have no timeframe on when that's happening, though.  I'll post the whole series of lineart panels onto my AO3 account, and update it when I get time & energy.

(If you think there's a fic to be had here, by all means write it and we'll see how we go.  There's a lot stuff going on that I haven't explained, mostly because I don't know yet.)

Edit:  linkie to the AO3 collection: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62713663

[Jitter]

A little worse for wear indeed  Well done Wave! And well done Näkki for almost pulling off a most clever plan. Only to be thwarted by the most best cat ever!