One of the devices integrated in Anglo-Saxon poetry is the kenning, defined in my Oxford English Reference Dictionary as "a compound expression in Old English and Old Norse poetry, e.g., oar-steed = ship. [ME = 'teaching' etc. f. KEN]." The word "kenning" comes from Old Icelandic (the language of the Vikings, pretty much) and originally meant ( Read more... )

So, Anglo-Saxon verse seems to be throwing people for a bit of a loop. Hopefully in a good way, but I worry that I've not explained it well, so rather than moving on to kenning today, I'm going to circle back. And ahead, by millennia.

Can somebody give me a beat? Because, you see, Anglo-Saxon verse isn't that far off from hip-hop. (Did your mind ( Read more... )

Yesterday, my sweetheart and I saw the last of The Hobbit films. I really loved it, and was quite emotional about it for a while afterwards. I think it's because (a) Thorin died (which I knew he would, since it's in the book), and the Tauriel/Kili/Legolas story line really hit me as well and (b) it's likely Peter Jackson's last foray into the ( Read more... )

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As promised in my mid-day post, here are five more "unusual verbs", formed by taking the names of famous authors, then finding (and in some cases modifying slightly) quotes they wrote to define what their name would mean if used as a verb. And yes, I started this nonsense in response to a suggestion from writerjenn in the comments to yesterday's post about ( Read more... )

The quote in today's icon is from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. After spending time writing LOTR-based filk songs this week, it seemed the appropriate icon for today's post ( Read more... )

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I find that from time to time, some of the poems written by Tolkien within The Lord of the Rings comes to mind unbidden. Not the really lovely stuff, like Elf song, but the simple rhymes attributed to Bilbo Baggins. Of course, I did watch part of the Fellowship of the Rings movie on TV last night, but went to bed before it was over, so today I can' ( Read more... )

It seems to me that the world of people who read books for pleasure falls into two camps: those who re-read books, and those who do not. And I seriously make no judgment on that either way, but as it so happens, I am among those in the re-reading camp.


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