Monday February 3 2020

A bit of a nothing day for me. I'm all set to upgrade our desktop from Windows 7 to Windows 10, but today Lois has a long to-do list of administrative tasks she has to do on her sect's behalf, so all that has to wait for another day. Damn!

I've written the short talk I’m going to give when Scilla's U3A Old Norse group meets here on Wednesday afternoon, and Lois has checked it out and fixed some grammar errors that I hadn't noticed, but she has nothing to add in terms of content, which is reassuring.

I have agreed with Scilla that I would summarise a chapter at the beginning of each group meeting, and this week I will start by summarising the book's introduction. Unfortunately, Byock's style is a bit turgid and discursive - and so far I have found the book heavy going, to put it mildly. Damn!

Byock's book - and its scary contents page

In my opinion the best part of Byock's introduction is a map of the "Vikings 'North Atlantic World", followed by an excerpt from the so-called "Landnámabók" (literally the “Land Grab Book”), the Old Norse book describing the Vikings' settlement in Iceland – and the excerpt goes as follows:

Wise men report that from Stad in Norway it is a voyage of seven days west to Horn in eastern Iceland, and from Snæfelsnes [in western Iceland]  it is four days' sailing west to Greenland at the point where the sea is narrowest. It is said that if one sails due west from Bergen to Cape Farewell in Greenland, one passes a half day's sailing to the south of Iceland. From Reykjanes in southern Iceland it is five days south to Slyne Head in Ireland, and from Langanes in northern Iceland it is four days northward to Svalbard in the Arctic Sea.

For me, this paragraph brings the whole Viking age to life, a world where such sea voyages were a common routine experience.

It's a bit of a shame that we can't recreate the past and experience it for ourselves. But Lois says I probably would not do well in a Viking ship, and she’s right: I realise I’m a bit of a wimp, a loner too, and something of a morning person, so I would be running out of steam by 2 pm or so, which is no good if you’re pillaging.

I also can't swim, but maybe the majority of Vikings were "in the same boat" when it comes to swimming skills, so we're not quite sure. So the jury is still out on all that. But I have the feeling it’s better it should stay just a fantasy from my point of view - dammit!

flashback to May 2013: we visit a Viking museum in Denmark

and dress up as Vikings (nb the Viking Hall behind me is just a picture:

but the bunch of Vikings behind Lois are real (only joking haha)

12:00 Lunch and afterwards a gigantic afternoon nap. At 4 pm we relax with a cup of tea on the couch.

Afterwards, I sit down with the computer and do some research. 

Scilla's U3A Old Norse group meeting is not my only U3A meeting this week: Lynda's Middle English group will be holding its regular monthly meeting on Friday in the bar of the town’s  Everyman Theatre - and the topic is the so-called "orthoepists", the crazy people who, from the 16th century onwards, tried to systematise and simplify spelling methods in the English language.

Their campaign was doomed to failure in my opinion - people didn't like being told exactly how to spell words. Also, the wide range of accents found in the UK must have been a bit of a problem, to put it mildly. But gradually, through a wholly-natural organic process, and contemporaneously with the development of printing and the popularity of certain dictionaries, spelling methods gradually became a little less and less insane, though they still remain fairly insane, I have to say.

However, the campaigns continued, and Benjamin Franklin, when he lived in London in the 1760’s, came up with his own phonetic alphabet, though, like all the others, it did not catch on.

a paragraph written by Franklin in his own phonetic alphabet

Later in the US Webster's influence led to some changes, for example, words such as centre / center, colour / color, etc., but the results were not very comprehensive to put it mildly.

I understand and sympathise with what these campaigners were trying to achieve, but it has become a bit of an annoyance from my point of view today, because some of my "automatic" spellcheckers follow the British standard and others follow the American. And I tend not to like red lines under my text, so sometimes I'm tempted to fix the "problem" and then have to fix it again when another spellchecker decides it doesn't like what I've written and prefers my earlier version – my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

18:00 Dinner, a re-run of yesterday's: roast pork with mint sauce, roast potatoes and carrots: yum yum!

20:00 We spend the rest of the evening watching some television. Monday night is quiz night with us and we do pretty well tonight - we measure our performance by the standard of the number of correct answers we come up with, which the quiz contestants themselves either can't think of, or get wrong.

Unfortunately, in "Only Connect" we only score 1, but in "University Challenge" we score 7, which is not too bad, considering that we are now in the second round of the quiz - all the lousy teams have now been eliminated, so the whole thing is now becoming much more serious.

Some are our "triumphs" are on "old-crow" questions, I have to admit. 

Questions revolving around Woody Allen's film Hannah and Her Sisters", the insane German Bader Meinhof terrorist gang from the 1960’s, and two old popes: Pius XII from the 1940’s and 1950’s, also John Paul I (the short-lived pope from the 1970’s), though we're not Catholics so bonus points there perhaps haha. All of these phenomena date from a time when tonight's quiz contestants weren't even born, to put it mildly.

But it’s still satisfying nonetheless.

21:00 We continue to watch some television, an interesting documentary about nudity in art over the centuries: paintings of naked people (mostly women) and naked statues (mostly women) and the like. The programme's host is Mary Beard.

An interesting programme, although Lois and I already came to the conclusion many years ago that several of the world's most famous artists, who were mostly men, liked to paint naked women because it gave them a rush of sexual excitement, or at least in part for this reason. And if the artists were gay, they did the same thing with painting naked young men and the like. 

It's not exactly rocket science, we think!

And those who bought the paintings were also men, and they got the same sexual rush from having the paintings on their walls, that’s for sure.

And, no doubt it also approached a form of pornography in many instances, at a time when paintings and statues were the main source of voyeuristic pleasures. And artists obviously always had to find some "excuse" and rationalisation for including nudity, pretending that it was artistically legitimate and not just prurience haha.

Mary does stress this fact a lot tonight. But it’s perhaps something that some art critics do not always acknowledge, so perhaps it is fair enough that Mary repeatedly hammer the point home during this hour-long programme.

Mary, an enthusiastic feminist, is criticised from time to time for demonising men in general. And she does a lot of demonising of men tonight, no doubt about that.

And she has in the past suffered from the attention of male internet trolls who criticise her refusal to dress up glamorously when appearing on television programmes.

And she certainly doesn't make any concessions tonight about dress, makeup, etc. But beware, Mary, the trolls will be out to get you on the internet after this series, I know that for sure! But Lois and I think she's right - it's no use making concessions to trolls, the best thing to do is to ignore them, or better still, don’t bother with twitter and the other social media if you’re a serious presenter.

It’s not exactly rocket science haha!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz !!!!!

Danish translation: mandag den 3. februar 2020

En elendig dag for mit vedkommende. Jeg er helt klar til et opgradere vores desktop fra Windows 7 til Windows 10, men Lois har i dag en lang gøremålsliste af administrative opgaver, hun skal klare på sin sekts vegne, så alt det der må blive en anden dag. Pokkers!

Jeg har skrevet det korte foredrag, jeg skal holde når Scillas U3A oldnordiske gruppe mødes hos os på onsdag eftermiddag, og Lois har tjekket det og rettede nogle grammatikfejl, som jeg ikke havde bemærket, men hun har ikke noget til at tilføje, hvad angår indholdet, hvilket er trøstende.

Jeg har aftalt med Scilla, at jeg ville opsummere et kapitel i begyndelsen af hvert gruppemøde, og denne uge starter jeg med at opsummere bogens indledning.  Desværre er Byocks stil lidt svulstig og diskursiv – og jeg har hidtil fundet bogen besværligt arbejde, for at sige mildt. Pokkers!

Byocks bog – og dens skræmmende indholdsside

Den bedste ting i indledningen er en kort over "vikingernes nordatlantiske verden" og et uddrag fra den såkaldte ”Landnámabók”, den oldnordiske bog, der beskriver vikingernes bosættelse i Island, som følger:

Vismænd rapporterer, at fra Stad i Norge er det en rejse på syv dage vest til Horn i det østlige Island, og fra Snæfelsnes [i det vestlige Island] er det fire dages sejlads vest for Grønland på det punkt, hvor havet er smallest. Det siges, at hvis man sejler på grund vest fra Bergen til Kap Farvel i Grønland, passerer man en halv dags sejlads til det sydlige Island. Fra Reykjanes i det sydlige Island er det fem dage syd til Slyne Head i Irland, og fra Langanes i det nordlige Island er det fire dage nordpå til Svalbard i det arktiske hav.

For mit vedkommende bringer denne paragraf hele vikingetid til liv, en verden, hvor sådanne havrejser var en almindelig rutinemæssige oplevelse.

Det er lidt af en skam, at vi ikke kan genskabe fortiden og opleve den for os selv. Men Lois siger, at jeg ikke ville begå mig godt i et vikingeskib: jeg er lidt af en tøsedreng, også en enspænder også lidt af et morgenmenneske, så jeg ville snart gå i brædderne efter kl 14 eller deromkring.

Også kan jeg ikke svømme, men måske var størstedelen af vikinger ”i samme båd”, hvad angår svømmefærdigheder, så det er vi ikke helt sikre på. Så er juryen stadig ude om alt det der. Men derfor har jeg på fornemmelsen, at det hele skal henstå lidt af en fantasi fra mit synspunkt – pokkers!

tilbageblik til maj 2013: vi besøger et vikingemuseum

og klæder os ud som vikinger (nb den vikingehal bag mig er bare et billede:

men de flokke vikinger bag Lois er reelle haha! (men jeg spøger kun haha)

12:00 Frokost og bagefter en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Kl 16 slapper vi af med en kop te i sofaen.

Bagefter sætter jeg med computeren og gør jeg lidt forskning. Scillas U3A oldnordiske gruppemøde er ikke mit eneste U3A møde denne uge: Lyndas middelengelske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige møde på fredag på baren af byens Everyman-teater – og emnet er de såkaldte ”orthoepister”, der startende fra 1500-tallet prøvede at systematisere og forenkle stavemetoder i det engelske sprog.

Deres kampagne var dømt til fiasko efter min mening – folk kunne ikke lide at blive fortalt præcis hvordan de skulle stave ord. Også må den store vifte af accenter, der findes i Storbritannien have været lidt af et problem, for at sige mildt. Men gradvist, gennem en helt naturlig proces,  og samtidig med udviklingen af trykkerier og popularitæten af visse ordboger blev stavemetoder lidt mindre og mindre sindsyge, selvom de forbliver ganske sindsyge, unødvendigt at sige.

Kampagnerne fortsatte imidlertid, og Benjamin Franklin, da han boede i London i 1760’erne, komme med sit eget fonetiske alfabet, selvom ligesom alle de ander, det slog ikke an.

en paragraf skrevet af Franklin i sit eget fonetiske alfabet

Websters indflydelse førte til nogle forandringer, for eksempel, ord såsom center/centre, color/colour osv, men resultaterne var ikke særlig omfattende for at sige mildt.

Jeg forstår, og sympatiserer med, hvad disse eksperter prøvede at opnå, men det er blevet til lidt af en irritation fra mit synspunkt i dag, fordi nogle af mine "automatiske" spellcheckers følger den britiske standard og andre følger den amerikanske. Og jeg har tendens ikke til at kunne lide røde linjer under min tekst, så nogle gange bliver jeg fristet til at rette problemet og  så måtte rette det igen, når en anden spellchecker beslutter, at den ikke kan lide dét, jeg har skrevet - du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

18:00 Aftensmad, en re-run af gårsdagens: stegte svinekød med mentesovs, stegte kartofler og gulerødder: yum yum!

20:00 Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Mandag aften er quiz-aften hos os og vi begår os temmelig godt i aften – vi måler vores præstation ved standarden af tallet af korrekte svar, vi kommer med, som quizzernes deltagerne enten ikke kan finde på, eller får forkert.

I ”Only Connect” scorer vi desværre kun 1, men i ”University Challenge” scorer vi 7, hvilket ikke er særlig dårligt, i betragtning af, at vi nu er i quizzens 2. omgang – alle de elendige hold er nu blevet elimineret, så det hele nu er ved at blive meget mere alvorligt.

Nogle er vores ”triumfer” var på ”gamle-krage”-spørgsmål, det må jeg indrømme. Spørgsmål der kredsede om Woody Allens film Hannah og hendes søstre", den vanvittige tyske Bader Meinhof terroristbande fra 1960’erne, og to gamle paver: Pius 12. fra 1940’erne og 1950’erne, også Johannes Paul 1. (den kortvarige pave fra 1970’erne), selvom vi ikke er katolikere haha. Alle disse fænomener daterer fra en tid, hvor aftenens quiz-deltagerne ikke var født, for at sige mildt. Men stadig tilfredsstillende imidlertid.

21:00 Vi fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om nøgenhed i kunst gennem århundreder: malerier af nøgne mennesker (for det meste kvinder) og nøgne statuer (for det meste kvinder) og den slags. Programmets vært er Mary Beard.

En interessant program, men Lois og jeg kom til den konklusion for mange år siden, at flere af verdenens berømte kunstnere, der for det meste var mænd, malede nøgne kvinder, i det mindst delvis, fordi det gav dem et jag af seksuel begejstring. Eller hvis kunstnerne var homoseksuelle, gjorde de det samme med at male nøgne unge mænd og den slags. Det er ikke raketvidenskab, synes vi!

Og dem, der købte malerierne, var også mænd, og de fik det samme seksuelle jag af at have malerierne på deres vægge, det ved vi med sikkerhed.

Og uden tvivl nærmede det sig også en form for pornografi i mange tilfælder, i en periode, hvor malerier og statuer var den hovedsagelige kilde af voyeuristiske glæder. Og kunstere måtte åbenbart altid finde en eller anden ”undskyldning” og rationalisering for nøgenheden, for at lade som om, det var kunstnerisk legitimt og ikke bare lystenhed haha.

Men det er noget, som kunstkritikker ikke altid erklærer, så måske er det fair nok, at Mary gentagende gange hamrer punkten hjem i løbet af dette time-lang program.

Mary, en entusiastisk feminist, bliver kritiseres fra tid til anden for at dæmonisere mænd generelt. Og hun gør en masse dæmonisering i aften, ingen tvivl om det.

Og hun har før i tiden lidt af opmærksomhederne af mandlige internet-trolls, der kritiserer hendes afslag på at stadse sig glamourøst op, når hun optræder på tv-programmer.

Og hun gør ingen koncessioner i aften om påklædning, makeup osv. Pas på, Mary, trollene vil være ude efter dig efter denne serie, det ved jeg med sikkerhed! Men Lois og jeg synes, hun har ret i det – det nytter ikke noget at gøre koncessioner overfor trolls, det bedste er at ignorere dem.

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!