09:00 Lois and I get up. After breakfast, I sit myself
down in front of my laptop and study the 800-year-old poem,
"Alysoun", which Lynda, our local U3A "Making of English"
group leader, has assigned to me to read aloud, translate into modern English
and talk about, at the group's next monthly meeting, which will take place on
Friday in the bar of the town's Everyman Theater.
This medieval poem was preserved by chance, like many
other such poems. It's an early love poem that the author wrote about a woman,
Alysoun, whom he has fallen in love with. The feelings the poet writes about
are timeless and they seem totally sincere, heartfelt and passionate. He would
have been very surprised if he knew that his poem was still being read 800
years later - I'm sure about that.
I get going with investigating the interesting words.
After having praised the woman's hair, eyebrows, eyes, neck and waist to the
skies, the author called her the most beautiful girl in town ("fyrest may
in toune"), he ends the poem with a 2-line bombshell:
Geynes under gore (= fairest under the
skirt)
Herkne to my roun. (= listen to my song).
Apparently, skirts for women were the big new thing in
the 13th century. The middle English word "gore" meant anything that
had a triangular shape, originally, for example a triangular field or a
triangular piece of chain mail, later a triangular piece of fabric in a
garment. Breasts were often exposed in those times and narrow waists were
fashionable: the poet's love had a narrow waist. The bottom of the skirts,
however, were wide, so maybe that's why they were called a "gore"
(because slightly triangular) - but I'm not entirely sure about that.
The poet calls his poem "my roun" ('my song' in
modern English). That word "roun" is related to the modern English
word "rune", which originally meant a "magic symbol", but
also a quasi-alphabetical letter of the type found all across northern Europe.
Runes were adapted from contact in the 2nd century with the Greek alphabet,
with letters modified to make them easier to carve into wood or stone, which
sounds sensible.
Writing had a magical aura in those distant times. But
nobody is absolutely sure if the word's "magic" meaning was the
original, or was secondary - that's something the jury is still out on.
The Middle English word "roun" died out in
England in the mid 15th century. The word was reintroduced into the language in
the form of "rune" in the 19th century after German philologists
began studying runes especially in Scandinavia.
My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!
Flashback to May 2013: Lois and I
visit the
Viking fortress at Trelleborg, Denmark,
which dates back to the year 980,
and we see the fortress's famous runestone
Lois in the reconstructed Viking village
Lois dressed like a Viking maiden in the
fortress's little museum
Happy Days!
13:00 Lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge
afternoon nap. I get up at 3 o'clock and continue studying my Middle English
poem. I'm also starting to look for a suitable Danish crime novella to be our
next U3A Danish group's next project. It would have to be an e-book again, no
doubt about that. It costs a fortune to order printed books by mail from
Denmark - yikes, what madness!
18:30 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening
watching television. The third episode of "Dicte" s new season is on,
first broadcast on Friday on the More4 channel.
The series is about a crime reporter in Aarhus, Dicte
Svendsen (played by Iben Hjejle). She is close friends with one of the female
detectives in the city's police station and she uses her contacts to
investigate various crimes simultaneously with the official police
investigations: and she has a habit of finding the murderer before the police
do (copyright Arthur Conan Doyle ha ha).
Each episode is very entertaining and engaging, although
many of the plot details are a little hard to believe. It is strange how easy
she finds it to get into official buildings without being checked by security
staff, and even getting into private houses - yikes.
And what has happened to patient confidentiality? Are the
patient's notes and other information not confidential? Dikte bursts into the
local psychiatric hospital's canteen and puts personal questions about patients
to the head of the department, who is sitting there eating his lunch. And he
has no inhibitions about revealing a bunch of details about his patients' lives
and case notes.
Good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!!
Lois and I notice that more and more familiar faces are
turning up each week in the series's cast: actors' faces we've seen before in
other Danish TV shows. But Denmark is a small country, with a relatively small
entertainment industry, so this is quite understandable. I am absolutely sure
that American television or movie viewers who watch British programs and movies
must be sick and tired of seeing for example Judi Dench or Emma Thompson
turning up again and again. What madness !!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz !!!!
Danish translation
09:00 Lois og jeg står op. Efter morgenmad sætter jeg mig foran min bærebare
og studere den 800 år gamle digt, ”Alysoun”, som Lynda, vores lokal U3A ”Making
of English” gruppes leder, har tildelt mig at læse op, oversætte til moderne
engelsk og tale om i gruppens næste månedlige møde, der finder sted på fredag
på baren af byens Everyman-teater.
Dette
middelengelske digt blev bevaret tilfældigvis, som mange andre sådanne digte.
Det er et tidligt kærlighedsdigt, som forfatteren har
skrevet om en kvinde, Alysoun, som han er blevet forelsket i. Følelserne
digteren skriver om, er tidløse, og de virker helt varmfølte, inderlige og
passionerede. Han ville have været meget overrasket, hvis han vidste, at hans
digt blev stadig læst 800 år senere – det er jeg helt sikker på.
Jeg går i gang med at
undersøge de interessante ord. Forfatteren, efter at have rost kvindens hår,
øjenbryn, øjne, nakke, og talje til
skyerne, og kaldet hende for den smukkeste pige i byen (”fyrest may in toune”)
ender han digtet med et 2-linjes tordenslag:
Geynes under gore (= fairest under the skirt)
Herkne to my roun. (= listen to my song).
Tilsyneladende
var nederdele til kvinder den store nye ting i det 13. århundrede. Det middelengelske ord ”gore” betød noget
som helst, der havde en trekantet form, oprindeligt for eksempel en trekantet
mark eller et trekantet stykke ringbrynje, senere et trekantet stykke stof i en
beklædningsgenstand. Bryster var dengang ofte blottede, og smalle taljer var
moderigtige: digterens forelskede havde en smal talje. Men nederdelenes bunde
var brede, så måske derfor blev de kaldet ”gore” (fordi lidt trekantede) – men
det er jeg ikke helt sikker på.
Digteren
kalder sit digt ”my roun” (min sang på moderne engelsk). Detter ord ”roun” er
beslægtet til det moderne engelske ord ”rune”, der oprindeligt betød både et
eller andet ”magisk tegn”, men også et kvasi-alfabetisk bogstav af typen fundet
over hele Nord-europa. Runer blev adapteret fra kontakt i den 2. århundrede med
den græske alfabet, med bogstaver modificerede, så man ville have nemmere ved
at indskære dem i træ eller sten, hvilket lyder fornuftigt.
Skriving havde
en magisk aura i de der fjerne tider. Men ingen er helt sikker på, om ordets
”magiske” betydning var den oprindelige, eller var sekondær – det er juryen
stadig ude om.
Det
middelengelske ord ”roun” døde ud i midten af det 15. århundrede i England. Ordet i form af ”rune” blev genintroduceret i
sproget i det 19. århundrede efter tyske filologer begyndte at studere runer
især i Skandinavien.
Du godeste,
sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!
tilbageblik til maj 2013: Lois og jeg besøger
vikingeborgen
Trelleborg, Danmark, der daterer til år 980,
og
ser borgens berømte runesten
Lois i den
rekonstruerede vikingelandsby
Lois
klædt ud som en vikingepige i borgens lille museum
-
lykkelige dage!
13:00 Frokost
og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op
kl 15 og fortsætter med at studere mit middelengelske digt. Jeg begynder også
at lede efter en passende danske kriminovelle, som kan være vores U3A danske
gruppes næste projekt. Det vil måtte være en e-bog igen, ingen tvivl om det.
Det koster en formue at bestille printede bøger med post fra Danmark – yikes,
sikke et vanvid!
18:30 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser
det tredje afsnit af ”Dicte”s nye sæson, der først blev sendt i fredags på
More4-kanalen.
Serien handler
om en aarhusianske kriminelreporter, der hedder Dicte Svendsen (spillet af Iben
Hjejle). Hun er tætte venner med en af de kvindelige detektiver i byens
politistation og bruger sine kontakter for at undersøge forskellige
forbrydelser, samtidig med de officielle politiefterforskninger: og hun har for
vane at finde gerningsmanden før politiet gør det (copyright Arthur Conan Doyle
ha ha).
Hvert afsnit
er meget underholdende og begejstrende, selvom mange af plottets detaljer er
lidt svært at tro. Det er underligt, hvor nemt hun har det ved at træde ind i
officielle bygninger uden at blive tjekket af sikkerhedspersonale, også ved at
træde ind i private huse – yikes.
Og hvor blev
patienters fortrolighed af? Er patienternes
journaler og andre oplysninger ikke fortrolige? Dikte braser ind i det
lokale psykiatriske hospitals restaurant og stille personlige spørgsmål om
patienter til afdelingens chef, der
sidder og spiser sin frokost. Han har ikke nogle hæmninger om at afsløre mange
detaljerne af sine patienters liv og journaler.
Du godeste,
sikke et skør verden vi lever i !!!!
Lois og jeg
bemærker, at mere og mere kendte ansigter hvert uge dykker op i seriens cast:
ansigter vi har set før i andre danske tv-serier. Men Danmark er et lille land,
med en forholdsvis lille underholdningsbranche, så dette er helt forståeligt.
Jeg er helt sikker på, at amerikanske tv-seere eller filmseere, der ser
britiske programmer og film, må være blevet godt trætte af at se eksempelvis
Judi Dench eller Emma Thompson dykker op gang på gang. Sikke et vanvid!!!
22:00 Vi går i
seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!
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