John Chadwell of Skjaldborg lectures on Viking combat.

I’m happy to report that, to the best of my knowledge, I made it to Elk Horn, Iowa for the Tivoli Fest and returned undamaged. That also goes for Mrs. Hermanson, my Chevy Tracker. The town of Elk Horn is located in southwest Iowa, and hasn’t moved any closer since the last time I was there (I checked), but I made it.

The Tivoli Fest, like so many celebrations this past weekend, was marred by the Bergen-like weather we’ve been having on the Great Plains. But the rain held off most of Saturday, which is the main day. I sold and signed books in the Danish Windmill Museum gift shop for about an hour and a half, and then retired to the Viking encampment (pretty small this year, alas) where most of the other Vikings (the Skjaldborg group) put on a combat show (pictured above).

Friday and Saturday nights I stayed in a nearby town with Ian and Buffy Barrs and their family. The Barrs are L’Abri people, and we sat up until 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning having one of those long, discursive conversations one associates with one’s college years (considerably more recent for them than for me). It was an experience of discovering sudden good friends of the sort that happens all too rarely in life. I’m richer for it. Saturday night we cut it off merely at midnight.

Saturday brought more rain and fewer visitors, but I actually sold more books, putting in all my time at the museum gift shop.

On the way home I spent Sunday night at my brother’s house in northeast Iowa.

Thanks to everyone who invited me and extended themselves for me (particularly Lisa Steen Riggs of the Windmill Museum). And to anyone who prayed for Mrs. Hermanson to hold up.

I love these book covers for John le Carre’s novels. They sell the books well.

We usually talk about pornography, if we talk at all, this way: “To be honest, I thought my addiction would go away with marriage, thought I had been prepared for the strong pull of lust and pornography by a four-month fast from my personal computer…” (That’s just part one of a three part take on porn’s destruction of a marriage.)

But we should also talk about it this way: “A growing body of evidence suggests that pornography fuels demand for prostitutes—and therefore, human sex trafficking victims, who often end up ensnared in both trades.” Not only that, many people making this stuff are in bondage themselves, forced to continue being exploited by all manner of manipulation while inspiring the exploitation of others.

Of course, this is all free speech, isn’t it? We are all just a bunch of healthy libertines, aren’t we, entertaining ourselves like intelligent adults, shunning the poisonous ideas of morals, shame, interdependence, selflessness, personhood, encouragement, hope, and most of all, love?

Tivoli Fest, 2009.

I expect I’ll be posting tomorrow, but I’ll just mention here that I’ll be on the road and incommunicado on Friday. Once again it’s time for the Tivoli Fest in Elk Horn, Iowa, and I’m planning to drive down.

Hadn’t actually planned to. Nobody else in my Viking group is able to go this year, which means nobody’s going down from here with a vehicle large enough to carry a tent for me (Mrs. Hermanson, my ancient Chevy Tracker, doesn’t have the capacity). But I had a special invitation from a festival honcho, and felt guilty about it. Then I learned from a friend who lives in the area that he and his wife would be happy to put me up, so it seemed the thing to do. Assuming Mrs. Hermanson makes the trip, an increasingly questionable proposition at her age.

If you’re in the area, stop in. If you don’t find me in the Viking encampment, or in the Danish Windmill Museum gift shop, I’ll probably be sitting in an auto repair shop somewhere in Iowa.

Norwegian children in exile, celebrating Syttende Mai in London in 1942. Photo: Ole Friele Backer (1907—1947)

I should probably warn you that I won’t be posting tomorrow, as my Sons of Norway lodge is hosting a Constitution Day (Syttende Mai) celebration tomorrow (6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Danish American Center in Minneapolis, if you’re in the area) and I have to be there to lend a hand. I’ll be delivering a lecture on the holiday, which I’ll spare you just now.

My brother posted this link on Facebook today. It’s from a recent news story on a Twin Cities TV station about the sheriff of my home town, where goodness abounds and the writ of Original Sin runs not.

You are interested in this story because it’ll give you some idea of the site of one of your favorite novels, Troll Valley. Which appears to be enjoying a better sales rank than Hailstone Mountain right now, for reasons that pass my comprehension.

Have a good weekend!

Joel Miller writes about how we guard ourselves from all kinds of failure, even in our walk with Christ, but that won’t mature our faith. Referring to Patrick Henry Reardon’s comments on the publican and the Pharisee, he notes, “His point was that our failures do not keep us from heaven. Only our pride can do that.”

A couple videos for you tonight.

First of all, somebody in a P.G. Wodehouse fan group on Facebook embedded this, the only known surviving episode of the Ian Carmichael/Dennis Price BBC series on Jeeves and Wooster.

Some of you people as old as I am may recall Carmichael as an inspired (though slightly overaged) Lord Peter Wimsey back in the ’70s. Since Lord Peter and Bunter are pretty much interchangeable with Bertie and Jeeves, he’s naturally perfect in this role (no disrespect to Hugh Laurie, who was great in another way).

But Dennis Price as Jeeves disappoints me (I haven’t watched it all yet). He lacks the imposing figure I expect (perhaps I was just spoiled by Stephen Fry).

And here, below — thanks to Floyd at Threedonia — is the trailer for the upcoming Odd Thomas movie. From what I see here, I like it. The kid playing Odd seems to have the right attitude.