The Long Night's Watch - the Undead Companions of the Last Hero

[Lost Melnibonean]

4 minutes ago, Pain killer Jane said:

Poor me. I am of Cuban descent and my godmother is Puerto Rican and I made the mistake of saying Bicho once in her house and it was like I kicked the dog. It was so embarrassing. You should imagine when I go visit my Honduran family and what makes speaking with them worse is that their English isn't American English, its Caribbean English.....Ugh its fun at family reunions.  

In grad school I dated a Colombian, and we hung out with some Venezuelans, Argentinans, and Mexicans. It always cracked me up when they would resort to English to discuss food, plants, or animals. English, the lingua franca of the New World! 

(I thought your comment was funny because bichos--insects in Colombia--are small, and well, you know...)

[Pain killer Jane]

11 minutes ago, Blue Tiger said:

IMO Spanish is easier than French.

English... Hmmm... It's hard to compare it, because I've started learning it when I was much younger... And generally I had more exposure to it - TV, games, comic books, movies, YouTube, internet, forums, chats, novels...

And since I really enjoy English + I had extra motivation of being able to read books like LOTR in original version + I had more lessons of it than of French or Spanish, it's no wonder I prefer it to those two...

Understandable. That is often my motivation for learning new languages aside from Spanish and English. My motivation for Japanese was so I wouldn't have to wait for other people to translate manga. 

[Wrl6199]

2 minutes ago, Pain killer Jane said:

Understandable. That is often my motivation for learning new languages aside from Spanish and English. My motivation for Japanese was so I wouldn't have to wait for other people to translate manga. 

I have been wanting to learn Japanese for years. Was it hard for you to learn?

[Bluetiger]

I'm too tired to start writing that introduction to discussion now, but I'll make some notes. I think it should be ready by tomorrow's evening.

Now I'll just go back to trying to write something on my own - that story I keep mentioning from time to time - and I must say that all our discussions here proved to be a great source of interesting ideas for myths and symbolism.

 

[Pain killer Jane]

Just now, Wrl6199 said:

I have been wanting to learn Japanese for years. Was it hard for you to learn?

the speaking and listening part was easier than the reading as Japanese uses three different 'alphabets' Kanji for Nouns and Verbs, Hiragana for conjugations endings usually denoting tenses and Katakana for words that originated in other languages (usually English but I have encountered other words). 

[Bluetiger]

1 minute ago, Pain killer Jane said:

the speaking and listening part was easier than the reading as Japanese uses three different 'alphabets' Kanji for Nouns and Verbs, Hiragana for conjugations endings usually denoting tenses and Katakana for words that originated in other languages (usually English but I have encountered other words). 

Currently I'm trying to memorise Norse alphabet - Elder Futhark. So far I remember about 1/3. 

[Pain killer Jane]

4 minutes ago, Blue Tiger said:

I'm too tired to start writing that introduction to discussion now, but I'll make some notes. I think it should be ready by tomorrow's evening.

Now I'll just go back to trying to write something on my own - that story I keep mentioning from time to time - and I must say that all our discussions here proved to be a great source of interesting ideas for myths and symbolism.

 

awesome!

And that's great that your imagination is always being fed. I always thought Muses were the most powerful goddesses. 

[Pain killer Jane]

13 minutes ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

In grad school I dated a Colombian, and we hung out with some Venezuelans, Argentinans, and Mexicans. It always cracked me up when they would resort to English to discuss food, plants, or animals. English, the lingua franca of the New World! 

(I thought your comment was funny because bichos--insects in Colombia--are small, and well, you know...)

My personal poem that I hold very dear to heart says this

Quote

I speak English with passion: it’s the tongue of my consciousness,
a flashing knife blade of crystal, my tool, my craft.

I am Caribeña, island grown. Spanish is in my flesh,
Ripples from my tongue, lodge in my hips:
the language of garlic and mangoes,
the singing of poetry, the flying gestures of my hands.

- Child of the Americas, Aurora Levins Morales

And yes that is often very funny about the small penis. I didn't realize Colombian's used bicho as well. 

[Pain killer Jane]

3 hours ago, ravenous reader said:

And Odin's horse Sleipnir as allegory for skinchanging; and the völva for greenseers and weaving motifs.

The first topic has to be Yggdrasil, the world tree!

On the amber, we shouldn't forget Freya's necklace like you mentioned. Isn't Freya a volva as well? 

[The Fattest Leech]

On 1/12/2017 at 7:19 PM, Pain killer Jane said:

On the amber, we shouldn't forget Freya's necklace like you mentioned. Isn't Freya a volva as well? 

No. Freya is a goddess of the Vanir tribe, and honorary member of the Aesir tribe of gods (pronounced ice-ear by the way) and I believe the only goddess to be accepted into the Aesir tribe. Her name means "Lady".

Völva were female healers and seers. They are actually quite fascinating. There are some in the ASOIAF story, but she is discussed in another thread

To clarify; Freya (Freja, etc) was a goddess and healing was one of the things she did. Völva were real life human healers that roamed the lands and had the gift of healing, seeing the future, etc. The Völva prayed and worshipped to Freya. That is how they are connected.

Thank you.

Carry on.

[ravenous reader]

3 hours ago, Pain killer Jane said:

On the amber, we shouldn't forget Freya's necklace like you mentioned. Isn't Freya a volva as well? 

Yes.

Quote

From wikipedia:

The vǫlur were not considered to be harmless.^[6] The goddess who was most skilled in magic was Freyja, and she was not only a goddess of love, but also a warlike divinity who caused screams of anguish, blood and death, and what Freyja performed in Asgard, the world of the gods, the vǫlur tried to perform in Midgard, the world of men.^[6] The weapon of the vǫlva was not the spear, the axe or the sword, but instead they were held to influence battles with different means, and one of them was the wand,^[6] (see the section wands and weaving

ETA:  Excerpt asserting Freyja as 'archetype of the voelva':

Quote

Freya is famous for her fondness of love, fertility, beauty, and fine material possessions – and, because of these predilections, she’s considered to be something of the “party girl” of the Aesir. In one of the Eddic poems, for example, Loki accuses Freya (probably accurately) of having slept with all of the gods and elves, including her brother.^[1] She’s certainly a passionate seeker after pleasures and thrills, but she’s a lot more than only that. Freya is the archetype of the völva, a professional or semiprofessional practitioner of seidr, the most organized form of Norse magic. It was she who first brought this art to the gods,^[2] and, by extension, to humans as well. Given her expertise in controlling and manipulating the desires, health, and prosperity of others, she’s a being whose knowledge and power are almost without equal.

From:  http://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-vanir-gods-and-goddesses/freya/

 

[ravenous reader]

5 hours ago, Pain killer Jane said:

My personal poem that I hold very dear to heart says this

Quote

I speak English with passion: it’s the tongue of my consciousness,
a flashing knife blade of crystal, my tool, my craft.

I am Caribeña, island grown. Spanish is in my flesh,
Ripples from my tongue, lodge in my hips:
the language of garlic and mangoes,
the singing of poetry, the flying gestures of my hands.

- Child of the Americas, Aurora Levins Morales

Simply stunning.  She rises.  

[Pain killer Jane]

46 minutes ago, ravenous reader said:

 

4 hours ago, Pain killer Jane said:

On the amber, we shouldn't forget Freya's necklace like you mentioned. Isn't Freya a volva as well? 

Yes.

Quote

From wikipedia:

The vǫlur were not considered to be harmless.^[6] The goddess who was most skilled in magic was Freyja, and she was not only a goddess of love, but also a warlike divinity who caused screams of anguish, blood and death, and what Freyja performed in Asgard, the world of the gods, the vǫlur tried to perform in Midgard, the world of men.^[6] The weapon of the vǫlva was not the spear, the axe or the sword, but instead they were held to influence battles with different means, and one of them was the wand,^[6] (see the section wands and weaving

ETA:  Excerpt asserting Freyja as 'archetype of the voelva':

Quote

Freya is famous for her fondness of love, fertility, beauty, and fine material possessions – and, because of these predilections, she’s considered to be something of the “party girl” of the Aesir. In one of the Eddic poems, for example, Loki accuses Freya (probably accurately) of having slept with all of the gods and elves, including her brother.^[1] She’s certainly a passionate seeker after pleasures and thrills, but she’s a lot more than only that. Freya is the archetype of the völva, a professional or semiprofessional practitioner of seidr, the most organized form of Norse magic. It was she who first brought this art to the gods,^[2] and, by extension, to humans as well. Given her expertise in controlling and manipulating the desires, health, and prosperity of others, she’s a being whose knowledge and power are almost without equal.

From:  http://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-vanir-gods-and-goddesses/freya/

 

 

See I thought she had something to do with magic. Slightly different magic than Hecate, Isis, or Circe and Medea. 

 

 

[ravenous reader]

@Pain killer Jane Hi sweet Jane -- please post your lovely anthem of a poem on the poetry thread!

[Pain killer Jane]

50 minutes ago, ravenous reader said:

Simply stunning.  She rises.  

I hope you don't think I wrote that. I meant that it is a personal poem in sense of how a song can be an anthem. This one and Invictus are super close to my heart. 

[ravenous reader]

Just now, Pain killer Jane said:

I hope you don't think I wrote that. I meant that it is a personal poem in sense of how a song can be an anthem. This one and Invictus are super close to my heart. 

I love them 

[ravenous reader]

We don't have to write poems ourselves in order for them to be ours. 

[Pain killer Jane]

1 minute ago, ravenous reader said:

We don't have to write poems ourselves in order for them to be ours. 

So true. 

 

3 minutes ago, ravenous reader said:

I love them 

 

[ravenous reader]

Just now, Pain killer Jane said:

So true. 

That is the true meaning of 'going into the trees' -- the way the poet (and GRRM) seeks to become eternal -- and succeeds, every time we commune with them, even in the relative privacy of our minds!

[LmL]

@ravenous reader, it occurred to me that monsters form the sea are really monsters from the id, in the context of everything in the sea being a metaphor for the see. Makes them scarier, and reminds of Lovecraft, where the monsters invade your mind and come from other dimensions.