Hungry Heart

Posted on May 7, 2023 by JE

Typo of the day is hamelt, for an intended Hamlet. Clearly I should not have skipped lunch.

photo of a grilled ham, cheese, and egg sandwich on a white plate with a slice of dill pickel
image snerged from here
Posted in art, food, Myth & Legend, Typo of the Day, words | Tagged | Comments Off on Hungry Heart

WTF?

Posted on May 6, 2023 by JE

I’m looking around online for editions of the Hrafnistumannasǫgur—which is a perfectly normal thing to do on Friday night; I don’t care what the kids down at the sock hop say—and I found a pretty decent edition for the third and maybe most famous saga in the series, Ǫrvar-Odds saga. It was apparently the Ph.D. dissertation of a Dutch guy named Richard Boer in the 19th C. Leaving the Boer War and cruel puns about academic bores out of it, I was most struck by the guy who oversaw the dissertation, that magnificus rector (Everything Is Better With Latin!™), that hoogleeraar (which I know is hoog “high” plus leeraar “teacher”, but which my brain persists in reading as HOOGLE HAR), Doctor A. P. Fokker. Truly a magnificent Fokker, as I’m sure we can all agree.

ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT TER VERKRIJGING VAN DEN GRAAD VAN DOCTOR IN DE NEDERLANDSGHE LETTERKUNDE, AAN DE RIJKS-UNIVERSITEIT TE GRONINGEN, OP GEZAG VAN DEN RECTOR MAGNIFICUS Dr. A. P. FOKKER HOOGLEEHAAR IN DE FACULTEIT DER GENEESKUNDE, TEGEN DE BEDENKINGEN DER FACULTEIT IN HET OPENBAAR TE VERDEDIGEN, op Vrijdag den 28 September 1888 des namiddags te 3 uren DOOR RICHARD CONSTANT BOER, GEBOREN TE WARNSVELD.
title page of Boer’s edition of Ǫrvar-Odds saga
Posted in academia, language, Myth & Legend, words | Tagged , | Comments Off on WTF?

Four Dead in Ohio

Posted on May 4, 2023 by JE

May 4, 1970

see the caption
A unit of the National Guard, armed with live ammunition, moves against students protesting the Vietnam war at Kent State University, May 4, 1970.
Four students were murdered that day when the guardsmen fired into the crowd.
Photo and more info on the massacres of students in that terrible spring at The Zinn Education Project.
Posted in academia, history, music, politics | Comments Off on Four Dead in Ohio

Grades Are In…

Posted on April 30, 2023 by JE

and the doctor is out!

Posted in academia, music | Tagged , | Comments Off on Grades Are In…

Early Bloomer

Posted on April 30, 2023 by JE

One of the weirder characters in the saga I’m reading is a guy named Vagn Ákason, a sort of medieval Neoptolemus. He killed 3 men by the time he was 9. When he was 12, he commanded two pirate ships and 120 men. (Jómsvíkinga Saga 22)

I hope he’s fictional. Apparently the blooming marriage of Áka and Þórgunn was fertile ground for the breeding of psychotic child-warriors.

Posted in Myth & Legend | Tagged , | Comments Off on Early Bloomer

Auto Incorrect

Posted on April 29, 2023 by JE

“As a pallette cleanser—”

“Palate.”

“As a pallet cleanser—”

“Palate.”

“As a plate cleanser—”

“Palate. Like, in your mouth.”

“I DO NOT HAVE A PALLET IN MY MOUTH!”

“‘Forget / we ever met.’”

Posted in words, writing | Tagged | Comments Off on Auto Incorrect

Don’t Put an Otch in My Nadder!

Posted on April 29, 2023 by JE

Apparently English notch arises from a word-division error due to the English movable n: it wasn’t originally a notch, it was an otch (cf. French oche “a notch”). So says the AHD and the tyrant OED.

This is analogous to English adder which was originally nadder (from OE nǣdre “snake”), but people misheard a nadder as an adder.

This movable n in English might be more trouble than it’s worth, but it’s probably too late to put a stop to it.

The cover depicts a serpent/lizard beast twisted in multiple rings, biting its own tail.
Keith Henderson’s cover for the 1st edition of Eddison’s The Worm Ouroboros (1922)
Posted in art, books, fantasy, fantasy art, sff, sword-and-sorcery, words | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Don’t Put an Otch in My Nadder!

Pointing Toward the End

Posted on April 29, 2023 by JE

Wearing my grading face (which strongly resembles Mung making the Sign of Mung).

A skeletal figure in a dark cloak makes a mystic gesture; at his feet sleeps a mysterious beast.
Sime’s illustration from Dunsany’s The Gods of Pegāna (1905)
Posted in academia, art, books, dogs, fantasy, fantasy art, Myth & Legend, sff | Tagged | Comments Off on Pointing Toward the End

Viking-Era Marriage

Posted on April 27, 2023 by JE

A pleasingly domestic line in the saga I’m currently reading (which is mostly about war and killing).

Ráðahagr Áka stendr með miklum blóma.
—Jómsvíkinga Saga 17
“Áka stands marriage with great bloom.”

That’s the kind of marriage to have. I hope Þórgunn (his wife) felt the same way about it.

a photo of red roses
image filched from Wikimedia
Posted in books, language, Myth & Legend, words | Comments Off on Viking-Era Marriage

Joans Against the Moon Men

Posted on April 26, 2023 by JE

I misread a student’s handwriting and thought they had written “Prester Joan” (instead of “Prester John”). Now I can’t stop thinking of Prester Joan teaming up with Pope Joan to, I don’t know, conquer the moon or something.

title pages for a recentish pair of chapbooks reprinting Norvell Page's old pulp novellas about Prester John: FLAME WINDS and SONS OF THE BEAR GOD.
Title pages for some Sabre Press chapbooks (circa 2020);
unfortunately I wasn’t able to track down any more info online
about the edition or the artist.

[edited to add]

Ariosto calls Prester John Senapo, from senape “the mustard plant”. So this character in Orlando Furioso comes with his own soundtrack, although I expect most of my students are too young to hear it.

text: "There's only one Abby Road" image: a bottle of mustard with the label altered to read "The Beatles: Mean Mr. Mustard" (Lennon & McCartney) 100% natural"
graphic found here
Posted in academia, art, fantasy, fantasy art, history, Myth & Legend, sword-and-sorcery, words | Tagged | Comments Off on Joans Against the Moon Men