08:00 I jump back into
bed with Lois and we drink our morning tea. We both have bad colds, so we
decide not to take a shower today - we'll leave it till tomorrow when we hope that
we will be a bit better.
We have come to the conclusion that we have matching
colds: his and hers. But there is one big difference: I continue to fall asleep
as soon as my head hits the pillow, while Lois' symptoms are stopping her getting a good night's sleep. We decide to sleep in separate beds tonight, so she can read a little when
she needs to feel sleepy again. Poor Lois !!!!!
10:00 After breakfast, I start reading chapters 35 and 36
of Njal’s saga, which was written down in Old Norse in the 13th century in Iceland, although the actual events date to a much earlier time.
Scilla's U3A Old Norse group is holding its regular meeting tomorrow and this saga
is the group's current project.
Njal's saga, our U3A Old Norse group’s current
project
In chapter 35, Gunnar comes round to Njal's house for a
winter feast. Gunnar and Njals are good friends, but their wives quickly quarrel,
and start a massive feud with each
other.
Bergthora, Njal's wife, tells Hallgerda, Gunnar's wife,
to leave the bench where all the important guests sit, to make way for another woman. Hallgerda gets back at Bergthora
with a few insults: she says that Bergthora has gnarled fingernails and that
her husband is "beardless" (why, I wonder ??).
Bergthora admits these "jibes" - "guilty as charged", she says, but adds that she and her
husband tolerate these "failings" in each other. And she points out to Hallgerda that
when Hallgerda herself had a bearded husband, Thorval, she had him killed. Ouch!
Good one, Bergthora!!!!
Hallgerda and Bergthora's feud begins with a fight over
the seating plan for their two husbands' winter feast - yikes!
The two women are spoiling for a fight. And before long a
bunch of men are going to get killed one by one, all murders plotted by one or other
of the two women - yikes! I predict we’ll soon be looking at a pile of dead
bodies before the feud is done.
The two wives, Hallgerda (left) and
Bergthora,
start a massive feud with each other
a typical pile of dead bodies of the sort often seen during Icelandic feuds
In Chapter 36, it is summer and time for all the men to
gather at the "Thing" (Iceland's parliament), but before Gunnar
leaves, he warns Hallgerda, his wife, not to start any fights with Bergthora in his absence. But
unfortunately, Hallgerda ignores her husband's warning, and the two women’s
feud gets going in earnest.
Bergthora sends Svart, her servant, to the forests to cut
down some wood from a piece of land that the 2 husbands, Njal and Gunnar, own in common.
Hallgerda
learns about Svart’s errand and sends her “morally obnoxious but loyal and faithful
servant” Kol out into the forests to kill Svart because she suspects that he
will take more than his fair share of wood. Kol obeys Hallgerda's orders. He slices
Svart’s head cleanly into two pieces with his axe and comes home.
Kol - a "morally obnoxious but faithful”
servant of Hallgerda
I kind of like Kol's style, though - I have to admit. It may be that he is "morally obnoxious", but he is quite the woodsman, good at cutting all sorts of things, whether it be tree branches or heads. And most of all, his name is very
like my own name, which is nice. So I can relate to him, even though I'm not that much
of a woodsman, to put it mildly. Maybe I can take some course or other, but I'm
not sure about that - the jury is still out on that one.
But sorry – I digress. Back to the plot.
The news of the murder reaches Gunnar and he immediately
informs Njal of the situation. Njal just asks for 12 ounces of silver as
compensation. Money was the answer to everything in those days – just write a
cheque and all is forgiven.
On the same day that Njal rides north to the Thing, an
unemployed workman, Atli, calls at Njal's house. Bergthora agrees to hire him
as a field worker as long as he is happy to do anything for her that she wants,
even it means killing somebody.
Yikes - how many more men will die because of the two
women's feud? And all because of a dumb seating plan !!!! What madness !!!!!
12:00 Lois and I have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and
take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and we relax with a cup of tea
on the sofa.
16:00 We see a bit of television, an amusing sitcom,
"Two Doors Down", all about a bunch of families who live on the same
street in a suburb of Glasgow, an episode we recorded on our YouView unit last
night.
We particularly enjoy this episode because of the massive
generation gap that opens up between the middle-aged Christine and the young
couple Michelle and Alan.
Lois I have a lot of old-fashioned attitudes: we like
wall-to-wall carpets, and we do not like the bare floors that are fashionable
in the younger generation: bare
floors are so uncomfortable for the feet, and they make rooms into big,
unfriendly, echo-y “spaces”, in our
opinion.
Also all young women today prefer backpacks - while Lois
prefers handbags. And we love rhubarb, which we grow in our vegetable garden,
but young people are not interested in rhubarb. My goodness, Lois
and I are really behind the times these days, no doubt about that!
Carpets, handbags and rhubarb - that's Lois and me in a nutshell !!!!
So, it is nice to see all these clashes of attitudes turning
up in this episode. Christine thinks the young couple, Michelle and Alan, are
crazy to get rid of their carpets, and she showcases other old-fashioned attitudes that Lois
and I can relate to. We happen to think Christine's viewpoints are refreshingly honest, but
maybe we are just a bit biased – we’re not sure.
And Lois sympathises with Christine's attitude towards
the modern backpacks that all young women carry. What a madness they are !!!
Go Team Christine! And hail to thee - you kept us out of
war!
18:00 We have dinner and spend the evening listening to the
radio, an interesting programme in the series "Inside Health". The
host of the program is the charming Dr. Mark Porter.
An interesting programme. Lois and I often say that radio
programmes are far more satisfying than television documentaries. There are no
gimmicks and there’s no wasted time, and presenters like Mark Porter get
straight to the point, which is nice.
Dr. Mark Porter gets
straight to the point again, which is
nice.
There was a bit of a “shit storm” the other day, after
the media published photos of famous British tennis player Andy Murray after
his recent hip operation - he has hairy arms, and some people thought he should
have been shaved before the drip was inserted into his arm.
In fact, it is completely unnecessary to shave the arm -
and a little dangerous because shaving can damage the skin and allow infections
to develop. If the doctor or nurse wants a clearer view of the area, it is better to crop
the hair short instead.
In the past, doctors believed that hair was potentially
dirty in some way or other, but nowadays this idea is considered a bit of a
myth. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, it was normal to shave women "down
there" before they gave birth - Lois remembers it well! But nowadays it’s
realised that that was totally unnecessary.
My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!!
22:00 We go to bed (separate beds) - zzzzzzzz !!!!
Danish
translation
08:00 Jeg
hopper tilbage op i sengen til Lois og vi drikker vores morgenté. Vi er begge
to forkølede, så vi beslutter ikke at gå i bad i dag – vi overlader den til i
morgen, når vi håber på, at vi vil have det lidt
bedre.
Vi er kommet til den
konklusion, at vi har tilsvarende forkølelser: hans og hendes. Der er én stor
forskel: jeg fortsætter med at falde i søvn, så snart mit hoved rammer puden,
mens Lois’ symptomer forhindrer hende i at sove tungt. Vi beslutter at sove i
adskilte senge i aften, så hun kan læse lidt for at blive søvnig igen. Stakkels
Lois !!!!!
10:00 Efter morgenmad går
jeg i gang med at læse kapitler 35 og 36 af Njals saga, der blev skrevet på
oldnordisk i det 13.
århundrede i Island. Scillas U3A oldnordiske gruppe holder dens regelmæssige
møde i morgen og denne saga er gruppens nuværende projekt.
Njals saga, vores
U3A oldnordiske gruppes nuværende projekt
I kapitel 35 kommer Gunnar
til Njals hus til en vinterfest. Gunnar og Njals er gode venner, men deres
hustruer bliver hurtigt uvenner og starter en massiv fejde med hinanden.
Bergthora, Njals kone,
fortæller Hallgerda, Gunnars kone, at forlade den bænk, hvor alle de vigtige
gæster sidder. Hallgerd hævner sig ved at fornærme Bergthora: hun siger, at
Bergthora har knudrede fingernegle og at hendes mand er skæg-løs. Bergthora
indrømmer disse beskyldninger, men siger at de tolererer disse fejl i hinanden,
og at da Hallgerd havde en skæget mand, Thorval, fik hun ham dræbt.
De to kvinder ryger i
totterne på hinanden – det ved jeg med sikkerhed! Og snart kommer en række mand
til at blive dræbt en efter en, af agenter af en eller anden af de to kvinder –
yikes! Jeg forudser en bunke af døde kroppe, ingen tvivl om det.
De to hustruer, Hallgerda
(til venstre) og Bergthora,
starter en massiv fejde med hinanden
jeg forudser en
bunke af døde kroppe,
inden de 2 kvinders
fejde slutter – yikes!!
I kapitel 36 er det
sommeren og på tide for alle mændene at samles i ”tinget” (Islands parlament),
men før Gunnar tager til af sted, advarer han Hallgerd, hans kone, om ikke at starte et slagsmål med Bergthora.
Men desværre ignorerer Hallgerda sin mands advarsel.
Bergthora sender Svart, sin
tjenestemand, til skovene for at hugge træ fra et stykke jord, som Njal og
Gunnar deler. Hallgerd får nys om Svarts mission og sender sin moralsk
modbydelige, men loyale og trofase tjenestemand Kol, ud i skovene for at dræbe
Svart, fordi hun mistænker, at Svart vil tage for meget træ. Kol adlyder
Hallgerdas ordrer. Han skærer Svarts hoved i to stykker med sin økse og kommer
hjem.
Kol – ”en moralsk
modbydelige, men trofast tjenestemand”
Jeg kan godt lide Kols stil
– det må jeg indrømme. Det kan være at han er en moralsk modbydelig
tjenestemand, men han er en god skovmand, dygtig til at hugge ting, hvad enten
grene eller hoveder. Og mest af alt ligner hans navn mit navn, hvilket er rart.
Og jeg kan relatere til ham, selvom jeg ikke er en god skovmand, for at sige mildt.
Måske kan jeg tage et eller andet forløb, men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på –
juryen er stadig ude om det.
Men undskyld – det var lidt
af en sidespring. Tilbage til plottet.
Nyhederne af mordet når
Gunnar, og han meddeler Njal situationen
med det samme. Njal beder kun om 12
ounces sølv som kompensation, men han advarer Gunnar også om ikke at lade
Hallgerd "få sin vilje i alt".
Den samme dag Njal rider
nordpå til tinget med sine sønner kommer en hårdmodig mand, Atli, til Njals
hus. Bergthora aftaler at ansætte ham som bonde, så længe han er tilfreds med
at gøre noget som helst for hende, endda inklusive at dræbe en mand.
Yikes – hvor mange flere
mænd vil dø på grund af de to kvinders fejde?!!!!
12:00 Lois og jeg spiser
frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.
Jeg står op kl 15 og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.
16:00 Vi ser lidt fjernsyn,
en morsom sitcom, ”Two Doors Down”, der handler om nogle familier der bor på samme gade i en forstad til byen
Glasgow, et afsnit vi optog på vores YouView-enhed i går aftes.
Dette afsnit nyder vi
specielt på grund af den massive kløft mellem generationer, der åbner sig
mellem den midaldrende Christine og det unge par Michelle og Alan.
Lois har jeg har en masse
gammeldags attituder: vi kan godt lide væg-til-væg gulvtæpper, og vi kan ikke
lide de bare gulve, der er moderigtige i vores døtres generation: så ubekveme
for fødderne, og de gør værelser til store, uvenlige ekkoende pladser, efter
vores meninger.
Også for eksempel foretrækker
alle unge kvinder rygsække – mens Lois foretrækker håndtasker. Og vi elsker
rabarber, som vi for øvrigt dyrker i vores grøntsagshave, men vores døtres
familier er ikke interesseret i rabarber. Du godeste, Lois og jeg er bagud for
vores tider, ingen tvivl om det!
Så derfor er det rart at se
alle denne attituder dukke op i dette afsnit. Christine synes det unge par,
Michelle og Alan, er vanvittig på grund af de fjerner deres gulvtæpper, og
andre gammeldags attituder, som Lois og jeg kan relatere til. Vi synes
Christines ståsteder er forfriskende ærlige, men måske er vi lidt forspændt
Og Lois
sympatiserer med Christines attitude overfor de moderne rygsække, som alle unge
kvinder bærer. Hvor er det for en form for vanvittighed!!!
Kom så,
Christine! Og hyld dig – du holdt os ud af krig!
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bruger aftenen på at lytte til radio, et interessant
program i serien ”Inside Health”. Programmets vært er den charmerende dr Mark
Porter.
Et interessant
program. Lois og jeg siger ofte, at radioprogrammer er langt mere
tilfredsstillende, end tv-dokumentarfilm. Der er ikke nogle gimmicks og ikke
nogen spildt tid, og værter som Mark Porter kommer lige til sagen, hvilket er
rart.
dr Mark Porter komme lige til sagen igen, hvilket er rart.
Det var lidt
af en shitstorm forleden, efter medierne publiserede billeder af den berømte
britiske tennisspiller Andy Murray efter sin nylige hofteoperation – han har
meget hårede arme, og nogle syntes, at han skulle være blevet barberet, inden
kanylen blev stukket ind i armen.
Faktisk er det
fuldstændigt unødvendigt at barbere armen – og lidt farligt, fordi barbering
kan skade huden, og tillade infektioner at udvikle sig. Hvis lægen vil have en
klarere udsigt over området, er det bedre at klippe hårene kort i stedet for.
I fortiden
troede lægere, at hår var potentielt beskidt på en eller anden måde, men nu til
dags er denne idé betragtet som lidt af en myte. I 1960’ern og 1970’erne va det
normalt at barbere kvinder ”dernede” inden de fødte – Lois husker det godt! Men
nu til dags har de indset, at det var totalt unødvendigt.
Du godeste,
sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!!
22:00 Vi går i
seng (adskilte senge) – zzzzzzzz!!!!
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