“The Poet does not flee from reality; she expands it in her flight.”
— Olaf Bull,
(my translation).
Posts filed in Language
If I decide to say a few words about a topic that could, in some obscure way, be said to be related to language, this’ll be the tag I use. Probably.
The mission
The Dragon Waiting, by John M. Ford
First published in 1983,
this edition (365 pages, Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks) in 2002.
Winner of the World Fantasy Award in 1984.
In Wales, the boy Hywel rescues a wizard, and travels to the City — Byzantium — with him to become his apprentice.
In Byzantine Burgundy, an old imperial family arrives as governors, and their eldest son — Dimitrius [...]
How to interpret a peculiar request
“‘Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed …’
(from Shakespeare’s will)
The bed we loved in was a spinning world
of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas
where we would dive for pearls. My lover’s words
were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses
on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme
to his, now echo, assonance; his [...]
The day I realized how much of a nerd I really am…
… was last weekend, when I and one of my flatmates (who’s a linguistics student) spent a quarter of an hour having fun with the IPA map in general, and the voiced bilabial trill in particular.
But hey, the voiced bilabial trill really is one of the funniest phonems in the world. Alright, the “schwa” and [...]
Slaughterhouse-5, by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaugtherhouse-5, or the Children’s Crusade. A Duty-Dance with Death.
By Kurt Vonnegut.
156 pages, Torstein Bugge Høverstad’s Norwegian translation from 1970.
First published in English in 1969.
How to describe Slaughterhouse-5? Some other random site that had a review of it simply raved on about it being the brilliant ramblings of a madman on LSD, but I feel that [...]
2007-11-15 — Quote of the Day
“Attacking his opponent Disraeli in Parliament, Gladstone remarked that ‘the honourable gentleman will either end on the gallows or die of some loathsome disease.’ To which Gladstone rejoined: ‘That depends on whether I embrace the honourable gentleman’s principles or his mistresses.’”
— An example of a witty repartee,
A Glossary of Literary Terms.
2007-11-13 — Quote of the Day
“It was in midsummer, when the alchemy of nature transmutes the sylvan landscape to one vivid and almost homogenous mass of green; when the senses are well-nigh intoxicated with the surging seas of moist verdure and the subtly indefinable odors of the soil and the vegetation. In such surroundings the mind loses its perspective; time [...]
2007-11-06 — Quote of the Day (or, Bloody Homosexuals)
“The remarkable unity of culture of the later Roman Empire is seen most clearly in its art and architechture. Roman temples and theatres, Roman baths and aqueducts did not differ greatly from Spain to Asia Minor. Roman villas with their gay floor mosaics were almost interchangeable from Britain to Syria.”
— H.G. Koeningsberger,
Medieval Europe 400-1500, [...]
Norske språklyder
Jeg kan hverken fatte eller begripe at Gudene har sett med slik velvilje på meg, og latt noen skape dette fantastiske programmet, utelukkende for min convenience. Jeg føler meg som universets navle. Eller, navler er egentlig ikke så jævla tøffe. La oss gå for øyesten.
Ja, øyesten høres bedre ut. (Ikke dermed sagt at det er [...]
Deadwood, season 1
Incredible.
At times I thought it lacked a bit more obvious season plot arc, and I’d liked to see Bullock being more active, rather than just reactive, but those are just about the only objections I have to the show.
Amazing setting, mindblowing characters, spiffy dialogue, and a delightfully rancid humour. One of the best shows I’ve [...]
Bragging…
Is a thing commonly approved of in our current culture. But seeing as Ithink most of our current culture is crap, here’s what my English professor had to say about the first obigatory activity I handed in a couple of weeks ago:
“Hi, Terje–
This is VERY nicely done! While there are a few slips here and [...]
Love In Rainbows
It’s been over four years. There have been times when I’ve almost given up hope. But on Monday, all my prayers (well, at least some of them) were answered.
Too bad I won’t get my hands on the physical record before some time late in December, but at least the digital version’ll be avaliable in five [...]
Ullr, the onion of war!
From Wikipedia’s kenning article:
Bárum Ullr, of alla
ímunlauks, á hauka
fjöllum Fyrisvalla
fræ Hákonar ævi;
nú hefr fólkstríðir Fróða
fáglýjaðra þýja
meldr í móður holdi
mellu dolgs of folginn
Simply based on meaning, i.e. without kennings, the passage runs: “Accursed King Harald! We carried gold in our arms during all of Hakon’s life; now the enemy of the people has hidden gold in [...]
Gudenes Fall
Gudenes Fall, by Cornelius Jakhelln.
2007, 428 pages.
Now, this might be a little weird. Gudenes Fall (The Fall of the Gods) is a book that most likely never will be translated into English, and yet, I choose to review it in English. But hey, my English is still worse than my Norwegian.
In the year 1000 AD, [...]
Movies Galore: A Summary
It’s nearly two months since my last movie review — a review, I might add, where I was unreasonably hard on the reviewed movie, as the fact that I’m in a foul mood shouldn’t really count against it. Anyway, since then I’ve watched a lot of movies: excellent movies, great movies, good movies, mediocre movies, [...]
Seventh term of higher education — what’s up?
So. I’ve been attending NTNU for over three years now, and thus I ought to have completed at least one degree. But, as has been reported here before, no such luck. Or, rather, no such skill, as this has more to do with my laziness, really.
However, I was still supposed to have finished my bachelor [...]
2007-07-31 — Quote of the Day (This one goes out to my man Loki! ;D)
Di findes, der fnyser af klæ’er å overfladisk pynt, der synes d’er spilt tid og anstrængelse, æd ville tæ’ sig gåd od for ændre. Enkelte hevder sogar, æd de æd forskønne sid ytre peger på betænkelie personlihedstræk som forfænglihed, hovmod, fælskhed. Di ved ige vor fejl di tæ’r; som om loslid eller smægløs bekledning sko’ [...]
Romeo + Juliet
For long periods of my life, I’ve nurtured a completely irrational dislike for the actor Leonardo di Caprio, a dislike probably rooted in my background as a male kid in the late 90s, when “Leo” was the dream boy of every girl, and the envy of every boy. And, as is so very often the [...]
Mellom Slagene
Grufullt lite foredrag jeg holdt på museet i kveld. Et språklig togkrasj, siden jeg skrev førsteutkastet på riksmål, før jeg plutselig innså at syntaksen min når jeg snakker er mer nynorsk, hvorpå et kaotisk og halvhjertet forsøk på å tilpasse stilen muntlig framføring oppsto.
Som sagt, språket er katastrofe, innholdet noe bedre. Poster foreløpig tekst, så [...]
“Gaid”
I’ve finally taken my language-related snobbishness out into the open, primarily because the local newspaper recently titled me as “gaid” — a horrendous norwegianification of the English word “guide”, and an unnecessary one too, as we have the perfectly servicable synonym “omviser”.
So, it might be that the Norwegian Council of Language has given the go-ahead [...]
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