Teresa,
Not only does the ICMS in Kalamazoo have the most amazing dealer's room ever but Saturday night always ends with a session by the astonishing scholars of the Pseudo Society--this year's schedule as follows...
Session title: Aweless among Ablative Absolutions
Sponsor: Societas Fontibus Historiae Medii Aevi
Inveniendis, vulgo dicta, “The Pseudo
Society”
Organizer: Richard R. Ring, Univ. of Kansas
Presider: Richard R. Ring
The Sentinel’s Tale: A Chaucerian Forgery by a Post-
Post-Chaucerian Forger
Phillip C. Adamo, Augsburg College
The Passions of Thomas Becket
John D. Hosler, Morgan State Univ.
Climaticism, Dubiotics, and the Ecole de Miami:
Grundlagen for Prolegomena to Literary Studies
in the Twenty-First Century
William Calin, Univ. of Florida
After this session the obvious thing for Medievalists to do is Dance! The annual Dance at the 'zoo is always packed & loads of fun--plus there's drinking I speechifying in all sorts of non-modern languages. Methinks thou woudst be moste at home!
Anon
As I like to remind people who fret about earthquakes...
We're living on a large ball of rock and gas hurtling through space at tremendous speeds--deal with it!
Anon,
I like audio books (on cd) for those long car trips. Unabridged versions are pretty easy to find although sometimes you have to pay attention to the fine print. My audio version of 'Beowulf' translated and read by Seamus Heaney says "unabridged selections." How annoying is that?
Anon,
Teresa and Language Hat...
Alas and alack! The online colloquy is missing the opening discussion of AS pedagogical practices and starts in at line 11 or so. My favorite line is line 7.
þille bespungen on leornunge?
is written as
Uultis flagellari in discendo? in the Latin
or
Do you wish to be beaten in learning?
And the good students answer...
Leofre ys us beon bespungen for lare þænne hit ne cunnan. Ac þe þitun þe bileþitne þesan und nellan onbeldæden sþincgla us, buton þu bi togenydd fram us.
We'd rather be beaten for the sake of learning than be ignorant but we know you are gentle and will not beat us unless we deserve it. (more or less)
I've always been delighted with this scene and the way the students accept that they may be beaten but then slyly manage to take some of the bite out of the threat by suggesting that the teacher is gentle. You may imagine my smile when I read that first line aloud to my students...
But then, I'm also delighted by the double-entendre in the AS riddles..."Is that a key in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"
Anon.
My favorite line in AS comes from ælfric's Colloquy.
þille bespungen on leornunge?
The only possible answer is of couse, "yes please sir." None of my students were ever that willing...
I used to start my Shakespeare survey by reciting the Lord's Prayer in AS. Ususally at least one student would figure it out. Then I'd recite the opening lines of Canterbury Tales. After looking at these texts and identifying familiar words, sounds, and grammar (that they could figure out the verbs, nouns, & adjectives in an unfamiliar language amazed them). Then I'd recite the opening lines to Much Ado About Nothing..."I see here by this letter that Don Pedro is returned to Messina!" And usually they'd get it--Shakespeare is modern English. Who woulda thunk it?
Thanks for the fun Teresa.
Anon.
Come and go with me to a bluegrass place where Bill Monroe plays...(you know it's bluegrass when they use the word, 'yonder'). But be warned, I carry a (plectrum) banjo and I know how to use it.
Come Go With Me
Come go with me to yonder valley
Where we once stood beneath the tree
Where we once planned our life together
I can't forget come go with me
Come let us live some moments over
Then maybe you won't want to leave
I love you then and will forever
I can't forget come go with me
I can't forget the flowers blooming
The rose that I pick for you
Time changed you but I'm not changing
I loved you then and I still do
Come go with me to yonder valley
Where on the largest of the trees
I'll carve your name to prove I love you
I can't forget come go with me
I love you then and I still do
I see that I'm not the only ABD in the mix. Now if only it were of some use...
BA: English Lit (thesis on Melville)
MA: English Lit (Thesis on Marie de France & Margery Kempe)
ABD: Medieval Lit (my Ph.D. exams were on Old English and Middle English lit, Early Drama and Feminist Theory)
I currently work in a nursery where I do seminars on horticultural topics and write caresheets for various types of plants, trees, and shrubs. I do use my Latin some in all those botanical names. And I teach dogs silly tricks.
I know where da rabbits is! (one was eating my lawn this morning).
I had a parakeet once upon a time that could recite that ditty. When he got excited he'd scream "spring has sprung! spring has sprung! spring has sprung!" Sydney (the parakeet) also sang, "kill the wabbit!" Need I point out that his cage was in the same room as the tv? I wonder if that constitutes animal cruelty?
Other signs of spring. I ate the first radish from the raised beds. A tasty French Breakfast radish, crisp, crunchy and just a little bit hot, yum. The tomato plants are ready to move into larger pots on the sunny (relatively), protected part of the deck (with a wary eye on the final frost date of May 15) and, glory be! the sun is shining! (hey, I live in the Pacific Northwest, sunshine is definitely something to get excited about. And a day when you might need sunblock is priceless!)
I went to the first of many plant sales over the weekend so, now, back to the gardening.
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