SimonRoyHughes

SimonRoyHughes, 4 hours ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 26. May: Would you consider writing a guide to your work, e.g. for aspiring writers?

I can write a guide right here.

If you want to work like me, you'll need the following:

1. A comfy chair
2. Lots of books
3. Paper and pencils
4. iPad
5. Monomania
6. Language skills
7. Computer skills
8. The promotional acumen of a dried-out grape hiding at the back of the refrigerator

Mix all the ingredients, stir together, and boil for 20 years.

SimonRoyHughes, 5 days ago to folklore

Folktale ending:

“And if you want to know any more, then you can ask grandfather – I expect he knows a lot more than I do!”

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes, 11 days ago to random

(I has ISBNs.)

SimonRoyHughes, 11 days ago to random

I understand this. I can draw Donald Duck's head, but can't for the life of me figure out how to do his body.

On the other hand, if I were king, I wouldn't pay for an unfinished painting.

SimonRoyHughes, 16 days ago to random

Gentlefolk of every stripe, this is it. You don’t get a second opportunity. So, live it well.

SimonRoyHughes, 22 days ago to folklore

#ManOrBear #NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore #Folktale

SimonRoyHughes, 25 days ago to folklore

Norwegian Folktales: Forgotten Variants.

Bloggity blog.

(Sometimes I feel as if all I do is announce plans without publishing anything. That will change, once Asbjørnsen & Moe is released.)

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

https://norwegianfolktales.net/articles/for-my-next-trick-forgotten-variants

SimonRoyHughes, 1 month ago to linguistics

A girl at school felt ill, and had to go home. Of course, we need to establish contact with the family before we release a kid, so I got her to ring home. She rang a contact, showed me the screen on her phone, to let me see who she was ringing, and the word on the screen was one I didn't recognise.

She finished the conversation, and I asked her about the word. Arabic for pappa, she told me (transliterated into the Latin alphabet). So I asked her about the word for mama, and so on. The conversation lasted all of a minute, but it was as if this girl grew a couple of inches -- a teacher was interested in HER background. She left smiling, despite feeling ill.

Arabic is my no means a small language, but it is where I live, and so the same mechanisms this opinion piece describes ("You must change to please us.") are all too often apparent from day to day.

Show a little curiosity, rather. Learn a little from those whose perspactive is different from yours. And above all, respect other people and their backgrounds -- they are as valuable as you think you are.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/24/language-speak-big-slovene-english-german

#language #culture #pluralism #schoolwork #learning

SimonRoyHughes, 1 month ago to folklore

“There is no mention of the devil in the oldest accounts of these women who fare abroad in Holda’s company by night; he was only introduced later. But the whole thing is reminiscent of Odin when the witches are called caped riders. Their intercourse with the devil, and his choice of the one he likes best as witch queen on Walpurgis night is probably associated with the wedding feasts of Odin and Freya, which were celebrated at these times. It is likely that folklore has attached to these wedding dances the idea that the witches dance the snow off Bloksberg on the night of 1st May.”

— Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, 1859.

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklorethursday #WalpurgisNacht

SimonRoyHughes, 1 month ago to folklore Norwegian Bokmål

You can't always get what you want...🎶

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklorethursday

"Swill and scraps and sleep in a sty."

SimonRoyHughes, 1 month ago to random

Today I received a message telling me that a couple of kids were going to be late for school because they had to run away from a moose (Alces alces, usually called an elk in Europe).

SimonRoyHughes, 1 month ago to poetry

“Oh dragon there,
Don’t burn my hair,
Before you try to eat me,
For if the knight
Sees such a fright,
He may not ever save me.”

#poetry #poem #folklore #frivolity

SimonRoyHughes, 1 month ago to random

I'll refollow when they've finished arguing about science fiction...

SimonRoyHughes, 2 months ago to random

It’s #MythologyMonday, and I have time to post. Here is a Finnish folktale that obviously comes from the same sources as the Kalevala. #Blacksmith

“Ilmarinen the Smith Goes Courting”

https://norwegianfolktales.net/folklore/ilmarinen-the-smith-goes-courting

SimonRoyHughes, 2 months ago to random

Get the ingredients ready, for tomorrow is #WaffleDay in Sweden. That it happens also to be the Feast of the #Annunciation is no coincidence; Swedes have difficulty hearing the difference between "våffel" (waffle) and "vårfru" (our lady). So they stuff themselves full of waffles (and at the end of #Lent, too!) in remembrance of Mary's accomplishment of putting the best spin ever on bad news.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_Day

#Våffeldagen #Vårfrudagen

SimonRoyHughes, 2 months ago to folklore

A cat that reaches twenty years old will turn into a witch. A witch that reaches 100 years old will turn back into a cat.

@folklore @norwegianfolktales #Folklore #NorwegianLegends

SimonRoyHughes, 2 months ago to random

The devil once promised to bring a witch an iron rod, so that she could sink during the test; he also kept his word and brought her a rod, but it was a sewing needle. The witch floated on the surface and was burned.

SimonRoyHughes, 2 months ago to folklore

“Don’t worry,” I thought, “it's only a preface; it won’t take more than an evening to translate. Put it off until later.”

It’s later.

The preface is 22 pages long. The language is old-fashioned, the argument is convoluted. It’s taken me a week so far, and I’m still only ⅔ of the way through.

On the other hand, it is one of the most interesting texts I have ever read, documenting the connection between (modern) folkloric witches and their familiars, valkyries, and the goddess Freya. The #folklore, #mythology, and writing communities need to read it.

@folklore @norwegianfolktales #NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends @writingcommunity

A footnote from the text: A German journalist and poet [Julius Hammer] states in truth: “There are no poetic flowers that are so difficult to imitate as folktales and legends. Artificial flowers of this kind betray themselves as soon as they are made, even if they come from the most skilled hand.”

SimonRoyHughes, 2 months ago to random

Oh, hello, shingles. Please be gentle with me.

SimonRoyHughes, 2 months ago to Netflix

‘#Brown could only look forward. “I couldn’t draw from anything because I’ve personally never read a story like #Damsel,” she said.’

Apparently, a lack of reading will land you a #Netflix contract. Good to know.

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/damsel-release-date-photos

(Tip of the hat to @TarkabarkaHolgy for bringing the film to my attention.)

SimonRoyHughes, 3 months ago to random

Master of all he surveys (when the snow stops melting and it stops raining and the temperature rises a little more).

#Caturday

SimonRoyHughes, 3 months ago to random

How long do we tolerate #spam from an instance? If new accounts are still popping up to spam us after a week, I think we are justified in concluding that the instance is #unmoderated (#admins can lock down signups), and #block the whole instance. Or am I being too harsh?

SimonRoyHughes, 3 months ago to folklore

Having another go from a slightly different angle.

#NorwegianFolktales @folklore

SimonRoyHughes, 3 months ago to random

Right now, many of the girls at my school are wearing rouge up towards their temple - above their cheeks, behind their eyes, whatever.

Anyway, they look like they have been slapped across both sides of their faces.

Of course, it would be inadvisable to tell them.

High fashion, indeed!

SimonRoyHughes, 3 months ago to folklore

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, and we were all told to stay at home indefinitely, instead of nurturing sour-dough starter, I translated Sigrid Undset's puppet theatre stage play, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, which I released under a Creative Commons licence in the hope that someone will take the time and trouble to stage it once again.

It has been freely available on Wikimedia ever since, but today I had the bright idea of uploading it to the @internetarchive, too.

Here it is.

https://archive.org/details/east-of-the-sun-and-west-of-the-moon

If you'd rather download it from @wikimediafoundation:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:East_of_the_sun_and_west_of_the_moon.pdf

#NorwegianFolktales @folklore #Folklore #CreativeCommons