#and otherwise irish/scottish/british

[wooteena]

did you in the past have a family member (in about the mid to late 1850-1900? not 100% certain on the years tbh) that had 13 kids, all of which survived, who was described by the aboriginal people as "walking with angels" due to all of her children, and her childrens children living. Also, in the late to mid 1800's mormons were called to Utah and she and her husband left, and planned to leave their kids all behind (most were grown up) and their youngest (her name was something with a c or a K I can't quite remember, I think it might have been Catherine?) who was 8 swam behind the boat to America for more than 2 hours well the husband refused to pay for a ticket to let her on.

oh anon. is this because of the rumour spread by @fraseris that i was a jehovas witness.

[haellen-o]

with england losing another world cup (good. fuck em. bozo's)

does anyone else actively root against their nation when it comes to sports?

[oneluckygoose]

Guys I’m actually so close to breaking and writing a full fledged Marauders era fic. Like I’m talking 1st year to 1981

I have so many ideas about it, I’ll put a list of things under the cut but it’ll be your classic Wolfstar, Dorlene, and Rosekiller, while also being weird and doing a HEALTHY Jegulus with endgame Jily. There’s just a lot of things about the Marauders era that is so inconsistent that I feel like I physically need to write it down COHERENTLY in a way that makes a modicum of sense to me.

Things it’ll probably include

Scottish and Desi James; Welsh Lily, Remus, and Severus; French/English Blacks; IRISH Peter; SCOTTISH Marlene; Dutch Dorcas; French Mary; British Rosiers; and British Barty (ive missed some but those’ll be my main characters I focus on)

Jegulus, personally I think Jegulus is a very important thing for James’ growth and for Regulus’ to distance himself from his family’s ideals but I also don’t think it could ever last. Probably would be a 6th year arc and they break up after Regulus gets the Mark beginning of 7th

Endgame Jily, because their story is one of my favorites and if I do make it a canon compliment then I would need to write it with natural progression, also I just love Jily

I’m on the fence about making it a canon compliment because I choose to be HAPPY, but I don’t need to make that decision now and so I won’t (also I like the idea that Peter is good, screw me)

Aroace Peter, my little boy loves his friends and doesn’t understand why he doesn’t love like they do. A dating spree probably in 5th year but he just cannot figure out how to do the romance thing

No sex, sorry guys we’re keeping this M rated. I’m asexual and do not feel comfortable writing that in the slightest, it would all be fade to black

Asexual Lily, to whoever HCed that, can I marry you? I love ace Lily and I think it just adds an arc to her story that is normally extremely sexualized. My girl will punch you in the face if you look even a tiny bit lower than her eyes.

How much character growth can I fit into James Potter? ALL OF IT. He was a DICK, that is non negotiable, he was not a dick eventually (ahem he had to grow up after the prank)

The Prank will be essential to everyone’s character.

Sirius is at his lowest in 5th year because his parents are trying to get him to marry Pandora and he is rebelling so hard and they are punishing him like a madman and he’s hurt and in pain and lashes out and it’s a mess and it breaks that summer and he runs away. (Then things get better)

Remus’s arc will probably be very similar to what it normally is, I think he’ll have Hope and Lyall, at least for a while and his home life won’t be the worst. If that’ll change I’m not quite sure.

Remus is SMALL and then he gets REALLY BIG, I’m talking 5’1- 5’10 over one summer (3rd year to 4th year) then he keeps growing. 6’3 by the end of it.

James isn’t short, he has a normal growth though, lands steady at 6’

Sirius and Peter are short kings: Sirius-5’8, Peter-5’6

Marlene is probably the most Gryfindor person on the planet, and Dorcas is a Slytherin who HATES her peers

Dorcas is a halfblood with a single Muggle father (her mother left when she was 5) They both have the best dreads on the earth and you can’t tell me otherwise

Marylily is kinda a thing?? In the early years but it fades and they agree they’re better friends.

Pandora and Evan are twins, their family are pureblood fucks

Pandora and Regulus are best friends, they would both destroy the world for each other

Remus starts to like Sirius in 3rd year, he dates someone (probably Marlene because her and Sirius and just gender swapped copies of one another but they both hate it and Marlene is the first person who knows about Remus’ crush, Remus is the first person to know about Marlene's when that becomes a thing 5th year)

Sirius starts to like Remus in 4th year but doesn’t realize it at first and when he does dates around in complete denial until he runs tf away from his family. Peter, the king he is, is surprisingly the first one to figure it out in 5th year.

James is the most hardcore Wolfstar shipper when he finds out about both of them, and he has to be painfully silent about it until they get their shit together

They fully get together at the end of 6th year. How? I'll figure it out.

The Skittles are less present the first half, but they would probably be more and more there, especially as Reg and Sirius' relationship strains

Regulus' relationship with Orion and Walburga is that of a child who has watched their older sibling be abused for rebellion and is fucking terrified of that happening to him. He hates them, but he has to please them to save his own skin.

Also, all the Skittles are in slytherin for being ambitious, cunning, and calculating. Not because they are evil.

Not all slytherins are pure blood fucks who toss around slurs and unforgivable curses while chanting "praise the dark lord", some of them are good/some of them don't deserve treatment as if they were. Understanding this is essential to James' character development.

Not Snape though, he is exactly what it says on the surface. Sure he loves a muggle born but he also is obsessed with her, manipulated her, called her slurs, and hurt the people she loved. He has no such qualms with being as horrible as possible to anyone else. Not saying James and Sirius were good, but Snape wasn't a fuckin' hero either. "Always." BITCH THAT"S CREEPY NOT ROMANTIC.

How long does it take Lily to realize Snape is the worst person on the planet earth? TOO LONG. He calls her mudblood and that is the last straw.

Also fuck JKR's timeline, I don't even understand how the prank could happen before Snape's Worst Memory or after 5th year so the cannon fuckery is going to happen mainly in 5th year

Marlene is extremely important to me. She has the thickest Scottish accent and she thrives off of it. She does not take SHIT. She listens to rock exclusively once she figures out electric guitar makes brain go happy. She and Sirius have a very interesting relationship I would be so excited to explore.

Nothing will be glossed over. I see a lot of vagueness about the Cruciatus curse, and just, no. People need to see in detail what shapes the characters and why they are the way they are, especially Regulus and Sirius. I'll do CWs before every chapter, but I'm not holding back. It'll be graphic, it'll be skin crawling, but maybe that's the point. Remus goes through torture every month, that needs to be known. Sirius and Regulus are broken by their parents, that needs to be known. Mary was assaulted by blood purists, that needs to be known. Things won't be pretty, they never have been with the Marauders. But maybe that's the most beautiful thing about them. Things aren't pretty, but they find a way to love despite that. (James Potter tends to have a large hand in that, too)

This was my shpeal. I have so many ideas and so many ways I could go with this that I'm actually so stressed over it. Um... if anyone has advice on how to get actually started because that's the part tripping me up I would love it. I don't know if I can bring anything particularly special about their story to the table but I would love to see where my story goes. My biggest fear about this is starting it and never being able to finish it. I've been told I'm a pretty good writer, I might post more of my unfinished stuff just to gauge if people actually want to read it, but I hope I can do them justice.

The name though? I have a few Ideas and all of them would lead to a different way that I wrote the story.

Chronicles of Messrs; A song title from either queen or aerosmith; House of the Rising Suns; Dear Minerva; The Graceless

[de-sterren-nacht]

The Fae of the British Lostbelt

This is gonna be a long one, so strap in.

The fae and other creatures of the British Lostbelt take heavy inspiration from real-life legends; almost every major character is named after a type of fairy or mystical creature from British folklore. Many of these names are not English; I've added a pronunciation guide for these in brackets after the word. In this post, I'll go over the beings and concepts these characters are named for and compare the legend to the original. This won't include Morgan or Oberon; those figures are complex enough to deserve posts of their own.

Aesc [ASH]

Aesc is more accurately spelled Æsc. It's an Old English word for the ash tree, and also doubles as the word for the rune for the letter Æ. This is pretty much a direct translation into Old English of Aesc's Japanese name, Tonelico (トネリコ), a word meaning "ash tree".

Albion

Albion is a poetic name for the island of Britain, from Greek Albiōn (Ἀλβίων), the name used by classical geographers to describe an island believed to be Britain. The name probably means "white place", which is how it's connected to the Albion of Fate. The Albion of Fate is the White Dragon, a symbol of the Saxons from a Welsh legend. In the most well-known version of the legend, the King of the Britons at the time, Vortigern, was trying to build a castle on top of a hill in Wales to defend against the invading Saxons, but everything he tried to build collapsed. He was told by his court wizard to find a young boy with no father and sacrifice him atop the hill to alleviate the curse. He sent his soldiers out and found a boy being teased for being fatherless, but when he brought the boy to the hill, the boy, a young Merlin, told him that his court wizard was a fool and that the real reason for the collapsing castle was two dragons inside the hill, one red and one white, locked in battle. The red dragon represented the Britons, and the white dragon represented the Saxons. Merlin told Vortigern that nothing could be built on the hill until the red dragon killed the white one. A red dragon is the symbol of Wales to this day, and a white dragon is occasionally used in Welsh poetry to negatively represent England. This white dragon is Albion in Type/Moon lore.

Baobhan Sìth [bah-VAHN shee]

A baobhan sìth is a female fairy in Scottish folklore. The name literally means "fairy woman" in Scottish Gaelic. They appear as a beautiful woman and seduce hunters traveling late at night so that they can kill and eat them, or drink their blood depending on the story. They're unrelated to banshees except in terms of etymology (Banshee is from Old Irish "ben síde", meaning the same thing as baobhan sìth). They're often depicted with deer hooves instead of feet, which is probably what inspired Baobhan Sìth's love of shoes.

Barghest

In the folklore of Northern England, a barghest is a monstrous black dog with fiery eyes teeth and claws the size of a bear's. The name probably derives from "burh-ghest", or "town-ghost". It was often said to appear as an omen of death, and was followed by the sound of rattling chains. The rattling chains probably inspired Barghest's chains. Her fire powers are also obviously based on the fiery eyes of the barghest. Otherwise, she's not very connected to the folkloric barghest, which is never associated with hunger or eating humans.

Boggart

In English folklore, a boggart is either a malevolent household spirit or a malevolent creature inhabiting a field, a marsh, a hill, a forest clearing, etc. The term is related to the terms bugbear and bogeyman, all originally from Middle English bugge, or possibly Welsh bwg [BOOG] or bwca [BOO-cuh], all words for a goblin-like monster. It usually resembled a satyr. It's not really ever depicted with lion features, so it's anyone's guess why Boggart is a lion-man.

Cernunnos [ker-NOON-ahs]

Cernunnos, probably meaning "horned one", was an important pre-Roman Celtic god. His existence is only attested by fragmentary inscriptions and the repeated motif in Celtic religious art of a "horned god", a humanoid figure with deer antlers seated cross-legged. This fragmentary evidence is often led to assume that Cernunnos was a god of nature, wilderness, animals and fertility. There exists no evidence that Cernunnos was a chief deity of any kind, since we have barely any evidence he existed at all in the first place. Cernunnos might not even be his name; it's just the only name we have. Needless to say, the only thing the Cernunnos in the British Lostbelt has in common with the real figure is his large antlers.

Cnoc na Riabh [kuh-nock-nuh-REE-uh]

Cnoc na Riabh, Knocknarea in English, is a hill in Sligo in Ireland. The name means "hill of the stripes", referring to its striking limestone cliffs. It's said to be the location where Medb's tomb lies, so it's connected to Cnoc na Riabh through Fate's conflation of Medb with Queen Mab, a fairy mentioned in Romeo and Juliet; this etymology of Mab as derived from Medb was formerly accepted, but has lost favour with the advent of modern Celtic studies due to the lack of any concrete connection between the two figures.

Grímr (don't know how to say this one, apologies; Germanic myth is not my strong suit)

Odin (Wōden in Old English) was a god worshiped in many places, basically anywhere the Germanic peoples went, including the Anglo-Saxons that became today's English people. As such a widely worshiped god, he had a very large number of names, titles and epithets. Grímr is one such name, literally meaning "mask", referring to Odin's frequent usage of disguises in myths, which is fitting for how Cú disguised himself as a faerie in the British Lostbelt and hid that he possessed Odin's Divinity from Chaldea.

Habetrot

Habetrot is a figure from Northern England and the Scottish Lowlands, depicted as a disfigured elderly woman who sewed for a living and lived underground with other disfigured spinsters. She often spun wedding gowns for brides. Cloth spun by her was said to have curative and apotropaic properties. All the Habetrot of the British Lostbelt has in common with this figure is the association with brides and with spinning cloth. "Totorot" is not a real figure; the name is just an obvious tweak of Habetrot.

Mélusine

Mélusine is a figure that appears in folklore all across Europe. The name probably derives from Latin "melus", meaning "pleasant". She's a female spirit of water with the body of a beautiful woman from the waist up, and the body of a serpent or a fish from the waist down. In most stories, she falls in love with a human man and bears his children, using magic to conceal her inhuman nature. However, she tells her lover he must never look upon her when she is bathing or giving birth. Of course, he invariably does so, and when he does, he discovers her serpentine lower body, and she leaves, taking their children with her. Since Mélusine is just the name Aurora gave her, the Mélusine of the British Lostbelt has very little to do with this figure, but an analogy can be drawn between the Mélusine of folklore hiding her true form as a half-serpent to maintain her relationship with her lover, and Fate's Mélusine suppressing her true form as both a dragon and an undifferentiated mass of cells to ensure Aurora continues to love her.

Muryan [MUR-yan]

A muryan is a rather obscure Cornish fairy. The word is Cornish for "ant". Muryans are diminutive figures with shapechanging abilities, cursed to grow smaller every time they use those abilities until they eventually vanish altogether. Muryan, of course, is connected to muryans through her ability to shrink others.

Spriggan [SPRID-jan]

A spriggan is a type of creature in Cornish folklore. The word is derived from the Cornish word "spyryjyon" [same pronunciation], the plural of "spyrys", meaning "fairy". They're usually grotesque old men with incredible strength and incredibly malicious dispositions, and are often depicted guarding buried treasure. Spriggan is not himself a faerie, and the name is stolen from a faerie he killed, but it's still appropriate due to the greed and selfishness spriggans are usually depicted with.

Woodwose

Woodwose is a Middle English term for the wild man, a motif in European art comparable to the satyr or faun. The etymology is unclear. It has little to do with wolves or animals, despite its association with wildness, but there is at least a thematic connection with Woodwose's character, since the archetype of the wild man depicts a figure who cannot be civilised or well-mannered no matter how hard he tries, much like how Woodwose barely restrains his temper by being a vegetarian and dressing in a fine suit. Woodwose's predecessor, Wryneck, is named for a type of woodpecker with the ability to rotate its neck almost 180°.

[maiden-of-rats]

🅲🆁🅴🅴🅿🆈🅿🅰🆂🆃🅰 Head-cannons (BEN DROWNED)

DISCLAIMERS!!!: 

All head-canons well be represented in my writing (Unless paid to do otherwise)

I am very new to writing on tumblr

There will be generally dark themes in my work 

I may be willing to do NSFW writing (Warning: I do not have any experience whatsoever) Before you ask, yes I am of age, I’m just a loser  

BEN DROWNED/ Benjamin Lawman 

Digital manifestation is shown above (My artwork)

He has access to anything to any digital device that the haunted cartridge or Nintendo 64 is connected too (So If you plug it into your “smart” TV he has access to everything you have ever seen on the internet)

Unlike most creepypastas, he does not kill or attempt to hurt them

He just wants to cause living hell, until you can’t take it anymore 

His death was in 2002 (Drowned in a local lake, limbs tied with twine)

Physical manifestation (Yes, I know it's messy. I had to draw it on my Chromebook)

5’0 (152cm) in height

Short, Boxy build with broad shoulders

Dirty Blonde hair, chin length

Scleras are blackened and bloodshot   

Pupils are a highly pigmented rouge 

He is White (British/Scottish/Irish) 

In his physical form, his clothes consist of a dark gray,  long sleeved, T-shirt with a oversized nerd shirt layered over top; plain black basketball shorts ; ankle socks and the most 90’s torn up converses 

Lips and areas around eyes are tinted blue and skin seemingly transparent 

He is a loser 

Knees and hands are scuffed  with reminisce of twine upon his wrist

He enjoys 90’s grunge music and Nintendo games 

He had little to no friends while alive and spent most his days problem solving in video games 

His voice sounds similar to Matpat's

There May Be more

[princesssarisa]

I've still been reading Heidi Ann Heiner's Cinderella Tales From Around the World. I've just finished reading all the variants from Ireland, Scotland, and England.

Here are the patterns:

*In Gaelic variants (e.g. two Irish versions and one Scottish), the heroine and her two sisters typically have names that describe their appearance or demeanor, with the sisters' names implying that one is blonde and the other brunette. For example, Fair, Brown, and Trembling, or Fair-Hair, Brown-Hair, and Mangy-Hair, or the Fair Maid, the Swarthy Maid, and the Snow-White Maid.

*As usual, it varies whether the heroine is abused by a stepmother and stepsister(s) or by her own mother (or both parents) and sister(s), or just by her sisters alone, and whether there are two (step)sisters or just one. In the three Gaelic versions with hair-themed naming, the girls are biological sisters, though in The Snow-White Maid, the Fair Maid, the Swarthy Maid, and Bald Pate Their Mother, they're half-sisters and Balt Pate is the Snow-White Maid's stepmother.

*It seems far more common in these versions for the heroine and her (step)sister(s) to be princesses. This has sometimes turned up in other countries' variants so far, most notably in Finette Cendron, but so far the British Isles seem to have the biggest number of Cinderellas who are princesses by birth.

**In the Irish Fair, Brown, and Trembling, not only is Trembling seen by her own prince at church, but the fame of her beauty spreads throughout the world, and all the princes of Ireland come to see her, as do princes from other countries like Spain and Greece. They all want to marry her and agree to duel for her hand after the slipper fits her, but after four days of fighting they all concede to the prince who first fell in love with her.

*The heroine's magical helper is either an old woman or an animal in these variants, and if it's an animal, it's almost always either a black sheep or a red calf. The beginning of one Irish version explains that black ewes were considered good luck.

**In almost all the versions with an animal, as in the Grimms' One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes or French tale of The Blue Bull, the (step)mother sends the heroine out to pasture each day with barely anything to eat, hoping to slowly starve her, but the animal magically provides her with good food.

**As usual, the animal companion tends to be killed by the (step)mother, but unusually, it doesn't stay dead in these variants. Instead, after the heroine gathers up the bones, the animal comes back to life, limping because the heroine lost one shank bone, but otherwise none the worse for wear. There are also some variants where the animal doesn't die at all. In one Scottish version, the heroine is ordered to behead the calf herself, but instead she kills her sister (!), takes the calf and runs away.

*In both Irish and Scottish versions, the special event the heroine attends is always church, not a festival or party. Several versions take place at Christmas and have her attend the special Yuletide Masses.

*The old woman or animal typically not only provides the girl with finery and a horse to ride, but cooks the family's dinner for her by the time she gets back. In one Scottish version, Ashpitel, the black lamb doesn't even give her finery – she just dresses herself in her own fine clothes that she rarely gets to wear, while the magic the lamb provides is just to cook the dinner for her.

*In the Gaelic versions, the prince rides after the heroine the third time she rides away from church, and grabs her by the foot, but only succeeds in pulling off her shoe. Whereas in the Scots versions, she just loses her shoe by accident.

*In Scotland, the story (and the heroine) is most often called Rashin Coatie (a.k.a. Rashie Coat, or Rushen Coatie), because the heroine wears a coat made of rushes, or "rashes" in Scots dialect.

** It varies whether Rashin Coatie is simply forced to serve her (step)mother and (step)sister(s) at home, or whether she runs away, to escape either from a cruel family or from an arranged marriage, and becomes a servant at the prince's castle, a la Donkeyskin.

*Both Irish and Scottish versions tend to include the motif of foot-cutting to make the slipper fit, just like the German versions do. A bird alerts the prince, typically in a rhyme which says that "nipped foot and clipped foot" is riding with him while "pretty foot and bonny foot" is elsewhere. But it's not always the (step)sisters who do it. In the Donkeyskin-like versions of Rashin Coatie, where the heroine runs away and becomes a servant at the prince's castle, the rival who tries to trick the prince is a henwife's daughter instead.

**Henwives are ubiquitous in these variants. But in the Gaelic versions (both Irish and Scottish), the henwife is benevolent, often serving as the heroine's magical helper, while in the Scots-dialect Rashin Coatie variants, she's a secondary villain, with the above-mentioned daughter who aspires to marry the prince.

*The Gaelic versions usually continue the story after the heroine's marriage, and have her eldest sister (the blonde one) throw her into the sea or a lake, then take her place. But either the princess's bed stays afloat so she doesn't drown, or she's captured by a whale or a water monster that keeps her a prisoner in the deep, yet briefly lets her onto the shore now and then. A cowherd sees her and alerts her royal husband, who rescues her, slaying the whale or monster if there is one, and the sister is executed.

*There doesn't seem to be a strong tradition of localized, oral Cinderella stories in England the way there is in Ireland and Scotland. But this book does include an English literary version: The Cinder-Maid by Joseph Jacobs, the folklorist who gave us the best-known versions of Jack and the Beanstalk and The Three Little Pigs.

**As usual in Jacobs' retellings of folktales, he borrows motifs from various different oral versions in an attempt to write down the "definitive" version of the tale. So The Cinder-Maid is basically the Grimms' Aschenputtel, with the three-day royal festival, the heroine getting her finery from a hazel tree on her mother's grave, the prince smearing the palace steps with tar to catch her golden slipper, and the stepsisters cutting off parts of their feet. But Jacobs also includes the motifs of "finery from a nutshell" and "hollow tree opens to reveal gifts" from other versions – each dress and pair of shoes comes from inside a hazelnut from the tree, and then the trunk opens to produce a coach and horses. And the bird in the tree instructs Cinder-Maid to leave by midnight, as in Perrault. (The midnight deadline is a rare motif in international Cindrellas, despite the fame Perrault gave it; in most versions she just leaves early to ensure that she gets home before her family does.)

**In his footnotes to The Cinder-Maid, Jacobs notes the existence of Rhodopis, but he argues that the entire Cinderella story (the persecuted heroine, magical help to attend an event, etc.) most likely originated in Germany, because it was a German betrothal tradition for a man to put a shoe on his fiancée's foot. He makes no mention of Ye Xian, or the more common belief that the story was born in China from the Chinese view of tiny feet as the height of feminine beauty. This reminds me of a hypothesis I once read that maybe Ye Xian isn't really as ancient a tale as it's believed to be – that maybe the story originated in Germany, then spread to China by way of the Silk Road, and that the name "Ye Xian" may derive from the similar-sounding "aschen," the German word for "ashes" that starts every German form of Cinderella's name (Aschenputtel, Aschenbrödel, etc.). Personally, though, I don't see why the reverse can't be true: couldn't the story just as easily have travelled from China to Germany? Maybe the heroine's association with ashes started when Germans heard the name "Ye Xian" and thought it sounded similar to "aschen"!

But I'm getting ahead of myself talking about China. The next several Cinderellas I'll be reading come from Scandinavia.

@adarkrainbow, @ariel-seagull-wings, @themousefromfantasyland

[oh2e]

Since you’ve posted extensively about James Barry - I would love to know if you have any idea of how he represented his nationality while in the military.

He was said to have claimed London as his birthplace during his student years and identified as English in his thesis. However, I haven't come across any such details about his later years. Considering he was known to give varying birth years, I wonder if his claims about his origins shifted too.

There's obviously also the letter to his brother John (1808 I think), where he mentioned the honour of dying for one's country and his own desire to join the military. This could be sarcastic given the family's problems, but it might also suggest he was patriotic-ish towards a British identity.

As we know Regency - early Victorian wasn’t a very good time to be proudly Irish among the UK ruling class. He also lived through the Irish Potato Famine, which makes his stance even more intriguing. Did he conceal his Irish Catholic background throughout his life? What about his accent? Moving to England in his teens, he could have adopted a new accent, which wouldn’t be too difficult with determination I guess.

As a side note, apparently his father Jeremiah was eventually deported to Australia, tearing the family further apart. 🥲

This is such a good question! And something I’m really interested in learning more about.

My current theory is that Barry didn’t obviously identify as Irish in public. Ireland and Britain were merged in 1801 to become The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, though obviously England had been ruling Ireland long before that. Therefore Barry would’ve grown up in Ireland possibly already considering himself British. Historically there hasn’t been such a divide with being both (making that important distinction between being British and being English), much like how many Scottish people today are happy to consider themselves British also. Barry is often described as being Scotch in countenance and having studied in Scotland I wonder if he did let people assume he was Scottish rather than Irish. The accents aren’t too dissimilar to an ignorant ear and that would also allow him to get away with the odd word as Gaeilge in a way identifying himself as english wouldn’t. I know he gave his place of birth as London at some point but there is nothing to say he didn’t tell people his family were Scottish, or even Irish though I doubt it.

The thing about mentioning dying for one’s country, many Irish people died in World War I because they signed up to fight for Britain. Many. Ireland in 1914 was in a similar place to Ireland in 1801 regarding Britain’s rule, just the other way around. A lot of people regarded the war as their chance to fight for their country - yes even if they were proudly Irish they felt this was their fight too. (Not everyone obviously otherwise the Rising wouldn’t’ve happened but a not insignificant number of Irish people did go off to fight for Britain because they felt it was their duty.)

Ah the thing about the Great Famine (1845-1852) is that Barry was far far away at that point. I’m not sure how much he would’ve known about it and most (all) of what he did know would most likely have been from English newspapers, which we know are not necessarily fair on Ireland even today. However Barry was also born within living memory of an earlier famine (1740). James Barry RA was born in 1741, right at the tail end of that famine, and so Mary Anne Barry was probably not far behind him. I think there was 5 children in the family? Not many so they probably weren’t born too far apart. From my quick google to check when James Barry RA was born it also says his father (Dr Barry’s grandfather) was a coasting trader between England and Ireland.

Barry is sometimes claimed to be the child/grandchild of Lord Buchan, a Scottish Earl, and I wonder if his accent played into that. I could be wrong but James Barry RA’s insistence to be extra kind to his fellow Irish makes me think that although he lived most of his adult life in England he didn’t lose anything from home, probably including his accent. Barry MD may possibly have picked up an English accent when he was over there or he may have not. Which brings me back to my previous point of him passing himself off as Scottish. (Side note: while some people can pick up and drop accents at the top of a hat, I was raised in Ireland to parents with English accents and I never got an Irish accent. Maybe this is why I never see Barry as having lost his accent.)

Regarding Barry’s Catholicism - I’ve read very little but considering he spent most of his life abroad I am inclined to think that there would only have been one or maybe two Christian churches in the area that people attended regardless of their specific denomination. In South Africa this would’ve been a Dutch church, most likely the Dutch Reformed Church. Though of course it wouldn’t surprise me if the Church of England commandeered the Dutch Reformed Church buildings and made them C of E. Either way, I doubt Barry was proudly Catholic, not when working for the British Army.

I think I did know Jeremiah got deported but by all accounts it wasn’t much of a loss considering Mary Anne had been ignoring his correspondence, Barry had become Barry and therefore was not corresponding to anyone from home and John was in the military. It’s possible, considering the places James and John went, that they were actually closer to Jeremiah in Australia than they had been to Jeremiah in Cork.

I’m really interested in researching Barry’s Irish nationality, his Catholicism and also his knowledge of the Irish language, which at that point in time was about equally known as English was in Ireland. Especially in towns and cities and a lot of people could understand both even if they couldn’t speak both. It’s an angle that doesn’t often get considered - I presume because Barry moved to London, trained in Edinburgh and worked with the British army in British colonies - but it’s doubtful to be something that can be overlooked easily especially at the time.

I’m not unhappy when I see older pieces describe Barry as British because technically he was, but I feel that regardless of his own feelings towards being Irish or British, it is neglectful to call him British now. Ireland struggles to claim our notable people because Britain likes to get their claws in, whether because they moved to the UK, ignorance, or something else. And the fact that most historical notable people were Anglo-Irish doesn’t help but the fact that James Barry RA is *always* referred to as Irish and makes me determined to refer to Barry MD as Irish at any given opportunity.

At the end of all that - I know very little. Most of what I’ve said there is pure speculation and theorising from what we do know. I don’t know a lot about being Irish in the British army in the 19th century. I don’t know about religion in South Africa at the time. I don’t know about the opinions regarding being born Irish and British. I don’t know how Barry felt about the Great Famine. I don’t know if he was a staunch Catholic or if he…converted to being Anglican. I don’t know if he spoke Irish. I don’t know if he even wanted to be considered Irish. I don’t know and while some of that is things I can learn, a lot of it is not. I enjoy talking about it and I want to learn more.

[dear-indies]

Hi! Hope you're having a wonderful day/night! I was hoping you could help me find a faceclaim since you seem to be the master of doing that.

I'm looking for afro-indigenous faceclaims, any gender is fine, and preferably in the early 20s-late 30s age range. Also, my characters are superheroes, so any with resources with superpowers/magic would be amazing, but totally not necessary!

Thank you so much!!!

Nyla Rose (1980) Oneida / African-American - is a trans woman - is older than your age range but is a wrestler so that'd be perfect for your superhero vibes!

Thundercat / Stephen Lee Bruner (1984) Comanche, African-American.

Ravyn Ariah Wngz (1984) Mohawk, Tanzanian, Afro-Bermudian - is a Two-Spirit trans woman (she/her) - is pro Palestine!

Mumu Fresh (1985) Choctaw, Muscogee, Cherokee, African-American.

Lido Pimienta (1986) Colombian [Wayuu, Afro-Colombian] - is queer - is pro Palestine!

Amber Stevens West (1986) Comanche, African-American / White.

Kali Reis (1986) Wampanoag, Nipmuc, Cherokee / Cape Verdean - is Two-Spirit (She/Her) - is queer!

Melanie Iglesias (1987) Puerto Rican [Taino, Afro-Puerto Rican, Spanish], Filipino, Italian.

Christel Khalil (1987) Cherokee, African-American, White / Pakistani.

Brytni Sarpy (1987) Apache, Cherokee, African-American, Creole [African, French, Italian], Filipino, German, English.

O.T. Genasis (1987) Belizean [Arawak, Kalinago, Afro-Belizean].

Dana Solomon / Dana Jeffrey (1988) Ojibwe, Cree, Afro-Guyanese, Icelandic - is queer.

Joan Smalls (1988) Puerto Rican [Taino, Indian, Spanish] / Afro-Virgin Islander, Irish.

Shauna Baker (1989) Dakelh, African-American.

Kota Eberhardt (1989) Lakota Sioux / African-American.

Shannon Baker (1989) Dakelh, African-American - is bisexual.

Billie D. Merritt (1990) Comanche, Choctaw, African-American.

Shareena Clanton (1990) Blackfoot, Cherokee, African-American, Wangkatha, Yamatji, Noongar, Gija - is pro Palestine!

Ellyn Jade / Jade Willoughby (1990) Ojibwe, Jamaican [Taino, Afro-Jamaican, British], Nigerian, Swedish, Irish, German, French, Belgian - is Two-Spirit (she/her) - is not straight (otherwise unspecified) and has Nephrotic Syndrome and Celiac’s Disease.

Alanna Saunders (1991) Cherokee, African-American, Unspecified White.

Aason Nadjiwon (1992) Ojibwe / Afro-Jamaican.

Kiana V / Kiana Valenciano (1992) Puerto Rican [Taino, Afro-Puerto Rican, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese], Bicolano Filipino / Kapampangan Filipino.

Hunter Page-Lochard (1993) Nunukul, Yugambeh, Haitian, White.

Kane Brown (1993) Cherokee, African-American / English.

Ashley Moore (1993) Cherokee, African-American, White.

Triana Browne (1993) Chickasaw, African-American, Unspecified Caribbean, Polish, Irish, Scottish.

Khadijha Red Thunder (1994) Chippewa Cree, African-American, Spanish - is pansexual.

Taija Kerr (1994) Kānaka Maoli, African-American.

Asia Jackson (1994) Ibaloi / African-American - is pro Palestine!

Angel Bismark Curiel (1995) Dominican [Taino, Afro-Dominican].

Kahara Hodges (1995) Navajo, African-American, Mexican, English.

Kehlani (1995) African-American, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Mexican, Filipino, White, possibly Choctaw - is a non-binary womxn and is a lesbian (they/she but prefers they) - is pro Palestine!

Kylee Russell (1996) Lenape / Cape Verdean.

Sky Lakota-Lynch (1996) Haliwa-Saponi / Ethiopian.

Jaylan Evans (1998) Black and Haliwa-Saponi.

Boslen (1999) Haisla / Afro-Jamaican.

Lizeth Selene (1999) Mexican [Unspecified Indigenous, Black, White] - genderfluid and queer (she/they).

Dove Clarke (1999) Siksika Blackfoot, African-American - is non-binary (any pronouns), bisexual and has ADHD.

Reiya Downs (1999) Cherokee, Afro Jamaican.

Sivan Alyra Rose (1999) Chiricahua Apache / Afro-Puerto Rican, Creole - is non-binary (she/they).

D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (2001) Ojibwe, Cree, Irish, English, German, Dutch / Guyanese [Afro-Guyanese, Chinese].

Here you go!

[historia-vitae-magistras]

I was going to ask this on the old blog but alas :( I’m very sorry to hear about it, that must be tough

Buuuut a hc ? for you: do you think that Arthur’s siblings have a favorite out of his brood? Ik that they all have different relationships/histories with each of them but do you think they each individually have one that they look at and say “yeah, that’s the one”

So this is actually a fascinating question I have thought about so much it's not even funny. Arthur's sons have slightly different relationships with their aunt and uncles than Zee does. Also, I'm sorry if this gets kind of boring before I get to the interesting part I was an anthropology major for a long time and this shit fascinates me.

So when I look for how to write characters, I look at history. What peoples were where, when, and what language they spoke all play a significant role. But I'm also looking for tension. Scotland was a major player in the competition for Canada, and the Irish played an outsized role in American and Australian politics. Rewind a millennium or two before they were hatched and zoom into Celtic Europe; uncle-nephew mentorship was extremely common. Nephews were often sent to live with their uncles, and in ancient and medieval Europe, the mother's brother was usually far kinder to the sister's son than the father's brothers with their brother's sons. Amongst brothers, it could be something of a hostage situation. Don't do anything stupid; I have your heir. And I can see how that history would have affected what access to his children Arthur permitted his siblings. Historians cant see remnants of those relationships in Scottish culture until about the mid-18th century.

Rhys and Alfred. Elizabeth I was his godmother, but Rhys was his godfather. It's not a relationship that is as strong now, but Alfred's childhood was much defined by Rhys. Rhys is very much to Arthur what Matt will be to a grown Alfred. Thus, when Arthur was a new parent with all the paranoia of one, he really only trusted Rhys. Rhys has always had a more nurturing relationship with Arthur, which continues with his son. When Arthur is the type of father that's the equivalent of the young mother who got knocked up before she finished college and is drinking, partying and looting Spanish ships, Rhys was babysitting. Alfred resembled him immensely as a baby when he was all round and soft. Rhys also had to knock Arthur out of bed after an Elizabethan pegging session to see Alfred's little chonklet self take his first steps. But it was his second set of 'first steps.' The first were all his, and he's never told a soul. He also occasionally had to exorcise, kill, bribe, cajole or otherwise rid the nursery and house of all the mystical creatures attracted to the bizarre new power source in the tungsten cube baby. Due to this, Alfred picked the name Jones when he came to manhood. Rhys will always have a soft spot for Alfred and his more playful tendencies than anyone else will. Also, I think the most significant ethnicity of Quakers in the US were Welsh, and they were the only sane religion in the US, so I'm willing to credit Rhys with a lot of the reasons Alfred sort of turns out okay.

Matthew and Alasdair. This relationship started before the British Conquest with Francis inviting Alasdair to be Matthew's godfather more as a fuck you to Arthur than out of the existing affection towards Alasdair, but it didn't matter to Alasdair. He wanted that baby. The Kirk brothers hijacked the colony in 1629, and Alasdair returned the baby. He eventually had to give him back, but he's been a fixture ever since, slowly learning to be affectionate but always so gentle with him. Matt still felt neglected a lot because Alasdair and Arthur had this strange thing where they walked in circles around raising him. There was some cultural competition where the father competed with his brothers for influence over his sons. Add in Arthur's general insecurity about the children, and you get a situation where Arthur would withdraw when Alasdair did too much with Matt. This, in turn, had Alasdair withdraw so the boy wouldn't be without his father. So Matt just existed as no man's land. But Alasdair cares so, so much about him and what messy hands-on parts of parenting Matt got largely came from him.

Jack and Brighid. He is Brighid's bouncing baby boy. Her own little study in contrasts. She'd interacted with Alfred, weaving the charms into his cradle's iron with her brothers, but this tiny crackhead tumbleweed that rolls into her lap one day blurts out "Mama!" and she's a fucken goner. He imprinted on her like a baby duck, okay. And as he grew and became more and less like her with every passing day, that never faded. Irish politicians gained office in Australia before anywhere else in the anglosphere. Irishmen shook the labour paradigm in the British empire by leading strikes and taking direct action after direct action for increased rights in Australia. He got his father's temper but Brighid's grit and sense of outrage. I'm not sure if he speaks Irish, but he can sing in it, and he's been memorizing her songs his entire life. Whether it was as a toddler who didn't understand why he existed, a boy who didn't know why he would never be entirely British or enough to fit in at any school or a man standing over the grave of the child he used to be in 1916, it was her hands on his shoulders and her assurances in his ear and her influence having its say in shaping his life.

[seamsterslocal]

PINNED POST

who am i?

someone who’s been sewing since being voluntold into the puppet factory at age 7. (yes i did grow up in a circus.) a legal adult for decades now but immature enough to get away with calling myself a boy until i die. trans man who dresses like an off duty drag queen. undiagnosed autistic with sensory intolerance for synthetic fibers. proud of my weight gain and not shy to block fatphobic bigots. too arthritic to give a shit about typos or capitalizing. former professional alterations-er. white usamerican who believes strongly in class solidarity across all lines. faggot.

what will you find here?

ive never been good at keeping my tumblr self organized but i’m really going to try to keep this one focused. at first i’ll be posting project round ups and picture tutorials as i work through the immense backlog of my stash, but i’d like to answer questions and help folks troubleshoot their own sewing, fitting, and mending problems. theoretically i’d like to do video tutorials but i dont have the time or equipment. certainly some anti-oppression based political analysis and references to the leather community will filter through, and probably some garden and pet pictures. i’m going to be coaching my life and business partner through making their first clothes pretty soon here so that will be posted in some form as well. tips for adapting clothes for sensory issues and physical mobility based disabilities. me fixating on pattern matching to a truly asinine degree. all black projects covered in cat and dog hair that are really hard to photograph well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

what do i make?

ive made everything from thirty foot puppet costumes to these-jncos-arent-wide-enough industrial high fashion jeans to back support corsets and more but currently my own projects are all about providing me with a wardrobe that a) keeps me warm b) doesnt trigger any sensory issues c) makes me look like hot shit. you could call what i’m working on a capsule wardrobe but really i’d just call myself broke. my idea of looking like hot shit involves seamlessly blending the fashions of a sixty year old redneck who goes to town twice a year, and the hardest fem at goth night.

what am i interested in?

i really like historical fashion, especially viking and pre-viking era scandinavian, medieval british isles, and irish/scottish/english/american from about 1800-1960. (NOT saying that other places dont have incredible clothes and fashion traditions, but sewing is pretty much the backbone of my ancestor work—not nec. reverence bc not all of my ancestors deserve it frankly (though some do) but connection and understanding—so i focus my research and construction where my own ancestors were (if you call yourself folkish you can fuck off and die in a dumpster fire right now and if you dont, dont bother googling they dont deserve your attention)). i often take historical undergarments and adapt them for contemporary outerwear, or blend methods of fit or construction that were traditionally used exclusively for either mens or womens fashion in a single garment. somehow i ended up specializing in flattening out princess seams.

perks

follow me and maybe i’ll get someone to video me using the treadle machine which has belonged to my great grandma, my gay great uncle, my gay great uncle’s widower, my mom, and myself

new build project masterlist

alterations project masterlist

tags masterlist

“you’re really into anti-oppression, why aren’t you adding image descriptions?”

a couple reasons. as i mentioned i have a host of disabilities (physical and otherwise). my dayjob involves a lot of computer work, sewing is really hard on my hands and body, i cant always look at screen for very long, and if i made myself wait to post until i could do image descriptions, i would never post at all. i don’t think requiring disabled folks to do things they can’t is the best approach to radical hospitality. if anyone feels moved to add image descriptions to anything i do, i will reblog their post with the tag ‘image descriptions added.’ my main aim in starting this blog is to share my knowledge with trans/disabled folks and other people that experience gender dysphoria, body dysmorphia, sensory issues, or physical difficulties getting clothes on and off without pain. the typed writeup that will accompany each picture tutorial is my best attempt at sharing my knowledge and processes with anyone who uses a screen reader

[simptasia]

You know what i've been thinking about? If Aaron was raised on the island, what would his accent be? Cause you see all those studies of the people of multiple countries coming together in remote places having children and their accents are something unheard of. Totally new accent. So by that would Aaron's accent be something like that? A mash of British/Australian/American/Korean/Iraqi/ whatever is wrong with Ben, like a totally new accent. Of course, I'm just condensing like Sawyer has his YeeHaw accent and Mike has a more New York, Hurley is Mexican and while he has an American accent in English when Speaking Spanish It's probably not that sooooo I'm just so curious on if they never left what the fuck their accent would be like. Plus, if they stayed on the island and Jin Suns kid was born there and in the future more babies would they inherit the same accent? Like say in this scenario Juliet/Sawyer or Kate/Jack or even fucking Charlie/desmond had children would they too inherit this new dialect/Accent thats contained to them only?Like would they create their own unique accent?, and when Aaron gets older he gets with Ji Yeon (which is so funny like the show runners were like yeah at the end they're still watching Bluey, we should totally imply they get together as adults) So if they hypothetically do get together in this idea where they never leave the island would their children help develop this complete unique accent?

funnily enough, you're pretty much describing what caused the australian accent to begin with. they plopped a ton of english and irish people here, added alcohol and a brand new fucked up way to talk was born

yes, studies show that a child's accent comes more from their enviroment more than their parents! hence why i have an adelaide aussie accent rather than my mum's southern english accent. because i grew up here. this also explains why daniel sounds american as opposed to his english mother. thats actually how it works (tho daniel also went to oxford during his teens so he should sound at least a bit more english but be glad we were spared jeremy attempting that)

i like this idea!

okay so, i think in regular world of lost, aaron grows up to have an american accent but with aussie turns of phrase. because i imagine aaron to be raised by claire and kate, in america. and also sawyer, miles, richard and frank are part of his life too. so claire is really outnumbered here. but he refers to her as "mum"

in this au where everybody stays on the island forever? ...probably still american because holy shit theres a lot of americans on this show but you're right, it could be at least a little muddled. i don't think it'd turn into an immediate frankenstein melting pot of aussie, england (north and south), american (yeehaw and otherwise), korean, iraqi and scottish because thats not exactly how accents work, it would take longer. but certain words and phrases would mix in aaron and ji yeon's (and the other hypothetical babies) little brains. and like certain pronunciations would probably be off. like, they'd be somewhat uncanny. also it's probable that these versions of aaron and ji would be so fucking good at accent impressions. oh and in this world, i like to think aaron can speak korean because he'd hear it around him a lot

so i think yeah the next gen in that AU would sound like,,, kinda weird sounding americans? so basically canadians

i've done my own recreational study of linguistics and phonetics in my time but i'd love to hear about this from somebody who knows more about this stuff than me. that'd be neat

also bless you for taking the take to adknowledge that not all the american accents are the same in this show (or in real life). i know i glide past it sometimes but its a fact i'm very aware of too

oh, oh, since you brought this up:

"Hurley is Mexican and while he has an American accent in English when Speaking Spanish It's probably not that sooooo"

i will take the opptunity to once again say that while hurley's voice is whiny american when he's speaking english (in a cute way! no dunk!), when he's speaking spanish his voice is absolutely beautiful

i realise that spanish accent > american accent isn't exactly a hot take but it blows me away because its coming out the same guy

thank you for allowing me to bring that up again. and for your time

[dweemeister]

I Know Where I’m Going! (1945)

If not for World War II, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger might not have made I Know Where I’m Going! Looking to film a high-concept Technicolor feature that eventually became A Matter of Life and Death (1946; AKA Stairway to Heaven), the duo encountered trouble when they learned that almost every Technicolor camera in non-occupied Western Europe was being used to make Allied military training films. So while biding their time, they looked to film a story that Pressburger pounded out on his typewriter in four days. Originally known as The Misty Island, I Know Where I’m Going! is a poignant romance containing dollops of comedy, Scottish folklore, and traces of adventure. Aided by the misty oceanic landscapes and two subtle (but worthy) central performances, this movie from the Archers (the production company for Powell and Pressburger, but also a nickname for the two) balances its earthiness and mysticism to form an effective romantic drama.

After a narrated prologue/opening credits fast forwarding through the first twenty-five years of her life, the Mancunian woman Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) departs home to the Hebrides in order to marry industrialist Sir Robert Bellinger (voiced by Norman Shelley). Joan has never met the much older Sir Bellinger, who lives on the fictional Isle of Kiloran. A multipart journey involving trains and boats takes place – all on time, exactly as Sir Bellinger’s travel itinerary has laid out for Joan. Following a fascinating montage travel scene thanks to editor John Seabourne, Sr. (1943’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, 1957’s A King in New York), Joan arrives at her final stop before the boat to Kiloran – the Isle of Mull. There, Joan finally has a delay in her travel schedule. Inclement weather for the next few days will make passage impossible. There, she meets Royal Navy officer Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey), who is on leave from the service. The two stay the night at a friend of Torquil’s, Catriona Potts (Pamela Brown), and her overeager Irish Wolfhounds. Joan soon learns that Torquil is the Laird of Kiloran and – with the poor conditions not improving – he gladly shows Joan many of the locals and sights. Gradually, Joan’s emotional walls crumble, leaving her making a choice unanticipated and uncharacteristic.

The colorful cast of supporting actors include C.W.R. Knight as the falconer Colonel Barnstaple, Finlay Currie as the sailor Ruairidh Mhór, George Carney as Joan’s father, Nancy Price as Mrs. Crozier, and Catherine Lacey as the busybody Mrs. Robinson. Thirteen-year-old Petula Clark is Cheril, the Robinsons’ daughter.

How in the world did Pressburger type out this screenplay (the writing credit also goes to Powell) in a few days? The Archers came into pre-production knowing what sort of story they wished to tell. Intending to carry over the anti-materialist messages from their previous film – 1944’s A Canterbury Tale – they juxtapose constantly the idea of Joan’s idea of marrying a rich husband with the poor and working-class background of the Isle of Mull’s residents. The origins of Joan’s affluent tastes, established in the opening sequence over the opening credits, are never fully explained. Is it a legacy of living in extremely class-conscious early 20th century England? Perhaps a coping mechanism or compensating for some personal shortcoming? Whatever it is, it makes Joan’s progression as a character and the climactic decisions of the film feel less believable than they should be. This is, for me, the glaring hole in an otherwise fine screenplay from the Archers. The superb performances from Hiller and Livesey almost remedy my qualms here.

And what performances they deliver. Wendy Hiller had been primarily a stage actress by the time she made a leap into the movies. The second film she made was the 1938 adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, in which she played Eliza Doolittle. She became the first British actress to receive an Academy Award acting nomination in a British movie as a result. With her stock on the rise and looking forward to working with her, Powell and Pressburger signed her up to play the female lead in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. But her second pregnancy forced her to step away from the production, leaving that role to Deborah Kerr. In I Know Where I’m Going!, Hiller has to exercise restraint for almost all of this film. As much as I criticized the on-paper believability of the Joan and Torquil’s developing relationship in the preceding paragraph, Hiller does her darndest to sell it. Her initial indifference to Scotland’s charms wears down as she contemplates her situation and begins to accept the slower pace of life far from the comfortable trappings of middle-class Manchester.

It takes a second performance to make all this work, and Roger Livesey does so ably. Livesey is no Laurence Olivier or Leslie Howard in terms of conventional handsomeness, but he terrifically complements Hiller in their moments together. Patient and kind to the Englishwoman who initially thinks little of the people and the places surrounding her, Torquil is no foil to Joan (this is not exactly an attraction of opposites), but their upbringings and views of tradition are markedly different. Livesey portrays this difference well in his vocal inflections and his bemused facial acting. Most viewers might not notice, but despite I Know Where I’m Going! being shot mostly on-location, Livesey never left London during production. Livesey was part of a play in London’s West End, and that production’s producers would not allow him to leave for Scotland to take part in the on-location shooting. So, for any exterior scenes in this film, Hiller is interacting with a body double. Look closer and you will notice that Livesey is always shot in close-up whenever the film’s narrative is outdoors.

By the time Pressburger completed the screenplay and filming began in the second half of 1944, Allied victory in Europe seemed to be drawing near. After several years of war – at times unsure whether the United Kingdom might survive the Axis onslaught – thoughts inevitably turned to what life might be like again once the guns fell silent. British social changes during wartime, whether by popular practice or by Parliamentary law, led the average British person to believe in a postwar society less class-conscious and economically fairer for all. We never see Sir Roger Bellinger in I Know Where I’m Going!, but there are implications he has profited from fueling the Allied war machine. There are other hints that Sir Bellinger is unaware of how his less wealthier neighbors act, that he is lacking the social etiquette and consciousness to interact with anybody outside his stratified circles (see: his manner of speech while speaking over the radio and his overly detailed itinerary for Joan regarding the trip from Manchester to Kiloran).

Meanwhile, the residents on the Isle of Mull are uniformly depicted as free-wheeling, fun-loving, and content with the human companionship and natural beauty – shot beautifully by cinematographer Erwin Hillier, who often was instructed by Powell to suspend shooting if the sky was too clear, and to wait until some clouds dotted the landscape – they have. The war is far from their concerns (the only explicit mention of WWII in the film might be that Torquil is on leave from the Royal Navy), almost as if it was not happening at all. The philosophies driving the violent on continental Europe and those spoken through the halls in Westminster seem as faraway as Shangri-La in Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon (1937). In place of the economics and politics of war, Gaelic dialogue, legends, and song fill the time as the isle’s residents go about their self-sufficient livelihoods.

Though, in terms of chronology, I Know Where I’m Going! takes place during WWII, it feels like the Archers’ first postbellum film. From 49th Parallel (1941) to The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp to the preceding A Canterbury Tale, the duo’s entire filmography by this point was rife with propaganda or propaganda-adjacent work (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is an exception, but it is heavily defined by three separate periods of British wartime). Taken in conjunction with Joan’s romantic second-guessing, I Know Where I’m Going! advocates for the needs of the heart from the moment Joan steps foot in Scotland. More broadly, it expresses hope that Britons can hold fast to more egalitarian principles once World War II concludes.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Technicolor expressionism as seen in A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes (1948), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) was not yet in evidence. That would come only with greater artistic freedom, British audiences being able to separate their reputations from their earlier wartime work, and greater funds for those later works. The duo’s artistic vision, however, is without question in I Know Where I’m Going! The scene depicting the Corryvreckan whirlpool is stunning visual effects work (inspired by Moses’ parting of the Red Sea in Cecil B. DeMille’s original 1923 silent version of The Ten Commandments), in addition to the expressive lighting and cinematography of the exterior Scottish scenes.

On the other side of the Atlantic, I Know Where I’m Going! was no financial blockbuster, but it was a commercial and critical success in America. Some time after its release, Powell and Pressburger learned that I Know Where I’m Going! was shown to contracted writers at Paramount Pictures to exemplify, “how a perfect screenplay should be constructed.” Now, there might be no such thing as a “perfect” screenplay – and I hardly think I Know Where I’m Going! is close to that conversation if there is one – but it is certainly an inspired choice to teach screenwriters how to structure their narratives, appropriate places for narration, and how to build a relationship between two characters (which still requires some assistance from the actors).

In the years after making I Know Where I’m Going!, Powell deemed the film the “sweetest” he ever made with Pressburger. The down-to-earth humor and affection for the land and its people is always apparent, a quieter work amid the din of a war near its end. Through Joan and Torquil, the Archers express a social ideal unimaginable for many Britons even decades prior to this film’s release. Amid their many other works with war at the forefront, I Know Where I’m Going! lays bare its aspirations of life simply lived, the only sort of life worth living.

My rating: 8/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[essayofthoughts]

what would you think of Percy with a Scottish accent? a friend of mine said a few of his lines in his Scottish brogue and he told me that Percy might have sounded even cooler and more intimidating if Tal had chosen that for him. but I'm not sure how I feel about that.... as a Percy enthusiast what do you think??

Uhhh.

TL;DR: No offence to your friend but no, I don't think it'd work.

To Explain:

Percy is very much the posh British schoolboy (with all the arrogance and hubris that entails) and per Taliesin, he's not even meant to be cool. He's meant to be kind of an arsehole. A complete dork. A bit of an idiot. The coolness is an accident - purposefully doing something to make him "cooler" would undermine that.

And then, secondarily, we know that a lot of his intimidation is a thin veneer over his own anger and terror and trauma - making the intimidation more sincere would again undermine the narrative arc and the depth of his trauma.

And then, from that - why a Scottish accent? Why does that make him cooler and more intimidating? Americans often find Scottish or Irish accents (though not Welsh, I've noticed, which is a shame, because Welsh accents are lovely imo) more cool and fun than British (which is the stereotypical villain accent) but that's an outside opinion imposed on the accent.

As for intimidation - is that the Angry Scotsman trope in play to some extent? The Drunk Glaswegian? The idea that because Scotland had to be "civilised" by their superior (British) neighbours (who did a colonialism, in a way, with the goddamn highland clearances!) because they're angry and barbaric and dangerous? Is that leaning into unhelpful stereotypes by using an accent to convey something where the personality and character alone should be able to provide that?

Changing something purely for your own satisfaction in your art or fic is absolutely fine - sure, go ahead, do that. But remember that by making a change you (general you, to be clear, not you Nonny specifically) are saying that, in some way, this change is important, if not to the story then to the person making the change. And from it, people will infer things about the story (okay, if Percy has a Scottish accent then that implies Whitestone might be more culturally Scottish, does that make Melanie de Rolo a bit of a Lady Macbeth, does that shift the culture of the area?) or about the writer who imposed the change (did they just do it because they think it's cool?) and not all of what they infer will be what you intend.

From your ask, this isn't about fic. This is just in general. And... I always think it's a bit arrogant to think one knows better than the creator, who picked an accent for the character on purpose. And we know too, that Taliesin had full rein over Percy and that he has thought a lot about the character. He picked the posh British boarding school boy accent out on purpose - to convey the education and arrogance and hubris and even entitlement that were parts of Percy's character. While I don't think Percy's entitled on stream so much, he almost certainly was prior to the Briarwoods and we get that from choices made in how he's presented to us, accent included.

These things have meaning, they speak to upbringing and culture and history, and if we change them we have to ask what those changes mean. What they imply about everything else. Otherwise they're purely aesthetic and can undermine something originally made with intent.

And in Percy, there is intent. He's not meant to be cool - the coolness is an accident. His intimidation is a sham meant to hide his own fear and trauma - he wears a mask to be intimidating; it's not a subtle metaphor! Making him more cool and intimidating misses the point of his character which is that he isn't really either of those things.

He's just kind of a mess and a bit of a dick.

TL;DR2: I think your friend may be projecting some of their own opinions onto the accent without necessarily thinking them through or how they necessarily apply to the character in question.

[seeminglyseph]

When I was in Jr High, my social studies teacher explained that Canada is a melting pot and America is a filing cabinet, metaphorically speaking. And sometimes that makes a bit more sense to me when I see some people be like “I’m Irish” “I’m Polish” “I’m French” and can draw a family line back like five generations and still have like a clear ethnic heritage that makes any kind of sense?

Because friend I am like a few generations down from refugees of Eastern Europe during the Russian revolutions and some Dutch-Scotts-British Isle shit and asking what I am is like.

Bro that is why we developed the term Euromutt. I don’t fucking know? The Scottish and Scandinavian has combined to give me a need for more sunscreen than anyone else alive but otherwise I could not tell you my dude.

Im trying to kinda figure out some kinda heritage, but like in general… things are a lot more mixed up here.

And sometimes American classifications just don’t work or make sense anywhere else. We just do not work that way. You still have segregated systems even within white communities, and that’s kinda wild. Maybe I don’t get it, I might have been raised in a weird way. Idk.

[butterfrogmantis]

What are the nationalities of the boy Smurfs in your human AU?

Nationality of legal residence makes every single guy a dual-nationality Belgian resident. (Nationality is country of birth or current citizenship and all the guys move to Belgium in my human au)

And generally their birth nationalities will just be whatever accent they have in show (with exceptions of comic only Smurfs) But nationality isn’t the same as race/ethnicity if that’s what you actually mean to ask, that would be a much longer list

I mean I otherwise for country of birth nationalities I have:

Marco, Tracker, Hunter, Sweepy, Archaeologist, Palaeontologist, Fisher, Vanity, Somebody - British English

Gutsy - British Scottish

Weather - British Welsh

Miner - Northern-Irish

Chef, Don, Barber - Italian

Blacksmith - German

Painter - French

Papa - Indian

And basically everyone else is probably American since the 80’s cartoon show was made in America sooo that’s what all the accents are lmao

But that’s still not getting down to all the cities/states etc these guys are from or if they have parents from different countries (Brainy is American/Belgian and Harmony is English/American but both have grown up in America) and absolutely doesn’t showcase the diversity of cultures or ethnicities since being born in America or England doesn’t make all these guys white no no

Ain’t identity complicated

[theinfinitedivides]

being british is not "a fast track to being not decent". if you're not living in britain then your perception is being altered by the fact that the only ones you ever fucking see on screen were born into the 0.1%.

also how did you miss the entire point of that post, the point is that any english actor allowed to have any kind of career these days is the opposite of representative of the majority of citizens. hopefully you're just a kid but if not jesus christ learn to fucking read

i was going to start this with the traditional pleasantries but it seems my general use of sarcasm (humorous or otherwise) on this main for the past 3+ years is lost on you (even though i am trying to give you the benefit of the doubt by saying that you're coming across me for the first time), so let me make it very clear: my ancestors were f*cking enslaved by the UK. there are ancestors that haven't been confirmed except through word of mouth that were most likely f*cked over by the UK in various ways. i think then, in this circumstance, that i have the right to say that the British government in general has done f*cking horrible things. the British themselves have done f*cking horrible things. i am not talking about individual people on the streets and in the countryside just trying to live their lives, i am talking about the entire f*cking system that enables sh*t like this. the British system is not decent. not at all, and if you're steeped in that like a mf*cking teabag for God knows how long, i've found it hard to discover exceptions to the societal bedrock that is racism, classism and white jackassery since we're talking about the same place that, despite giving us Shakespeare and Rickman and Princess Diana (landed gentry aside) also gave us Churchill (took the UK through WWII but engineered a f*cking famine in India bc according to him they 'breed like rabbits'), the f*cking Fiennes clan (Ralph is a JKR supporter), and Charles and Andrew and the rest of the royal f*cking family, so if that isn't a fast track to being not decent then idk what is.

that being said, sure, as cynical of a bitch that i am maybe my perception is less than ideal bc of the 0.1%, but if all of the f*cking people in charge are part of the 0.1% then how tf do you expect me to say otherwise, exactly? the reason there isn't representation is bc the industry sucks ass, which is why the only actors i'm interested in are Welsh and Irish and Scottish—the status quo rn is not concerned with allowing people with a regular 'English' background to have their time on screen, let alone LGBTQ+ and POC. and so yes, the nepo babies are going to continue to have a career, even if they act worse than f*cking paint on a drywall, and the cycle will start all over again, and we can forget about having a f*cking accurate portrayal of the average citizen any time soon, and this goes for the British film industry and Hollywood and Bollywood—contrary to your belief, i am privileged enough to have been able to learn in such a way that i was able to pick up the necessary comprehension skills needed to function meaningfully in this society without being disenfranchised. (PSA: others, i know, have not been able to. that does not make them worth any less.) i didn't know, however, that i was supposed to write an entire essay in the f*cking tags??? to explain that i did, in fact, comprehend??? and to reiterate what was already f*cking there??? i'm sorry??? just bc i chose not to address the aforementioned info and instead indirectly acknowledged that it was correct by emphazing what i did doesn't mean i didn't see it—i literally put a qualifier for the first point you brought up (something like '... if the ancestors minded their f*cking business #and lived their lives like normal human beings'). generational tendencies and traits are a thing, that's why we have a whole subset of American citizens who still think it's alright to use the f*cking N word to refer to Black people

look, i really don't know what side of the bed you woke up on and i'm sorry you felt the need to come into my inbox and bitch about this, but i hope you felt better after sending this and didn't put any of this toxicity into anyone else's space, OK? ty <333