Folklore & Inspiration Friday – A Rose, a Song and a Poem

March is both the month in which the leaves of the big tree at my humble abode start to turn yellow and the month in which St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated. I must have some Celtic gene in me somewhere, because I adore Celtic music. As I was thinking about some inspiration for March, I was reminded of a translation of “My Luve’s Like a Red, Red Rose” which was translated in the early 1920s by Eugène N. Marais – one of the best known Afrikaans writers. After this lovely poem I turn my attention to the “language of flowers” and roses in particular.

Classic poem, classic song

I’ve copied the text from the book In Poet’s Company[1], which I have used before for Inspiration Friday. More about the history of thissong can be found here.

My Luve’s Like a Red, Red Rose

O, my luve’s like a red, red rose,

That’s newly sprung in June:

O, my luve’s like the melodie

That’s sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in luve am I;

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till a’ the seas gang dry:

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;

I will luve thee still, my dear,

While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve!

And fare thee weel a while!

And I will come again, my luve,

Though it were ten thousand mile.

Here is a video of King's Singers singing this classic:

And here is the translation:

“My liefste’s soos ’n dieprooi roos”[2]

Na die gedig van Burns

 O, my Liefste’s soos ’n dieprooi roos

wat skitter in die dou;

My Liefste’s soos ’n helder lied

wat sag sy wys ontvou.

O Liefling, net so skoon as jy,

so reik my liefde hoog,

en glo my dit sal suiwer duur

totdat die see verdroog.

O, Soetste, tot die see verdroog,

die vaste grond vergaan,

sal ek my Liefde vas behou

deur heel my lewensbaan.

En, O, my Liefling, nou vaarwel,

neem al my sugte mee!

En glo dat ek terug sal kom,

al keer die diepste see.

Die Boerevrou, Desember 1921; Gedigte, 1925

Folklore Friday: The Meaning Behind a Rose

As those who often read this blog knows; I find folklore and mythology fascinating. The meaning of different flowers is one of those things I wish I could remember more of (but at least I have a few reference books for when my memory needs some help). In the Brewer’sDictionary of Phrase and Fable – probably one of the best known dictionaries – the following list of types of roses and their meanings is given:

“In the language of flowers different roses signify different characteristics or attributes, among them the following:

Burgundy rose: simplicity and beauty

China rose: grace or beauty ever fresh

Daily rose: a smile

Dog rose: pleasure mixed with pain

Faded rose: beauty is fleeting

Japan rose: beauty is your sole attraction

Moss rose: voluptuous love

Musk rose: capricious beauty

Provence rose: my heart is in flames

White rosebud: too young to love

White rose full of buds: secrecy

Wreath of roses: beauty and virtue rewarded

Yellow rose: infidelity”

(Brewer 2009:1142)[3]

With thanks to the Graphics Fairy 

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[1] Parker, E.W. 1951. The Poets’ Company. Vol. I. To the Nineteenth Century. Longmans, Green and Co. London.

[2] Eugène N. Marais. 2005. Die volledige versamelde gedigte. Eds. Baard, M. et al. Protea Boekehuis, Pretoria.

[3] Rockwood, C. (ed.).Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, 18^th edition. Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. Edinburgh. www.brewersreference.com

Inspiration Friday – Kissing Friday

Seeing as it is Kissing Friday today (the Friday following Shrove Tuesday), I figured it as good a time as any to quote a proper wooing song for Inspiration Friday. (No, this does not include repeating the word “baby” half a thousand times.) This one is titled “Quant Theseus – Ne quier veoir” or “When Theseus – I have no wish to see” and was written by Guillaume de Machaut  and Thomas Paien, dated 3 November 1363.

I’ll give the English translation first, followed by the original French text. This song is included on David Munrow’s CD The Art of Courtly Love rereleased byVirgin Classics Ltd. The songs on the CD are beautifully performed by the Early Music Consort of London.

When Theseus – I have no wish to see

Voice I

When Theseus, Hercules and Jason

roamed over lands and deep sea

to enhance their reputations

and to see the wonders of the world,

they proved worthy of our respect.

But I am well satisfied just to see

beauty’s humble flower;

the sight of my lady is all I desire.

Voice II

I have no wish to see Absalom’s beauty,

nor the wise and eloquent Ulysses,

nor to learn of Samson’s strength,

nor to watch Delilah shear his locks,

nor do I care one whit about

Argus’s eyes or any greater joy,

 for my pleasure is a simple one;

the sight of my lady is all I desire.

And the original text :

Quant Theseus – Ne quier veoir

Voice I

Quant Theseus, Herculés et Jason

cercherent tout, et terre et mer parfonde,

pour accroistre leur pris et leur renon

et pour veoir bien tout l’estat dou monde,

moult furent dignes d’onnour.

mais quant je voy de biauté l’umble flour,

assevis sui de tout, si que, par m’ame,

je voy assés, puis que je voy ma dame.

Voice II

Ne quier veoir la biauté d’Absalon

ne de Ulixés le sens et la faconde,

ne esprouver la force de Sanson,

ne regarder gue Dalila le tonde,

ne cure n’ay par nul tour

des yeux Argus ne de joie gringnour,

car pour plaisance et sans aide d’ame,

je voy assés, puis que je voy ma dame.

Loyset Liedet's "Garden of Love"

Worldbuilding Wednesday – The Dragon Tears of Marglóthborg

Before the Great Sundering, many battles were fought in the lands of Airthai. At the beginning of the world, after the Shadow – the first of the Lewjan Lords – turned against the Light, the first great battle was fought between the Lewjan and the Airus. The Airus won and banished the Lewjan Lords into darkness. But in their dark dwellings they planned and schemed and released many beasts into the world.

Airthai before the Great Sundering

These slithering wyrm-like creatures crept from the deepest, darkest caverns across the Great Continent[1] to slay those following the Light or turn them to their masters. They crept along the ground on many legs, pulling their scaly bodies along the ground. Their tails ended in a sharp sting dripping poison which could kill animal and human alike and burnt the vegetation it came into contact with.

But the Light saw everything and was ready for the Lewjan’s onslaught. The dragons of Airthai were smaller than the Lewjan’s beasts, but were more in number and were nimble enough to attack the beasts. The poison also did not hurt them as much as they were protected by their scales. But many still died as they fought, though they did not fight alone. The men of Airthai stood by the dragons and healed those they could. They formed a great bond with the dragons and they were gifted the means to communicate with them and could even control them with the right words. But some of the dragons became wilder and their actions turned to malice as they – and some of the men – fell under the spell of the Lewjan. These men, instead of using their gift to keep the dragons and themselves safe, commanded their dragons to kill, maim and plunder. But those who stayed true to the Light refused to use the dragons like this and even made an oath along with the dragons to the Creator to this end. Because they did this of their own, they kept the gift of the dragon tongue while the others lost this gift and the language turned to meaningless sounds in their mouths.

One by one the beasts of the Lewjan fell. At last only two were left – one in the northern part of the Western Lands and one to the south – close to where Marglóthborg would one day be situated. Here there was a great battle between the shadow dragons, the Lewjan’s beast, the fallen men and those men and dragons following the light.

For four days the fighting continued and blood drenched the ground while fires from dragon tears left the ground under a layer of ash and smoke choked the air. Then, at last, one of the men - Ardeo - came close enough to the beast to deal it its death blow. But the death of the beast came at a great price, for Ardeo died along with two more dragons; struck down in its death throes.

Those following the Shadow fled if they were able to. The dead were buried on the plain and even the dragons were given a hero’s farewell. Those who survived this day were to become the Dragon Guardians.

The dragons whose bodies remained on the plain, however, turned to stone and many tears were shed which were buried with them; for at this time there were yet no way to use a dragon’s heart for dark arts and it was not necessary to destroy a dragon’s body.

During the centuries which followed, the battle was remembered in stories, but the battleground forgotten. Then, during the Sundering, the buried dragon tears were found once more. Not knowing the power these stones held (as the Dragon Guardians kept the secret well), they were mined simply as precious stones and sold and traded. These stones had to be very carefully removed from the surrounding rock and it was extremely time-consuming. The tears glowed in the little light available in the tunnels, forever bathing the miners in strange blue light. Some were said to go mad in the strange darkness and soon the mines – which were held by only a few families – became a last resort to people who had no other way of earning a living.

Other precious stones and metals were also discovered in the vicinity and Marglóthborg became a very rich city over the next few centuries, at last laying claim to the lands from the Dragon Cliffs to the ridge beyond Black Harbour. It was a dry land, but with their riches, trade goods were bought and sold from across the length and breadth of the Continent and the Western Isles.

The city of Marglóthborg was first written of in the story “The City of Promise”, written for NaShoStoMo 2011. It can be read here.

Map of Southern Lands showing Marglóthborg

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[1] Before the Sundering most of the landmasses on Airthai was compacted into one continent. Only after the Sundering were there two major landmasses – the Sundered Lands and the Continent. 

Inspiration Friday – Joseph Wright: From Mill Hand to University Professor

I first came across Joseph Wright’s story while reading Humphrey Carpenter’s biography on JRR Tolkien.

“Joe Wright was a Yorkshireman, a truly self-made man who had worked his way up from the humblest origins to become Professor of Comparative Philology. He had been employed in a woollen-mill from the age of six, and at first this gave him no chance to learn to read and write. But by the time he was fifteen he was jealous of his workmates who could understand the newspapers, so he taught himself his letters. This did not take very long and only increased his desire to learn, so he went to night-school and studied French and German, He also taught himself Latin and mathematics, sitting over his books until two in the morning and rising again at five to set out for work.” (Carpenter 1977:55)

Wright used his savings to finance a term’s study at a university in Germany, walking most of the way to Heidelberg. Here he eventually took a doctorate before returning to England and joining Oxford University. Here he became a professor and wrote various books, among which was a Gothic primer, which “proved a revelation to Tolkien” (Carpenter 1977:55).

I have not been able to read the biography Wright’s wife wrote about him, but just this little piece of a life, written about in someone else’s biography, has been an inspiration to me and probably many others as well.

When I first read about this man who worked as hard as he could, regardless of his circumstances, I must have been in grade 11. My own love for languages had been kindled not that long before and I had seriously started to consider studying languages. I first came into contact with Gothic (other than the few words quoted in the Tolkien biography) in one of my first-year Afrikaans classes (about the language’s history, to be exact), where the Lord’s Prayer was quoted in our textbook. Little did I know then that only a few years later I would be using Wright’s own textbook in some of my studies!

Here is a sound clip and the text of the Lord's Prayer being recited in Gothic. 

Here are some links to Wright’s works available online and more information about him:

Joseph Wright’s Wikipedia page

Oxford Mail article: From woollen mills todreaming spires

Project Gutenberg; works by Joseph Wright

Really Big News and Zombies

On 6 January I wrote a post called “Big News and Zombies” about a medieval symposium being held later this year. Well, I read, researched, wrote, edited, wrote again, changed my mind, started from the beginning and at last handed in a proposal for the theme “Mortality and Imagination: The Life of the Dead in the Middle Ages andRenaissance”.

This week I heard that “The Walking Dead of Fróðá” has been accepted! (Did happy dance and had a celebratory coffee, of course.)

So, in the next couple of months (the conference is at the end of August) I will be working full-speed ahead on this as well to try and get it perfect (and short enough to fit into 20 minutes).

But, for now, I can tick off one task from my “Finish Year” list and stare at the beautiful pictures of Mont Fleur, where the conference will be held. 

Mont Fleur, South Africa

Friday Book Review: Starfire by S.V. Stockton

Starfire by Stuart Vaughn Stockton (Book 1 in The Mending series)

When I first read the description of Starfire, I was intrigued. I love dinosaurs, but knew that this book, with its “dinosaur-people” would either be very good or awful. I am glad to say that I really enjoyed this wonderful book. Stockton’s world is at once alien and familiar and the worldbuilding is superb. Within the first pages the reader is fully enmeshed in a world where the dominant species is sentient dinosaurs, called Saurians, who even has and uses technology far surpassing our own. Yet, although there is not one human character, the Saurians are human enough in their struggles even on this alien world, that the reader is completely emotionally involved in the story.

The main character, Rathe, is a young warrior of low hatch status. Because of a lie told after he had rescued a hatchling, he gets the chance at a future he would not otherwise have had. In preparing for and during his first tour of duty as part of the Karn Imperial Army, he meets many different Saurians of different backgrounds and beliefs. He soon finds himself in over his head as he is chosen for a destiny he could never have imagined. “And the only things informing Rathe’s decision are affection for a small Saurin under his care and the admonitions from the mystical representative of a god Rathe doesn’t believe in” as the description so aptly says. Soon Rathe has to make choices and it seems that, no matter what choice he makes, it will lead to the destruction of his world.

Although Starfire is Christian speculative fiction, Stockton does not make everything black and white or skim over the character’s problems. The book also doesn’t preach, but does touch upon the way in which different characters share different beliefs with one another and have to live and survive together.

I’ll admit that the different breeds and the ranking system of the army is a bit confusing to get used to at first, but luckily a scale chart of the different Saurians are included, as well as a character guide. Although not everyone likes glossaries and the like, I enjoy extra material when it comes to specfic books – especially those set in alternative worlds.

The worldbuilding of the world, cultures, technology, fauna and flora (I especially enjoyed the Jeshar vines and Golub) has been thoroughly done and fully integrated into the story. I can highly recommend this book for lovers of sci-fi and fantasy – or even if you just like dinosaurs. I think this is also a wonderful example of what Christian speculative fiction can be.  

For this, and other Marcher Lord Press titles, check out their website at www.marcherlordpress.com or visit Stockton’s blog Galactic Lore or his website Ritersbloc.

Published by Marcher Lord Press

*I received a copy of this book from Marcher Lord Press and requested to give my honest review. 

Blast from the Past Worldbuilding Wednesday: Moonstruck

I've decided to post one of the most popular Worldbuilding posts from the archive for today - enjoy!

In yesterday’s Worldbuilding post, gave the meanings of the names of some of the different ‘good guys’. In another post about the Khalné, Khalvér and their students who have to choose who they want to follow and serve, one of the leading teachers – and spokesperson of the Khalvér at the occasion – wanted to ‘correct’ his equal on the Khalné’s side:

“Centuries ago when the world was still young, there were those with the Talent and they used it for the good of mankind and they were called the Khallahna. But on the day of the Battle of the Black Field there came a rent in the brotherhood of the Khallahna and the Khallahna was split into two groups. One, the Khalné, called the servants of Light. The other, the Khalvér, the servants of the Darkness.”

“I believe you mean ‘Servants of the Moon’,” Trialma interjected in the moment Parlegon paused for breath.

This name – Servants of the Moon – must be understood in the context of the world; which gives me a chance to go a bit into the symbolism of Airthai.

The sun, moon and stars

 The Keepers’ signs all contain the four stars of the main constellation used for navigation. Stars, however, were also seen as a sign from the Creator that, even with the darkening of the world, with the people’s fall and the Sundering, there is always light and hope. The Creator is also sometimes referred to as the Light. While the sun is the obvious symbol of Light during the day, the moon is the symbol of Light during the night. Because of the perceived static nature of stars and the ever-changing moon, stars came to be considered a sign of never-wavering loyalty and Light.

The waxing and waning of the moon

Like the moon waxes and wanes, so the Khalvér believe that they will never be defeated, but will always return to grow to full power once more. Other than the stars’ light, they teach that the moonlight is the true light, placing emphasis on (or highlighting if you will) everything. Moonlight is believed to be ‘concentrated’ or ‘stronger’ sunlight.

 This reasoning is especially used by the Khalvér while the students of the Khallahna are being taught and used to sway students from choosing to follow the Khalné. By choosing to serve the ‘Stronger Light’ many are led to believe that they are choosing the right way and are the true heirs of the Khallahna. Their hatred of the Ahma, however, speaks directly against this.

Worship of the moon

The twisting of the original knowledge of the Khallahna and the folklore and beliefs before the Sundering can especially be seen in the ways of the Lharna–ahna[1] people (of the northwest of the Sundered Lands), who believe that the moon is their lord and which they serve. They make an offering every new/dark moon. By doing this, they believe that they will win back their lord’s favour and ‘call back’ their lord’s face to watch them for another month.

The Lharna-ahna is one of the few peoples of Airthai who make neither a distinction between the Creator and the Lewjan as the one who they serve. The Khalvér, though sometimes referring to themselves as “Servants of the moon”, don’t worship it, but the Lewjan.

They referred to themselves as Servants of the Moon...

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[1] Lharna – “moon”