Monday, October 29, 2018

09:00 Lois and I get up and after breakfast, we get to work in the vegetable garden and put it to bed for the winter. We take apart our runner bean poles, store the poles away in the shed, and put the left-over plants in one or other of our 4 giant compost containers. I finish weeding in the area, which is satisfying, but unfortunately I have pain in my joints the rest of the day - damn!

Flashback to October 17: I starting to do a little weeding 

in the vegetable garden

Today, I finish weeding the area, but have painful joints 

for the rest of the day - damn!

11:00 We come back into the house - we are freezing! We relax with a cup of coffee on the couch.

I have pain in the joints and decide to spend the rest of the day organising my U3A language projects.

The Danish group I'm leading has begun a 2-3 month break, but some group members want in the meantime to start on our next project, the crime novel "The Further You Fall" by Anna Grue, so I send them the book's first chapter by email, along with the lists of vocabulary entries I have made. I'm so warm-hearted ha ha!

12:00 Lynda's U3A "Making of English" group will be getting together on Friday. The plan is to read the first approx. 200 lines of Barbour's poem "Brus", which was written about 1375 in Scots English. The poem is all about the well-known Scottish hero, "Robert the Bruce", ie Robert the 1st of Scotland, and about the role he played in the Scottish War of Independence.

The most famous quotation from "Brus":

an opinion it's difficult to contradict - that's something I have to admit!

Robert the Bruce is considered to be one of the iconic Scottish heroes, but it's interesting that coincidentally earlier today I saw a news item about him on the BBC website. A new book claims that Robert was actually born in the county of Essex, near London, although his followers later started a myth that he was born in northern Scotland. Good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

I do not know yet if we are going to see examples of Robert's spoken language in Barbour's long poem. The Essex dialect, or the so-called "Estuary English" today is one of the most frowned-upon dialects of the modern English language. If Robert uses the estuary dialect, I would expect him to pronounce the obsolete  word "forsooth" (in truth) as "forsoof", which will be entertaining, no doubt, but it may be that it will damage our respect for the great man to some extent.

Peggy Lee's "Fever" translated into "Estuary-English"

The Peggy Lee song also tells us that "Captain Smith and Pocahontas had a very mad affair. When her daddy tried to kill him, she said, 'Daddy oh don't you dare'."

Although Pocahontas was born and raised in Virginia she spent many of her later years in Essex, England, and is buried at Gravesend. It's just possible that she may have dropped her distinctive Virginia "twang" and gone over to "Estuary" to fit in more with local residents, but the jury's still out on that one.

12:30 Scilla's U3A Old Norse Group will resume meetings on November 7, but Scilla has given members precisely zilch information about where to meet and which chapter of Njál's saga we are going to start with. That is unfortunately quite typical of Scilla - she is lousy at the group's administrative side, as she would be the first to admit. I call her and find out that we are going to meet in the bar of the Everman theatre, and that we will be starting from the 19th chapter of the saga or thereabouts - good grief, she's so vague - what madness !!!!

But it will be very nice to resume the group's activities. Members say they miss the 2-weekly dose of sex and violence that our Old Norse studies provide us with.

I myself have become totally unclear about where the group has got to when it comes to Njal's saga. The group started the project in late January, but soon afterwards Lois and I travelled to Perth, Australia to visit our daughter Sarah and her little family.

I recall that the saga's story takes place in Rangárvellir in southern Iceland approx. year 950-1015, and the early chapters are about 2 brothers, Höskuldr and Hrut.

Hrut, a shy young man, has got tentatively engaged to Unnar, a nice Icelandic girl, and the wedding has been fixed for 2 weeks after midsummer. Then suddenly an unforeseen problem arises - Hrut's brother Eyvind dies unexpectedly in Norway, and Eyvind has willed all his earthly goods to Hrut. The problem is that Hrut's enemies in Norway are trying to steal the legacy.

Hrut, a shy young Icelander, chooses Unnar

from a bunch of Icelandic girls to be his future wife.

The result of this shennanigans (spelling?) is that Hrut must sail to Norway to claim his inheritance, leaving Unnar, his fiancee, in Iceland, and so their wedding has to be postponed for the moment.

It is interesting that Gunnhilda, the Norwegian Queen Mother, who was a well-known cougar, seems to be very keen to find out about Hrut's arrival in Norway - why? Does she know for sure that Hrut is good looking?

She insists anyway that Hrut spend the winter in her castle and she immediately sends one of her servants down to the harbour to invite him and his pal to come to the castle.

When Hrut arrives at Gunnhilda's castle, The Queen Mother gets a massive megacrush on him and carries him up to her bedroom and the rest is history. Yikes - poor Hrut !!!!

when Hrut arrives in Norway, he becomes

Queen Mother Gunnhilda's personal "winter-warmer" - poor Hrut !!!!

12:00 I chat a little to Lois about Gunnhilda's horny nature. We have never personally been invited to a bedroom in Norway, but we recalled that we saw some Viking age beds in Norwegian museums when we spent holidays there in 1970 and 1972. We were surprised at how short the beds were (only 4 foot long). The museum's guide, however, explained that the Vikings used to sleep half-sitting-up, in the event of an enemy bursting in. 

Perhaps that's why Gunnhilda locked the bedroom door from the inside for the two weeks Hrut spent with her, but that's something we're not completely sure about. Good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!

Both Lois and I like the famous picture from the saga where Njal's son Skarp-Heidinn kills Thráinn on what looks like a very large skating rink. We have the feeling that such activities are prohibited, or at least frowned on, at today's ice skating rinks, such as Swindon's famous "Link" centre, but we are not entirely sure. More research is needed here.

Njal's son Sharp-Hein kills Thráinn on what looks like

a very large outdoor Icelandic ice rink: but would such activities be allowed

on today's skating rinks? We are not entirely sure.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television. "Only Connect" and "University Challenge" are on, two of the few TV shows that are not suitable for very stupid people ha ha.

Lois and I are always happy about the questions we ourselves can answer, but which all the fresh young minds have problems with, because we think it proves we are not yet suffering from dementia. Sometimes we get help from the specialist knowledge we got from our daughter, Alison's 6 year residence in Copenhagen.

One question is, "Which 2-letter abbreviation connects (1) the National Broadcasting Corporation whose output includes" Borgen "and" The Killing ", (2) an English translation of the Bible by exiled Roman Catholic scholars, and (3) a title used by those in possession of a particular high degree? "

Lois and I know that it was DR (Danish Radio), that was responsible for "Borgen" and "The Killing", so we have no problems with this one, thank goodness. And Douay-Rheims was the English Catholic bible of 1582, produced by exiled scholars.

Both teams strike out on this one. Go Team Lois and Colin !!!!!

21:30 We go to bed a little earlier than usual, so we can read about 10 pages of our respective bedtime books before we drift off to sleep - zzzzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation

09:00 Lois og jeg står op og efter morgenmad går i gang med at luge lidt i grøntsagshaven og putte den i seng til vinteren. Vi demonterer vores bønnestativer, lagre stængerne i skuret, og sætte de tiloversblevne planter i en eller anden af vores 4 kæmpe-kompostbeholdere. Jeg luger færdigt i området, hvilket er tilfredsstillende, men desværre har jeg ondt i ledene resten af dagen – pokkers!

Tilbageblik til october 17: jeg begynder at luge lidt i grøntsagshaven

I dag luger jeg området færdigt, men har ondt i ledene resten af dagen – pokkers!

11:00 Vi kommer tilbage ind i huset – vi fryser! Vi slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.

Jeg har ondt i ledene, og beslutter at bruge resten af dagen på at organisere mine U3A sprogprojekter.

Den danske gruppe, som jeg leder, er begyndt en 2-3 måneders pause, men nogle gruppemedlemmer har lyst til at starte i mellemtiden på vores næste projekt, den krimiroman ”Dybt at Falde” af Anna Grue, så derfor afsender jeg dem bogens første kapitel via email, sammen med de lister over ordforrådposter, jeg har udfærdiget. Jeg er så generøs ha ha!

12:00 Lyndas U3A ”Making of English” gruppe skal samles på fredag. Planen er at læse de første ca 200 linjer af Barbours digt ”Brus”, der blev skrevet ca. 1375 på skotskengelsk. Digtet handler om den kendte skotske held, ”Robert the Bruce”, dvs Robert 1. af Skotland, og om rollen han spillede i den skotske uafhængighedskrig.

Den mest kendte citation fra ”Brus”:

en mening, det er svært at sige mod – det må jeg indrømme!

Robert er betragtet som en af de ikoniske skotske helde, men det er interessant at jeg tidligere på dagen tilfældigvis så en nyhed om ham på BBC-webstedet. En ny bog påstår, at Robert faktisk var født i grevskabet Essex, der ligger i nærheden af London, selvom hans tilhængere senere startede en myte, at han var født i det nordlige Skotland. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Jeg ved ikke endnu, om vi kommer til at læse eksempler på Roberts talesprog i Barbours lange digt. Essex-dialekten, eller det såkaldte ”Estuary English” i dag er en af de mest foragtede dialekter af det moderne engelske sprog. Hvis Robert bruger dialekten, vil jeg forvente at han for eksempel udtaler ordet ”forsooth” som ”forsoof”, hvilket vil være underholdende, ingen tvivl om det, men det kan være, at det i en vis grad vil skadige lidt vores respekt for den store mand.

Peggy Lees “Fever” oversat til “Estuary-engelsk”

12:30 Scillas U3A oldnordiske gruppe skal genoptage møder den 7. november, men Scilla har givet medlemmer præcis ingen information om hvor vi skal mødes, og hvilken kapitel af Njáls saga, vi skal begynder med. Det der er desværre helt typisk af Scilla – hun er elendig til gruppens administrative side, hvilket hun ville være den første til at indrømme. Jeg ringer til hende og finder ud af, at vi skal mødes på baren af byens Everman-teater, og vi skal starte fra sagaens 19. kapitel eller deromkring – du godeste, hun er så upræcis – sikke et vanvid!!!!

Men det vil være meget rart at genoptage gruppens aktiviter. Medlemmer siger, de savner den 2-ugentlig dosis af sex og vold, som vores oldnordiske studier forsyner os med.

Jeg selv er blevet total uklar over, hvor gruppen er nået til, når det kommer til Njals saga. Gruppen startede projektet sidst i januar, men kort efter rejste Lois og jeg til Perth, Australien for at besøge vores datter Sarah og hendes lille familie.

Jeg mindes om, at sagaens historie foregår i Rangárvellir på det sydlige Island ca. år 950-1015, og de tidlige kapitler handler om 2 brødre, Höskuldr og Hrut.

Hrut, en genert ung mand, er med besvær blevet forlovet med Unnar, en pæn islandsk pige, og bryllupet er blevet bestemt til 2 uger efter midsommer. Så pludselig opstår et uforudset problem – Hruts bror, Eyvind, dør uforventet i Norge, og Eyvind har testamenteret al sit jordiske gods til Hrut. Problemet er, at Hruts fjender i Norge prøver at nappe arven.

Hrut, en genert ung islænding, vælger Unnar

fra en flok af islandske piger som sin kommende kone.

Resultatet er, at Hrut må sejle til Norge for at fordre sin arv, efterlade Unnar, sin forlovede, i Island, og udskyde brylluppet.

Det er interessant, at Gunnhilda, den norske kongemor, der er en velbekendt cougar, virker at være meget ivrig efter at få nys om Hruts ankomst til Norge – hvorfor? Ved hun med sikkerhed, at Hrut er smuk?

Hun insisterer i hvert fald på, at Hrut tilbringer vinteren i hendes slot, og hun sender straks en af sine tjenestefolk ned ad havnen for at invitere ham og hans kammerat til at komme til slottet.

Da Hrut ankommer til Gunnhildas slot, får kongemore en massiv megacrush på ham, og tager ham op på  sit soveværelse, og resten er historie. Yikes – stakkels Hrut!!!!

da Hrut ankommer til Norge, bliver han

kongemor Gunnhildas personlige ”vintervarmer”– stakkels Hrut!!!!

12:00 Jeg snakker lidt med Lois om Gunnhildas liderlighed. Vi har personligt aldrig blevet inviteret på en norske kongemors soveværelset, men vi mindes, at vi så nogle senge fra vikingetiden i norske museer, da vi holdt ferie derover i 1970 og 1972. Vi var dengang overrasket over, hvor korte sengene var (kun 4 fods lange). Museets omviser forklarede imidlertid, at vikingerne plejede at sove halv-siddende, for det tilfælde en fjende braser ind. Måske derfor låste Gunnhilda soveværelsesdøren indefra i de to uger, Hrut tilbragte hos hende, men det er vi ikke helt sikre på. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

Både Lois og jeg kan godt lide det kendte billede fra sagaen, hvor Njals søn Skarp- Heðinn dræber Þráinn på hvad ser ud som en meget stor skøjtebane. Vi tror, at nogle aktiviteter er forbudt på nutidens skøjtebaner, som for eksempel på byen Swindons ”Link”-center, men det er vi ikke helt sikre på. Mere forskning er nødvendig her.

Njals søn Skarp- Heðinn dræber Þráinn på hvad ser ud som

en meget stor islandske skøjtebane: men ville sådanne aktivitere være tilladte

på nutidens skøjtebaner – det er vi ikke helt sikre på.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser ”Only Connect” og ”University Challenge”, to af de få tv-programmer, der ikke er egnede til meget dumme mennesker ha ha.

Lois og jeg er altid glad for de spørgsmål, som vi kan besvare, men som alle de friske unge hjerne har problemer med, fordi vi tror det beviser, at vi ikke endnu lider af demens. Nogle gange hjælper vores specialistiske viden, der stammer fra vores datter Alisons 6-års ophold i København.

Et spørgsmål er, ”Hvilken 2-bogstavsforkortelse forbinder National Broadcasting Corporation, hvis produktion omfatter "Borgen" og "The Killing", en engelsk oversættelse af Bibelen af forviste romersk-katolske lærde og en titel, der anvendes af dem, der besidder en særlig høj bachelorgrad?”

Lois og jeg ved godt, at det var DR (Danske Radio), der var ansvarlig for ”Borgen” og ”The Killing”, så derfor har vi ikke noget problem, gudskelov.

21:30 Vi går i seng lidt tidligere end normalt, så vi kan læse ca 10 sider af vores henholdsvisse sengetidbøger  før vi glider over i søvnen – zzzzzzzz!!!!