Golden Laughter

I did it.

Well, I did a lot better than before anyway.

I always make an effort to like something if I don't like it already. Because you don't know what you might be missing. I did it with pizza, and I will do it again although I don't yet know with what.

It was a struggle over the years, but I got there.

I listened to the beginning of Das Rheingold without laughing.

Alright, I know that must be a bit of an incredible claim. If you thought that, you are right: I got as far as 3'37" without laughing. So I was lying after all. I thought it was pretty good to get that far though!

So Richard Wagner, what were you thinking of? I think I know only too well, but we won't go into that here. I did laugh, but I can't really claim it as a moment of enjoyment. Although I did like the bit in one of his operas where Elmer Fudd is searching for Bwunhilde.

Tangled Web

It gets worse! How can this be?

Because of some of the popular superstitions of the Middle Ages it was believed that the bite of a Tarantula (which is a hairy arachnid) could cause the victim to turn into a Werewolf.
[Wikipedia]

I'm not making this up!

Thunder Echoes

I'm practising Liszt's Tarantella from "Venezia e Napoli", the supplement to the second book of his "Years of Pilgrimage" ("Années de Pèlerinage": Book Two, "Italie"). [Published in 1861, this supplement was written in 1859, mostly as a revision of a version written in 1840]

This fast piece starts with very quiet thundering in the low register of the piano. It's rather ominous or premonitory. It suddenly gets a bit louder, then the thunder disappears and is replaced by sharp, dry music with more accents audible so it sounds faster than the start. The biting accents and madly increasing nervous frenetic energy immediately make me feel as though there is an itching starting - a crazy and uncontrollable itching in every part of my body at the same time. The irritation of poisonous plants, the crawling of invisible insects, all over, most of all where you can't reach! But it's a mad feeling - nothing real could irritate like that.

And all the time while I'm playing this page there's an odd thought in my head. Something is making me think of The Wolfman, the seminal (though not actually the first) 1941 werewolf horror film starring Lon Chaney, Jr. in the title rôle. This is a moving story of a gentle giant who carries a monster inside him. He knows what he is and knows he cannot control it, and will do anything to stop himself harming others. But he can't stop the transformation that comes with the full moon.

The wolfman curse is passed on by a werewolf bite.

I already knew that the tarantella was a dance associated with the bite of the tarantula spider. I looked it up and learned that there were different versions of the association: either the bite sent you into a frenzy (the frenzied dance) or you had to dance the tarantella to cure yourself of the bite. It's supposed to be a hallucinogenic madness that grips the spider's victim. I also learned that in reality there is no danger in the bite of the tarantula. This doesn't explain away the legend though (however it arose).

Next there was a shock for me. It seems that the Latin name for the tarantula is Lycosa Tarantula. It's one of the family Lycosidae - the Wolf Spiders.

What can be the connection here?

The Sound of Thunder

There have been a lot of thunderstorms in London lately. It's summer and the weather is quite hot - though if you don't live in England and you are trying to imagine these hot, stormy days and nights I'm talking about, don't get carried away. This is England, and it's not that hot. Even the weather is reserved here. But I must say that thunder is thunder in any part of the world. There may be bigger storms elsewhere but the sound of thunder seems not quite to belong in this world, and I get this same feeling wherever I hear it.

Language Tip Number One: This Is It

I think I have finally reached 'the point' in this Language Tip. I think I'll just tell you it now. No digressions, stories, thoughts, or other straying from the point. OK.

Mainly, there are two things I want to say about Norwegian. They are both about pronunciation. Firstly, you are speaking Norwegian now, not English (or whatever your first language is). Have you seen the Swedish Chef on the Muppets? (Not so likely now, but you might remember this character from when the Muppets were more popular). At all times you must think of his way of speaking. That's not really a joke; it's important to get into the native pronunciation with all its stresses and pitches, and something has to break you out of your native patterns. I admit that he is a Swedish Chef, not a Norwegian one, but - and this might be too much of a shock, so stop reading now if you are afraid - he is not actually speaking Swedish so I think you get the point!

Many languages use the Roman alphabet that we know best of all as English speakers. But although it looks the same in other languages, it's important to realise that the sounds aren't the same. So in a way, it's a new alphabet. Still, the sounds should be close so don't panic. People will probably understand you all the same, more or less, but we're aiming at the top level of language skill in this tip. The best communication fits into the listener's own patterns perfectly so there is no dissonance between the speaker and the listener. The words fit in so well that the thoughts expressed seem to come from his or her own mind.

The other thing is that in Norwegian the consonants seem to have melted. Bear this in mind too! The words run into each other in a singing way, only pausing on double consonants like 'ff' or 'gg'. There will of course be other things you need to know, but that is the substance of Language Tip Number One!

Lykke til!

Language Tip Number One - Part Three!

The anticipation! Will I finally get to the point in Language Tip Number One? Do you remember the scene at the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? Will Indy get out of the temple to safety? Will he lose his hat (45% of the character)? Well, I might get to the point. I think so. But, you know...what is the point of a story? Is it the events or the telling? Is it the characters or how they interact? You could say this about music: is it the material (melody, harmony, interesting sounds and all that) or is it more important how the material interacts with itself? I know what I think about that, and you should be able to tell my view from what I just said. But there are others who believe more in the surface of things. I may be wrong, but I have this mad idea that there should be something under the surface. I keep looking, although sometimes (often) I am disappointed.

We talked about the culture and ideas behind a language. We talked about why it was worth learning or learning about a language. I tried to say that I think we should all take an interest in other people. I think that is important. Of course, there is another reason to learn a language - to speak! You want to be able to say "Take this muck away and bring me some chips", don't you? Alright, I know you are not like that. You want to sing of the way the setting sun reflects off the fjord in your icy blue eyes. You want to ask the way to the Munch Museum. You want to buy some of that special sweet brown Norwegian cheese. OK - go ahead!

I normally use books in the "Colloquial..." series for learning languages. In the present case, the one I have is "Colloquial Norwegian". So, I can recommend that to you as well as the whole series - it's excellent as far as I have seen (and I've seen a few) and with only a few words of vocabulary gives the impression that you have a good grasp of the language (useful but can be dangerous!). It's necessary to learn four chapters of one of these books to be able to make any kind of fruitful conversation, though useful pleasantries are covered nearer the beginning, so you can make yourself look friendly at least.

It's quite important to get the recordings as well (tapes or CDs) because that's the only way to get the full meaning of the pronunciation explanation at the start of the book. Or you can speak to a native speaker, go to the country, or there are probably some listening resources on the internet. If you are really serious, it's quite good to compare sources, e.g. get the book and CDs for the course you're following, and get another tape as well, maybe one that goes with a simple phrase book. It helps, but this is only for really serious cases!

Finally, we are getting somewhere! But I am not Tolstoy or Pynchon - I've got to keep the word count down so your brain doesn't overheat! See you tomorrow!

Language Tip Number One, Still

I seem to recall we were talking about Norwegian.

I think there are plenty of reasons for finding out about this language, many connected to the interesting Norwegian culture. The three main well-known cultural personalities from Norway, in my view, are the playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), the painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944), and the composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907). So even with only these three names on the list, there is a lot to think about. In addition, there are the great, rich, and evocative Sagas written down in the twelfth or thirteenth centuries A.D. Admittedly, these were written in Old Norse, the ancestor of Icelandic, but clearly there is a big connection in the culture (Old Norse was spoken in Norway at the time anyway), and I think any Scandinavian language is a window to some understanding of the others (they are all rather similar - excluding Finnish, which although it is spoken in a neighbouring country, is not a Germanic language but part of the Finno-Ugrian family). My favourite of the Sagas I know (which is not many!) is the Hávamál, or 'Words of the High One'. This work is a collection of wise sayings of the God Odin (Óðinn*).

[* the letter 'ð' is called eth, and is pronounced the same as the 'th' sound in words like 'the' and 'these'. It is one of three old letters that were still part of the English alphabet as late as 1400 or so. The others are called thorn and yogh. Thorn is another 'th' sound, sometimes the 'th' in 'theory' and 'think', sometimes the same 'th' as the letter eth (in Middle English; in Icelandic, thorn and eth are always differentiated). 'Yogh' is the mystery missing letter for the silent 'gh' in words like 'night' and 'drought': those special words that must make no sense at all to learners of English! There are codes for these characters for use in web pages, but they seem unpredictable so I didn't attempt it and you had better look them up for yourself!]

Back to the Hávamál!

Cherish those near you, never be
The first to break with a friend:
Care eats him who can no longer
Open his heart to another.

That is a good verse, I think. There is another one I should take more notice of:

Foolish is he who frets at night,
And lies awake to worry:
A weary man when morning comes,
He finds all as bad as before.

These verses were quoted from the translation by W. H. Auden and Paul B. Taylor.

So yes, the Norse Sagas! Many reasons to be excited about Scandinavian language and culture. Unfortunately we didn't get any nearer to my tips about Norwegian. Or did we?