LL-L "Customs" 2002.04.27 (04) [E/Danish]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 27.APR.2002 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Ole Stig Andersen <osa at olestig.dk>
Subject: Geek

Kevin Browne (if I remember correctly) asked  about "geek" etc in
Danish.

The word is "gæk", from Plattysk, of course.
([æ] is ae-ligature which some mailreaders don't reproduce correctly)

There is this beautiful flower, "vintergæk" (snowdrop) that rises its
delicate white bell over the snow when winter is receding. When I was a
child, my mother taught me to make "gækkebreve".  A gækkebrev is a
paperclip letter (it can be very intricate scissor-work), which has one
or two vintergækker attached to it in some way, and the following poem:

En vintergæk, en sommernar, en fugl foruden vinger.
En lille ven som har dig kær, en kærlig hilsen bringer.
Mit navn det står med prikker. Pas på det ikke stikker!

[A snowdrop, a summergeek, a bird without wings.
A little friend who has you dear, a loving greeting brings.
My name it stands with dots. Beware it doesn't sting.]
Signed   . . .

You send your gækkebrev to friends and family some time before Easter,
and
if the recipient hasn't guessed your name by Easter, s/he must give you
an
Easter Egg (of chocolate).

There are of course numerous variants of this. An incidental website
among
numerous with some gækkebrev-poems and some paperclip patterns is
http://www.oelsted.dk/Paaske/Gaekkeindex.htm

Besides being the unrivalled master of the Danish language, Hans
Christian
Andersen was also very good at paperclippings and silhouettes and a
number
of his gækkebreve still survives. Every spring The Danish Postal
Services
sell a new Gækkebrev designed by a different artist.

There is an archaic feel to the word. I think the verb "gække" (to dupe)
is
obsolete. One of the characters in Batman, the Jester (?), was
translated
"Gækkeren" , though.

And there are two derived fossil expressions still alive:

at drive gæk med én - [drive geek with one] - to pull someone's leg
at slå gækken løs - [let the geek loose] - to make merry

Finally there are two other words/meanings of "gæk":

- the cackle geese make (obsolete)
- the tumbler of a lock (technical jargon or archaic)

Ole Stig Andersen
http://www.olestig.dk

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Customs

Ole:

> When I was a
> child, my mother taught me to make "gækkebreve".  A gækkebrev is a
> paperclip letter (it can be very intricate scissor-work)

Ååh, sikke nydeligt!  :)

I take it by "paperclip" you mean (cut-out) silhouette, the ornamental
type.  (_Paperclip_ betyder "klips".)  What do you call it in Danish?
It's _Scherenschnitt_ in German.

In this particular context I would probably translate _gæk_ not as
'geek' but as 'prankster', 'teaser' or, perhaps best, 'jester', someone
who pulls someone's leg or pokes fun at someone or something, as in
'court jester' (a bit like Modern Danish _skælm_, Low Saxon and German
_Schelm_), like our Lowlandic Till Ulenspegel (Till Eulenspiegel).

By the way, I would not be too surprised if there was a distant
relationship between the Danish _gækkebrev_ tradition and the
old-fashioned, anonymous sending of Valentine's cards (with verses,
flowers and pretty pictures, in February) in Anglophone traditions.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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