I know, I'm at least 50 hours premature, but I really don't think that I'll be blogging too much over Christmas and I've been far too quiet lately, so I thought I would post a quick greeting now.
The Futers clan are having a quiet Christmas this year. As the last vegetarian standing in the family I'll have to make something exciting for myself on Christmas Eve or it will be good old Quorn Roast for me - and you can only get so excited over a QR, even with stuffing and cranberry jelly.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and come back for more Gruff Stuff in the New Year!
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Monday, 1 November 2010
A Short Break
Just got back from a well earned break on the Isle of Skye. It was wet, it was windy, it was cold ... and I loved every minute of it! We walked rather than climbed, which was a shame but we did get out quite a bit. The children chilled out away from the internet - although not exactly away from computer games or the other distractions of modern life. As a bonus the dogs got a break from fireworks for a whole week.
I got a little bit of writing in too - not vast amounts but I worked through some difficult bits which may or may not get into a final story but helped resolve some character issues. I am finding that it sometimes helps to develop characters by bashing out a thousand words or so of dialogue between them so that I can understand how relationships are developing and perhaps how they feel about the pivotal moments in their lives that may not be known to the other characters. It can be mundane stuff or it can be intense but it may well be that it does not advance the story enough to get more than an oblique mention. Alternatively it may be so illuminating that it opens out a new passage within a chapter.
My only problem was that looking out at Skye's rugged treeless landscape was not helping scenes set in a Welsh woodland and after a while I found it easier to work on a side project, before coming back to my current project. It makes me wonder how I manage when I'm sitting on the number 39 bus!
I got a little bit of writing in too - not vast amounts but I worked through some difficult bits which may or may not get into a final story but helped resolve some character issues. I am finding that it sometimes helps to develop characters by bashing out a thousand words or so of dialogue between them so that I can understand how relationships are developing and perhaps how they feel about the pivotal moments in their lives that may not be known to the other characters. It can be mundane stuff or it can be intense but it may well be that it does not advance the story enough to get more than an oblique mention. Alternatively it may be so illuminating that it opens out a new passage within a chapter.
My only problem was that looking out at Skye's rugged treeless landscape was not helping scenes set in a Welsh woodland and after a while I found it easier to work on a side project, before coming back to my current project. It makes me wonder how I manage when I'm sitting on the number 39 bus!
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
The role of magic
I have had some misgivings over the role of magic in the book given that it is also a book with a real historical background. As soon as the plot line had been realised, the magic was a necessity for the simple reason that young men cannot pretend to be goats and everyone who sees them treat them as goats if they are just imagining it all. They have to become goats and that needs magic.
For there to be magic it follows that there should be a practitioner of magic, so I had to give the family Gruff an enemy, Cerdic or Caradoc. He is not particularly effective as an enemy until the time of the battle, spending his time in miserable conditions in Harthope Valley eating broth made from squirrels or hedgehogs and longing for a bit of decent goat's flesh. His putative enemies don't even think of him as an enemy - they simply are not aware that the man exists to be a threat to them.
He however knows them and he holds them and their king to be responsible for his squalid living conditions. So we learn a little about the history of the little land I call Dinware and how Ida joined it to his own realm of Bernice with the promise to its inhabitants to protect them from Christianity.
King Eadwine however accepted Christianity and even brought his foreign priest to Gatburgh, a place sacred to the old ways. His father, then the priest of the place had carried on regardless in his pagan practices but had died the following year, leaving Gatburgh without a pagan priest. When Cerdic turns up to claim his place as high priest, he is turned away.
So he has a grudge and among the damage that he inflicts upon the family is to turn the youngest three sons into goats. Only later does he perform more difficult magic to make the change permanent, a thing which as all good tales insist must have a get-out clause, the charm that will undo the spell.
I thought about this for a while, trying to think about all of the spells that are overcome in traditional tales - such as the Frog Prince, the Beast, the Seven Swans; all of these seemed to know what would break the spell and hang around waiting for the right person to come along. Rather than have my young billies blundering along blindly, I made sure that they knew what their fate would be. They are also unable to reveal the method of their disenchantment to others.
After these spells cast at the beginning of the book, the magic sort of dries up. It has not entirely gone but there are no more wizards chucking spells about. Obviously there is magic of a background nature whenever the brothers stray through into Elfland but magic there has an altogether different quality. The trolls do not seem to use magic, although they have their Gifts and they seem comfortable with things which are magical, perhaps they even make some things which are magical.
Finally there is the problem of protection. I mention in the book that Cerdic looks at a pagan king and sees upon him charms that will turn aside his magic. Why then can Cerdic use magic against the brothers, who are Christian?
My only answer is that the brothers had been baptised but aside from hearing some stories that they liked and therefore talk about amongst themselves, they never truly understand what it is they have become part of. This time is discussed by Bede as being a time when kingdoms became Christian and then returned to their old ways, for the understanding of a religion with only a single god was not established. They could understand a jealous god wanting his brothers (and sons, cousins, lovers, sisters ...) ignored and all of the glory being given to him but not that the gods had gone away, were no longer capable of offering luck to whoever would treat with them.
This ambiguity can best be seen when Frith asks his brothers what elves are (a question that does not get a precise answer - more of a guess really!). In the dramatis personae the elves are listed as Osen, which is my own word based on the name element Os as in Oswald, Oswy, Oswine, etc. which is usually interpreted as God in lists of name meanings. Os is an older element referring to the pagan gods and is directly linked to the Aesir of Norse mythology. I have tried to avoid obvious links with Norse mythology because although that mythos can shed a light on Anglo-Saxon religion, it is a dim light and not at all helpful. There is no evidence, for example, of a god equivalent to Loki in Anglo-Saxon religion. The trickster role is therefore taken by Woden, which explains why the chief of the Anglo-Saxon pantheon is identified with Hermes/Mercury rather than with Zeus/Jupiter in comparisons between cultures.
Another symptom of their half conversion to Christianity is the name that all of the characters use for Christ, namely "The Healer" This is a very wide play on words. One of the names of Christ in the Old English period is se halend which could literally be translated as "the one who makes things whole" and is therefore equivalent to conventional epithets such as the Saviour or the Redeemer. However, by calling him "The Healer" I have hoped to add a level of ambiguity. By itself it is not a bad title to give Jesus - he was a healer. To the minds of children and young men it resonates with magic - the stories of miracles would have been of great interest to pagans who accept the everyday reality of magic in their lives. In addition it illuminates the lack of understanding that the characters have for Christianity in that they misinterpret the meaning of one of their titles for Christ.
For there to be magic it follows that there should be a practitioner of magic, so I had to give the family Gruff an enemy, Cerdic or Caradoc. He is not particularly effective as an enemy until the time of the battle, spending his time in miserable conditions in Harthope Valley eating broth made from squirrels or hedgehogs and longing for a bit of decent goat's flesh. His putative enemies don't even think of him as an enemy - they simply are not aware that the man exists to be a threat to them.
He however knows them and he holds them and their king to be responsible for his squalid living conditions. So we learn a little about the history of the little land I call Dinware and how Ida joined it to his own realm of Bernice with the promise to its inhabitants to protect them from Christianity.
King Eadwine however accepted Christianity and even brought his foreign priest to Gatburgh, a place sacred to the old ways. His father, then the priest of the place had carried on regardless in his pagan practices but had died the following year, leaving Gatburgh without a pagan priest. When Cerdic turns up to claim his place as high priest, he is turned away.
So he has a grudge and among the damage that he inflicts upon the family is to turn the youngest three sons into goats. Only later does he perform more difficult magic to make the change permanent, a thing which as all good tales insist must have a get-out clause, the charm that will undo the spell.
I thought about this for a while, trying to think about all of the spells that are overcome in traditional tales - such as the Frog Prince, the Beast, the Seven Swans; all of these seemed to know what would break the spell and hang around waiting for the right person to come along. Rather than have my young billies blundering along blindly, I made sure that they knew what their fate would be. They are also unable to reveal the method of their disenchantment to others.
After these spells cast at the beginning of the book, the magic sort of dries up. It has not entirely gone but there are no more wizards chucking spells about. Obviously there is magic of a background nature whenever the brothers stray through into Elfland but magic there has an altogether different quality. The trolls do not seem to use magic, although they have their Gifts and they seem comfortable with things which are magical, perhaps they even make some things which are magical.
Finally there is the problem of protection. I mention in the book that Cerdic looks at a pagan king and sees upon him charms that will turn aside his magic. Why then can Cerdic use magic against the brothers, who are Christian?
My only answer is that the brothers had been baptised but aside from hearing some stories that they liked and therefore talk about amongst themselves, they never truly understand what it is they have become part of. This time is discussed by Bede as being a time when kingdoms became Christian and then returned to their old ways, for the understanding of a religion with only a single god was not established. They could understand a jealous god wanting his brothers (and sons, cousins, lovers, sisters ...) ignored and all of the glory being given to him but not that the gods had gone away, were no longer capable of offering luck to whoever would treat with them.
This ambiguity can best be seen when Frith asks his brothers what elves are (a question that does not get a precise answer - more of a guess really!). In the dramatis personae the elves are listed as Osen, which is my own word based on the name element Os as in Oswald, Oswy, Oswine, etc. which is usually interpreted as God in lists of name meanings. Os is an older element referring to the pagan gods and is directly linked to the Aesir of Norse mythology. I have tried to avoid obvious links with Norse mythology because although that mythos can shed a light on Anglo-Saxon religion, it is a dim light and not at all helpful. There is no evidence, for example, of a god equivalent to Loki in Anglo-Saxon religion. The trickster role is therefore taken by Woden, which explains why the chief of the Anglo-Saxon pantheon is identified with Hermes/Mercury rather than with Zeus/Jupiter in comparisons between cultures.
Another symptom of their half conversion to Christianity is the name that all of the characters use for Christ, namely "The Healer" This is a very wide play on words. One of the names of Christ in the Old English period is se halend which could literally be translated as "the one who makes things whole" and is therefore equivalent to conventional epithets such as the Saviour or the Redeemer. However, by calling him "The Healer" I have hoped to add a level of ambiguity. By itself it is not a bad title to give Jesus - he was a healer. To the minds of children and young men it resonates with magic - the stories of miracles would have been of great interest to pagans who accept the everyday reality of magic in their lives. In addition it illuminates the lack of understanding that the characters have for Christianity in that they misinterpret the meaning of one of their titles for Christ.
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Around the world with the Billy Goats Gruff
Friday, 27 August 2010
The Billy Goats Gruff in Blighty!
The Adventures of the Three Billy Goats Gruff is now available from Amazon in the UK, priced £7.60
Thanks Amazon.co.uk for including the additional information that I sent in.
Thanks Amazon.co.uk for including the additional information that I sent in.
Monday, 23 August 2010
The Gefrin Trust
Just when you thought you had seen every significant thing on the Web to do with Yeavering, up comes something remarkable. This is the first that I have heard of the Gefrin Trust, the current owner of the site of Gatburgh.
It is all down to a chance encounter between archaeologist Roger Miket and an estate agent in Wooler, the latter casually stating that a piece of land with an interesting bit of history behind it had come on the market. The upshot was that he raised the money to buy the site and has since set up the Gefrin Trust to manage the site. The Trust is a registered company and a charity.
The company logo is interesting - they have taken the head of Ceredig's staff (well, technically the head of his father's staff, but they looked very similar) and transformed the front of it into a modern graphic. A lot of logos of this sort lose the power of the original but this works very well - it just goes to show how stylised the original was!
The website has some interesting resources, including a pdf of Hope-Taylor's monograph and an interesting piece aimed at kids (pun intended) called "What the Goats Saw" This is an account of the history of the site from a goat's eye view. No Grufflings get mentioned.
The board of the Trust includes a good mix of scholars (Rosemary Cramp!) and the local area - Northumberland National Park, the County Council and the Glendale Gateway Trust.
I recall using some of Roger Miket's material as a source of very detailed information on Anglo-Saxon cemeteries and other sites which provided some background material for my dissertation on place-names in Northumberland. Roger's data included OS references and so it was very easy to georeference the locations and present them as a distribution map.
I would like to wish Roger and his associates the very best in their endeavours at Gefrin. It is good to know that such an important site is in good hands!
It is all down to a chance encounter between archaeologist Roger Miket and an estate agent in Wooler, the latter casually stating that a piece of land with an interesting bit of history behind it had come on the market. The upshot was that he raised the money to buy the site and has since set up the Gefrin Trust to manage the site. The Trust is a registered company and a charity.
The company logo is interesting - they have taken the head of Ceredig's staff (well, technically the head of his father's staff, but they looked very similar) and transformed the front of it into a modern graphic. A lot of logos of this sort lose the power of the original but this works very well - it just goes to show how stylised the original was!
The website has some interesting resources, including a pdf of Hope-Taylor's monograph and an interesting piece aimed at kids (pun intended) called "What the Goats Saw" This is an account of the history of the site from a goat's eye view. No Grufflings get mentioned.
The board of the Trust includes a good mix of scholars (Rosemary Cramp!) and the local area - Northumberland National Park, the County Council and the Glendale Gateway Trust.
I recall using some of Roger Miket's material as a source of very detailed information on Anglo-Saxon cemeteries and other sites which provided some background material for my dissertation on place-names in Northumberland. Roger's data included OS references and so it was very easy to georeference the locations and present them as a distribution map.
I would like to wish Roger and his associates the very best in their endeavours at Gefrin. It is good to know that such an important site is in good hands!
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Foxtrot, Uniform, ...
No, this is not a posting about the Bloodhound Gang song or even about swearing via the medium of the International Phonetic Alphabet. It's about my surname.
Foxtrot, Uniform, Tango, Echo, Romeo, Sierra.
It really shouldn't be a name that causes any trouble. Only six letters and when you know how it is pronounced you see that it follows English pronunciation systems (such as they are) pretty well.
Yet there are two angles of approach which lead to error. The first is reading the name.
"Hello, can I speak to Mr ... Futters?"
You see? I even had to add an extra "t" just to make you realise where the mistake lies. There is only a single "t" in my surname, so it cannot rhyme with "Mutters", "Stutters" or "Putters"
"Hello, is that Mr Footers?"
Of course it isn't; again I've had to change the spelling to show you quite clearly where the error lies. There is no double "o" nor is there an "ou" so it does not rhyme with "Booters" or "Routers"
(Apologies to anyone in the USA for that last one. In the UK we pronounce "route" like the things that a tree has and a "rout" is when all your soldiers run away.)
Let me ask you this; has your Computter ever gone on the blink? Have you ever needed to phone the Compooter Support Helpline?
Of course you haven't, because Futers rhymes with Computers.
I said there were two paths to error. The second is aural, and quite possible oral too. I admit, my enunciation is not always the clearest, and having a slight Geordie accent probably doesn't help, so when I say my surname over the telephone or in conversation, lots of people hear:
"Suters? That's an unusual name"
or
"Certainly Mr Peters, we will send you that straight away."
I recently asked someone at work (in a different department) to collect a letter that had come to my desk in error. In a very short while a young woman appeared at the door.
"Mr Peterson?" she asked. Knowing the source of the error, I waved and she approached.
"I bet no-one ever calls you Mr Peterson" she quipped.
Now I don't think of myself as a rude person, but I must say (with hindsight) that I what I said next was very rude. It was also spontaneous and I didn't have time to consider what I said. I am not proud of it and I apologise profusely for any distress caused. I said:
"No, not often, but then my name is Futers."
Since then I have been extra careful when giving my name over the phone. In order to ensure my audience gets the right spelling, I am forced to fall back on:
"My name is Kevin Futers, that's Foxtrot, Uniform, ..."
Foxtrot, Uniform, Tango, Echo, Romeo, Sierra.
It really shouldn't be a name that causes any trouble. Only six letters and when you know how it is pronounced you see that it follows English pronunciation systems (such as they are) pretty well.
Yet there are two angles of approach which lead to error. The first is reading the name.
"Hello, can I speak to Mr ... Futters?"
You see? I even had to add an extra "t" just to make you realise where the mistake lies. There is only a single "t" in my surname, so it cannot rhyme with "Mutters", "Stutters" or "Putters"
"Hello, is that Mr Footers?"
Of course it isn't; again I've had to change the spelling to show you quite clearly where the error lies. There is no double "o" nor is there an "ou" so it does not rhyme with "Booters" or "Routers"
(Apologies to anyone in the USA for that last one. In the UK we pronounce "route" like the things that a tree has and a "rout" is when all your soldiers run away.)
Let me ask you this; has your Computter ever gone on the blink? Have you ever needed to phone the Compooter Support Helpline?
Of course you haven't, because Futers rhymes with Computers.
I said there were two paths to error. The second is aural, and quite possible oral too. I admit, my enunciation is not always the clearest, and having a slight Geordie accent probably doesn't help, so when I say my surname over the telephone or in conversation, lots of people hear:
"Suters? That's an unusual name"
or
"Certainly Mr Peters, we will send you that straight away."
I recently asked someone at work (in a different department) to collect a letter that had come to my desk in error. In a very short while a young woman appeared at the door.
"Mr Peterson?" she asked. Knowing the source of the error, I waved and she approached.
"I bet no-one ever calls you Mr Peterson" she quipped.
Now I don't think of myself as a rude person, but I must say (with hindsight) that I what I said next was very rude. It was also spontaneous and I didn't have time to consider what I said. I am not proud of it and I apologise profusely for any distress caused. I said:
"No, not often, but then my name is Futers."
Since then I have been extra careful when giving my name over the phone. In order to ensure my audience gets the right spelling, I am forced to fall back on:
"My name is Kevin Futers, that's Foxtrot, Uniform, ..."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)