Life and Vikings
1. Life.
The shopping I have to do this week? Grocery shopping. And I really can't put it off more than a day or two more. However even grocery shopping is a royal pain in the parts that hurt, this time of year.
Rather a pleasant little party this weekend at (Tim and) Brittany's place. Finished off a bottle of Pimm's (with the mandatory collection of fruits). That is one fine beverage. Certainly not for every occasion, but it hasn't let me down yet.
World of Tanks has been very ... tanky? I dunno. Still enjoying it.
It's nice that winter has arrived, and all, despite the fact that it's causing everyone a lot of grief up here in the northern hemisphere. I wish I knew where my gloves were, though.
Happy Dongzhi Festival, everyone. Get together with your family. Have some dumpling soup.
Didn't see the lunar eclipse. Clouds. But a news guy just said "they only happen every 300 years or so". No. The last one to happen on winter sol -- look, never mind. Lunar eclipses are very neat, but not incredibly uncommon.
2. Vikings.
Book 50/51.41 The Whale Road by Robert Low, pb, 355 pages
The title refers to a Norse poetic convention for the sea. They had a lot of poetic conventions for things, as largely oral cultures tend to do.
Well, when it comes to gritty, chaotic action, Robert Low has it. Things are muddy, rusty, wet, salty, and stained with human and animal wastes aplenty in this promising start to a series that runs four books so far.
It is the middle of the 10th c, Sweden is still a chaotic mess of petty lords, and Norsemen have sailed, traded, and settled across the known world. Orm Rurikson, a young man who has grown up in fosterage, is "rescued" from his rural life by his father, one of a crew of "Oathsworn" men sailing the Baltic in the Fjord Elk. Hard men, as willing to trade or raid, guided by a mad-woman and involved in the intrigues of a priest of Hvítakristr* they head east seeking the treasure horde of Atli (Attila).
Where Severin's books (which end almost exactly one hundred years after these begin) do a far better job at laying out all the details of Norse culture in their travels all while steeped in far more mysticism, here the main focus is the narrative, the action. That isn't to say Low's books are without merit, many aspects of Norse life are covered (and the "romance" of travelling in a drakkar is thoroughly dispelled), however these are far closer to the "sword pr0n" I was looking for.
I have the rest of the series, to date, and look forward to getting into them.
Doug.
The shopping I have to do this week? Grocery shopping. And I really can't put it off more than a day or two more. However even grocery shopping is a royal pain in the parts that hurt, this time of year.
Rather a pleasant little party this weekend at (Tim and) Brittany's place. Finished off a bottle of Pimm's (with the mandatory collection of fruits). That is one fine beverage. Certainly not for every occasion, but it hasn't let me down yet.
World of Tanks has been very ... tanky? I dunno. Still enjoying it.
It's nice that winter has arrived, and all, despite the fact that it's causing everyone a lot of grief up here in the northern hemisphere. I wish I knew where my gloves were, though.
Happy Dongzhi Festival, everyone. Get together with your family. Have some dumpling soup.
Didn't see the lunar eclipse. Clouds. But a news guy just said "they only happen every 300 years or so". No. The last one to happen on winter sol -- look, never mind. Lunar eclipses are very neat, but not incredibly uncommon.
2. Vikings.
Book 50/51.41 The Whale Road by Robert Low, pb, 355 pages
The title refers to a Norse poetic convention for the sea. They had a lot of poetic conventions for things, as largely oral cultures tend to do.
Well, when it comes to gritty, chaotic action, Robert Low has it. Things are muddy, rusty, wet, salty, and stained with human and animal wastes aplenty in this promising start to a series that runs four books so far.
It is the middle of the 10th c, Sweden is still a chaotic mess of petty lords, and Norsemen have sailed, traded, and settled across the known world. Orm Rurikson, a young man who has grown up in fosterage, is "rescued" from his rural life by his father, one of a crew of "Oathsworn" men sailing the Baltic in the Fjord Elk. Hard men, as willing to trade or raid, guided by a mad-woman and involved in the intrigues of a priest of Hvítakristr* they head east seeking the treasure horde of Atli (Attila).
Where Severin's books (which end almost exactly one hundred years after these begin) do a far better job at laying out all the details of Norse culture in their travels all while steeped in far more mysticism, here the main focus is the narrative, the action. That isn't to say Low's books are without merit, many aspects of Norse life are covered (and the "romance" of travelling in a drakkar is thoroughly dispelled), however these are far closer to the "sword pr0n" I was looking for.
I have the rest of the series, to date, and look forward to getting into them.
Doug.