A New Road (in a way)

Starting this week, I’m giving the blog a little facelift content wise. Rather than limit the subject matter to a fixed pattern, I have decided to branch it out to include more ruminations and short articles like those I had posted over at Storylane.

Taking a good look at the stats of Hersenskim, I have noted those entries which have the most views and shares and will steer more towards talking about a variety of books, interests, mythology, and folklore. Music also plays a huge part in my life and I enjoy sharing those songs and bands which make an impression on me – and those that make great writing/study music.

In other news

Storylane has informed me that they are closing the site. I don’t want to switch my posts to Facebook – I only have a private page at the moment – and so I am looking at other possible sites. Once I decide on one, I’ll post the link over here.

Hope to see you back here soon!

Until then,

Á Agrai tellarias or s'agrélar silássa.

Some Poetry - The Hollow Dunes

This is a poem I wrote about a year and a half ago and came across it again last weekend.

The Hollow Dunes

The old ones have left, she said,

her eyes on the hollow dunes.

Their ships and gold they’ve taken.

With fire brands and wild calls

they’ve left.

She placed her hands upon the grassy dunes.

But the drums still speak,

the drums still call to me.

Away from the ocean.

Away from the sea.

The old ones have left, she said,

her eyes on the hollow dunes.

Perhaps they’ll remember me.

Perhaps they’ll open the dunes –

now that I’ve burnt my boat.

The old ones are calling, she said.

The old ones are calling, she sobbed.

I’ll wait for them by the hollow dunes.

Picture taken by me during a trip to the Western Cape, South Africa.

© Carin Marais 2013

Holt Haliern – Library and Sanctuary of Airtha

Holt Haliern was built before the Great Sundering, in the youth of the world even before the dragons had first appeared. In the centre of the great continent was a large mound of stone and it was this that the Airus took and shaped into a great hall with many rooms and floors. Large caverns and passages were opened to where a great river flowed underground. The stonework was so intricate that nothing of the like has been made since by any living in Airtha. This sanctuary – Haliern – stood as a beacon of light on the plains of the Midlands. At this time the woodland around it was sparse and the Great Wood had not come into being to hide it from the world.

All kinds of valuables and artifacts were brought to Haliern from all over the continent, but the greatest treasures were the books. The earliest of the manuscripts told the stories of the creation of Airtha and how the world came to look as it is. Others were academic treatises, written by the old masters and delivered, bound in great jeweled covers, by messengers. 

Soon the library at Haliern became the greatest in all of Airtha and the people who the Airus had chosen to take care of the great halls saw that this would be the greatest goal of this sanctuary – that it would not only be a place of learning, but also a place of memory. They saw that dark clouds had gathered on the horizon and knew that the Light would not always shine so resiliently in the world. They also knew that there would have to be a place where they would be able to keep the knowledge and memory of the Light alive.

Many of the messengers who carried the books over the whole of the continent were asked to give their services to Haliern alone. These Knowledge Seekers searched the length and breadth of Airtha for books and knowledge and had strong ties to the Seekers of the south; those who had turned against the Lewjan and left the Shadow behind to search of truth. Of one of these Knowledge Seekers, a great lay is still told of in the Midlands and Western Lands. Filled with sorrow, but also hope, it became one of the great legends still known in the later days when much sadness and shadow had covered the lands and hope was all but lost.

Yet Holt Haliern remained throughout the long ages of the world. The books in the libraries were written, copied, and kept safe from those who wished to destroy it. It served again as a sanctuary during the Time of Tears when the Second Sundering ripped the Continent apart. But, by the time of the Third Sundering of the lands of Airtha, the glory of Holt Haliern had faded. It still stood within the great forest of Brenoth, but was all but forgotten by the people of Airtha. Most who remembered the name Holt Haliern believed it to be nothing more than an old legend. The scholars of Holt Haliern rarely ventured from the confines of their halls and the Knowledge Seekers travelled in secrecy; seen as thieves and dark magicians by most who encountered them. This was the darkest time for Holt Haliern and would last for many generations after the Third Sundering until the shadow from all of Airtha started to lift. 

(Stock photos from Stock .xchng)

Om weer verlief te raak op (jou) taal

Wonderlike plakkaat deur Burning Through Pages

Nou die dag het die webwerf Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts laat weet dat die Beowulf-manuskrip nou aanlyn beskikbaar is. Dadelik twiet ek die skakel en gaan kyk weer na die eerste bladsy van dié eeue-oue manuskrip. Omtrent twee jaar voor ek die eerste keer ’n foto daarvan gesien het, het ek Seamus Heaney se vertaling van dié epiese gedig gelees en is totaal meegevoer deur Beowulf, Grendel en die draak. Dít was in graad 11. Ek sal nooit vergeet toe ek in ’n af biologieklas die boek uithaal en vir seker die vierde keer daardie maand begin lees nie. Die meisie wat langs my gesit het vra toe waaroor dit gaan – die arme ding het nie besef sy gaan die hele storie en ’n goeie dosis oor Oudengels hoor nie. (En vir die hoeveelste keer moes ek hoor dat ‘meisies nie súlke boeke moet lees nie’.)

So drie jaar terug spoor ek by ’n biblioteekboekverkoping deel 10 van die Afrikaanse Kinderensiklopedie op en kan nie my geluk glo nie*. Hierdie spesifieke deel bevat Afrikaanse vertellings van, onder andere, die Noorse mitologie en ook van die held Beowulf. Tog bly dit vreemd hoe iets in mens se eie taal die hart kan roer. Neem nou byvoorbeeld Koos du Plessis se pragtige, hartroerende lirieke. Of P.G. duPlessis se “Sommer Stories” wat in ’n paar honderd woorde mens kan laat skater van die lag, laat huil of mens vir dae aan een iets kan laat oordink. (Wys hulle mos nou weer Koöperasiestories op SABC 2. Laas Vrydag wys “’n Ruikertjie geelperskes” en daar huil ek omtrent my oë uit. Die man is ’n meester!) Ek dink nie daardie stories sal dieselfde geur hê in Engels nie.

'n Versameling van P.G. du Plessis se verhale

Hierdie week se Woord en Klank op RSG het Elisabeth Eybers se werk bespreek en haar gedigte het my sommer weer van voor af laat verlief raak op Afrikaans. Maar, moet my nie verkeerd verstaan nie, dis nou nie verlief in ’n soort een-taal-een-volk manier nie. Nee, verlief in ’n hierdie-taal-spreek-tot-my-hart manier. En tot ’n weer besef en verwondering dat die mensdom die diepste emosies en pragbeelde in mekaar se gedagtes kan skep deur net ’n klomp klanke in ’n spesifieke volgorde te maak.

(Kliek op dieWoord en Klank skakel om die week se potgooi van die episode af te laai.)

*Dit is byna meer gevaarlik om my by so ’n uitverkoping toe te laat as by Exclusive Books se uitverkoping wanneer jy ’n kilogram boeke vir R50 kan koop! 

I really should remember this more often

(I found this on Pinterest – I don’t have the correct reference site, so please let me know if you know the original site.)

Writing Health

And, also, there is this – this week’sWriting Excuses podcast. It’s titled “Writing and Personal Health” and is really a must-listen for everyone – writer or not.