#but also these translators. were flemish.

[saviourkingslut]

there's only french or dutch sub available and it's so funny bc you can tell from the dutch this was made for the belgian market first and the dutch market second. also bc all the animated kanji have the french translation written over it

FMA:B BACK ON DUTCH NETFLIX HALLELUJAH AND REJOICE

[mathmusicreading]

Xiè Lián: My surname is Xiè, my first name is Lián. Huā Chéng: You can call me your third husband. Xiè Lián: What happened to my first two husbands?!

I learned Huā Chéng was having Xiè Lián call him "husband" from Ty the Canasian on Kictor's YouTube, I found this when I was trying to corroborate the linguistics, and I indulged and bought the official Seven Seas Entertainment (translator and editor are on Tumblr!) English translations of the books so here's further confirmation from Volume 1:

ETA:

I made this post private because I was unhappy with it (misspelling/misformatting Wúmíng, knowing I wouldn't have good reach for larger and less biased sample size even if I could have tagged better for the fandoms and characters if Tumblr organized by more than the first five tags), but I'm making it public again since it finished and so did the similar poll that fun-mxtx-polls was kind enough to make for me.

Not to bias towards the first option, just to explain it, the first option and why I wanted this poll come from the naming pattern trivia for MXTX's love interests/male leads/gongs, which I think you can best read on Huā Chéng's page on the Heaven Official's Blessing/Tiān Guān Cì Fú wikia. I'm just using that as my citation given:

I'm not sure if MXTX has discussed this meta in-joke somewhere and if so, where.

The SSE Glossary: Terminology note (all volumes of all three MXTX novels) only explains the second and third gongs, and implies MXTX is doing this purposefully. Lán Wàngjī's wikia page explains only the three published gongs, and implies this started from fandom phenomena creating a proto-stage pattern (if you subscribe to "one is chance, two is coincidence, three is a pattern"). Huā Chéng's page linked above is the odd man out and so probably incorrect about Lán-èr-gē vs. Lán-èr-gēge, but it goes above and beyond by explaining the fourth gong, and it uses the most neutral language regarding this trivia.

I think citation is unnecessary for "gē" (哥 | 哥) meaning "big brother" and in certain contexts having the connotation or meaning of "eldest brother" (admittedly my unverified inference), "èr" (二 | 二) meaning "two", and "sān" (三 | 三) meaning "three".

I actually like so much because I like to think if it could use more wordplay and less literalism. Please forgive me for being a poor reader not remembering exactly, not buying the TGCF raws yet, not being able to buy the SVSSS and MDZS raws, and only being able to find old fan translations/interpretations of MXTX's fourth novel preview, but let me explain:

I believe Luò Bīnghé isn't being called "Luò Bīnghé-gē" (or rather "Bīng-gē" since I think? it's more usual to use the suffix with the single/first character of a person's given name, not with their full name, especially when the full name is three (or more? some of my reading has mentioned two-character last names but I didn't find if culture was strict about then making the given name be only one character) characters) for the usual reasons to address someone with "gē", but actually the PIDW!Luò Bīnghé is being called Luò Bīnggē (or "Bīng-gē") because he's more aggressive than canon/SVSSS!Luò Bīnggē who when being differentiated gets called Luò Bīngmèi (or "Bīng-mèi"), and I love that "very fitting reasoning for the naming, not strictly literal and not so bound to literal".

Then with Lán Wàngjī, I see the opportunity that his nickname could have used the natural naming of "erhua is used as a diminutive suffix", and the "er" would have been homophonous with "èr" (二 | 二) for "two" for him being the second gong, and homophonous to the potential "proper address for him as the second Lán son/brother".

In the most literal sense, you'll notice that the gongs so far have had their nicknames be using "(big) brother" and Huā Chéng's uses láng (郎 | 郎) "son" (his stated meaning, although it can also mean "man" and "husband" and the latter is how we can interpret he wanted it to be when coming from Xiè Lián). There's nothing wrong with that and the numbers are perfectly probable, and would still be so as they grow, but also they could feel more like "contrived" coincidence, which is part of my wanting to get away from literalism a little bit, not just my loving clever wordplay. With Huā Chéng, I don't have a homophone I can use for punning like with Lán Wàngjī, or really the "cultural language use where literal suffixes/honorifics get used figuratively for XYZ purposes", but I can make it fit with character interpretation. To me, Sān Láng doesn't have to be "Third Son" because "he has two older brothers" and in fact we aren't sure that he was telling the truth about that—instead, I think Huā Chéng could be being clever with not just getting Xiè Lián to call him (Third/surname "Three") Husband but in saying his name is "Third Man" because this is the third alias he gives Xiè Lián. (Some additional feels this gives me: It's like he's saying he's the same person Xiè Lián met before, that they shared all of that experience and it mattered, that he's the final form of that person wanting to be with Xiè Lián, that he's like a fairy-tale character with many names and forms and a true name and form and all along there was a trick or thread to follow in knowing and identifying him.) It just works out so perfectly because of the third way he introduces himself to Xiè Lián matching him being the third gong, and also the fairy-tale significant number of "three".

Finally, with the fourth gong, I've looked at Suika's TGCF Afterword translation, a NovelUpdates MDZS spoilers forum post by K.san crossposted to the Grim Reapers Have No Days Off spoilers forum by alexfilia, a reply to this post in r/tianguancifu by u/chenmochou, and also this post in r/tianguancifu by u/Loud_Daikon6167 which cites a TikTok I can't see either because of TikTok's thing about opening to a random page/the homepage or I assume the TikTok being removed or locked. Given the first NovelUpdates post maybe having more of a direct translation compared to the first Reddit post, it's still not definitive to me whether this is "actually more of a fandom thing, with MXTX acknowledging and participating in it enough to help make it possible" or it's "MXTX doing this on purpose with her name choices and character traits, whether she meant to have the pattern from the start or later, and yes could have been influenced by fandom" because I think "Other: 四少" is probably about the male lead(s) compared to it following "Protagonist: the uke's name is not determined yet" so it doesn't seem like the fandom came up with a nickname out of whole cloth. "Four young masters" is perfectly probable and could be equally reasonable, and "four ikemen" could even follow in reasonability; in fact it could be more likely and realistic since this is a modern setting, which would have different use of "young master" to me, and because we believe the gong to be the regular human and the shou to be the grim reaper. But for the wordplay, I would have liked it if the gong were the grim reaper and the "four theme naming" came from the famous "sì" (四 | 四) meaning "four" is homophonous with "sǐ" (死 | 死) meaning "die/death" and the latter being used in the Chinese for "grim reaper"/"death god".

[mesetacadre]

What is the origin (and meaning) of the flag adopted by the Second Spanish Republic? The choice of colors seems rather unconventional to me...

The purple stripe was adopted officially by the second republic as a nod to Castille, a big region in the middle of Spain:

Hoy se pliega la bandera adoptada como nacional a mediados del siglo XIX. De ella se conservan los dos colores y se le añade un tercero, que la tradición admite por insignia de una región ilustre, nervio de la nacionalidad, con lo que el emblema de la República, así formado, resume más acertadamente la armonía de una gran España

Translation:

Today the flag adopted as the national one towards the mid 19th century is folded. From it, the two colors remain and a third one is added, which tradition takes as the insignia of an illustrious region, nerve of nationality, and therefore the Republic's emblem, thus formed, contains more accurately the harmony of a great Spain.

The purple as a symbol of Castille comes from a misunderstanding of what the 1520 revolt of Comuneros used as a symbol. The color of Castille has always been described as crimson, which is sometimes confused to have a more purplish hue. While it has been shown the Comuneros used a red cross as opposition to the imperial white cross, popular wisdom was that they used purple, and it gradually became an actual color used by Castillian regionalists.

Note on the Comuneros, Castillian regionalism, and some trivia about the Republic's coat of arms under the cut:

The revolt of 1520 happened in the context of emperor Carlos 1st (5th of the HRE) barely speaking the language, favoring politically and financially the Flemish court with the wealth extracted from the Americas, and also funding very expensive wars that didn't even have anything to do with the Crown of Spain. He was also a corrupt monarch who raised taxes. Both the nobility, which wanted more participation in governing, and the merchant/middle strata (including an embryonic bourgeoisie!), which were being overburdened with taxes, revolted against the king. The focus of the revolt and where they had more strength was in Castille, and one of the forms of territorial organization of the Crown of Castille was the Communities, which is where the name comes from. The people who participated in the revolt as well as the modern political movements that claim to descend from them (more on that later) are known as Comuneros, which I'd translate as Communards.

I won't go into very much detail, and this is still a debated topic. The character of the revolt had many axes, one of which was the more popular elements (peasants, bourgeoisie, artesans, merchants, etc), to the point that it is considered by some to be some of the first if not the first attempt at a bourgeois revolution in Modern Spain, another was the more opportunistic axis (fiscal reform, the nobility, etc.). What matters is that a very strong narrative has grown around the 1520 revolt, beginning in the Golden Era of the 17th century and its literature, that of a popular revolt and of a relatively old and legitimizing ancestor for the popular movements in Castille.

This is the Comunero flag nowadays, notice the purple field as a reclamation of this color as a Castillian symbol. What's of more interest to me is the following flag:

This flag and the movement it represents, Izquierda Castellana (Castillian Left) emerged after the end of the dictatorship, not as a separatist kind of regionalism, but as one that appreciates the history and culture of Castille. The red star is a very overt influence from communists and socialists, which are, as far as I'm aware, quite present in Izquierda Castellana.

So purple in Spanish politics has been, ever since the ~16th/17th century, associated with the popular movements and tendencies of Spain, particularly those in the peninsula's center. It became even more cemented in this role after the Second Republic adopted it, sort of hitchhiking the much bigger Republican tendencies.

The Second Republic's coat of arms subtitutes the monarchich crown for a castle in the shape of a crown, both as another nod to Castillianism and to symbolize the replacement of the monarchy for the people themselves

In the short life of the Republic, its symbols found their way into a lot of places or replacing old symbols, and almost all of them were destroyed during the dictatorship. The most prominent exception is the facade of Madrid's main train station, Atocha (originally named Estación del Mediodía (midday station)):

Notice it perched on the clock? I don't know if it went unnoticed, or if they did not care enough (unlinkely). It is possible it went unnoticed because I can't find information on it. Other examples of this castle-mural crown remaining in Madrid are:

This lightpole right in front of the Royal Palace

And this massive coat of arms on the facade of the Bank of Spain

[irish-dress-history]

16th c. Costume Books, a Problematic Source for Dress History

But did they really dress like this?

Costume books and costume albums are a popular source for dress historians, historical costumers, and reenactors researching 16th and early 17th c. Europe. There are good reasons for this. They are primary source documents (at least sometimes), and they show the clothing of cultures and social groups that are difficult-to-impossible to find in other types of period art, like the Irish and rural peasants. Examples of these books include Trachtenbuch des Christoph Weiditz, Habiti antichi et moderni di tutto il Mondo di Cesare Vecellio, and Théâtre de tous les peuples et nations de la terre avec leurs habits et ornemens divers. These books are, however, deeply problematic as a dress history source for several reasons. In this post, I will discuss the ways they are problematic and how those of us researching historical dress can gain a better understanding of what the people shown in these books were actually wearing. I have broken down the problems with using these images into 4 areas.

Embodied biases:

The creators of these books were, at least sometimes, prejudiced against the cultures they were portraying, and these biases may have affected how they characterized these cultures. Hans Weigel, author of Habitus praecipuorum populorum, characterized his native German fashion as modest and virtuous and characterized elaborate Italian fashions as decadent and corrupt. Weigel considered these 'strange' foreign fashions a threat to the 'civilized' German fashion he favored (Bond 2018). This bias might have motivated Weigel to idealize his portrayal of German fashion or to exaggerate the strangeness of Italian fashion in order to scare his readers away from trying it.

Weigel's dislike of flashy foreign fashions seems mild in comparison to the bigotry of some of his peers. Flemish artist Lucas de Heere and French artist François Desprez both labeled the Scottish 'savages' in their books. Jost Amman's description of a purported Turkish sex worker in the German edition of Gynaeceum, sive Theatrum mulierum, is appallingly bigoted:

"A Turkish Wh*re: This is a prostitute, who sells her impure body for dirty money to a lover that pleases her. With the earnings of this sin she dresses herself prettily and beautifully, in order to attract the Turks even more easily with her false ornaments." (translation from Ilg 2004)

Considering the blatant bigotry he shows here, I wouldn't anything about trust Amman's depictions of sex workers, Turks, or any other non-Western Europeans. Or any other women, really.

Sights unseen:

Even when costume book creators weren't actively trying to perpetuate their biases through their work, their ignorance could still cause problems. These artists did not always visit the countries whose costumes they painted. They relied on other artists' work or even just verbal descriptions to fill in the gaps in their knowledge. The resulting images can distort the cut, construction, and material of the clothing.

For example, the Turkish women in this original woodcut by Pieter Coecke van Aelst are wearing shawls or scarves with long fringe wrapped around their heads and shoulders. In the Christoph von Sternsee costume album's illustration based off Coecke van Aelst's print, the fringed shawl has become a strange, tailored hood with a panel of pleated cloth attached to either it or the gown below.

(Coecke van Aelst's woodcuts were identified as the source for the von Sternsee album's illustration in Katherine Bond's 2018 dissertation.)

Copy of a copy of what?

In spite of the problems it causes, copying from other artists' work was common in costume albums (Bond 2018). Considering that the artists did not visit all the cultures they illustrated, this is unsurprising. Some images were copied repeatedly, and the artist misunderstanding the source material wasn't the only source of distortion. Artists also made up details to compensate for bare-bones source material.

This simple line black-and-white print of an Irish woman wearing a léine (linen tunic), brat (Irish mantle), and headwear was used by several artists, all of whom made changes and additions. The first copy in this post is the most faithful to the original, but it still adds long sleeves and eyelet holes on the neckline to the léine. The coloring of the headwear suggests a wool hat crested with a tuft of horsehair and having a linen roll at the bottom. The coloring also gives the brat a contrasting lining.

The second knockoff is the most famous. It comes from Lucas De Heere's illustration which purportedly shows Irish people in service to King Henry VIII. This is some thing De Heere couldn't have actually seen, as he moved to England 20 years after Henry VIII died and never went to Ireland at all. De Heere took the most liberties with his version. His Irish woman appears to be topless under her brat. The bottom of her léine has much less volume than the original, and De Heere has added an apron. For the hat, De Heere has replaced the crest with triangles of green wool.

Unlike De Heere's version, the final version is mostly loyal to the cut shown in the original, but it makes some unlikely suggestions for the materials. The léine appears to be green silk brocade. The brat also appears to be silk. Accounts from people who actually went to Ireland in the 16th and early 17th centuries state that these garments were made of linen and wool, respectively. Both the hat and its crest are now completely made of linen.

Chronological distortion:

The heavy use of copying in costume books also has the potential to mislead us in terms of when these fashions were worn, because the original images may be significantly older than publication year of the books that copy them. For example, the dress of Livonian women shown in Hans Weigel's 1577 book was almost certainly copied from Albrecht Dürer's 1521 watercolors. Weigel used references that were more than half a century old, but described them as if they were contemporary fashion in 1577.

Even when costume book images are accurate portrayals of their source material, many of them lack the detail needed to identify seams, fabric types, or garment understructures. How do we deal with these problems when attempting to reconstruct what the people shown in these books actually wore?

What do we do about it?

I am not saying that we should discard these things completely as sources. Dress historians as respected as Patterns of Fashion author Janet Arnold and The Tudor Tailor authors Jane Malcolm and Ninya Mikhaila have used costume book illustrations. I definitely know less about 16th c. dress history than Jane and Ninya. I am just saying we shouldn't use them uncritically.

First, do some research on the costume book you're looking at. When was it created? Do the illustrations look suspiciously similar to those in other books? (Google image search and pinterest can be helpful for identifying this.) Did the creator, like Hans Weigel, have a particular bias they were advancing? Did they actually visit the cultures they portrayed? Christoph Weiditz actually traveled quite a bit, but he did not visit the British Isles, so his Irish and English women are probably based on someone else's art (Bond 2018). A lot of the scholarly publications about costume books are frustratingly paywalled, but some of them can be accessed for free via researchgate or academia.edu.

Avoid using copies when possible, even if the copies are more realistic-looking or more detailed art. As I discussed in the examples above, artists change things when they copy. Publication dates of copies can also be misleading in terms of dating clothing styles.

Find other sources such as: written descriptions from the time period, extant historical garments, more detailed art depicting similar fashions in related cultures, and art made by people from the culture you are studying. Period written descriptions can yield information about materials used, colors, and other details. Extant garments are your best source for information on cut and construction (unless you are lucky enough to have an extant tailor's manual from your period and culture). Detailed art depicting similar fashions can offer suggestions to fill in for missing information on construction, materials, and embellishments. Art created by the culture is valuable for identifying inaccuracies created by bigoted or ignorant artists.

Finally, remember that it's okay to not know everything. There are gaps in our knowledge about what people wore 500 years ago that will probably never be filled without a time machine. Sometimes you just have to make a plausible guess and move on. Don't let yourself get so paralyzed by doing research that you never complete the garment reconstruction/art/tumblr post you were doing the research for.

Bibliography:

Bond, K. L. (2018). Costume Albums in Charles V’s Habsburg Empire (1528-1549). https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.25054

Dunlevy, Mairead (1989). Dress in Ireland. B. T. Batsford LTD, London.

Ilg, Ulrike. (2004). The Cultural Significance of Costume Books Sixteenth-Century Europe. In Catherine Richardson (ed.), Clothing Culture, 1350-1650 (p. 29-47). Ashgate.

McClintock, H. F. (1943). Old Irish and Highland Dress. Dundalgan Press, Dundalk.

McClintock, H. F. (1953). Some Hitherto Unpublished Pictures of Sixteenth Century Irish People, and the Costumes Appearing in Them. The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 83(2), 150-155. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25510871

Costume Books mentioned:

Amman, Jost. Gynaeceum, sive Theatrum mulierum.

The Costume Album of Christoph von Sternsee. not available on-line. Katherine Bond's research is your best source for this one.

Desprez, François. Recueil de la diversité des habits.

De Heere, Lucas. Corte Beschryvinghe van Engheland, Schotland, ende Irland.

Théâtre de tous les peuples et nations de la terre avec leurs habits et ornemens divers, tant anciens que modernes, diligemment depeints au naturel par Luc Dheere peintre et sculpteur Gantois.

Vecellio, Cesare, and Gratilianus, Sulstatius. Habiti antichi et moderni di tutto il Mondo di Cesare Vecellio.

Trachtenbuch des Christoph Weiditz

Weigel, Hans, and Amman, Jost. Habitus praecipuorum populorum, tam virorum quam foeminarum singulari arte depicti.

Kostüme der Männer und Frauen in Augsburg und Nürnberg, Deutschland, Europa, Orient und Afrika

Kostüme und Sittenbilder des 16. Jahrhunderts aus West- und Osteuropa, Orient, der Neuen Welt und Afrika

costume prints by an unknown artist, in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Cabinet des Estampes. I cannot find this one online. image taken from McClintock 1953.

[artzonestuff]

Differences Between the Southern and Northern Renaissance: A Study Through Jan van Eyck's "Portrait of a Man" (self portrait?)"

Written by ArtZoneStuff, 2024

The Renaissance, a period of cultural rebirth and revival of classical learning, manifested differently in the southern and northern regions of Europe. While both regions shared a common interest in humanism, art, and science, the way these ideas were expressed varied significantly due to differing cultural, social, and economic contexts.

The Southern Renaissance, centered in Italy, emphasized classical antiquity, proportion, perspective, and human anatomy. Artists like Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo (1475-1564), and Raphael (1483-1520) focused on idealized beauty, harmony, and balanced compositions.

In contrast, the Northern Renaissance, which flourished in regions such as the Netherlands, Germany, and Flanders, focused more on meticulous detail, naturalism, and domestic interiors. Northern artists like Jan van Eyck (1390-1441), Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), and Hieronymus Bosch (?-1516) were known for their detailed and realistic depictions of nature, landscapes, and everyday life. Their work often contained rich symbolism and a focus on surface textures and fine details.

Jan Van Eyck's self portrait

Jan van Eyck's "Portrait of a Man" (Appendix 1), also known as his Self-Portrait from 1433, is a small-scale Dutch portrait measuring 25.9 x 33.1 cm (Google Arts and Culture, n.d.). The man in the painting emerges from a dark background, with his body depicted in three-quarter view. On his head, he wears a red chaperon, often mistaken for a turban, styled upward rather than hanging down (Nash, 2008, p.154). His dark fur-lined garment resembles the attire in "The Arnolfini Portrait" (Appendix 2), indicative of wealth during an era when textiles were extremely costly (ArtUK, 2019). His detailed face features a faint stubble, white highlights in his eyes and on his cheekbones, non-idealized features such as wrinkles and veins on his forehead, showcasing the Northern realism (Hall, 2014, p.44).

As described by the English art historian James Hall, the painting appears almost fleeting and alive - with the gaze seeming to capture the viewer before the face, and just like that, the penetrating stare turns away, perhaps followed by the light streaming from the right (Hall, 2014, p.43). The portrait conveys that the artist scrutinizes everything closely, including himself, without losing sight of the bigger picture (Hall, 2014, p.43). All these naturalistic details clearly indicate a Flemish painting.

The work is considered a self-portrait due to the frame. Jan van Eyck often used frames he designed and painted to enhance understanding and add meaning to his works (Hall, 2014, p.43; The National Gallery, 2021, 4:45-5.15). The gilded original frame of "Portrait of a Man" is crucial for interpreting the piece. Inscribed at the top of the frame is Jan van Eyck’s motto: "Als Ich can," translated to English: "As I can." At the bottom is his signature, and the date in Roman numerals: October 21, and in Arabic numerals, the year 1433. This results in the inscription: "Jan van Eyck made me on October 21, 1433" (Hall, 2014, p.43). He capitalizes the "I" in "Ich," playing on the pun Ich/Eyck. The motto can be interpreted as either boastful, "As I can," or modest, "As best as I can" (Hall, 2014, p.43).

The inscription highlights the relationship between words and image, indicating his awareness of his talent. His skill in painting surpasses that of a craftsman, which painters in this period was considered as. "As I can" suggests he is the only one capable of achieving such stylistic naturalism which cannot be imitated (The National Gallery, 2021, 5:10-5:58). "Jan van Eyck made me" also reflects a high degree of self-awareness, as he claims a painting of this quality, emphasizing that he created it and is conscious of his own abilities (The National Gallery, 2021, 5:10-5:58). All of this, along with his signing of his works as one of the first artists to do so, demonstrates a desire not to remain an anonymous craftsman (Hall, 2014, p.43; Farmer, 1968, p.159; Blunt, 1962).

The motto "Als Ich can" appears on several of his works, but the self-portrait is the only one where it is so prominent and clear. Additionally, the motto is placed at the top of the frame, where he would usually write the model’s name, thus, the motto can be seen as the model's identity (The National Gallery, 2021, 5:15-6:25). This, along with his direct gaze at the viewer, suggesting it was painted from a mirror, are the strongest indicators that the portrait is a self-portrait (Hall, 2014, p.43).

However, this can be taken with some skepticism, as other portraits by him, such as "Portrait of Margaret van Eyck" (Appendix 3) and "Portrait of Jan De Leeuw" (Appendix 4), share the same penetrating gaze (Pächt, 1994, p.107). This might instead indicate his realism, where the painter’s position does not function as an observer but rather takes an active role. The model’s direct gaze towards the viewer shows that the model has looked at Jan Van Eyck. This shows Jan Van Eyck possessing an active role, which was very different from painters in this period, and by doing so, creating a new respect for the painter as an artist, again showcasing his self-awareness of his position and talent (Pächt, 1994, pp.106-108).

Literature

Books and Journals:

Hall, James (2014). The self-portrait, a cultural history. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd 

Nash, Susie (2008). Northeren Renaissance Art. New York: Oxford University Press.

Blunt, Anthony (1962). The Social Position of the Artist. Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450-1600. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press 

Farmer, David (1968). Reflections on a Van Eyck Self-Portrait. Oud Holland. S. 159 

Online

Google Arts and Culture (n.d.): Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban (selfportrait). Found at: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/portrait-of-a-man-in-a-red-turban-selfportrait/SAFcS1U8kYssmg?hl=en  

ArtUK: Butchart, Amber (2019). Fashion reconstructed: the dress in Van Eyck's Arnolfini portrait. Found at: https://artuk.org/discover/stories/fashion-reconstructed-the-dress-in-van-eycks-arnolfini-portrait 

The National Gallery (2021). Jan van Eyck's self portrait in 10 minutes or less | National Gallery. Found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMJK1EDG2X8&t=1s&ab_channel=TheNationalGallery 

[scotianostra]

On 19th August 1560 the Scottish scholar and poet, James Crichton, was born.

Soldier, scholar, poet and athlete, he was a graduate of St Andrews University and a tutor of King James VI. James Crichton, known as the Admirable Crichton, was a Scottish polymath, a latin term that translates to “universal man”, basically he was good at everything!

Crichton wasnoted for his extraordinary accomplishments in languages, the arts, and sciences. One of the most gifted individuals of the 16th century, James Crichton of Clunie Perthshire, was the son of Robert Crichton of Eliok, Lord Advocate of Scotland, and Elizabeth Stewart, from whose line James could claim Royal descent.

At the age of eight Crichton’s eloquence in his native vernacular was compared with that of Demosthenes and Cicero. By fifteen he knew “perfectly” Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac; and commanded native conversational fluency in Spanish, French, Italian, “Dutch”, Flemish, and, oh, “Sclavonian”, don’t worry I looked it up for us, it’s basically Slovenian.

That was the mere beginning of Crichton’s admirableness. He was also a champion athlete, a horseman, a fencer, a dancer, a singer of rare voice, and the master of most known wind and string instruments. His St. Andrews professor, Rutherford, a noted commentator, judged him to be one of the leading philosophers of the era.

After sucking all the available education to him in Scotland, it was only natural he should start on mainland Europe, he studied in France at the College of Navarre at the University of Paris. Here the young Scotsman cut a broad swath, though according to his jealous fellows his arenas of greatest activity were the tavernia’s and the whorehouses, rather than the lecture hall. Young Crichton did like the ladies, who in turn found him most–admirable.

He may have been liked by the ladies, but nobody likes a big heid, and that is how Crichton must have come across to many, nowadays he would have been one of the Chasers, or an Egghead on our TV screens, but back in the 16th century there were no such outlets for Crichton to show his big heid off, so he had posters printed up declaring that on a day six weeks hence, at nine in the morning, in the main hall of the College of Navarre, he intended to present himself to dispute with all comers all questions put to him regarding any subject. He had these put up on all the appropriate notice boards and church doors, before disappearing into the red light district to prepare himself for the contest. His adversaries had to quit laughing when on the appointed day Crichton appeared as advertised and bested the greatest local experts in grammar, mathematics, geometry, music, astronomy, logic, and theology.

The Crichton Show, having conquered Paris, moved next to the Italian peninsula. The young Scot performed memorable feats of academic disputation first in Rome and then in Venice. There he became fast friends with the famous scholar-printer Aldus Munitius, who is a credible witness to some of his more amazing intellectual performances. One of his ways of showing off was giving off the cuff instances of Comedic verse, a sort of Stand Up routine, but with that Crichton twist, the odes he told were in Latin!

Tradition has it on the street in Mantua one night he was accosted by four swordsmen, with superb sword play Crichton disarmed them all and forced them to show their faces. One of them, their leader indeed, turned out to be one of his pupils and prodigy, Vincenzo Gonzaga who was the son of The Duke of Mantua. Crichton was in the Duke’s employ and the youngster was jealous of the Scot, Crichton was also romantically linked to Vicenzo’s ex mistress. On seeing Vincenzo, Crichton instantly dropped to one knee and presented his sword, hilt first, to the prince, his master’s son. Vincenzo took the blade and with it stabbed Crichton cruelly through the heart, killing him instantly. James Crichton of Cluny was then in his twenty-second year.

There have been many accounts of Crichton in literature through the years since, mostly fictional but with hints of the story, the most famous is arguably the J M Barrie play, but the title of the play is the only semblance to the story of the Scottish Polymath.

[trinitybloodbr]

Oh, my sweet little girl… what are the chances that Agnes is Father Hugue’s lost sister?

Theories and conspiracies about Trinity Blood Or when you have serious things to think about, but you'd rather theorize about fictional characters…

Obviously, I brought this version of my little argument… considering that most TB fans are fluent in English. Enjoy! (Or not.)

🚨Warning: The following text contains highly disconnected theories, poorly substantiated hypotheses, and an alarming amount of daydreaming. Read at your own risk (and enjoy the chaos).🚨

Before diving into my ‘little big’ musings, I want to clarify that I haven’t read all the volumes of the novel yet. So, my theory might fall apart (or not) once I gain access to more information.

The fact is, as a Japanese language student, translating Trinity Blood has been quite the challenge. I have this annoyingly meticulous habit of wanting to preserve both the literality and coherence of the original text.

But without further ado, let’s delve into the theory (aka daydream) that’s been frying my brain cells…

What are the chances that Agnes is Hugue de Watteau’s lost sister?

In R.A.M I, we are introduced to Father Hugue de Watteau and his mission in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, one of the countries in the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of northern France).

He is tasked with solving the case of murders that occurred in the Old Church of Amsterdam, located in the territory of one of the Count Four, a vampire alliance among the four cities that lead the underworld in the Low Countries.

Count Four:

Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Antwerp (Belgium)

Brussels (Belgium)

Bruges (Belgium)

This chapter provides a glimpse into Hugue’s past and his family, the Watteaus, as well as some details about Agnes. According to the Trinity Blood Wiki, she is described as Hugue’s distant cousin.

“The Watteau family was a legendary family of noble mercenaries in the Low Countries. For generations, they also served as chief commissioners of the Alliance of Four Cities, and in the absence of a national army, they represented the greatest military power and an excellent and rigorous police force, demonstrating remarkable skill in maintaining public order — but now they are a presence relegated to history. This is because, about nine years ago, their castle in Bruges was attacked on a large scale by vampires, and the head of the family, along with its main members and followers, were all massacred.” (SWORD DANCER – Part II – excerpt from the novel)

During this attack, Hugue had both his arms severed, and his younger sister was kidnapped.

Hugue mentions his sister’s name, and this, ladies and gentlemen, is where my pilgrimage began.

Why did I notice this?

.

.

.

The name mentioned for his sister in katakana is:

アニエス (Aniesu)

Which is a transliteration of the French name Agnès, based on its French pronunciation.

Putting the name Agnès into Google Translate, you can see that its pronunciation closely resembles the katakana Aniesu.

That’s one point.

Then, we are introduced to this lovely lady here:

Agnes, the novice from Amsterdam…

Her name is presented as:

アグネス (Agunesu)

This is a phonetic transliteration of the name Agnes.

At first glance, nothing seems off, but did you catch the subtle 'difference' between these names?

If we consider that the French name Agnès, when transcribed into other Western languages, 'becomes' Agnes (in this case, Amsterdam, in the Netherlands), that’s another point.

Hugue, his sister, and, in this case, Sister Agnes are from Bruges, located in Belgium, which in turn has linguistic influences from French, as well as Flemish (Dutch), and German.

The first map is of Trinity Blood’s world, and the second is a more detailed reference map…

In the novel, it is mentioned that Agnes is also a Watteau, but on the day of the attack on the family’s castle, she was the only one not present, as she was ill and under the care of her nursemaid, outside the castle grounds...

With the fall of the Watteau family, Sister Agnes was sent from Bruges, Belgium, to the Church of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Why am I harping on the names and countries?

Hold on… I’m prolix, in case you hadn’t noticed…

Well, my main thesis is that if Agnes from Amsterdam is Hugue’s sister, whose original name was Agnès (Aniesu), the change in location may have caused her name to undergo a phonetic shift to Agnes (Agunesu).

I took into account the etymology as well as the linguistic variations within the work.

And before anyone says otherwise, Trinity Blood is packed with terms and names from different languages.

Abel, Caterina, and Hugue occasionally use Latin. Tres Iqus incorporates English, and Isaak uses German. (Yes, we needed one character to make things more complicated…)

Obviously, I took into account the author, Master Yoshida, and his apparent efforts to study and contextualize the names of his characters. He always seemed to emphasize details about Trinity Blood’s world.

But back to the point…

Oh, and we also have Agnes’ version of her own story:

“That night, I happened to catch a cold and was left in the care of my nursemaid. But when I heard the news, I was truly heartbroken. I couldn’t believe that my father, my mother, and all the people I’d been with just the day before were no longer in this world…” (SWORD DANCER – Part II – excerpt from the novel)

From here, I could come up with several theories, but these are just hypotheses.

That only make sense in my head

We could consider that at the time of the incident that massacred the Watteau family, she was only 5 years old. The trauma of losing her entire family could have caused her to experience a mental block of information.

She could have been spared by the person who ordered the attack or just had immense luck being sent away from the Watteau estate due to her illness.

Hugue might not have known that his sister had been sent away before the incident, leading him to believe she was kidnapped when her body wasn’t found.

There are other factors, such as Hugue not recognizing her or Agnes not mentioning having an older brother. I would consider the traumatic experiences they both endured. The human mind creates incredibly strong blocks and barriers as a means of self-protection.

Both Hugue and Agnes have a strong sense of justice—and revenge. Is this a Watteau family trait, or just sibling synchronicity? Either way, they’re precious, and no one can disrespect my babies!

Also, while researching and writing this text, I stumbled across an old LiveJournal entry that appeared to be fan fiction featuring Hugue x Agnes. It carried the warnings: “Grammar abuse and some sexual implications…”

Wow, she’s only 14....

Thankfully, the link was unavailable—what a surreal blessing. Although I don’t want more trauma, I do have a strange curiosity for it…

If you made it this far…

Hi, I’m Lutie (◕‿◕✿), and I’m obsessed with Trinity Blood again...

Please note that I am not fluent in English, so if you find any mistakes, I humbly ask for your forgiveness… this will likely happen again...

[dailyanarchistposts]

Footnotes

[1] I here gladly acknowledge my obligations to Victor Drury, {15} whose classification I adopt and follow.

{1} Actually Say may have gone farther.

{2} From Royal Commentaries of the Incas (1609) by El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (c. 1539-1616; not to be confused with the earlier Spanish writer of the same name); Lum quotes from the 1871 translation by Clements Markham.

{3} Principles of Sociology I.ii.10

{4} Probably American historian John Lothrop Motley (1814-1877).

{5} Swiss historian and economist Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi (1773-1842).

{6} Jack Cade, leader of 1450 peasant rebellion; John Wycliffe, 14th-century Catholic dissident; Jacob van Artevelde and Philip van Artevelde, father and son, 14th-century Flemish nationalist leaders; Étienne Marcel, bourgeois leader involved in the 1358 French peasant rebellion known as the Jacquerie; rising of the Swiss cantons: a 14th-century confederacy that threw off Habsburg rule; Cola di Rienzi, 14th-century Italian revolutionary leader; Hanseatic League, Renaissance mercantile alliance of northern Europe.

{7} A reference to Auguste Comte’s (1798-1857) division of history into theological, metaphysical, and positive/industrial phases, though in his description of the details Lum seems closer to Spencer than to Comte.

{8} Barebone’s Parliament, form taken by the British Parliament in 1653, between the dissolution of the Rump Parliament and the rise of Cromwell’s Protectorate, taking its name from the involvement of religious dissenting leader Praise-God Barebones or Barebone or Barbon (c. 1598-1679); Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1748-1836), French revolutionary leader who served in the national legislature known as the Convention.

{9} “Progress and Order” (or equally “Order and Progress”) was a popular slogan among followers of Comte; see the Brazilian flag.

{10} Pen name of American humorist Benjamin Drew (1812-1903).

{11} Bonds payable only upon the death of a third party, though here used metaphorically to mean payable only in the afterlife.

{12} “The voice of the people [is] the voice of God.”

{13} Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), whose description of economics as “the dismal science” has often been thought (as probably here by Lum) to refer to its conservative aspects (e.g., Malthus’s alleged proof that improvements in the lot of the working class were unattainable), though in fact Carlyle meant to be condemning its liberal aspects (specifically its opposition to slavery).

{14} plural sic.

{15} Victor Drury (1825-1918), French-born American anarchist active in the Knights of Labor.

{16} William Godwin (1756-1836), English anarchist philosopher who advocated voluntary equality of property.

{17} American economist Henry George (1839-1897), who though generally a free-market advocate regarded society as the legitimate owner of all land, and consequently favoured replacing all taxation with a single tax on land; American state-socialist writer Edward Bellamy (1850-1898); Lum’s line “looking backward to Sparta and Peru” is a sarcastic reference to Bellamy’s utopian 1888 novel Looking Backward.

{18} A reference to an example in Henry George’s 1881 book The Land Question.

{19} German economist Wilhelm Roscher (1817-1894), an important influence (perhaps surprisingly) on both the German Historical School and the French Liberal School. The passage quoted is from Joseph Lalor’s 1878 translation of Roscher’s 1854 Principles of Political Economy.

{20} A frequent misquotation from Shakespeare’s Tempest IV.1.151-57, eliding “the baseless fabric of this vision” with “we are such stuff as dreams are made on” a few lines later.

{21} English economist David Ricardo (1772-1823) had argued in his 1817 Principles of Political Economy and Taxation that there was a natural tendency for wages to approach the cost of production of labour, which he held to be the bare cost of keeping the labourer alive and able and willing to work; however, he also held a) that wages may be kept above this natural rate indefinitely in an improving economy, and that b) willingness to work depends in any case on cultural factors (including prevailing standards of comfort and decency). Dropping these qualifications, Ferdinand Lassalle (1825-1864) and other socialist thinkers developed Ricardo’s theory into an Iron Law of Wages according to which wages are doomed to stand forever at bare physical subsistence so long as the wage system survives.

{22} Classical liberal English statesman John Bright (1811-1889), free-trade and anti-imperialist activist; the quotation is from Bright’s Glasgow University installation speech in March 1883.

{23} Whatever source Lum is quoting (presumably by Henry George) is evidently to be found reprinted in the 1901 Sunset Club.

{24} In Greek mythology Cerberus was the three-headed dog who guarded the entrance to the underworld.

{25} A standard Spencerian concern, taking the line of progress to run toward greater differentiation. By “to greater differentiation” Lum presumably means “in preference to greater differentiation.”

{26} The quotation is from Spencer’s 1876 Principles of Sociology V.18 §570.

{27} This phrase often means “piecework,” but in the present context seems to mean labour done on one’s own without cooperation.

{28} The English phrase “to go without saying” derives from the French aller sans dire, although aller de soi, “to go of itself,” may be the more common French idiom.

{29} Lum had had an acrimonious falling-out with the Greenback Party ten years earlier.

{30} Change of antecedent sic.

{31} Presumably there should also be a hyphen between “from” and the first “day.”

{32} An agrarian association friendly to the urban labour movement, formed in Michigan in 1889; a similar movement of the same name was formed in Ontario the following year.

{33} The passage that follows is drawn from the article “‘Greatest Happiness’ Principle” (Westminster Review XI, no 21 (July 1829), which is apparently but not explicitly by Bentham; see Macaulay’s discussion.

{34} The quotation which follows is from Herbert’s “A Politican in Sight of Haven.”

{35} Principles of Sociology V.xviii.563.

{36} Probably a reference to the title of Henry George’s 1879 Progress and Poverty.

{37} Either American economist Amasa Walker (1799-1875) or his son Francis Amasa Walker (1840-1897).

{38} American anarchist and currency reformer William Batchelder Greene (1819-1878).

{39} Hebrews 11:1.

{40} This makes no sense, and is an error for “will not go bankrupt at the same tine” in the original.

{41} Should be “since it is subscribed.”

{42} From Proudhon’s Organisation of Credit and Circulation (1848).

{43} Science of Wealth (1866), ch. 5.

{44} Another quotation from Roscher.

{45} “The great thinker is the secretary of his age”: from English philosopher George Henry Lewes (1817-1878), Problems of Life and Mind (1874).

{46} The Land Question (1881), ch. 16.

{47} Bavarian-American anarcho-communist Johann Most (1846-1906).

{48} French novelist Edmond François Valentin About (1828-1885).

{49} First quotation from Rights of Man (1792), II.1; next three from First Principles of Government (1795).

{50} Reference to a quotation from Malthus.

{51} Science of Wealth, XI.6.

{52} American abolitionist, businessman, liberal economist, and antiwar activist Edward Atkinson (1827-1905).

{53} German-American anarchist August Spies (1855-1877), one of the Haymarket martyrs.

{54} Isaiah 58:1.

{55} American abolitionist poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), in “Stanzas for the Times.”

[tanadrin]

i’m just starting Language Classification: History and Method by Cambell & Poser, and as part of their historical survey of the origins of the comparative method, they’re talking about the early modern etymologists--it’s very interesting how much evidence was recognized for Indo-European and similar language families as early as the 16th and 17th centuries, but what methodological hurdles held back actual progress on reconstruction. for instance, Dutch School philologists recognized that core vocabulary and sound correspondences were both better points of comparison than arbitrary shared vocabulary, or rarer words more likely to be borrowings--but having noted the existence of a sound correspondence like Greek glossa vs glotta, or Flemish water vs German wasser, the s/t correspondence was held to be valid for any two words in any two languages. So wild etymological speculation such as the perennially popular how-can-we-derive-this-from-Hebrew acrobatics was restrained (cf. Edo Nyland’s attempts to derive everything from Basque for a modern equivalent), but they still didn’t have a concept of localized sound laws that proceeded in a regular, temporally limited way. And, of course, they were still more often than not trying to fit everything in to a Biblical framework, like linking the classification of languages with the genealogy of the sons of Noah.

The only reason historical linguistics didn’t flourish earlier IMO is that it is hard to get data--the fact that it was the Age of Discovery helped a lot, not for any particular technological or scientific innovation, but just because more languages were being encountered, including languages that were already being written down. If you were trying to study languages during, say, the early Roman Empire, not only would it be very difficult to get information on distant languages, but very little of it would be in books--you would mostly have to be tracking down speakers of those languages, and interrogating them through translators.

Claudius Salmasius is probably the one to get closest to the later neogrammarian principle of regular sound laws first--he recognizes something like Grimm’s Law in the 1640s. But he still doesn’t have great sources from Sanskrit (if I understand correctly, he’s mostly getting his information  secondhand via Ctesias, and comparing that to modern Persian), and trying to fit his data into the Scythian hypothesis, which is a sort of proto-Kurgan Hypothesis that has confused the classical Scythians, their later mythologized version, Persia, and the (not yet so named) Indo-Europeans. (You might have been able to reconstruct PIE in the 17th century, if you had been really ahead of the curve, but modern archeology also definitely helped clarify our understanding of ancient cultures in a way that had a big impact on the study of historical linguistics.)

[best-non-english-word-torunament]

Round two: Gezellig vs Cafuné

(poll at the end)

Gezellig (Dutch)

Standard Dutch: [ɣəˈzɛ.ləx] West-Flemish Dutch: [həˈzɛ.ləh]

Translation: Gezellig is a famously untranslatable word. The closest translation is probably 'cosy', but it is much more than that. Whereas cosy usually only refers to a place or a setting, anything and everything can be gezellig in Dutch: a place or a setting, an atmosphere, a person, a group of people, an event... Anything you do, especially in a group, can be done in a way that is gezellig. Other ways of translating gezellig are 'convivial' or 'fun', but they also miss a lot of what 'gezellig' entails. Gezellig can also be used sarcastically: "'I'm having dinner with my bigoted relatives tomorrow.' 'Oh, gezellig.'”

Dutch is an Indo-European language belonging to the Germanic branch spoken by 16 million people in the Netherlands and 24 million total. Most speakers outside the Netherlands are from Belgium, which has a Dutch-speaking area with 7 600 000 speakers. It makes up one end of the West Germanic Dialect continuum. Dutch is also the basis for Afrikaans, spoken in South Africa.

Motivation: It is a word I use all the time in Dutch! I can never find a good way to say it in English, because none of the possible 'translations' actually say the same as 'gezellig'. The concept of 'gezelligheid' is also said to be an integral and defining part of Dutch-speaking culture.

Cafuné (Portuguese, Brazilian Portugese)

Portugal: [kɐ.fuˈnɛ] Brazil: [ka.fuˈnɛ]

Translation: The act of running your fingers through someone's hair in a tender way, usually massaging or gently scratching their scalp

Portuguese is an Indo-European language belonging to the Romance branch originating from Portugal. Due to colonialism it is the main and official language of Brazil, where 213 million of its 264 million speakers live. Brazilian Portuguese is considered a dialect of Portuguese as they are mutually intelligible.

Motivation 1: It can be platonic! It can be romantic! It's a cute thing!

Motivation 2: vsjsh affection....... 💞💞 it’s a very sweet gesture it’s very nice and comforting and makes you feel safe

Note: There were two submissions for this word, one in each dialect. Since it’s the same word but with slight pronunciation differences they will compete together

[bigfrozensix]

I’ve watched the live-action The Little Mermaid in theaters twice now. Once in English and once in Dutch/Flemish.

At first I thought it was weird they did one dub with a mix of Dutch and Flemish voice actors (usually they get seperate dubs), but during watching I realized all sea creatures were Flemish and all humans were Dutch, so I think it was intentional to give an extra layer to the “two worlds” theme.

Anyway, to sum it up; I liked it! I mean, wanting see it twice in only a few days is already better than what I can give some other recent (Disney) movies. Is it perfect? No. Do I like it more than the animated movie? Definitely not. Did I enjoy it anyway? Yes!

There’s at least one thing I liked better in the live-action than in the animation, but it’s NOT in a “the animated scene is bad” way, just in a “I am absolutely weak for this sort of thing” way. It’s a really small change, but I just love the way Eric craddled Ariel in his arms when she lost her ability to stand from her legs turning back into a tail (also Ursula’s “Shut up!” as she shoved Eric aside made me laugh).

I also can’t stop thinking about Part Of Your World (Reprise II), especially the Dutch lyrics, because honestly... they hit me even harder than the English ones (sorry not sorry).

“Waar kan ik heen, als ik nergens thuishoor?“ (Where can I go, if I don’t belong anywhere?)

“Thuishoor” (belong) literally translates to “be at home”. Like, the Dutch lyrics really emphasize how in this moment Ariel officially feels like she doesn’t belong in either world and has no home to return to. This is honestly the only time in the movie where I cried, definitely an adittion I liked.

I’m not ashamed to admit this is my fave live-action remake (to be fair the bar wasn’t that high) and though I prefer animated Ariel, I’m not complaining about having two Ariels now!

[wyrmfedgrave]

Pics: Lovecraftian locations, from Arkham, Massachusetts to the Plateau of Leng.

Just a few places out of many...

1915: HPL Output. Part 2.

Intro: Continuing our look at Howard's "1914" poem...

"Vain... Prussia¹, with Teuton² pride, By force of arms... thrust the weak aside."

"Above... lesser tribes (now) ascend,... Martial sway over... Earth extend."

"(You), Britannia, are by Heaven endowed, To spare the humble & subdue the proud."

"(Your) sons have Teuton blood as true, As (even) the... Rhenus'³ waters knew!"

"What race can boast a... braver strain, Than... Norman⁴, Saxon⁵, Jute⁶ & Dane⁷?"

"No (one) island such powers confine: The widespread world is thine."

"From Africa's Cape⁸ (to an) Island Continent⁹; Stout hearts... to face the Goths are sent."

"The swarty Rajah¹⁰, (so) skilled at war... Supplies his subjects to... the cause."

"... Legions from Canadian shores have come, To drive the... Prussian(s) to his doom."

"In vain the Goth his... cannon loads; In vain his mine... explodes."

"In vain his Zeppelin¹¹ patrols the sky, In vain his ships... on the ocean lie."

"... Gallia's fields (reddened) by the slain, shall (not) in Prussian hands remain!"

"Crazed Germans! Blindly oppose, A... race that (only) victory knows¹²."

"How could you successfully... fight, When English, Welsh¹³, Scotch¹⁴ & Irish¹⁵ unite?"

"Even soldiers (so carefully) prepared, Mighty foes should not have dared."

"For each success gained in the fray, How great a price will Prussia pay?"

"(Before) long (all) nations shall learn, On who(m)... Europe's fate must ever turn."

"Before whose strength the fiercest must fall, From ancient Crecy¹⁶ to Sebastopol¹⁷."

"Whose task it is, true justice to dispense, To strike the (blowhard) for his gross offense."

"Right arm of Astraea¹⁸! Speed the hour, When peace... reward(s) (your) power."

"When grateful lands, (rescued) from despair, Shall bless Britannia's... kindly care."

"When every... country shall resort, To England's judgement - the final court."

"... When mighty Empire shall become, A world itself -... heir of Rome."

General Note: I tried an experiment, writing out Lovecraft's couplets as separate of each other.

The man did like to add sentences to each other!

I tried to keep his original words - but, translations & meanings were some- times necessary.

At times, 1 can see that even Howard got a few of the rhymes totally wrong.

Footnotes:

1. Prussia was an earlier territory that was ceded (in 1947) to what is now modern Germany.

Long before WW1, however, it was Prussia that formed the German Empire by uniting with other 'states.'

2. Teutons were a northern European tribe that attacked Rome in 110 BC.

They originally resided East of the Elba River & were called Teutons ("the water tribe") by the early Greeks.

It was Julius Caesar who 1st equated them with the Germanic peoples.

Rome finally defeated them - twice - on 101 BC.

Some survivors are thought to have been part of the rebel gladiators in the 3rd Servile War (73 to 71 BC)!

3. The Latin Rhenus (now "Rhine") River's name is from the Celtic Renos, "the raging flow."

From this came the Roman god Pater Rhenus, 'Father' of Nymphs & the very river itself.

After the Franco-German War (1870 to 1871), it became the most highly industrialized area of Germany.

4. The Normans (Norse men) were Vikings who lived in what is now Normandy, France.

They would conquer England (in 1066 AD) with an army made up of Breton, Norman, Flemish & French troops.

5. The Saxons were among several allied Germanic tribes that invaded Britain around 410 AD.

They originally came from what is now Saxony, Germany.

6. The Jutes were Germanic allies of the Saxons during the conquest of eastern Britain in 410 AD.

They originated in what is now the Jutland Peninsula of Denmark.

They would later be conquered by the Saxons, their once allies...

The Jutes who stayed in Europe ended up being absorbed by the Danes.

7. The Danes, also Saxon allies in 410 AD, came from what is now Denmark.

The Danes attacked the Anglo-Saxons in 870 AD & were defeated the year later!

However, the Continental Danes kept invading Britain.

In 1013, Svein Fork beard conquered all of England - but, died shortly after!

Then, 3 years later, Canute the Great successfully invaded England - but, only ruled for 5 weeks...

8. Africa's Cape is in South Africa.

9. The Earth only has 1 island that's also a continent - Australia.

10. A Rajah is a Hindu prince or king of the country of India.

11. A Zeppelin is a rigid airship named after the German airship developer of the early 1900s.

They are different from blimps, which depend on internal air pressure to keep their shape.

Zeppelins have rigid frames to keep its shape steady.

12. "Only victory knows..."

Dude, you were living in the major example of a nation that defeated (with help) the mighty England.

Really, such a mistake should be beneath a man of your skills...

13. The Welsh are a Celtic group from what is now Wales, U.K..

The name came from the Anglo- Saxons, who used it to describe the Britton speaking natives.

14. The Scots consider the English term "Scotch" as an offensive term to describe their people.

Scotch is now only used to describe specific products.

Anyway, the Highland Scots are all of Celtic origin.

But, the Lowland Scots are actually of Germanic stock - being that they were originally Angles from Northumbria.

15. The Irish are a Celtic nation in Ireland, who might trace back to the Continental Gauls.

Ireland has suffered thru Viking & Anglo-Norman invasions, leading to the modern Norse-Gaels & Lowland Scots/English in the country's North.

16. The Battle of Crecy, France (in 1346 during the 100 Years War) took place between the French & English.

Both were 'led' by their respective kings.

This battle saw the early use of the deadly English longbow.

With it, the English crippled the larger French army - leading to the French town falling under British rule for more than 200 years!

17. The Siege of Sebastopol, now in Crimea, lasted a gruelling 11 months - from 1854 til 1855.

It was part of the Crimean War, with British, French, Turkish & Sardinian armies - all fighting against Russia.

In the end, Russia lost the city.

All due to Russia wanting the same religious treatment that France enjoyed in Ottoman controlled Palestine...

Sigh.

18. Astraea ("star maiden") was the Greek virgin goddess of justice, purity, innocence & precision.

She used to live upon the Earth - til man's lawlessness drove her away!

Zeus then set her as the constipation Virgo...

In her right arm, she held a torch. With her left, she handed Zeus his thunder- bolts.

End.

[fuckthisshitimoutyall]

begging you to recommend me freaky fucked up dutch lit

Ok ok ok,,, so!

I have compiled a lil list for you, here's the thing though. These luckily do have english translations and depending on if you are Dutch/speak Dutch you will probably have heard of these. You will have seen them on the reading lists during high school because although your teacher tries to find something for everything and be a bit more modern,, it’s not all that successful.

sidenote for context:

Oftentimes, Dutch lit is not really for me. this has to do with the high school thing. reading levels in the Netherlands are down, about every year there will be some boomer or other complaining them youngsters don’t read anymore. True, but I vehemently believe this is because of what we had to read in high school. Because although its great if literature is weird, I mean yay artistic expression! Not too handy dandy when trying to introduce a bunch of teens to it to just throw em in the deep end and hope they’ve read them by the end of the year. It’s kind of a IYKYK thing. (it’s a rather complicated matter and this is a very condensed version of it but if I talk about that you’ll get an essay to get my thoughts across instead of what you’ve asked me which is some recommendations.)

Another bit of context: dutch lit doesn’t really shy away from religious, sexual, and sometimes gory themes. Infidelity sometimes feels a bit like the norm. Also lot of it is very straight (incest too). That being said, dutch literature has plenty of great stuff too (kader abdoulah has some cool stuff but is a lot less weird than trad dutch lit)

Having all That out of the way: FuckyWucky dutch lit incoming!:

(I have copied the descriptions from goodreads because I have not read all of these and if I were to go as far as do so this ask would not be answered for another two years)

De avond is ongemak/The discomfort of evening by Lucas Rijneveld

(The first one that reminded me when weird dutch lit comes to pass)

“I thought about being too small for so much, but that no one told you when you were big enough ... and I asked God if he please couldn't take my brother Matthies instead of my rabbit. 'Amen.'

Jas lives with her devout farming family in the rural Netherlands. One winter's day, her older brother joins an ice skating trip; resentful at being left alone, she makes a perverse plea to God; he never returns. As grief overwhelms the farm, Jas succumbs to a vortex of increasingly disturbing fantasies, watching her family disintegrate into a darkness that threatens to derail them all.

De engelenmaker/The angelmaker by Stefan Brijs

The village of Wolfheim is a quiet little place until the geneticist Dr. Victor Hoppe returns after an absence of nearly twenty years. The doctor brings with him his infant children-three identical boys all sharing a disturbing disfigurement. He keeps them hidden away until Charlotte, the woman who is hired to care for them, begins to suspect that the triplets-and the good doctor- aren't quite what they seem. As the villagers become increasingly suspicious, the story of Dr. Hoppe's past begins to unfold, and the shocking secrets that he has been keeping are revealed. A chilling story that explores the ethical limits of science and religion, The Angel Maker is a haunting tale in the tradition of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein . Brought to life by internationally bestselling author Stefan Brijs, this eerie tale promises to get under readers' skin.

Het smelt/The Melting by Lize Spit

Eva can trace the route to Pim's farm with her eyes closed, even though she has not been to Bovenmeer for many years. There she grew up among the rape fields and dairy farms. There lies also the root of all their grief.

Eva was one of three children born in her small Flemish town in 1988. Growing up alongside the boys Laurens and Pim, Eva sought refuge from her loveless family life in the company of her two friends. But with adolescence came a growing awareness of their burgeoning sexuality. Driven by their newly found desires, the children begin a game that will have serious and violent consequences for them all. Thirteen years after the summer she's tried for so long to forget, Eva is returning to her village. Everything fell apart that summer, but this time she'll be prepared. She has a large block of ice in her car boot and she's ready to settle the score...

Tirza/Tirza by Arnon Grunberg

Jorgen Hofmeester once had it all: a beautiful wife, a nice house with a garden in an upperclass neighborhood in Amsterdam, a respectable job as an editor, two lovely daughters named Ibi and Tirza, and a large amount of money in a Swiss bank account. But during the preparations for Tirza's graduation party, we come to know what he has lost. His wife has left him; Ibi is starting a bed and breakfast in France, an idea which he opposed; the director of the publishing house has fired him; and his savings accounts have vanished in the wake of 9/11.

But Hoffmeester still has Tirza, until she introduces him to her new boyfriend, Choukri - who bears a disturbing resemblance to Mohammed Atta - and they announce their plans to spend several months in Africa. A heartrending and masterful story of a man seeking redemption, Tirza marks a high point in Grunberg's still-developing oeuvre.

(also I think believe he has a thing for his daughters)

De donkere kamer van Damocles/The darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans

During the German occupation of Holland, tobacconist Henri Osewoudt is visited by Dorbeck. Dorbeck is Osewoudt's spitting image in reverse. Henri is blond and beardless, with a high voice; Dorbeck is dark-haired, and his voice deep.

Dorbeck gives Osewoudt a series of dangerous assignments: helping British agents and eliminating traitors. But the assassinations get out of hand...

The story of Osewoudt's fateful wanderings through a sadistic universe is thrilling. Is Osewoudt hero or villain? Or is he a psychopath, driven by delusions? It is the impossibility of ascertaining whether Osewoudt was on the "right" side or the "wrong" side - the moral issue of the Second World War in a nutshell - that makes Hermans' novel as breathtaking now as when it was written a decade after the war.

Having given these five recs, this is like the tip of the iceberg

[comicsart3]

Moonbeam has appeared frequently in another of my blogs, Women In Charge, in fm bondage interpretations of covers to the Swedish language comic Solvpilen, or Silver Arrow. The character is a somewhat stereotypical female Native American who is sister and sidekick to the Silver Arrow of the title, wise and brave chief of the Kiowa. Although very sexualised, and frequently illustrated in damsel in distress scenarios, Moonbeam is nonetheless skilled in unarmed combat and not infrequently comes to Silver Arrow’s rescue also. Dressed in a tight, flowing, slit buckskin dress, Moonbeam often graced the cover of Solvpilen, frequently depicted throwing sundry outlaws, Indians and renegade cavalry troopers over her shoulder. She is therefore very much of her late 1970s/1980s time - a strong but not too strong female character, feisty and able to look after herself, but fundamentally subservient to the main man. Moonbeam is therefore not the best example of a strong female comic book character, but her kick-ass abilities do earn her a place in this blog.

The above cover is somewhat atypical in that Moonbeam is shown in customary jiu-jitsu mode, but her garb is less sexy and more realistic. There is also the slightly surreal addition of the warrior maiden’s pet mountain lion cub, Tinka, who accompanies Moonbeam everywhere and never seems to grow up.

The title began as Zilverpijl, a Flemish language creation of the Belgian artist Frank Sels in 1970, which rapidly gained popularity in the whole of Scandinavia (including Finland), and was also translated into German. The series ran until 1986 but never broke into the English language comic book world which is a shame, as its stories were well plotted, contained much factual information about Native American life, and the cover art in particular, was very dynamic.

The cover featured is to Solvpilen #1 (January 1972)

[scotianostra]

July 3rd 1582 James Crichton of Eliock, the original "Admirable Crichton", died in a brawl in Mantua.

Soldier, scholar, poet and athlete, he was a graduate of St Andrews University and a tutor of King James VI. James Crichton, known as the Admirable Crichton, was a Scottish polymath, a latin term that translates to “universal man”, basically he was good at everything!

Crichton wasnoted for his extraordinary accomplishments in languages, the arts, and sciences. One of the most gifted individuals of the 16th century, James Crichton of Clunie Perthshire, was the son of Robert Crichton of Eliok, Lord Advocate of Scotland, and Elizabeth Stewart, from whose line James could claim Royal descent.

At the age of eight Crichton’s eloquence in his native vernacular was compared with that of Demosthenes and Cicero. By fifteen he knew “perfectly” Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac; and commanded native conversational fluency in Spanish, French, Italian, “Dutch”, Flemish, and, oh, “Sclavonian”, don’t worry I looked it up for us, it’s basically Slovenian.

That was the mere beginning of Crichton’s admirableness. He was also a champion athlete, a horseman, a fencer, a dancer, a singer of rare voice, and the master of most known wind and string instruments. His St. Andrews professor, Rutherford, a noted commentator, judged him to be one of the leading philosophers of the era.

After sucking all the available education to him in Scotland, it was only natural he should start on mainland Europe, he studied in France at the College of Navarre at the University of Paris. Here the young Scotsman cut a broad swath, though according to his jealous fellows his arenas of greatest activity were the tavernia’s and the whorehouses, rather than the lecture hall. Young Crichton did like the ladies, who in turn found him most–admirable.

He may have been liked by the ladies, but nobody likes a big heid, and that is how Crichton must have come across to many, nowadays he would have been one of the Chasers, or an Egghead on our TV screens, but back in the 16th century there were no such outlets for Crichton to show his big heid off, so he had posters printed up declaring that on a day six weeks hence, at nine in the morning, in the main hall of the College of Navarre, he intended to present himself to dispute with all comers all questions put to him regarding any subject. He had these put up on all the appropriate notice boards and church doors, before disappearing into the red light district to prepare himself for the contest. His adversaries had to quit laughing when on the appointed day Crichton appeared as advertised and bested the greatest local experts in grammar, mathematics, geometry, music, astronomy, logic, and theology.

The Crichton Show, having conquered Paris, moved next to the Italian peninsula. The young Scot performed memorable feats of academic disputation first in Rome and then in Venice. There he became fast friends with the famous scholar-printer Aldus Munitius, who is a credible witness to some of his more amazing intellectual performances. One of his ways of showing off was giving off the cuff instances of Comedic verse, a sort of Stand Up routine, but with that Crichton twist, the odes he told were in Latin!

Tradition has it on the street in Mantua one night he was accosted by four swordsmen, with superb sword play Crichton disarmed them all and forced them to show their faces. One of them, their leader indeed, turned out to be one of his pupils and prodigy, Vincenzo Gonzaga who was the son of The Duke of Mantua. Crichton was in the Duke’s employ and the youngster was jealous of the Scot, Crichton was also romantically linked to Vicenzo’s ex mistress. On seeing Vincenzo, Crichton instantly dropped to one knee and presented his sword, hilt first, to the prince, his master’s son. Vincenzo took the blade and with it stabbed Crichton cruelly through the heart, killing him instantly. James Crichton of Cluny was then in his twenty-second year.

There have been many accounts of Crichton in literature through the years since, mostly fictional but with hints of the story, the most famous is arguably the J M Barrie play, but the title of the play is the only semblance to the story of the Scottish Polymath.

[a-modernmajorgeneral]

Bestiary, literary genre in the European Middle Ages consisting of a collection of stories, each based on a description of certain qualities of an animal, plant, or even stone. The stories presented Christian allegories for moral and religious instruction and admonition.

The numerous manuscripts of medieval bestiaries ultimately are derived from the Greek Physiologus, a text compiled by an unknown author before the middle of the 2nd century ad. It consists of stories based on the “facts” of natural science as accepted by someone called Physiologus (Latin: “Naturalist”), about whom nothing further is known, and from the compiler’s own religious ideas.

The Physiologus consists of 48 sections, each dealing with one creature, plant, or stone and each linked to a biblical text. It probably originated in Alexandria and, in some manuscripts, is ascribed to one or other of the 4th-century bishops Basil and Epiphanius, though it must be older. The stories may derive from popular fables about animals and plants. Some Indian influence is clear—for example, in the introduction of the elephant and of the Peridexion tree, actually called Indian in the Physiologus. India may also be the source of the story of the unicorn, which became very popular in the West.

The popularity of the Physiologus, which circulated in the early Middle Ages only less widely than the Bible, is clear from the existence of many early translations. It was translated into Latin (first in the 4th or 5th century), Ethiopian, Syriac, Arabic, Coptic, and Armenian. Early translations from the Greek also were made into Georgian and into Slavic languages.

Translations were made from Latin into Anglo-Saxon before 1000. In the 11th century an otherwise unknown Thetbaldus made a metrical Latin version of 13 sections of the Physiologus. This was translated, with alterations, in the only surviving Middle English Bestiary, dating from the 13th century. It, and other lost Middle English and Anglo-Norman versions, influenced the development of the beast fable. Early translations into Flemish and German influenced the satiric beast epic. Bestiaries were popular in France and the Low Countries in the 13th century, and a 14th-century French Bestiaire d’amour applied the allegory to love. An Italian translation of the Physiologus, known as the Bestiario toscano, was made in the 13th century.

Many of the medieval bestiaries were illustrated; the manuscript of the earliest known of these is from the 9th century. Illustrations accompanying other medieval manuscripts are often based on illustrations in the Physiologus, as are sculptures and carvings (especially in churches) and frescoes and paintings well into the Renaissance period.

The religious sections of the Physiologus (and of the bestiaries that were derived from it) are concerned primarily with abstinence and chastity; they also warn against heresies. The frequently abstruse stories to which these admonitions were added were often based on misconceptions about the facts of natural history: e.g., the stag is described as drowning its enemy, the snake, in its den; and the ichneumon as crawling into the jaws of the crocodile and then devouring its intestines. Many attributes that have become traditionally associated with real or mythical creatures derive from the bestiaries: e.g., the phoenix’s burning itself to be born again, the parental love of the pelican, and the hedgehog’s collecting its stores for the winter with its prickles. These have become part of folklore and have passed into literature and art, influencing the development of allegory, symbolism, and imagery, though their source in the bestiary may be frequently overlooked.

multicolored cats

Worksop Bestiary, England c. 1185

NY, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.81, fol. 46v