Songs to be Played at One's Funeral

Been a very long time since I bothered to write here. A certain lack of pictures, lack of time: classwork for this degree is official about to end, one final for paleography and one for Old Icelandic, then nothing but thesis work. All around, there has been little room in my head for biographical inspiration.

Little better now. I have just completed my first conference presentation ever, with a paper on myth and ritual in Saxo Grammaticus (*fanfare). I managed not to pass out, though I sweated a bit, and I had to recall some old highschool advice and continually unlock my knees to keep my whole body from tensing up and potentially falling over. But the reviews seemed to be mostly good: Terry Gunnell and Ármann Jakobsson liked it, which has to could for something. Did talk too fast, though. And immediately afterwards James handed me my rejection letter from Oxford; I will be going home in October, in all probability. Lots of kind words all around, though, and David in particular had good consolation, as an Oxford graduate himself. Cheers to you, sir. And cheers to Erin for providing epistolary relief, when her letter got handed to me juxtaposed to the awaited rejection.

Living temporarily a little closer to the university at the moment, in a sort of two-man nerd monastery with the dragon-scholar Bahb. Been very good for getting more work done, though the abundance of candy and pizza has perhaps been less than healthy, and I drink more caffeine than I ever thought I would. But I guess that's the nature of grad school. Likewise, I am being reacquainted with some old loves, tactical rpgs and anime and classic rock. There is something about power-riffs and songs and wonderlust and mustachioed bass players that does make one think a bit about death. And its rituals.

Ego-crushed about the rejection, and sad I won't have the opportunities that might have been offered me there (particularly to improve my very weak writing chops). But I am looking forward to seeing my friends back home, and not going horribly into debt. And I'm sure I will find another opportunity for academic experience in England. Hopefully.

Anyway, pictures from Snæfellsnes with Liv, Magda, Cindy, Paul, and I, and a couple blurry shots of some northern lights from the same Saturday. Enjoy.