The Viking Highlands: The Norse Age in the Highlands, by D. Rognvald Kelday

“This then is the speculative political history of the Viking Highlands,” says author Kelday in his Introduction.

The story of the Vikings in Scotland—and in the Celtic areas of Britain and Ireland in general—has intrigued me for a long time. If D. Rognvald Kelday’s formidable book The Viking Highlands – The Norse Age in the Highlands raises awareness of that story, it will have done us a service, in spite of some flaws.

It’s true enough, as most of us know, that the Norse dispossessed many native people, robbed churches and strongholds, and took many slaves. But it’s also true (as Kelday stresses) that the places where Celtic culture and traditions survived, after the Celtic kingdom of Alba was transformed into the Anglicized kingdom of Scotland, were those parts that remained longest under Norse rule. The clans Gunn (Gunnar), McAuliffe (Olaf), McManus (Magnus), McLeod (Ljot) and McDonald (descended from Somerled, a Celto-Norse lord with a Viking name, Somerlidi) all look back to the days of the Norse jarls who ruled under something like the Scandinavian republican system.

But it’s not only Scots who’ll find material of interest here. Continue reading The Viking Highlands: The Norse Age in the Highlands, by D. Rognvald Kelday

Maurice Sendak on His Father’s Stories

Author and artist Maurice Sendak, who narrates his own book in the video below, died today at age 83. In this interview from 2006, he recalls his father telling stories.

[Sendak] says he was greatly influenced by his father, who told the sickly child stories when he was bedridden. They weren’t pretty stories — they were real-life and vividly imagined tales from his father’s life as a boy living in a little Jewish shtetl in Poland. “What I liked about his stories … they were real and true, and he could tell us them without cleaning them up.”

Sendak says he closely identified with children who died in the holocaust, because if his parents hadn’t immigrated to the United States from Poland, he would have been one of those children. “‘I always felt it was a total miracle that I had been born here.” All of his father’s relatives were killed in the Holocaust, Sendak says, and many cousins his own age did not survive,” writes Frank Rizzo of The Courant.

“Most of my important books are threaded with the Holocaust. I try not to make it obvious and bang the drum, but it’s there. My whole life was the Holocaust, unfortunately. And Brundibar seems to be maybe the place where I can stop and bring peace to myself and the subject. It’s the perfect subject: of children who lived through the worst things, who were tough, who sang and then were sent to Auschwitz to die.”

Survivor’s report

I don’t know exactly why it is that the Festival of Nations—four days in nearby St. Paul—somehow manages to be perceptually more exhausting than Høstfest, five days all the way off in Minot. But so it does. I have my theories.

Mostly I blame the venue. Our Viking group is always situated in basement space in the River Centre, all concrete and low of ceiling. It echoes, not only the clamor of voices, but the bellow of the vuvuzela and the shrill chirp of the warble whistle.

(Although I must concede that they moved us to a new spot, far nicer than the one we’ve had for the last few years. Close to the Men’s room, the water fountain, and the food court. Better traffic. I sold a satisfying number of books, except for on Sunday, which always seems to be slow. Perhaps the visitors are observing the Sabbath.)

I have also discovered, since getting home last night, that part of my exhaustion was due to the fact that I was coming down with something nasty. I dragged myself through work today, but I’m not sure about tomorrow.

There were pleasant happenings, however, for me to report. There was one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever met, who brought her two little boys to my table and eagerly asked all kinds of questions, clearly delighting in opening the world to her sons.

There was the man who introduced himself as a native of Jämteland in Sweden, a region that was part of Norway for many centuries. He said his family traced their genealogy back to the kings of Man, which gave me the opportunity to talk about the book about the Vikings in Scotland I was reading.

And the tall, red-haired high school girl who wanted to know about the kings of Denmark, giving me an opportunity to discuss my theories about the centrality of Denmark to all Viking history. Turned out she was an exchange student from Denmark (couldn’t tell from her accent), and descended from the Danish kings.

So I won’t say I didn’t have some fun.

I’ll just say I feel about a decade older.

And now I shall go boil a mustard plaster for my chest.

Like a Sparrow’s Swift Flight

It seems to me this present life, oh king,

compared to all the time we cannot see

is like a sparrow’s swift flight through a hall

where you are seated, feasting with your men

around a fire of a winter’s night:

the wind roars, snow and rain come down outside.

Flying in one door then out another

the sparrow will be safe from the foul weather

for the brief interval it is inside

but in an instant it is gone from sight

into the snow and darkness once again.

The longest human life is brief withal.

As to what comes before or after, we

cannot, with certitude, know anything.

Taken from “Exercises,” a poem by Bill Coyle

Read the whole thing on The New Criterion

Troll Valley reviewed at Land of Caleb

Caleb Land at Land of Caleb reviews Troll Valley.

Simply put, we need many, many more e-books like this one. Walker writes from a distinctly Christian worldview, but is able to avoid so much of the sentimentalist and moralistic errors of the majority of Christian fiction. This is a novel about the law and about grace. This is a novel about forgiveness and justification by faith, and about unmerited favor. That Walker is able to accomplish these things without being preachy and actually telling a compelling story is a testament to his growth as a writer and storyteller.

Why Do Some Stories Work?

Pete Peterson writes about the shape of good stories. “So what makes a story work? … Transformers—didn’t work. District 9—did work. Star Wars—worked. Battle Beyond the Stars—didn’t work. Interview with a Vampire—worked. Twilight—well…I say it didn’t work. It’s harder to play this game with books because books that don’t work quickly fade into obscurity and we never even hear of them, but trust me, for every Gilead there’s another diary-based memoir out there that’s an interminable bore.”

I wasted a couple hours of my life watching Battle Beyond the Stars. I’m sure I saw an edited for TV version, because looking back on it, it looks much worse than the slock I remember. On the other side of the spectrum, I stopped reading Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, because the pacing is just too slow. Don’t look at me that way. I know I’m losing my English major street cred. I’m not happy about it.

Star Wars Summaries in Lego

Star Wars may not be the greatest sci-fi story ever told, but it is a very loud voice in the room. And Legos may not be the best toy ever made–that’s just silly. They are the best toy ever made. And now we have,

“The Fastest and Funniest LEGO Star Wars Story Ever Told”

Today is Star Wars day. May the Fourth be with you.

New Evidence in the Hunt for the Lost Colony

There’s a play performed in North Carolina about an early American colony on Roanoke Island. It tells the story of the attempt to settle an English colony on that island, and their mysterious end. One of their leaders, John White, left the colony to get necessary supplies from England and was unable to return for a few years. When we made it back, the colony was gone. The only sign hinting at where the people went is the curious wreckage of what is believed to be the world’s first aircraft and a toddler being raised by friendly, English-speaking wolves.

Now, Researchers say they have discerned the meaning of a patch to “the ‘Virginea Pars’ map of Virginia and North Carolina” created by explorer John White in the 1580s and owned by the British Museum since 1866… [T]he discovery of the fort symbol offers the first new clue in centuries about what happened to the 95 or so settlers, experts said Thursday. And researchers at the British Museum discovered it because Brent Lane, a member of the board of the First Colony Foundation, asked a seemingly obvious question: What’s under those two patches?”

Festival of Nations, Day One: Report from the front

Made it through the first day of Minnesota’s annual diversity binge, The Festival of Nations in St. Paul. Today was the easiest day—only 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The next three days will be 9:30 to 10:00. If there’s such a thing as Death by Crowd, I may be in danger of it.

Today was the first of the student days, reserved for elementary through high school kids. Tomorrow is also a student day till 4:00, at which point the doors will be thrown open to taxpayers. As in past years, the students exhibited an undiminished enthusiasm for buying vuvuzelas and those little bird-shaped whistles that make warbling sounds. If you suspect that this noise might be irritating, you are correct. Sombreros are also popular souvenirs, though the felt pizza hat seems to be declining in public favor.

The best thing about the festival, so far, is that they moved our exhibit to a spot right next to the Men’s Room and the water fountain. I find that that’s about all I really need in life, at this age.

The great disappointment was a technical problem with our photo printer, which prevented us from taking people’s pictures in Viking garb and selling them the prints. This has been a major earner for us in the past, and I hope we get that straightened out tomorrow.

Ah yes, I sold a few books, too. So I came out ahead for the day, even considering the cost of food in the International Food Court.

Tomorrow I’ll drag home sometime around 11:00 p.m., so I expect I won’t be posting anything.

Hey, Reviewer, Post Your Thoughts.

Several people have reviewed Lars’ latest novel in various avenues, but only one review has been posted to Lulu.com, the main ebook publishing site for the book. If your review is on Amazon, for example, copy it here. Of course, if you have not reviewed the book, but you have read it, please take a few minutes to post your thoughts on Lulu and Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, that MySpace page you haven’t updated since 2004, your wife’s Pinterest boards, and your local newspaper. Need any more ideas?