(no subject)

[abigailbrady]

covenant ticket arrived today - which is cutting it a bit close. tomorrow gig, then friday up to sheffield for batfink!

started reading the Kalevala (in English translation), which has been kindly lent to me by cyniborg.

this is the Finnish "national epic", which when read in 1911/1912 by a kid called Ronald from the fringes of Birmingham, caused him to say "we've got to get ourselves one of these" and then a few years later to write one, in some cases just lifting things wholesale (compare Túrin with Kullervo.) i started to write a filk about Túrin once, which is not quite of the same level of inspiration, but hey.

Comments

[elfbiter.livejournal.com]

Well, many people who want to read Sagas end up learning Icelandic. And if "mielesi sinun tekevi"... :-)

(At least Foyles used to have good Finnish study books...)

[abigailb.livejournal.com]

What i need to do is find some immediately beautiful poetry in a language that would be actually useful for me to learn: ie chinese, german, or spanish.