The Next Few Weeks: Reading, Writing and Studying

Coffee Love

Time has really flown by this year (the last few weeks I think this was especially due to the various Strains of Evil...). It does seem, however, that I’m not the Typhoid Mary of the Zombie Apocalypse – which means that I can get my studies, writing, and social media (like the blog) back to normal as soon as possible. Yay!

The Proudly South African Friday Post

With thanks to my sister who showed me this video - Chris Chameleon's voice is simply unbelievable!

It's here! The Desolation of Smaug Teaser Trailer

I now interrupt my planned posts - the teaser trailer for the second Hobbit movie is here!

Here's also some links to previous posts I wrote about the inspiration and history behind the dwarves and Beorn and beserkers.

The Strain of Evil Strikes Again, or,

How to Lose a Week’s Worth of Productivity

Okay, it wasn’t the same Strain of Evil, but I seem to be attracting every germ possible this year. At least this time I only needed a trip to my GP, four days off from work and a weekend of sleeping. So… I didn’t do much this week apart from sleeping. Although I did watch the 1960 Little Shop of Horrors again, and listened to the audiobook of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, brilliantly read byChristopher Hurt (bought from Audible).

But, for now, it’s back to normal!

"A Break in the Clouds" - Picture taken at Mont Fleur, South Africa. 

© Carin Marais

Death at the Dragon’s Prow

If there’s one thing you can say about Medieval Scandinavian poetry, is that much of it is haunting in its sorrowful beauty. This piece of poetry forms part of the Sturlungasaga. Read only in this context, its first two lines immediately brought to mind the carved dragon prows found on some of the Viking ships.

You must climb up on to the keel,

cold is the sea-spray’s feel;

From the Oseberg ship. Photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra.

let not your courage bend:

here your life must end.

Old man, keep your upper lip firm

though your head be bowed by the storm.

You have had girls’ love in the past ;

death comes to all at last.

This is the original text in Old Norse:

Upp skaltu á kjöl klífa,

köld er sævar drífa;

kostaðu hug þinn herða,

hér skaltu lífit verða.

Skafl beygjattu skalli

Þótt skúr á þik falli.

Ást hafðir þú meyja;

eitt sinn skal hver deyja.*

This poem is actually recited by Þórir jökull Steinfinnsson just before his execution. But that would not have made a very attractive title for the post, now would it?

*Both English and Old Norse texts quoted from What Was Viking Poetry For? by Anthony Faulkes.

And there’s more!

Visit www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk for some other great texts and tales (most scholarly).

The website www.heimskringla.no also has a wide variety of texts dealing with Medieval Icelandic literature and Norse mythology in various languages.

The Anglo-Saxon (Old English) manuscript of Beowulf can now be viewed for free on the British Library website,over here.

Sources:

Faulkes, Anthony. 1993. What Was Viking Poetry For? Inaugural lecture delivered on 27th April 1993 in the University of Birmingham. ISBN: 0704413957

Photo: From the Oseberg ship. Photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra.. Click here for the link to his beautiful gallery at Flickr.