Sorry about not posting earlier. I was in Tech Support Purgatory in regard to my antivirus program. Because it’s late, I’ll just give you this picture to enjoy, of the battle reenactment on Saturday. I’m the one in the white tunic, meditating on man’s inhumanity to man, and whether there’s any loot to be had.
(Thanks to Mrs. Lais for the picture.)
And what to do about restlessness in humanist terms. In biblical terms, this answer is incomplete, but it’s still good.
It was a strenuous, exhausting, yet enjoyable weekend. It’s going to be a fairly strenuous week too, by my standards. I have to prepare for my departure for Minot (the Høstfest Scandinavian festival, if you’re a new reader) on Monday. On Thursday I have to help the guys load a van for that event, and on Saturday I help a friend move.
(By the way, Phil will be gone next week too. Both of us will try to post as opportunities present themselves, but frequency will be down.)
Another Viking and I drove down to New Ulm on Saturday evening. The weather was unseasonably warm, and remained that way through the event. We were given a room in an old hotel which is now operating as a sort of arts center. As latecomers, we had to take a room on the third floor, where the air conditioner’s writ did not run, but opening a window helped a little. We slept on army cots, and I actually slept pretty well, since I’d prudently stayed up late the night before in order to give myself a sleep deficit.
There was a shower downstairs, and I (up early) was the first to snag it after the Roman who’d been sleeping in the room got up and went to breakfast. The shower, as it turned out, was cold. I endured it like a Cherusci (that was my tribe).
Afterwards, the Roman informed me (with a smile) that the shower did have hot water—“Just not for the first guy.”
And they wonder why everybody wants to massacre them. Continue reading My weekend as an honorary German
Here’s a YouTube video of our battle this weekend. I’m in the main section of the barbarian army, the one that comes up from the mid-left with Arminius himself, but I was standing on the opposite side, so it’s pretty hard to make me out. I think I caught a glimpse of me once. I was wearing a white tunic.
The clip is almost ten minutes long.
Delancey Place has an excerpt from Empires of the Silk Road about vikings in Constantinople.
Perhaps I missed the announcement. I just learned Andrew Breitbart has launched a new website, Big Government, edited by Mike Flynn. They are still talking about ACORN, of course. I hope that organization is thoroughly prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney General and A.G. in various states.
The Bavarian King Ludwig II wanted a little place of his own to get away, so he remodeled this old place.
Tonight, no proper post. Just an apology, because I don’t have time to post. Tomorrow I probably won’t write anything, because I’m leaving after work for the great reenactment of the Battle of Teutoberg Forest in New Ulm, which I told you about a few weeks back. That means that on top of my usual Thursday night bill paying, I have to wash clothes.
On top of that, I lost my computer connection for a while. When I finally gave up trying to re-set the modem I called Earthlink customer service, and precisely the same thing happened as happened the last two times I called (for the same reason, by the way). Before I could reach my faithful Indian helper, the connection came back, all on its own. This time it happened before I’d even gotten properly into voice mail. I believe they must have set things up so that an extra-strong signal gets transmitted to your modem when you call in, an automatic fix for the majority of callers. I call that a good thing, too. Saves time and stressful human interaction.
See you Monday.
Cause nothin’ lasts forever . . . The End: By Matt Zoller Seitz and Richard Seitz
The piece on the philology of folk tales that I linked to this morning reminded me of my reading of Norwegian fairy tales (called “eventyr,” which means “adventure,” more or less). A pair of Norwegians named Asbjørnsen and Moe, disciples of the Grimms, compiled the most famous collection. The familiar English translation is George Dasent’s East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon, but I don’t recommend it. It’s not a particularly good translation, and has a very Victorian flavor. This one is better.
My favorite eventyr is “The Twelve Wild Ducks,” which (in line with the interrelations of stories mentioned in that piece below) is clearly (to me at least) a cousin to “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” This is especially apparent at the beginning. However, it’s far longer and more convoluted than the Grimms’ German tale that we all grew up with. It also bears interesting similarities to the classical story of Cupid and Psyche, which means Snow White and Psyche are related at only one remove. I find that intriguing. Continue reading “The Twelve Wild Ducks”