#context: the post with taliesin's quote

[ravendruid]

hehehe nice

[essayofthoughts]

Do you have the episode numbers and/or timestamps for the references you made in your last post about Percy?

For context, in case anyone didn’t see the previous ask - and yes, I can get episode numbers, timestamps and even transcripts! The Kryogenix searchable transcript is a blessing and I always watch with closed captions because I remember the written word better - end result is I can memorise key phrases which makes it very easy to then go back and search up references when I need to.

I’m also gonna provide a chunk of the conversation around these just for context and also because some of them are very funny.

The syphilis/limited experience quote is as follows:

#LAURA I walk up and I kiss him on the cheek. and I say: Don't you worry, we've got you.

#TALIESIN Especially with the cough, thank you.

#LAURA I don't believe you're really sick, darling.

#SAM Vex, I've heard a cough like that, and it's probably syphilis.

#LAURA Lovely. Thank you, Scanlan.

#TALIESIN I barely sl-- I don't, I--

#SAM Personal experience, that's all I'm saying.

C1E30 - Stoke The Flames | Kryogenix Transcript | Timestamp

Note that there's more in the video than is actually transcribed because they did talk over each other a little here. As Sam-as-Scanlan’s saying “Personal experience” Taliesin-as-Percy says “One time, one time”.

“Quite gentle about the whole process” is when Percy’s talking to Tary:

#SAM Taryon Darrington in a house of flesh? 

#TRAVIS Yeah, you go in, throw some spaghetti on the wall, see what sticks, and have a great time. 

#TALIESIN There's not actual spaghetti. 

#TRAVIS There might be.  (laughter) What do you think? 

#LIAM Mayonnaise, at the very least. (groaning, laughter) 

#TALIESIN Oh, that's funny twice, too. (laughter) 

#LAURA, ASHLEY Yay. 

#TRAVIS What do you think, huh? I know if we had said, "you're going to fight a dragon and a kraken," you'd be like, "no, not me!" But this is a chance for you to go to the big time. 

#TALIESIN Maybe take some pressure off and practice talking normally to people who are going to be very gentle with you about the whole process. 

#SAM Talking?

#ASHLEY You don't even have to do anything. You can just have an hour of their time. 

#SAM Pike, are you encouraging me to go to a brothel right now?

#ASHLEY Listen, I do think that going to, as you put it, a house of flesh, is a part of being an adventurer. It's a rite of passage.

#LAURA Do you go to brothels, Pike? 

#ASHLEY Well, where do you think I go when you guys leave all the time? (laughter)

C1E94 - Jugs and Rods | Kryogenix Transcript | Timestamp

It’s such a good Pike moment and honestly this whole episode is a favourite of mine alongside Elephant In The Room.

And then, lastly, “if you want to know what women like ask women” was slightly misquoted by me, mostly because the gents of CR rarely call the women girls. It’s from the same episode and goes as follows:

#MARISHA Tary, Grog is teaching you the opposite of what to do. 

#SAM What do you mean? Girls don't like the bad boy? 

#TALIESIN If you want to discover what girls actually like, ask girls. 

#LAURA Maybe talk to them. 

#TALIESIN We've got three-- 

#LAURA Don't talk at them. Talk to them. 

#MARISHA Maybe individually. 

#TALIESIN Wells of knowledge.

#SAM Keyleth. 

#MARISHA Oh no. Yeah?

#SAM Your hair is like angels coming down from the sky--

#TALIESIN Nope, already lost it. Nope.

#LAURA Don't talk at them.

#TALIESIN Don't talk to the hair.

#MARISHA Why don't you, for starters, ask them a question about themselves?

#SAM All right. 

#MARISHA Instead of talking about yourself. 

#LIAM You don't necessarily want to tell them things. You want to talk to them and learn about them. 

#SAM How much money do you have?

#ASHLEY Oops. 

#LAURA (laughs) No, that's a question for me, darling.

#MARISHA Maybe less a monetary stat question. Maybe find a question about her personality or about her past or something that interests her. 

C1E94 - Jugs and Rods | Kryogenix Transcript | Timestamp

[teriwrites]

2020 Writing Wrap-Up

Something that I do every year on the 1st is go back through absolutely everything I’ve written throughout the previous year and compile it into one massive word document. Everything from outlining notes to unfinished short stories to my NaNo project wind up in that file, where I like to read back and reflect on what I’ve gotten done through the year. 

Every year, I end up having written more than I expected, and this year was no different! 

Total for 2020: 203,119!

This is the first recorded year (I think it’s year 4 that I’ve done this for?) in which I’ve cracked 200K! It’s also the first year I’ve ever actually followed through on my resolution to share some of my writing online! So as rough as 2020 has been, I still somehow managed to break some personal records in writing. Which probably has everything to do with the fact that I joined this community earlier this year, and it’s been incredibly encouraging and supportive!

I also branched out a bit more this year in a few ways. I worked on some poetry and prose, which is not something I’ve put a lot of time into before so tends to be a challenge. It’s nothing that I’ll be posting anytime soon, but it was fun to work on in the moment, which is especially important in such a wild year as 2020.

One snag that I definitely hit was the fact that I have a lot more unfinished work than most years. A majority of the short stories I started working on never got finished. But I can’t even be too upset about that, because I totally loved being able to read back on even the fragmented pieces I ended up with. And while I do think a large part of that (for me) is discipline over inspiration, I’m willing to accept that, sometimes, things will remain unfinished. And it’s okay to stop working on them. 

My overall focus shifted a bit this year, too, which was interesting. I worked more on longer things than most years - started out the year by finishing my first draft of Castle on the Hill, continued making some edits and reworking its outline, did a large part of Beneath Alder Creek’s first draft in November. Right now, I’m working on what I expect to be a novella by the time I’m done with it. It’s a big contrast to the usual, short and snappy short stories that fill most of my previous wrap-up files. But I still definitely write those sometimes, and it’s nice to be able to try stretching and testing my own boundaries. 

This is the part of my wrap-up where I go ham throwing in some of my favorite out-of-context quotes from a variety of different things I’ve worked on. Some of them might be familiar, a lot probably won’t. I’m going to post it beneath the thing so this doesn’t become even more absurdly long!

Some of the ~highlights~ of 2020:

First Thoughts in the Morning: wow the sexual tension between me and the alarm clock right now. Later Reflection: wtf? (a literal note on my notes app that I included because I Cannot remember writing any of this and it made me laugh)

Edriele’s gaze trailed down to the woman’s armor, and her stomach twisted. “Where did you find your attire?” The woman glanced down in surprise, as though she’d forgotten she was wearing it. “It was fitted to me when I gained my ranking. I suppose it draws attention, but after my confrontation at… you mean to ask me whether I’m impersonating a Knight!” “The thought had crossed my mind,” the Sister replied dryly. (novella WIP)

“Do you need to make a stop at your house before we head to the chapel?” Leslie asked as they started off. “What for?” Winnie asked. Leslie looked pointedly at the tip of her galoshes poking out from beneath her dress. With another roll of her eyes, Winnie sighed. “Oh, I suppose so.” (Beneath Alder Creek)

When the third meeting for the Society of the Hidden Immortal Tribe was called for the decade, I knew heads would roll. Gathering the entire society together took months. Everything had to be hush-hush; that was the entire point of spreading ourselves out. Plus, every time a letter arrived in the mail, it was a reminder of the idiot who had decided we needed a name change. Everybody agreed that being deemed the ‘S.H.I.T.’ was humiliating, but nobody could agree on a better title, so it had remained the same for nearly a full century. That was the problem with living forever. You always had more time to make decisions, and, in the end, nothing ever got done. (S.H.I.T.)

When she leaves, I’m not sure I remember a word of what she’s said. But as the stresses of the semester wash back in, and my mind clears like being pulled out of a dream, I suddenly understand how one could crash upon the rocks without realizing they’d ever changed their course. (A Modern Siren)

When Georg arrived later, he found Klaus leaning forwards onto the table, staring vacuously at one of his textbooks. "Studying hard?" he taunted as he approached and dropped into the seat Ingrid had been occupying. "I talked with Ingrid," Klaus explained. Georg's eyebrows shot up in genuine surprise, but he quickly recovered and looked pointedly at Klaus' posture. "Go that well, then?" "She said I'm arrogant and completely self-involved and that I never take what a girl says into account whenever I'm on a date." With a haunted gleam in his eye, Klaus stared up at his friend. "I think she's right." "Well then it's a good thing somebody pointed it out," Georg offered, and he turned to his work. (Castle on the Hill)

Takemoto Hana rested a hand over her face. She couldn’t see the swirling of darkness over her head, but she heard the whine behind its words. With a wry smile, she asked, ‘Do you not know how to brew tea?’ ‘Of course I know how to brew tea!’ The dark spirit’s voice boomed with a defensive defiance that rang false in the funny little woman’s ears.  (The Funny Little Woman)

“None of us want to be here right now,” Edgar called out to the hall. “None of us want to go back through the handbook and listen to the steps of proper etiquette in immortality. But it seems that, once again, it’s necessary.” “Dammit, Dave,” muttered the man next to me. I said nothing, but I couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment. Dave was… how do I describe Dave? To call him an idiot would be underestimating his craftiness. To call him a genius, I’d have to ignore all of his dumb antics. Cruel was too strong. Misguided was too innocent. Mischievous fit best, but even that fell short. Dave was a trickster god, if ever one existed. (S.H.I.T.)

Ridiculous, he told me with a self-conscious laugh of someone who didn't expect to be believed. I smiled, but I didn't join in. (The Little Roads)

“Hey, where did Alina go?” Lorelai asked. Zoe shrugged, but Jaiden cleared his throat. “I think you crossed one of her boundaries, Lo. She specifically asked not to involve her girlfriend in this, and then you did anyways. I know we needed the help, but friendships have to be built on mutual trust, my dude. You should’ve at least let her know your plan before you went behind her back.” The two women stopped and shared a look. “Hey, Jaiden,” Zoe asked. “Do you know the capital of Canada?” He shook his head. “I dunno, Ontario?” “Amazing.” (Mirror, Mirror)

"We had a bet going over whether you'd make it in time," Hans told him. "Did you win or lose?" Josef replied. Hans flipped a 5-Deutsche Mark coin over to Peter, who grinned as he pocketed it. "I'm glad you have so much faith in me." Josef's voice dripped with sarcasm. (Castle on the Hill)

Taliesin reached over his head and grabbed at one of the low-hanging bows, picking leaves from it. “I’m not sure.” Winnie stopped. “What do you mean?” “I mean that I don’t know.” (Beneath Alder Creek)

While she attended to these, the man beside her began to stir. Ella could see him out of the corner of her eye, attempting to push himself up into a sitting position. ‘You may want to lie back down,’ she told him, scrubbing uselessly at her skirt. The man continued to sit up anyways, pressing a hand against the side of his face. ‘Am I killed?’ ‘No, but your savior may be.’ Ella threw her skirt back to the ground. ‘When the Madame sees the state of me, I��ll be spending my future afternoons off making a new dress out of the fabric scraps.’ A frown crossed the man’s face as he considered her words, followed by a scowl of understanding. ‘You work for them. The bourgeoisie.’ (Cinderella)

Ingrid took the seat and began digging through her bag for a book. As she did so, she explained, "There were no other tables open in the building - even in the quiet section upstairs - so I figured that I would just ask the first person I recognized if I could sit with them, and well... here we are." "Don't worry about it," Georg answered when Klaus found himself dumbstruck again. "Just ignore the oaf, he'll leave you alone." Ingrid shot a grin at Georg, and Klaus suddenly wondered whether it was a good idea to have the two of them sit together. (Castle on the Hill)

Up ahead, I could see the glass walls of the bus stop. Usually, I waited for the bus leaning against the metal frame of the stop, leaving the seats inside open for children on their way to school. But the seats were empty now. I still avoided them. (Flo’s Magical Emporium: The Pandemic)

Now, I ask that you do not feel too much self-pity. For as easy an error as it may be to mistake a visiting aristocrat’s son for the hired help, the true talent in such a display causing his immediate departure lies within you alone. And to think that the meeting was the work of your father’s tenuous sway over the court! Well, I am sure the time away will do him some good, lest you begin to consider that you’ve ruined his position as well as your prospects. (Dearly Detested,)

Edgar was at the front of the lecture hall, and standing beside him was Dave, smirking as though at some private joke that only he was in on. He was wearing sunglasses, despite the dim lighting of the room, probably because he thought he looked cool. I rolled my eyes. What a tool. (S.H.I.T.)

 The work is different now. Countryside pathways winding through the forest lie forgotten for years without the familiar steps of a traveler. Off beaten paths in the city are never unknown for long, and sometimes streets that were once crossed by thousands a day fall back into obscurity. (The Little Roads)

“How much time will you give me to think on it?” she asked suspiciously, wrapping her arms around herself as though afraid they’d reach out to him if not kept in check. “You have all the time in the world,” the golden man said. “The boy’s, however, runs out with every passing second.” He extended his hand. (Beneath Alder Creek)

You ever met a rich person? Not comfortably wealthy. Not ‘my Uncle Kenny is a lawyer’ rich. Not even ‘widow answering the door to her manor on a hill dressed in fine silk’ rich. No, I mean proper, so-much-money-you-literally-can’t-spend-it-fast-enough rich. They say it isn’t worth Bill Gates’ time to pick up a $100 bill off the floor because he’ll have earned more in the time it takes to grab it. That kind of rich. They seem to be bred for times like these. Their houses are a source of endless entertainment – movie theaters, bowling alleys, personal gyms with a view of the sprawling landscape they overlook like cruel dictators. There’s no need for them to leave during a pandemic; they have access to the equivalent of a luxury resort most families have to save up month to visit. Necessities can be stockpiled in one of the useless extra spaces in the house. I mean, I once had to hide out in a luggage room for a contract. That’s right. An entire room dedicated to holding luggage, bigger than some of the apartments I’ve rented. I thought their residential labyrinths were my greatest source of grief. But social distancing? I’m one bad contract away from retirement. (Bounty Hunter During a Pandemic)

Shaking his head, Detlef pulled a new sheet from his notebook. “Look, I’m just saying, if we can get the satire right, we can be a modern Jonathan Swift.” “I don’t want to be a modern Jonathan Swift, I want to be a student actually passing his debate course!” Peter snapped. (Castle on the Hill)

Moonlight illuminated the German’s fair hair and pale skin, the effect more malevolent apparition than man. (Face on the Other Side of a Dark Window)

Back then, he’d been known for commissioning the exact same portrait of himself every hundred years, hanging them in a hallway in his manor and trying to pass them off as his line of ancestors to any of the locals. It had been a far less skeptical age, and Dave had earned himself a small band of worshipers before Jeff Goldblum himself had been forced to intervene. (S.H.I.T.)

Clara stood before the board of advisors assisting with her thesis. She was one, very intense paper away from her M.A., and she wasn’t about to risk it all by being too proud to ask for help. When she’d made the appointment to meet with them, she expected a series of questions surrounding her topic. Instead, they’d opened by offering her a job. “You want me to steal from the school?” Dr. Pye wrinkled her nose at the suggestion. Next to her, Dr. Pritchard said, “Don’t think of it as theft, dear. It’s merely redistribution.” Clara hadn’t amassed tens of thousands of dollars in debt to be lectured on the definition of robbery. “Either way, it involves me sneaking into the Chemistry department and taking a huge risk to get you some new toys to play with.” (Origins: The Ghost)

“Why is undermining Pryderi so important to Queen Ceridwen that she would risk breaking a timeless alliance just to dismantle them?” Her stomach twisted into a knot, protesting against the answer. “There are few members of the Dusk Court that we know by title.” A shadow passed over Enid’s expression. “The Lord of the Undernell is second only to the Queen.” “Great deeds build the reputation of one in their own court. Cruelty builds it in both.” Taliesin buckled under Winnie’s weight as she suddenly leaned against him. (Beneath Alder Creek)

“Why are all my friends so quick to endanger themselves?” I muttered as I packed up Midas’ crate. Natalie swiveled around from the candy aisle. “So you’re finally willing to admit that we’re friends?” “Save it.” (Flo’s Magical Emporium: The Pandemic)

[snoozette]

C2CP– Campaign 2 Citation Prompts

Be aware, there might be SPOILERS for Episodes 26 & 27

post #3

Take a quote, rip it mercilessly out of context – or not, that’s on you – and write away.

Ep 26

“[Keg is aroused]” – Keg (about Beau)

“If they’re human, even if they’re friendly, I’m not the first face you’d wanna see…” – Molly

“Left hand, right hand, tail, I can get it all working at once” – Molly (originally while waking everyone up)

“I like tongue..” … “Ew, okay, I thought you were coming onto me…” “Ew, no” – Nott and Keg

“We ask a question, then draw Tarot cards, whoever has the lower of the two has to answer the question” – Molly

“Is anybody else aroused?” – Keg (while pulling around a fallen tree)

“I hope we’Re not gonna die” / “We’Re all gonna die” / “As long as we don’t die” [and literally every single time all of them do the whole foreshadowing for this. Damn. Episode.]

[Liam leaving the table just after Taliesin leaves and Marisha asking him to bring back some more booze broke my heart on a whole different level.]

 Ep 27

“Can you say the word ‘fuck’ for me?” – Keg (originally to Nila)

“I will summon lightning from the sky and I will fry him. And I can do it again. And again. And again” – Nila

“[I huddle closer to Nila because she’s big and fuzzy]” – Beau

[I arrange for ‘companionship’ for the night] “Any preferences?” “Feels weird picking… Just make her hot” – Beau

“Oh, you’re… together?” “Not like that…” “Oh okay [to Caleb] I just wanted to say I think you could do better but…hrm, anyway” “Well, I don’t know if that was called for, at all..” “Sorry” “No no, you’re right, he is handsome, and he could do much better than a little freakshow like me…” – Keg on Nott and Caleb’s relationship (?)

[Ophelia Mardoon looks at Caleb, looks him up and down and licks her lips. Marisha checking if she just cast a spell and Matt whispering something to her gives me major vibes of “nah, she just thinks he’s cute”]

“So if you change now that’s one less time you can become a crocodile and eat somebody’s face off” – “Yes, and I would like to eat somebody’s face off” Caleb and Nila

[cicelythereaper]

Hello! I was wondering if you had anything on Y Gododdin 😃

hey! fellow gododdin enthusiast! what a delight

i presume this is a request for reading recommendations - i don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, or how accessible these will be, but i’ve tried to cover most bases here. i WISH there were more literary criticism, maybe there is in the welsh-language scholarship and i just haven’t found it? 

it’s entirely possible that i will have missed some obvious things here, i’m mostly sticking to stuff that i personally have read. if something mind-blowing has come out since the last time i did gododdin reading then it’s not here, i’m afraid! 

but enough disclaimers. on to the recs!

text and translation:

for a translation, i cannot recommend enough joseph p. clancy’s translation as found in the triumph tree: scotland’s earliest poetry, 550-1350, ed. t. o. clancy (1998). this is fantastic. it’s poetic, it’s a joy to read, and having used it as part of a deep read last year where i went through the welsh text in detail i am honestly AMAZED regularly at how well clancy handles the many translation issues that arise. it’s loose, and it doesn’t translate every single stanza unfortunately, but for the spirit of the poem you really can’t do better

that said, if you need another translation to check against/to fill in the gaps, i’d recommend kenneth jackson’s the gododdin: the oldest scottish poem (1969). it’s a prose translation, so it’s harder to use in conjunction with the text, but it’s pretty clear and accurate

text-wise... things get complicated. honestly, the best edition is probably still ifor williams’ canu aneirin (1938), in terms of faithfulness to the words on the manuscript page. (i also really enjoy his textual commentary, but it is in modern welsh so not accessible to everyone.) the major problem with it is that you are not going to get the stanzas in the order they appear in the manuscript - he reorders them into groups of perceived variants. this also makes it harder to distinguish between the A-text and the B-text. AND it means that the stanzas are not in the same order as in any of the translations!

if you can get hold of it, i really really think it is worth having daniel huws’ llyfr aneirin: a facsimile (1989). the introduction is SO useful for understanding the manuscript context, and it comes with gwenogvryn evans’ transcription of the book of aneirin, which you can compare with williams’ edition if need be to work out where a stanza actually goes.

there’s a conspectus of editions which i think thomas owen clancy put together but i cannot for the LIFE of me remember where it is - if you think you’ll need it, PM me and i’ll see what i can do

dating, textual criticism and historicity:

t. m. charles-edwards, wales and the britons, 350-1064 (2013), chapter 11 - this is from more of a historical perspective than a strictly linguistic/palaeographical/dating perspective, but it’s a really good general introduction and i definitely recommend starting with it. if you read nothing else, read this. this whole book is a godsend

t. m. charles-edwards, 'the authenticity of the gododdin: an historian's view', in astudiaethau ar yr hengerdd, eds. bromwich and jones (1978), pp. 44-91 - this kind of lays out the standard view which everyone has been deconstructing ever since. we don’t know anything about what’s going on with y gododdin, but at one point we thought we did know something and this was what it looked like

d. n. dumville, 'early welsh poetry: problems of historicity', in early welsh poetry: studies in the book of aneirin, ed. b. f. roberts (1988) - and HERE is the deconstruction! a pretty good overview of the issues with “knowing anything” when it comes to y gododdin

p. sims-williams, 'dating the poems of aneirin and taliesin', zeitschrift für celtische philologie 36 (2016), 163-224 - i don’t have any notes on this and haven’t read it recently, but i remember it being good (it’s sims-williams so of course it is). almost certainly contains linguistics, but is probably also written readably

o. j. padel, 'aneirin and taliesin: sceptical speculations', in beyond the gododdin: dark age scotland in medieval wales, ed. a. woolf (2013), pp. 153-75 - if you can stand linguistics talk, padel does his best to make it understandable here and gives a good overview of the linguistic arguments for and against suggested dates for y gododdin. this whole book is actually very useful

g. r. isaac, 'canu aneirin awdl LI', journal of celtic linguistics 2 (1993), 65-91, AND 'readings in the history and transmission of the gododdin', cambrian medieval celtic studies 37 (1999), 55-78 - DEEP IN THE TEXTUAL CRITICISM. honestly, my poor attention span means i find it hard to pay attention all the way through these two, but if you want a really in-depth look at the possible relationships between the A and B-texts of y gododdin, this is the way to go

historical discussion and background:

charles-edwards in wales and the britons chapter 11 again

j. rowland, 'warfare and horses in the gododdin and the problem of catraeth', cambrian medieval celtic studies 30 (1995), 13-40 - this is a pretty cool look at the role of cavalry in y gododdin and while i don’t agree with all of it, i think it’s really useful reading if you’re going for a historical take on the poem

p. m. dunshea, 'the meaning of catraeth: a revised early context for y gododdin', in beyond the gododdin again, pp. 81-114 - makes some ESSENTIAL points re the question of: is catraeth catterick? moreover, IS CATRAETH A PLACE?

c. cessford, 'northern england and the gododdin poem', northern history 33 (1997), 218-22 - a historical perspective on the poem with some very useful points, comparing the situation as sketched out in y gododdin with what we know of the area at the time

m. wood, 'bernician transitions: place-names and archaeology', in early medieval northumbria: kingdoms and communities, AD 450-1100, eds. petts and turner (2011), pp. 35-70 - a welcome look at the archaeological and place-name evidence for what was going on in bernicia as it changed from a brittonic to a germanic-dominated area. really useful to have in mind both when reading the poem and when reading more literary history

r. collins, 'military communities and transformation of the frontier from the fourth to the sixth centuries', in the same book, pp. 15-34 - pretty fascinating look at the earlier background running up to the time period depicted in y gododdin, and the possibility of continuity between the roman occupation of hadrian’s wall and the post-roman era there. useful social/archaeological perspective!

f. h. clark, 'thinking about western northumbria', in the same book, pp. 113-28 - an early medieval english perspective on the area at the time, useful for comparison and completeness’ sake 

literary discussion:

ifor williams, lectures on early welsh poetry (1944) and the beginnings of welsh poetry, ed. bromwich (1972, 2nd ed. 1980) - THE CLASSICS. an old-fashioned, not to say outdated, viewpoint, but that’s because this is the guy who INVENTED the viewpoint back when it was new! even now there’s a lot of good stuff packed into these and ifor williams’ prose style is a real pleasure to read. not to be missed

a. o. h. jarman, 'the heroic ideal in early welsh poetry', in beiträge zur indogermanistik und keltologie, ed. meid (1967), pp. 193-211 - likewise somewhat old-fashioned now, but lays out the classic viewpoint well and makes some good literary points. it may also be worth reading the introduction to his edition/translation, aneirin: the gododdin (1988). (i don’t recommend using it as an edition because he conflates the A and B texts and renders the text into modern welsh - this means it reads very smoothly but is quite a bit further away from what’s on the manuscript page.) 

h. fulton, 'cultural heroism in the old north of britain: the evidence of aneirin's gododdin', in the epic in history ed. davidson, mukherjee and zlatar (1994), pp. 18-39 - a pretty interesting read, about the mindset expressed in the poetry, its purpose and its construction

this isn’t lit crit but i’m putting in my favourite g. r. isaac quote from his article ‘gweith gwen ystrat and the northern heroic age of the sixth century’, p. 69: ‘Koch writes that the Book of Aneirin’s ‘immediate milieu is… not the Celtic Heroic Age, but the High Middle Ages’, as if the ‘Celtic Heroic Age’ were a period of comparable historical status to the High Middle Ages. This is not the case, however. A ‘heroic age’ cannot be the ‘immediate milieu’ of any literary production, a ‘heroic age’ cannot produce literature, because a ‘heroic age’ is itself produced through literature (taken in the broadest sense). It is a literary product. The Homeric epics are not the product of  a Bronze Age Achaean heroic age, but vice versa. The Irish Ulster Cycle is not the product of an Iron Age, pre-Christian heroic age, but vice versa. And the medieval Welsh poems of ‘Aneirin’ and ‘Taliesin’ (and Triads, sections of the Historia Brittonum, and much else) are not products of a sixth-century North British heroic age, but vice versa.’

honestly there just is not nearly enough lit crit for y gododdin, in english at least, especially to explain cool shit that the welsh text is doing that isn’t visible in the translation, and/or things that could be subversive or ambiguous about it - so, i don’t know what your level of engagement with the medieval welsh text is, but if you’re curious, if you want to know more about what’s going on in a specific stanza (or which stanzas are extended puns), or just which things i’ve been dying to yell about all year, PLEASE message me and I! WILL! YELL! 

articles which are almost certainly good and useful but it’s been too long since i’ve read them to say:

t. o. clancy, 'the kingdoms of the north: poetry, places, politics', in beyond the gododdin again, pp. 153-75

m. haycock, 'early welsh poets look north', likewise in beyond the gododdin, pp. 115-52

FINAL NOTE:

one of the problems with translations is that they give an impression of way more certainty about the meaning of the text... than is actually there. you’re pretty safe with clancy or kenneth jackson, but tread carefully. again, i don’t know your level of engagement with medieval welsh, but if you want to know if there are any major textual issues with a stanza, hmu and i will gladly consult my copious textual notes! but in general, BEWARE of basing anything too heavily on the following groups of stanzas:

A40, A41, B5, B6 (Am drynni drylaw drylenn; Clancy ‘For the feast, most sad, disastrous’)

A42, B25, B35 (Eur ar vur caer; Clancy ‘Gold on fortress wall’)

A48, B3, B24 (Llech leutu tud leudvre; Clancy ‘Standing stone in cleared ground’)

A62, B14, B15, B16, B36 (Angor dewr daen; Clancy ‘Anchor, Deifr-router’)

the Gorchanau if you’re interacting with those, especially the Gwarchan Maeldderw - if anyone tells you they know exactly what is going on in these, do not believe them. isaac has a full translation of the gwarchan maeldderw in cambrian medieval studies 44, and it’s useful, but i’m not by ANY means completely convinced by it, so tread carefully.  

the more stanzas there are in a group of variants (or at least a group that shares lines), the more likely it is that those stanzas are going to be SUPER DUPER TEXTUALLY FUCKED UP, is a pretty good rule of thumb.

[tony-starks-ward]

Avengers as shitposts/quotes that sound deep out-of-context

Steve: If the world chooses to become my enemy, I will fight just like I always have. ~Shadow the Hedgehog

Loki: You kneel before my throne unaware that it was born of lies. ~Tumblr user aplpaca

Clint: How quickly the hawk becomes a dove when faced with the barrel of a gun. ~Normal Horoscopes

Tony, when Pepper tries to drag him from his lab: You could sooner divert a river from its course than deny my nature. ~Tumblr user lucentgallivanter

Bucky: I will seize destiny by the throat and force it into the shape of my choosing. ~Tumblr user mollyjames

Stephen: Your secrets are safe with my indifference. ~Taliesin Jaffe, Critical Role

Sam, to Bucky: If God had wanted you to live, he would not have created me. ~Soldier, Team Fortress 2

Peter Parker, to some villain he’s fighting: I can’t go to hell, I’m all out of vacation days. ~Burgerpants, Undertale

Shuri: If I were not a holy woman, I would beat you senseless. ~L’arachel, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

Creds to @jellyfish-rights, who compiled the list of amazing quotes that inspired this post. You can find the original post here.

[caldur-amakiir]

Character Speculation

Now, this may all be premature since the Mighty Nein haven't had a chance to react to Molly's death, I am curious what kind of character Taliesin, the madman himself, might have rolled. So just going to start throwing ideas on this post (Feel free to contribute, this thread may also help people stuck on their next character):

Fire Genasi, Order of the Ancients Paladin - Fire hair grows as they laugh. Continues to wear necklaces made of flowers even as the slightest tip of their head would incinerate them. Keeps spouting weird new-agey quotes despite the advice never fitting the context.

Tabaxi Swashbuckler - A play off puss in boots, because it would amuse me to see Taliesin imitate Antonio Banderas or really just always choosing the most extra option available. Door locked?, no problem, burst in through the window. Need to ask for directions?, spend 10 minutes flirting with a crowd of people before getting to the question. Bottle needs to be uncorked?, use your rapier to lop off the top.

Archie, Tiefling Sorceror from SoME - if only for the juxtaposition of Caleb's rigerous, careful usage of magic and Archie just shaking his cocktail glass to cast fireball.

Goliath Ranger - Must have southern accent, just because when Fjord returns we'll have dueling southern accents. Plus the ship would be Fjord Ranger.

[pagerunner-j]

I finally went back and tagged my Who Needs Context posts, because really, who doesn’t need ridiculous quotes from CR/G&S cast members (let’s be honest, it’s mostly Taliesin, but he IS a goldmine) plucked completely out of their settings and rendered even more absurd in the process?

Besides: now that I have a tag, I will feel compelled to use it EVEN MORE.

(In related news, though: damn, I miss Gather Your Party.)

[sparxwrites]

hey fun thing i learned and by fun i mean painful and i need to tell somebody who shares my feelings on whump: it turns out that migraine headaches sometimes manifest with temporary aphasia. it is entirely possible for mollymauk to lose his ability to speak again, briefly (accompanied by headsplitting pain). long enough to panic, i'm sure.

okay, i’m gonna be a bit of a pedant here, bc i’m a psycholinguist by training and aphasia is something i’m very interested in, and the comparison you’re drawing here is... hmm. it doesn’t work the way i think you want it to work. 

what molly had when he dug himself out of his grave was most likely selective mutism as the result of ptsd (which is fairly unusual in adults, and doesn’t work Entirely the way taliesin’s describing it, but it’s one of those things that’s entered into fiction as a trope so here we are). he was entirely capable of “speaking to himself” inside his head, was capable of writing down things he didn’t want to verbalise, could have used sign language if he’d learnt it, and was physically capable of producing speech - his lack of speech was anxiety- and trauma-induced, not the result of a physical injury to his vocal tract, or of brain damage to the speech centers of the brain. the point is, he would have known he was capable of producing speech, and any internal dialogue had with himself using an actual language such as common or infernal would have been entirely intelligible. he would also, most likely, have been aware on some level that he probably would speak again, just that it would take time and effort on his part.

aphasia is very, very different.

there are two different types of aphasia. Broca’s aphasia (also called receptive aphasia) is where Broca’s area in the brain is damaged, and results in someone who can understand (to a greater or lesser degree, provided it’s not too grammatically complex) things said to them, but struggle to actually produce sentences. they may omit words from sentences, be unable to form questions, be unable to use tenses correctly, and any speech they do produce tends to take a lot of effort, and be short and stilted (ie. “walk dog” for “someone needs to walk the dog”). Wernicke’s aphasia (also called fluent aphasia) is where, oddly enough, Wernicke’s area in the brain is damaged, and is somewhat the opposite - people speak in long, rambling “sentences” that have only a vague grammatical structure (if any), make no sense, and frequently include made up words. they’re usually not aware they’re not making sense, and don’t necessarily understand what other people are saying, though they may “reply” with nonsense strings as though they’re responding to conversational attempts.

(there’s also conductive aphasia, but i don’t think migranes can induce that, so i won’t go over it here - i did make a post about it in the context of mad max a while ago, which you can check out if you want.)

the difference here is that whilst selective mutism is behavioural (ie. despite behind very real for the person experiencing it, it’s an issue with their behaviour, not their neurology or vocal tract), aphasia is neurological. it’s caused by brain damage and / or disruption, most often by stroke or brain injury (i Think it’s caused by disruptions in brain waves / electricity in the brain in migranes, but don’t quote me on that). your internal narrative, ie. your ability to talk to yourself in your real-life native language (and any other languages you speak), stops working. you’re not just incapable of getting words out, you are fundamentally incapable of even forming sentences in the safety of your own head. you cannot use writing to circumvent the whole “speaking not working properly” thing, because the issue isn’t with the words coming out, it’s with actually forming the sentences in your brain in the first place. same with sign language - though there’s some evidence that aphasia is a little different for signed languages, because they recruit some extra / different areas of the brain compared to spoken languages (at least in D/deaf people whose native language is signing), D/deaf people do show signs of aphasia when Broca’s and / or Wernicke’s areas are damaged. 

anyone experiencing any kind of aphasia for the first time is likely to panic, history with selective mutism or no. although i haven’t experienced aphasia, clinical descriptions of it lead me to believe that it’s incredibly distressing and scary - especially if it’s sudden-onset, as it is with migrane-induced aphasia. people with aphasia retain their general intelligence (unless the brain injury / lesion they got also affected other brain areas than the speech centres), and so will know something is wrong, even if Wernicke’s aphasia patients aren’t aware it’s a problem with their language. with Broca’s aphasia, people are often aware there’s something wrong with the words they’re producing, or their inability to speak / understand people, and that can be very frustrating as well as scary - and additionally, Broca’s aphasia often comes with right-sided weakness or arm and leg paralysis, because the frontal lobe where Broca’s area is also contains centres important for movement, which, again, super scary if you don’t know what’s happening.

selective mutism is scary because you have a severe anxiety / trauma response associated with speaking, and attempting to break through that response to actually produce words is a stressful thing to do. aphasia is scary because you should be able to produce words and sentences, but you can’t, not even inside the privacy of your own head, and you don’t know why. selective mutism you can understand other people, write things down, still conceive of language as A Thing - you don’t have that with aphasia. it’s just gone. comparing the two is like... i don’t know, comparing having your leg in a plaster cast vs. having all the nerves responsible for controlling movement in your leg suddenly cut. the latter is very much a more severe problem, even short term, and more likely to cause panic.

so, in short: yes, molly would panic if he got migrane-induced aphasia, but it’s such a different experience to selective mutism that a) molly would almost definitely not confuse the two, and b) he’d probably be more concerned about being cursed / whether he was having a stroke / if he’d somehow acquired permanent brain damage.

[snoozette]

C2CP– Campaign 2 Citation Prompts

Be aware, there might be SPOILERS for Episodes 28 & 29

post #4

Take a quote, rip it mercilessly out of context – or not, that’s on you – and write away.

Ep 28

“Do you guys need a second, I mean, we can….” – Keg (to Beau and Caleb who are arguing about the pros and cons of spiders and their use in infiltration)

“We can lure one of them out, so you can fry him ….like a chicken…?” – “I’d be okay with that” – Keg and Nila

“[Keg holds up a 10]”

“You’re drinking dead people tea?” – “Aren’t we all?” Beau and Caduceus

“We’re good guys.. Well, sort of…” – “We’re working on it” Nott and Beau

“[pointing at Caleb] I like this one!” – Caduceus

“[whispered, while on stake out at the enemy lair] Look at the windows!” – “…They’re nice…?” Beau and Caduceus

“Hold onto my hand please…” – “Here, we can do a chain!” – Caleb (while looking through Frumpkin) Nott and Keg

“There’s a bug in here and I won’t sleep until it’s dead!” – Liam, posing as an NPC

“Be well, my child” – Nila

“[I like pink more than purple]” – Liam, about Caduceus

Ep 29

“[I actually con’t move until next combat]” – Taliesin / Caduceus

“When Shikasta makes a spiritual weapon it’s usually a powerful woman of the past” – Shikasta

“Darling you just put one obstacle between us, I’m just gonna knock that one down too…” – “I think they’re in love!” – “Yeah, there’s definitely sexual tension…” – Shikasta, Nott and Beau (originally to an NPC during a failed vicious mockery in battle)

“[Beau is aroused]” – Marisha, while Keg holds up iron bars

“We’ll get a keg later, Keg…” – “[Keg is aroused…?]” – “Did he flip you?!” – “What can I say, I go both ways!” – Shikasta, Nott and Keg

“It’s lunchtime, children” – Caduceus

“You know Keg, I don’t think we need a man’s approval for a plan, necessarily… I think this is a solid f*ing plan!”-“…What’s the solid plan?”-“I don’t have a plan!!” – Beau and Keg

“Well, if those are the options, I’ma just gonna tap my staff and dispel it…” – Caduceus

“Suck it up buttercup, I’ll take care of you later” – Shikasta

“Making fun of someone’s appearance is always good” – “Works every time…” – Nott and Beau

“Maybe it’s definitely a trap” – Beau

“Well f*ck me running, it worked…” – Caleb

“You shouldn’t have killed my cat!” – Caleb

“Maybe you can make some tea with this…” – Nott to Caduceus (giving him ash from Lorenzo)

“I don’ do well in crowds…” – Nott to Caduceus (originally while having rolled very poorly on lock pick checks, and then proceeding to roll a nat 20)

“Tonight, wanna stay with me? You can sneak out in the morning and it won’t be weird…” – Beau (to Keg)