Thursday February 6 2020

A slightly worrying day, that starts off poorly, to put it mildly. I get up early at 5am or so, as I usually do, and sit down with the computer to browse my favourite news sites. Lois yells down to me at 8 am that she is awake and wanting a cup of tea.

I come up the stairs into the bedroom with the two cups of tea, put them on our respective night tables, as I usually do. I go to the window and look out a little. Then I sit down on the side of the bed and go to lie down on my back, but suddenly I feel a little out of sorts and dizzy in the head, so dizzy that I can't do it anything about it, however much I try to fight the feeling. And I think I must have fainted for a few seconds.

When I come to, I see Lois lying with a worried facial expression right in front of me – and she's asking me what's wrong with me and says that I had suddenly lain down on my back, stared into the distance, and made a few weird grunting-noises - yikes! Scary!!!!

Lois also had a dizzy attack yesterday, which prevented her from attending a funeral she really wanted to be at, so maybe it's all just some virus or other - she actually felt out of sorts and very tired all day. Let's just hope this is not a sign of my imminent death. But we'll have to see about that haha!

flashback to November 2019: me in happier times,

when I could lay my head down on a pillow without fainting haha!

10:00 As it turns out today, neither one of us feels 100% in fact, and we decide to postpone our usual shower until tomorrow and generally try not to do too much today.

We take a look at the next chapter of Byock's book on medieval Iceland. We are both members of Scilla's U3A Old Norse group, and I have agreed to give a mini-talk at the beginning of each of our regular fortnightly group meetings, summarising some chapter or other of the book.

Byock's book - and its scary content page

On Wednesday at the group's recent meeting, I summarised Byock's introduction to the book, and I intend to summarise chapter 2 during the group's next meeting, the chapter on sources - which doesn't sound very fascinating, but everything about the old Viking society is a bit weird in my opinion, so I decide to take a closer look at the chapter, and not just skip over it as I expect most readers do.

Oddly, the Icelanders had perhaps the world's most complicated set of laws ever - they were obsessed with passing laws to cope with every possible eventuality.

But the Icelandic "state", if you can use the word, did not provide any help or assistance to the citizen who felt that someone had committed a crime against him, although sometimes the local chieftain used to help you out a little bit if he was in a good mood.

The law told you what you might be eligible to receive if you’d been wronged, but it was mostly up to you to “punish” the perpetrator, either by striking a deal with him and getting compensation (ie money) for the crime, or by suing him in front of a jury of neighbours, or by gathering a group of your friends and taking revenge on him somehow. The choice was yours haha!

a typical Icelandic piece of legislation - this one is on horse theft

a typical Icelandic horse thief, pictured here while riding lightning-fast

past a number of Icelandic farms - definitely more than 3 of them haha!

"You're in big trouble now, mister !!!" haha

12:00  After lunch I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. But I am strangely restless and I toss and turn a lot in the bed, occasionally reaching for my smartphone.

Steve, my American brother-in-law, has sent me the url for an interesting article on smithsonianmag.com about William Tell, the Swiss hero. Me and my siblings loved watching Tell’s escapades every week when we were kids, in an exciting TV series, starring Conrad Phillips.

a typical scene from the William Tell television series of the 1950's,

starring the late Conrad Phillips

According to legend, Tell was forced by Gessler, the local Habsburg stooge, to try and shoot an apple off his son's head with a single arrow, which Tell did without difficulty. Gessler congratulates Tell but asks him why he had seen him stick a 2nd arrow in his pants back-pocket. Tell replied that if he had missed the apple and killed his son, he would have shot the second arrow at Gessler, and would not have missed.

A nice story, but apparently it was stolen from the Danes. In a much older history of Denmark, there is an incident involving King Harald Bluetooth, who ruled Denmark from 936 to 987, and a Viking chief named Toko.

One drunken night, Toko boasted that he could do anything with his bow and arrow. "Good," said the king. "I will now place an apple on your little son's head and you will shoot it off." Toko picked up his weapon, asked the boy to look the other way and shot the apple. When the king asked why he had two more arrows hidden inside his vest, Toko replied, "To kill you, your majesty, if I had killed my son."

Bluetooth took the answer as an acceptable one for a Viking and forgot all about it. But Toko was not a man accustomed to forgetting or forgiving, and eventually he joined the young crown prince Sweyn Forkbeard's rebellion against his father. During the battle, Toko came across Bluetooth peeing behind a bush and he shot an arrow straight through the king’s heart.

Harald Bluetooth - took too much time to pee behind a bush:

and Toko was too fast for him.

Poor Harald !!!!!

Good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!! And the moral - not to have  too much to drink before a major battle, just like Lois and I take care not to have too much to drink before a long car ride.

It’s not exactly rocket science is it haha!

The need to pee at short notice "on the job" or in the open air has been a constant theme

of satirists throughout the centuries: see this comic vignette from the Benny Hill Show

(episode "Man Wanted at the Grange", 1981)

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching some television, an interesting new series that goes behind the scenes at the V&A Museum in London.

The series is about those members of the museum staff responsible for repairing and refurbishing old exhibits to make them look top-notch and ready to showcase to the public. This programme is Lois' choice tonight, but I find it unexpectedly fascinating, I have to say.

For me, the reason why program is so fascinating is because we hear a lot about the exhibits' original owners and their lives, which is nice.

The show's star exhibit is a homemade toy elephant named "Pumpie" who was made and "adopted" by a middle-class family - parents, Mr and Mrs Cattley, and their 5 children, who lived in Ealing in the 1900's, which was a small suburb of London.  Pumpie was a much loved little toy, which is why he is in such a bad state today, no doubt about that.

The Cattley children considered Pumpie a member of the family, no doubt about that, and the children photographed him many times in the house. And they always took him with them when they went on holiday for example to the coast and the like – and they photographed him many times on the beach, which is kind of cute.

Pumpie was dressed as a Royal Navy sailor with jacket and shiny buttons at a time when Britain was the world's superpower and Royal Navy warships ruled the 7 seas.

The Cattley family children were all born in Russia, where their father, James, was a British merchant. They moved back to England and their father had a house built in Ealing, where they spent their very happy childhood. None of the children married for some reason - how sad!

Pumpie no longer had a child to care for him and love him, and the last surviving sibling, Maud, donated him to the museum in 1978. Just like "Puff the magic dragon" when Jackie Paper came no more.

Poor Pumpie !!!!

Aren't antique toy elephants totally fascinating? Who would want to study anything else ???

Puff, the magic dragon.

Poor Puff !!!!!!

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

Danish translation: torsdag den 6. februar 2020

En lidt bekymrende dag, der starter dårligt, for at sige mildt. Jeg står tidligt op ved 5-tiden eller deromkring, som jeg plejer, og sætter mig med computeren for at bladre igennem mine yndlings-nyhedswebsteder.  Lois råber ned til mig kl 8, at hun er vågen og har lyst til en kop te.

Jeg kommer op ad trappen på soveværelset med de to kopper te, sætter dem på vores henholdsvisse natborde, som jeg plejer. Jeg går til vinduet og kigger ud lidt. Så sætter jeg mig på sengkanten og begiver mig at lægge mig på ryggen, men pludselig føler jeg mig lidt utilpas og svimmel i hovedet, så svimmel, at jeg kan ikke gøre for det, uanset hvor meget jeg prøver at bekæmpe følelsen. Jeg tror, jeg må have besvimet i nogle sekunder.

Da jeg kommer til mig selv, ser jeg Lois med et bekymret ansigtsudtryk lige foran mig – hun er i gang med at spørge mig, hvad der er galt med mig, og siger at jeg pludselig havde lagt mig på ryggen, begyndt at stirre i det fjerne, og gjorde et par underlige gryntelyde – yikes! Skræmmende!!!!

Lois fik også svimmelanfald i går, hvilket forhindrede hende i at deltage i en begravelse, som hun virkelig havde lyst til at være med til, så måske er det hele en eller anden virus – hun følte sig faktisk dårligt tilpas og meget træt hele dagen.  Lad os bare håbe på, det ikke er et tegn på min overhængende død. Men vi får se haha!

tilbageblik til november 2019: mig i lykkeligere tider,

da jeg kunne lægge hovedet på en pude uden at besvime haha!

10:00 Som det viser sig i dag, er vi faktisk begge to ikke oppe på 100%, og beslutter at udskyde vores sædvanlige brusebad indtil i morgen og prøver generelt ikke at lave for meget.

Vi kigger lidt på det næste kapitel af Byocks bog om det middelalderlige Island. Vi er begge medlemmer af Scillas U3A oldnordiske gruppe, og jeg har aftalt at holde et mini-fordrag i begyndelsen af hvert af vores regelmæssige fjortensdags-gruppemøder, hvor jeg opsummerer et eller andet kapitel i bogen.

Byocks bog – og dens skræmmende indholdsside

I onsdag på gruppens seneste møde opsummerede jeg Byocks indledning til bogen, og jeg har til hensigt at opsummere kapitel 2 under gruppens næste møde, det kapitel, der handler om kilder – hvilket ikke lyder meget fascinerende, men alting om de gamle vikingers samfund er lidt underligt efter min mening, så jeg beslutter at kigge nærmerer på kapitlet og ikke bare at springer det over.

Det er mærkeligt, at islændingene havde måske verdens mest kompliceret sæt af love nogensinde – de var besat af at vedtage love for at klare hver mulig begivenhed.

Men den islandiske ”stat”, hvis man kan bruge ordet, forsynede intet hjælp eller bistand til den borger, der følte, at nogen havde begået en forbrydelse imod ham, selvom nogle gange plejede den lokale høfding at hjælpe dig.

Loven fortalte dig, hvad du måske kunne være berettiget til at modtage, men det var for det meste op til dig at ”straffe” gerningsmanden, enten ved at lave en aftale med ham og får kompensation (dvs penge) for forbrydelsen, eller ved at sagsøge ham foran en jury af naboer, eller ved at samle en gruppe af dine venner og naboer, og tage hævn på ham på en eller anden måde. Valget var din haha!

et typisk islandske stykke lovgivning om hestetyveri

en typisk islandsk hestetyv, afbildet her, mens han rider lynhurtigt

forbi flere islandske gårde – helt sikkert flere, end 3 af dem haha!

"You're in big trouble now, mister!!!" haha

12:00 Efter frokost går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg er mærkeligt rastløs og kaster og vender lidt i sengen og rækker ud af og til efter min smartphone. Steve, min amerikanske svigerbror, har sendt mig url-en til en interessant artikel på smithsonianmag.com om William Tell, den schweiziske helt. Jeg og mine søskende elskede at se Tells eskapader hver uge, da vi  var børn, i en spændende tv-serie, stjernespækket Conrad Phillips.

Ifølge legenden blev Tell tvunget af Gessler, den lokale Habsburg-lakaj, til at prøve at skyde en æble af sin søns hoved med en enkelt pil, hvilket Tell gjorde uden besvær. Gessler gratulerer Tell men spørger ham, hvorfor han havde stukket en 2. pil i sin bukselomme. Tell svarede, at hvis han havde misset æblet og dræt sin søn, ville han havde skudt den 2. pil på Gessler, og ikke ville have misset.

en typisk scene fra William Tell-tvserien fra 1950’erne,

stjernespækket den afdøde Conrad Phillips

En flot historie, men tilsyneladende var den stjålet fra danskerne. I en langt ældre Danmarks historie er der en fortælling, der involverer kong Harald Blåtand, som regerede Danmark fra 936 til 987, og en vikingehøvding ved navn Toko. En beruset aften pralede Toko af, at han kunne gøre noget med sin pil og bue. ”Godt,” sagde kongen. ”Jeg vil nu placere et æble på hovedet på din lille søn, og du vil skyde det af.” Toko tog sit våben op, bad drengen om at se den anden vej og skød af æblet. Da kongen spurgte, hvorfor han havde yderligere to pile inde i sin vest, svarede Toko: "At dræbe dig, din majestæt, hvis jeg havde dræbt min søn."

Blåtand tog svaret som helt normalt for en viking og glemte alt om det. Men Toko var ikke en mand, der var vant til at glemme eller tilgive, og til sidst sluttede han sig med den unge kronprins Sweyn Forkbeard's oprør mod sin far. I løbet af slaget kom han over Bluetooth, der tissede bag en busk og skød en pil gennem sit hjerte.

Harald Blåtand – tog for meget tid til at tisse bag en busk:

og Toko var for hurtig for ham.

Stakkels Harald !!!!!

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!  Og moralen – ikke at få for meget at drikke før et vigtigt slag, ligesom Lois og jeg passer på ikke at få for meget at drikke for meget før en lang bilkørsel.

Det er ikke nøjagtig raketvidenskab haha!

Det, at trænge til at tisse med kort varsel ”på jobbet” eller i det fri, har været et konstant tema

af satyrister gennem århundrederne: se dette komiske vignet fra Benny Hill Show

(”Man Wanted at the Grange”, 1981)

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant ny serie, der går bag scenerne i V&A-museet i London.

Serien handler om de medlemmer af museets personale, der er ansvarlige for at reparere og istandsætte gamle udstillingsgenstande, så de ser toptunet ud, og klar til at fremvise til pubikummet. Programmet er Lois’ valg, men jeg finder der uventet fascinerende, det må jeg nok sige.

For mit vedkommende er programmet så fascinerende, fordi vi hører en masse om udstilingsgenstandenes oprindelige ejere og deres liv, hvilket er rart.

Showets stjerne-udstillingsgenstand er en hjemmelavet legetøjelefant, ved navn ”Pumpie”, der blev "adopteret" af en middelklassefamilie på forældre, hr og fru Cattley,  og deres 5 børn, der boede i 1900’erne i Ealing, en lille forstad til London. Pumpie var en meget elsket lille legetøj, og derfor er han i sådan en dårlig tilstand, ingen tvivl om det.

Børnene betragtede Pumpie som et medlem af familien, ingen tvivl om det, og børnene fotograferede ham mange gang i huset. Og de tog altid ham med, når de gik på ferie for eksempel til kysten og den slags – de fotograferede ham mange gange på stranden, hvilket er nuttet.

Pumpie var klædt ud som en Royal Navy-sømand med jakke og blanke knapper ved en tid, da Storbritannien var verdens supermagt, og Royal Navys krigskibe regerede de 7 have.

Cattley-familiens børn var alle født i Rusland, hvor deres far, James, var en britisk købmand. De flyttede tilbage til England, og deres far fike bygget det hus i Ealing, hvor de tilbragte deres meget lykkelige barndom. Ingem af børnene giftede sig af en eller anden grund – hvor trist! Pumpie havde intet barn længere, der kunne passe på ham og elske ham, og den sidste overlevende søskende, Maud, donerede ham til museet i 1978. Lige som ”Puff den magiske drage”, da Jackie Paper ikke kom mere.

Stakkels Pumpie!!!!

Er antikplyselefanter ikke totalt fascinerende? Hvem ville ønske at studie noget andet???

Puff, den magiske drage. Stakkels Puff !!!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!