GOGSoc Episode V: The GOG Strikes Back

And I'm back.

I've also just sent off my application for my MA in Folkloristics/Ethnology. The professor of the department was certain I'd get in, so it's just a formality, but it's nice to have it done with. Also, didn't need to send off any papers or get any references, which was nice.

Same Uni or will you be returning to the UK?

you are right!! I would have been really upset if my bf did not buy me a present (or a cake ) We only have one day per year when we deserve to be pampered (well, that and when we are sick, but when you are sick you can't enjoy it )

I'm really dreading Feb 14th. Would have been our anniversary, as well as Valentines Day.

Ha. I normally try to keep the 'I' out of my reviews, but in one I've just written, I couldn't help myself. A quite senior British poet who really gets off on hammed-up ideas of decaying culture and everything having gone to pot had written a poem about how an orchard in Hull that used to be so great is now full of stained mattresses, old carpets, rubble, beer cans and suicidal drunks. I happened to be writing the review from my back bedroom which overlooks the very same orchard. There are no drunks, no mattresses; only apple trees and garden birds. I couldn't resist pointing this out

do you know (or anyone else doing/liking literature really...) by any chance if there is a technical name for the repetition of the first syllable of two words? I know the first letter is alliteration, but in a pair like : virum virginem, vir- is the repetition. Should I just call it repetition?

I don't do Valentine's Day so that's one less day to remember! Nor do we really have an anniversary so that's out too.

Am I the only one who has never, ever ridden a horse in their life?

Same uni for the moment. Fees here are a lot lower, only 350 pounds a year and apparently the funding group here will fund the four months of every MA, and I can stretch out the amount to last me almost a year, really. Plus, the Folkloristics and Anthropology departments here are really strong, and I really like the lecturers. My thesis doesn't have anything to do with Iceland, sadly, but my supervisor doesn't care, given that he's English, hehe.

Might return for my PhD, but it would all depend on funding. Ideally, I'd like to stay in Iceland, but that might not be practical.

That's quite cool, I've toyed with the idea of studying abroad myself actually but eventually decided against it due to various reasons.

I'm really dreading Feb 14th. Would have been our anniversary, as well as Valentines Day. I was planning to not get out of bed/spend all day drunk but I am teaching at 9am so that's that plan out the window



It's a long time since I did anything literature-based, but could that be assonance?

Disclaimer - I am a historian now and was never that good at literature

Heh, my first degree sort of decided where I'd be going, ultimately, as I don't really want to make the move into translation.

I see, at least with folkloristics you're going into something genuinely interesting in your area though. I love that sort of stuff in general - laography as its called in Greek.

Are you working mainly with modern stuff or early modern?

Both really. My thesis will be on Northern Irish folklore about The Troubles, but I am interested in religion, humour, uses of cultural heritage and Jungian analyses of folklore. I hope to publish an article on Loki and why 13th-14th century Icelandic clerics/monks/Christians felt the need to preserve the myths about him. So many things to research, really.

Sadly, I don't think I'll be using Parry and Lord much, or their successor, Foley.

Ah well I've given my opinion on the oralist school before.

You know that article sounds really interesting. Unfortunately my experience with ANSAC stuff is usually sighing over how badly various scholars are misusing Indo-European stuff (Philology as well as Myth and Poetics) and similar things in that line. But that actually sounds, as I say, rather interesting. I've never considered that before but it really is a curious thing isn't it? Has there been much written on this before btw?

Not really, research on the Nordic myths/faiths is generally what has been influenced by Christianity/what's authentic; what other influences we can see; cult centres, etc and organisation of the faiths; what the individual gods were to the followers; evolution of the faiths from prehistoric to Christianity, etc. I'll admit, it's something that I've only just started thinking about, after a chance comment by Terry Gunnell, professor here, about why Christians at that time would've felt the need to preserve Vafþrúðnismál, which is essentially just a list of various pagan mythic facts: names of the sun, placement of various mythical beings, etc. Led me to doing a comparative and slightly Jungian analysis on the Loki myths, using Native American Trickster traditions.

It's definitely an interesting area of research. It's always argued that folklore only survives if it is valid in some way to the society preserving it. Why would Christians seek to preserve such things when they were of little religious use, unless they had some other use for them? I'd like for more people to look at the myths we have in light of the societies preserving them rather in light of the societies we think "created" them. It also removes the annoying "Christian influence" debate, as pagan authenticity no longer matters, nor does trying to date them beyond their recording matter either.

Yeah the lack of understanding rather than remorse is what upset me I think. He was remorseful when he realised I was upset, but it's just that he genuinely couldn't understand why I was sad before I had to spell it out for him. We have been together 7 years so I thought he knew me a bit better with regards to that kind of thing, I guess I just got a bit of a shock due to that too.

Am I the only one who has never, ever ridden a horse in their life?

I'm really dreading Feb 14th. Would have been our anniversary, as well as Valentines Day. I was planning to not get out of bed/spend all day drunk but I am teaching at 9am so that's that plan out the window

I've never ridden one either, despite having an aunt who owns two, which my sisters used to ride. Just never been interested.

New glasses for £13.50 http://www.selectspecs.com/Glasses/Savannah/2297-(Black-Red)/ss6.71.html

Sadly, I don't think I'll be using Parry and Lord much, or their successor, Foley.

Omg, what have I missed? There is a GOGSoc Vth now and it's 20 pages long already?!

But if you'd not commonly done presents because you'd not been together, you may have been giving him the impression that birthdays weren't a big deal?

You are such a ledge Craghy that game is amazing. My girlfriend and I (indeed my entire family and I) often seem to get annoyed at my love of ridiculous board games, like the Discworld one or Dragonlance for example. I hate games like Monopoly and Cluedo but love Catan, Arkham Horror etc.

Speaking of board games I'm actually slowly designing my own, it's about lion prides. The rule book will be like a novel.

I do like buying spontaneous gifts now and then, which reminds me that I need to go place an order sometime soon actually.

mmmm Catan. Love it but I suck at it. I always love the idea of longest road, much like I was obsessed with getting the stations in Monopoly. Then suddenly you turn around and some smartarse has won with dev cards.