In America, this is telephone. In Israel, this is bathroom.

[letterblade]

telepwen visited again. We were planning to see Nemesis, since I haven't seen it yet, but it wasn't playing anywhere; so we mooched around, decided we wanted to see Another Country, but it wasn't at the local store; then, inspired by my recent Alan Rickman lusting, we made the intuitive leap from English schoolboy drama to sci-fi spoofs and rented Galaxy Quest, because I hadn't seen that either, and I'd been wondering what a guy like Alan Rickman was doing in a movie like that. And then, of course, after I'd seen it, it made perfect sense. The man has the voice of a god. And Sigourney Weaver has nice breasts. Damn, that was a fun movie.

(And I forgot the quote I was going to use as a subject until telepwen remembered it for me. My memory is like unto a steel sieve. Things bounce off, things fall through, thought run like water.)

Read some Elder Edda earlier today. Utterly wonderful stuff. Okay, who else, particularly in light of the Lance of Longinus, finds this incredibly brain-exploding?

Odin said:
I know that I hung on a high windy tree
for nine long nights;
pierced by a spear --Odin's pledge--
given myself to myself.
No one can tell about that tree,
from what deep roots it rises.

They brought me no bread, no horn to drink from,
I gazed toward the ground.
Crying aloud, I caught up runes;
finally I fell.

Scarf: five stripes.

Comments

[skalja.livejournal.com]

Where can I find these Norse sagas, do you know?

[aesc.livejournal.com]

The Eddas, both the prose and poetic ones, are pretty well published. I know Oxford Classics has a lovely translation of the Poetic Edda by Carolyne Larrington (not knowing Old Norse, I can't tell you how accurate is, but I do get thrills reading it...) and Everyman Press has one of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda. Most of the Norse sagas are published in one form or another... Penguin has a series of the Icelandic sagas, and I think there's a huge collection of them out there somewhere. So, in short, your local bookstore will most likely have them -- will probably in the mythology section. I found my copy of the Prose Edda at this nifty comics/anime/New Age/wicca shop a couple years ago =)

'The Seeress's Prophecy; does it for me, personally. (goes off to obsess some more)

[wired-lizard.livejournal.com]

*slurps sagas*

That was Patricia Terry's translation, from the University of PA press. Don't know any others--I'm enough of a dabbler that I can't compare translations--but it's quite lovely. Found it and my Prose Edda (along with the Kalevala and many a wonderful collection of Scandinavian folktales) in Borders.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

And in any university town, you'll stand a good chance of being able to pick up translations in the local secondhand bookstore.

Terry's translation of the Elder Edda is pretty good-- does a nice job of preserving the cadences of the original. For the sagas, the Penguin translations are bound to be the easiest to find, and they are reasonably good; as a rule of thumb, though, any translation put out by a university press will probably be more accurate, and have more useful notes. Can't recommend a translation of the Prose Edda, having only ever read it in Old Norse.

I tend to prefer the sagas over the Eddas, but they're both well worth reading.

[telepwen.livejournal.com]

I am officially jealous that you can read Old Norse. I really need to sit and learn more of the languages I want to be able to understand. (I have a great love of linguistics, but I really only speak a language and a half... one would think I'd have fixed that by now...)

[wired-lizard.livejournal.com]

*faints*

*wishes she was cool enough to read things in old Norse*

[skalja.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Will keep that in mind.

Er...nice icon. *g*

[telepwen.livejournal.com]

Just so everyone knows... I went over there looking only slightly abused, and left three times as bruised.

Just for the record.

Other than that, had a blast! Wheee, see you soon...

You should watch Another Country, anyway.

[mctabby.livejournal.com]

Even if it doesn't mention Odin. (Nothing against Odin, he's cool.)

Re: You should watch Another Country, anyway.

[wired-lizard.livejournal.com]

Odin *is* cool. And I do want to watch it, I just have to find it.

Mmmm, boys in ties.