Welkom by die eerste inskrywing hier by Kammastories, ’n hoekie op die internet vir allerhande stories, sketse en verbeeldingsvlugte. Reeds vir meer as ’n jaar blog ek by Hersenskim oor stories, boeke en ’n kammawêreld genaamd Airthai. Hier en daar het al ’n paar stories in publikasies verskyn, maar met die dat die oorgrote lesers slegs Engels magtig is, was dit moeilik om die Afrikaanse teks by die Engels in te werk sonder dat die inskrywings lomp raak. Dus het ek besluit om hier ’n plekkie te skrop vir die Afrikaanse stories – veral aangesien meeste van die kort fiksie van Airthai oorspronklik in Afrikaans geskryf is.
Soos op Hersenskim, sal inskrywings op Kammastories gewy word aan skryfwerk, stories en boeke op Woensdae en Vrydae en mooi en inpirerende liedjies, poësie en musiek op Maandae. (Sommige van die inskrywings hier en op Hersenskim sal steeds ooreenstem*.)
Maar, intussen, hier is ’n bietjie inspirasie vir die naweek – Prime Circle se liedjie “My Inspiration”.
Sometimes, there is such a thing as too much pie. Especially when you have fingers stuck in them. Although I picture the ones I have fingers stuck in more like a range of different kinds of pie and some of the experimental fillings aren’t working as well as I’d hoped. And now I’ll stop with the pie-metaphor and get to the real news:
Kammastories* Kammastories will be a new blog filled with stories and spinned yarns – but these will all be (as far as possible) in Afrikaans (if you are new to this blog – Afrikaans is my mother tongue**). Many of my shorter pieces of Airthai worldbuilding and fiction were first written in Afrikaans, but, while this blog has some Afrikaans content, I find that my readers predominantly have English as their mother tongue or as an additional language, but do not understand Afrikaans. Therefore, rather that simply having the same posts in both languages on one blog – which may become very confusing – I’ve decided to split them, but still have some of the same blog posts on both, or the same story in both languages. I also want to write more fiction in Afrikaans, and this will give me a specific platform for those pieces. Which brings me to “Small Mercies”.
This short-lived blog – which I just feel does not work on its own – will rather be incorporated into my usual posts here on Hersenskim and will give me more freedom than just saying that I’ve been surrounded by books for another week or to stay on such a narrow subject. That said, I am not quitting my Finish Year list, but will just go about noting progress on finishing that list a bit differently!
Plans for Hersenskim
The format (or, rather, the order) of the posts here will change slightly – I’ll start Monday with some Inspiration†, Wednesdays will remain days for Worldbuilding and Fridays will have posts about fiction, book reviews, writing and other bookish endeavours. I’ll also give a short update on Finish Year at the end of the Friday post.
Weekend Inspiration
But, to get everyone in weekend mode and give some inspiration (albeit a bit louder than usual), music by a wonderful South African band called Prime Circle. Here’s their song “My Inspiration” – enjoy!
*”Kammastories” means “fantastical stories” or “fantasy stories” in Afrikaans. Cue evil laugh of glee!
** Or now you now why my “Friday Inspiration” posts also have an Afrikaans translation…
† Simply because you need inspiration more at the beginning of the week than at the end of it!
The ‘short story’ called “The Price of Freedom”, which was supposed to take place after the story “A Dragon’s Freedom” in order to move the overall story of Airthai forward a bit*, turned into more of a novel length work… but the stories of the kingdoms and peoples of the Southern and Midlands doesn’t end there.
After Gile received the crown some of his men decided that they could not longer follow him and the surrounding kingdoms saw an opportunity. And the paw-paw kind of hits the fan** for Gile – especially when he learns that he won’t be getting his hands on any more dragons and he only knows one order in their tongue (now quite useless, thanks to Ryger). This brings me to a time of great change in the kingdoms of the Midlands.
The Midland Wars – part 1:
First strike
The kingdoms of Ealdfesten and Guldargan already had a disputed border to the east of the capital city of Guldargan and when Ealdfesten learned that Guldargan no longer had any dragons, they were the first to launch small raids beyond their border.
When Marcus passed away and Gile became king, it was not even a fortnight before Ealdfesten attacked Guldargan with a large force of men and pushed their own border westward to the main city.
Through the next six decades various battles and wars were fought and the borders of the kingdoms of the midlands changed dramatically through these years. These wars are collectively known as the Midland Wars and would change not only the kingdoms and their people, but also the Keepers and their function in the Midlands for good.
After Ealdfesten’s attack, the kingdoms around Guldargan now took their chance and Aefterra – to the northeast of Guldargan and north of Ealdfesten – attacked Guldargan as well. While Treddian at first stayed an attack on Guldargan, they did attack when Ealdfesten had conquered all of the southern lands of Guldargan and had reached Treddians eastern border. The Keepers of Holt Haliern and Eamidthéo tried in vain to reach a compromise with Ealdfesten, but they would hear none of it and the bloodshed on the Southern Fields was great and the men from Ealdfesten burned a great swathe of the land as well. Because it was autumn and quite dry, the fire spread fast and many who were not soldiers lost their lives and many others their livelihoods. These people were both of Treddian and Guldargan (before Ealdfesten conquered the land), but with nowhere else to go, they made their way to the Keepers together to look for help.
Next week: The Midland Wars, part 2 - Sanctuaries
*To get the “middle part” between “A Dragon’s Freedom” and “Yet untitled story” told… Stories just love getting out of hand!
**Yes, this is an accepted rendering of the “item + fan idiom”…
“Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer; Death is strong, but Life is stronger; Stronger than the dark, the light; Stronger than the wrong, the right; Faith and Hope triumphant say Christ will rise on Easter Day.” – Phillips Brooks
Easter is both a time of death, suffering and a stone tomb. But, more than that, it is a time of life, of renewal, of forgiveness and hope.
When you look around you – whether it is the daily news or perhaps even your own circumstances – it is very easy to forget that there is still good in the world. Days may be dark – but there have always been dark days. Chaos seems all around – but has it not been like that for centuries? Light will triumph in the end because it has already triumphed. There is no need to search for immortality and everlasting joy, because it is already within reach – just beyond the doorway, just beyond the curtain. The Light has already triumphed and the tomb is empty. Death is nothing now.
rume roderas;þæt is rice god,
sylf soðcyning,sawla nergend,
se us eal forgeafþæt we on lifgaþ,
on deft æt þam ende eallum wealdeð
monna cynne. þæt is meotud sylfa.
The God of glory, the God of all strength,
made the wide firmament
and the kingdom of heaven.
He is the true King,
The Keeper of souls,
The One who forgives,
the One who bestows life here and hereafter –
the Ruler of mankind.
He is the One who is. ~ From “Maxims I – B”, translation by Brigit Pegeen Kelly. Quoted from The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, eds. Greg Delanty and Michael Matto. Published by W.W. Norton & Company.www.wwnorton.com/books/
Before the throne
In my room I will bow before the throne
And be still and search for words
In the tongues I know
To exalt and praise and plead.
I will go into my room to be alone,
I will be still and think only of this
And realise that there is an ear that will hear my words
On the throne that none can see.
I will think of ancient stone and desert lands harsh to withstand
And buildings great and grand.
But not there, not there will I go, not where all can see
A lone person praying. A broken person pleading.
I will be still and know that here my words are like
A song of praise that I can but imagine and not sing,
That stuttering words will become sweet music,
That simple words will be given flight,
That all asked from the Prince will be answered,
That the Spirit will fill the simple room where I am,
That the King will place his hand on my shoulder,
That I will go from this room with new life.
Tears will be dried,
New life will enter me.
New love will enter me.
New peace will enter me.
I will be unbound and look at the world anew.
I will go into my room to be alone,
To plead, to praise, to humbly ask for new life. ~ Written by Carin Marais
May you have a wonderful and blessed Easter weekend!
Or, How to make stuff up in many relatively easy steps While pulling some threads together for a new piece of Airthai-history, taking place between two stories, I read some of the old ‘articles’ and short stories I wrote about the world and the changes which has come about as the world expanded from a forest (Jungians would probably have a field day…) to a city called Brenoth and now many kingdoms, some of which are still undiscovered. I can’t give a done and dusted how-to list about how to build an instant fantasy world, but I can explain how I go about it. I’ll also be posting some extra short stories* about some of the events and people which have shaped Airthai.
Early days When I started writing about Airthai, it was with a story idea which popped into my head: a great house of learning in the centre of a great wood. This would become Holt Haliern and it would be inhabited by “Keepers” or “Guardians” coming from the different surrounding kingdoms. Soon the ‘bad guys’ showed up from a place called Brenoth… If you have read “A Dragon’s Freedom” or “The Price of Freedom”, you’ll probably ask where this ‘Brenoth’ is. Well, it’s a couple of centuries in the future, waiting to happen!
Build it, and the stories will come… What I am trying to show is that I didn’t sit down with a blank WikidPad file (O, WikidPad, how I love thee) and typed “The Creation of the World”. Perhaps it would have spared a lot of rewriting and re-invisioning, but it would also have spoiled the fun. And that what it is supposed to be, after all. As the story I was writing at the time grew, I wrote extra stories, extra ‘articles’ and answered many questions posed, like “Why are these guys bad/evil?” “Why doesn’t kingdom A trust Kingdom B?” I had a vague idea of what the world was like, but I only really found out about the world as characters and stories grew. ‘Seat-of-pants’ worldbuilding, if you will. Slowly pieces of the world fell into place. Some were big and ‘mythical’ pieces like ‘The Creation of the World’ and some were ideas I thought was just cool at the time. For instance, ‘dragon tears’ were just supposed to be cool stones which glowed. Only later, when writing a fairy tale-like story (Aune and Everard), did a real dragon show up and I realised that I needed to find out how dragons fit into the story of Airthai. And so, Skáhag and the dragons of Airthai were born… and kind of took over for a while.
Next week: The Midland Wars, part 1
Ps. Next week I’ll also have more info about Secret Project 1: Kammastories**
*Real short stories, not the kind you plan to be about 6,000 words long and end up almost 32,000 words long. **And I will save my maniacal laugh of glee for next week as well.
This poem was written about the same time as the first draft
of the story which became "The No Good Killer". Unfortunately, I
can't quite remember what exactly I had read about gold mining which led me to
write these pieces. Something which have left quite an imprint on my mind is
the many mine dumps around Johannesburg (living in the "City of Gold"
does have its drawbacks. For instance; the streets are not paved with gold).
These are some photos of mine dumps outside Johannesburg, taken on a trip from
Bloemfontein[1] to
Johannesburg about two years ago. (The photos show the transition of the open
plains of the Free State until you reach the city with its millions of people.
More as a reference for me than a great piece of art.)
[1] Yes, the
Bloemfontein where Tolkien was born. And, yes, I did ‘squee’ a bit about it
when I was in the city. Unfortuantely I didn’t have time to search for the
plaque commemorating his birthplace, as I was working very long hours.
For this last
week before Easter, I chose the song “Stabat iuxta Christi crucem”, written by
John Browne.
When I first
read the lyrics, I was deeply touched by the emotion of the song.
All the sadness of the crucifixion is contained. What really touched me in this
song was the personal focus on the sadness and horror of a mother having to
watch her child killed.
Here is a video
of the song, but it can also be listened to here. Below the video is the
English lyrics, followed by and Afrikaans translation[1].
The translation
of the English lyrics quoted here, has been taken from the booklet of Anonymous4’s album Four Centuries of Chant.
More info about the album can be found here at Harmonia Mundi or here at thegroup’s website.
