Boxing Clever

S01 — Session 25

1626, Sea Season

Season, Week, Day

Dramatis Personae

Events

As before, the log will be recounted with extracts from The Lay of Serala, Lance of the Cold Sun , The Death of Rajar, and NalaTiwrSaga. As with last time there will be extracts from the Sonnets to Varanis, and also The Sonnets to Mellia, Sweetest of Healers, White Lady of Esrolia, additionally, we will be seeing the Sonnets in Praise of Xenofos. Editorial commentary will be recorded [thus]. Both the {“D”} and “T” voice appear in this selection of extracts. Berra JarangsdottiHumaktisaga makes an appearance, but I have ignored the suggested selection.

[Good morning once more. It seems that plague has settled on your house, and so once more I am here. Garin. Professor.

I have distributed the marks, and the marking scheme I used, for last week’s flash test. Students with a good memory will recall I did not think I would be marking this. There has therefore been an acute lack of that mercy for which I am famed. Those of you who attempted to negotiate marks are now sitting at the front. Their eagerness does the entire class credit.

As before, I shall be reciting the poetry in question, and then we will discuss it. You may take notes. You may even refer to previous notes. I am a dull, formulaic person. We therefore begin once more with NalaTiwrSaga]

Within the forest
Aldr’yami are forest
Aloof the tor waits

Seeking does no harm
The path within is my own
The dim greenness theirs

‘All of this greenery and I can’t even eat a bit. You know what this is?’

Upon the hill does destiny await1Note the change of tense here. Five hundred words on why, for next week.
Varanis wild foresaw it was her fait2sic.
And in the place of nature crossed a line
Of trust and gave the Unicorn her wine

‘Because I deserved it!’

{‘Almost, but not quite, worth applause. She got caught.’}

[[Serala now. The Lay of the Lance of the Cold Sun.]]

Upon the hill of earth and plant and fertile seed
Serala turned to see Varanis’ desperate need
Masana Dark, mount who ever was trollish found
Had thrown the proud Varanis to the muddy ground
Within a moment she had caught the errant horse
In chase over hill and field, through tree and gorse!
But on returning to the pleasant hilltop stand
Her hawk eyes caused her bow to come to hand
Varanis sorcelled was by Lunar magic large
Swiftly Serala knew she had to make a charge.

[I dislike Cold Lance as an evidence base, but at least we know what we are getting, and it is almost certainly only one poem. On to Berra JarangsdottiHumaktisaga. If anyone would like to identify the first and last lines of this grouping, and whether you think they are original, feel free to impress me.]

Dagger dashed dire
Winding3Nowadays, pronunciation diverges, but this would potentially have both meanings. warrior woman
Wrestling wrath, wringing
Fight from flailing
Ferocious fury falling
Strong hands seeking submission

[Anyone? No? Well, never mind.]

{‘I’ll just take this. You don’t need it. Shame to get it trampled.’}

[Of course, there is always a disinterested observer, or at least, someone who writes himself up as disinterested. Xenofos.]

Brave Xenofos with javelin in his hand
Surveyed the unkempt and Barbarian band
Prepared to kill to save those of his Clan
Lest Saiciae be slaughtered to a man4Presumably a deliberate play on words, as he was the only man of Saiciae.,5The only noble man.,6Unless you count the merchant sometimes known as Irillo, recently buried..
But peace with ink flowed underneath his skin
As harmony stood he, beside his kin
And in a voice of calm and pure serene
He caused the barbarians t’ward peace to lean.

[Now we have that part of Mellia that proves to me she does have backbone after all. Sigris, if you are going to laugh, perhaps you would enjoy reciting instead? No? Very well.]

She spoke with Varanis in accents mild
The same to Urox as a wayward child
No blood she drew and yet Varanis quail’d
When told by Mellia that she had failed.
Wept she full sore, the Vingan in her woe
And promis’d she’d no more in error go.

[And there is the fire alarm. We shall continue this discussion outside. Leave your coats. You don’t have time to get them.]7And the last word from The Spurious Rajar as The Death of Rajar is oddly silent. Remember, never conflate these two in exam conditions.

When a bison rocks
And then goes for a quick roll
It’s all gone downhill

Archaeology student who thought this course was going to be an easy credit: “Professor Garin, do you think that these events could have happened at Skokkrafell, as Dr MacNessa has proposed? Or is it possible that someone named the hill later to fit with the stories? Kind of like matching stories to an existing landscape?” The student sounds very enthralled with his own ideas.

[Of course it’s possible. However, to look into it, you will need to consider that you are wrong as well as being right. I’ll have a set of briefing notes from you please, for debate on ‘This House Believes that Skokkrafell is not a Modern Name’. Everyone else, note I asked for class discussion, not questions to me.]

Redhead with complicated life: “It seems like, from the Sonnets to Varanis, anyway, that people were mad about a unicorn drinking? Is that a metaphor or something? Even if the unicorn is real, as some people believe, why does it matter if it drank some wine?”

[Well, class?]

Chubby guy with too many rings: “Contextually it’s read as a sin, no matter the reality of the unicorn. It’s constructed as such, so start with believing that it’s bad and then ask why that might have been.”
Thin guy, also over-ringed, slightly snarkily: “Well, why might that be, then?”
Chubby guy: “It’s my background understanding that the Unicorn was representative of purity, so passing it something that addled its nerves might very well be a problem. A thing can be a metaphor as well as being real.”

A rather senior looking management type academic in a pinstripe suit, looking up from a notepad, and adjusting his half moon glasses a little on his nose. “I noticed that the normally ‘fool’ archetype Xenofos is used as the example of sweet voiced harmony here- one naturally recalls Nestor in the Iliad. ‘ἦ μὰν αὖτ’ ἀγορῇ νικᾷς γέρον υἷας Ἀχαιῶν. αἲ γὰρ Ζεῦ τε πάτερ καὶ Ἀθηναίη καὶ Ἄπολλον. τοιοῦτοι δέκα μοι συμφράδμονες εἶεν Ἀχαιῶν. τώ κε τάχ’ ἠμύσειε πόλις Πριάμοιο ἄνακτος, χερσὶν ὑφ’ ἡμετέρῃσιν ἁλοῦσά τε περθομένη τε‘8 ‘Once again, old sir, you surpass the sons of the Achaians
in debate. O father Zeus, Athene, Apollo:
would that among the Achaians I had ten such counsellors.
Then perhaps the city of lord Priam would be bent
underneath our hands, captured and sacked.
Iliad, Book 2, 370-4. My reading of the works in question suggests it is Irillo who normally fulfils this rôle. So my thought for discussion is this. In these extracts, why the change?”

Anonymous voice from the back: “Different professor.”
General laughter.

[Amusing, yet apposite. Or at least, not far off. We have time to cover the most representative parts of each saga, and Xenofos – who may or may not have written his own saga – is portrayed within his sonnets as a multi-layered warrior poet. But if we had ten such, we would drown in words. Nestor never stops talking. Now, is there really a change, or do we just perceive one in what has come down to us?]

What Really Happened

Session Quotes

Related Logs

  • 1
    Note the change of tense here. Five hundred words on why, for next week.
  • 2
    sic.
  • 3
    Nowadays, pronunciation diverges, but this would potentially have both meanings.
  • 4
    Presumably a deliberate play on words, as he was the only man of Saiciae.
  • 5
    The only noble man.
  • 6
    Unless you count the merchant sometimes known as Irillo, recently buried.
  • 7
    And the last word from The Spurious Rajar as The Death of Rajar is oddly silent. Remember, never conflate these two in exam conditions.

    When a bison rocks
    And then goes for a quick roll
    It’s all gone downhill
  • 8
    ‘Once again, old sir, you surpass the sons of the Achaians
    in debate. O father Zeus, Athene, Apollo:
    would that among the Achaians I had ten such counsellors.
    Then perhaps the city of lord Priam would be bent
    underneath our hands, captured and sacked.
    Iliad, Book 2, 370-4