Thursday 25 September 2008

Diehard Heathenry

Drizzle-witch,
why do you drive
your load of mist
across my land?
For remedy
I will sacrifice to you
my cow, my wife,
and my Christianity.

[Hví svo þrúðgu þú
þokuhlassi
súldanorn
um sveitir ekur?
Þér man eg offra
til árbóta
kú og konu
og kristindómi.]

Jónas Hallgrímsson, “Dalabóndinn í óþurrknum,” from Ljóðmæli eptir Jónas Hallgrímsson (1847), online at http://www.jonashallgrimsson.is/page/ljod_dalabondinn.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Don't use anti-climax in poetry" we were taught at school.

Anonymous said...

well - after all that sacrificing - did it work?

Deogolwulf said...

I'd bet my wife it did.

James Higham said...

How far would you bet the wife though, Deogolwulf?

Anonymous said...

The proles clamor for more posts!

Deogolwulf said...

Posting has been made difficult by a combination of blogging-shyness and that dreadful thing called the real world, wherein are found such unpleasantries as work, motorways, cars, and wrangling with the salesman who sold me the car that broke down on a motorway -- which together have been playing on my mind.

Derby WEA said...

A little shaft of sunlight has beamed over my dull provincial life since discovering your blog. Like you, I suffer the dread that is an unpleasant working day. You must labour to overcome your blogging shyness, put the matter of duff cars and callow salesmen behind you, and accept the burden of lightening all our working lives. Next instalment, please!

Sky Captain said...

I paid £1300 for a ten year old V40. It smelt of dogs, in places the paint was worn through, but I took it for a test drive and the engine and handling were beautiful.
Came with MOT till March 2009.
Doing very well. Smell's gone. Everything still works(Aircon, heated everything, electric everything) Volvos are pretty reliable.
As for work, I got in this morning, my supervisor said "Don't say I never give you anything." and put a CD-R on my desk.
It was AC/DC's new album, 'Black Ice'.
It won't be in the shops till the 20th.(Naturally I immediately pre-ordered)

Derby WEA said...

I expect the petrol consumption is something to crow about too.

Sky Captain said...

I use about a tenner a week.

Anonymous said...

You have a car? Disturbing.

Deogolwulf said...

Glad to have been of service, Jaded. A "ray of sunshine" is certainly a surprising thing to come out of a gloomy blog.

Pietr, I nearly bought an old V40. I wish I had.

It is disturbing, Elberry. I don't like cars.

Derby WEA said...

It is precisely the gloom that makes the blog so cheering.