Recent reading

[luzula]

Simon by Rosemary Sutcliff (1953)
Time for another Sutcliff, and it's a good one! This one is set during the English Civil War, like The Rider on the White Horse, and while Sir Thomas Fairfax is a character in it, he's only a minor one: the main character is a teenage boy named Simon. Simon and his best friend Amias unfortunately belong to families with different political sympathies, and they fall out over it when the war begins. He joins the New Model Army as a cornet (and how weird is it that a 16-year-old boy with no military experience is put in charge of adult experienced soldiers?), and Amias joins the royalist army. They inevitably meet again, under circumstances which D K Broster could not better. Very satisfying!

There is also a rather tragic subplot involving Simon’s Puritan corporal Zeal-for-the-Lord Relf. And of course the whole book has Sutcliff’s lovely prose and setting. About the only thing I could complain about is the tragic lack of Levellers, which the New Model Army had a lot of in actual history. It would have made more sense of the political conflict, which is portrayed in a rather vague way. Also, it's quite a different book from Bonnie Dundee, despite also being about a boy taking service in a war in the 17th century.

Carl Linnaeus Lapplandsresa år 1732, edited by Magnus von Platen and Carl-Otto von Sydow (1975)
I read something in Swedish! But it's from the 18th century, ha ha. This is Linnaeus' journal from his travels in northern Sweden and then down through Finland, in 1732. It's very interesting to read his description of places I've been, and how different they were back then. It's also stuffed full of notes about plants, insects, possible mineral ores, how people were dressed, how they ate, which diseases they had, etc etc. Some notes are incredibly weird, such as the one claiming out of the blue that heavy women have small vaginas, and thin women large ones. WTF Linnaeus.

The language is studded with Latin and is in old fashioned Swedish, so the book has tons of notes. Luckily I mostly understand the Latin names of plants, except that many of those were of course different from their names today. I was fascinated to see that 18th century Swedish has a lot of words in common with 18th century English, which are common in neither language today!
Some examples:
hazard/hasardera (that is, the verb meaning 'to risk')
gallant/galant
esteem/estimera
prospect/prospekt (meaning 'a view')

Then there is 'brav', which shows the relation of the current Swedish word 'bra' (meaning 'good') to the English 'brave'! Very cool. But it's used in the same way as 'bra' today. There's also 'crudel', obviously related to English 'cruel' and used in the same way. Not a word we have in Swedish today. But my coolest find was 'fäj', which according to the notes meant 'fated to die', that is, obviously the same as English/Scottish 'fey'! I'd never seen this Swedish word before, and I can't find it even in the most comprehensive Swedish dictionary. But the OED says that 'fey' is a Germanic/Norse word, so it makes sense.

Comments

[sovay]

But my coolest find was 'fäj', which according to the notes meant 'fated to die', that is, obviously the same as English/Scottish 'fey'!

Brilliant!

[luzula]

Yes! \o/

[isis]

You know, I have a copy of Simon, and I just haven't gotten around to reading it - I guess I should!

[luzula]

It's one of her early books; according to Wikipedia, it's the first one where she really hit her stride. Yes, do read it!

[osprey_archer]

I have such a soft spot for Simon! Oddly it's one of the few Sutcliff books where I don't ship the hero/his BFF, even though they are tragically TORN ASUNDER by being on OPPOSITE SIDES OF A WAR, what could possibly be shippier?? But I think she didn't fully realize the slashy possibilities of her pairings till her next book, Eagle of the Ninth, after which of course she never looked back.

And even without much shippiness, the whole situation is so fraught and satisfying. Of COURSE they end up facing each other in battle. How else could that possibly play out?

(However, I think Zeal-for-the-Lord might be my favorite character in the book, partly just for the name, but also because he is so extra. Although I also liked the Susannah the Puritan maiden, who needs humor explained to her when she comes to visit Simon's family at the end of the book!)

[luzula]

I didn't actually ship them either, I'm not sure why! But I did enjoy the book a lot. They didn't get just one meeting, but three, and they were all quite satisfying.

Yes, Zeal-for-the-Lord was a great character!

[osprey_archer]

A close read might provide important clues about what makes a story slashy, because Simon has so many seemingly surefire ingredients (childhood friendship! opposite sides of war! THREE meetings in battle!), AND YET....

I have been thinking about doing a reread of some of my favorite Sutcliffs, too. Hmmm....

[luzula]

Actually childhood friendship makes a story less slashy to me! This is because it makes me feel more like they’re siblings, and trips my incest squick. So I think your idea of an analysis might founder on people having different preferences… : )

[osprey_archer]

It's true, preferences are so varied that it would be hard to take into account all the different variables. I would write the post and someone would show up all "Simon/Amias OTP FOREVER!!!!!"

[seascribble]

Bra/brav being also related to Scots braw, I assume? Is there a Swedish word that corresponds to the bit in the Eagle where the Seal People (speaking Scots Gaelic instead of a surviving Brittonic language) use the loanword “tràill” from I assume Norse “thrall?”

[luzula]

Yes, how could I forget 'braw'?? It's much closer to the Swedish meaning, too.

The Swedish word for that is 'träl'. : )

[conuly]

Bra is presumably also cognate with Scottish braw, though I know that from old ballads and don't know if it's extant in modern day Scots or Scottish English.

[luzula]

Yes, how could I forget 'braw'?? It's much closer to the Swedish meaning, too. My beta reader who has lived in Edinburgh reports that it is still used.

[chestnut_pod]

What fun linguistic gleanings!

[luzula]

Yes! : D

[feroxargentea]

Ooh interesting! I thought I had read Linnaeus' travels in Lapland, but it must have been an edited version because I don't remember any weird vaginas! He was suspected to have been a bit loose with the truth in general, though, wasn't he, when writing that? Not just with the vaginas...

[luzula]

Mine was definitely edited as well, I'm pretty sure they cut out lots of describing plants in Latin. But left in the vaginas, apparently. : ) I don't actually know what his reputation for truthfulness or not is.

[regshoe]

Simon sounds great. Shame about the Levellers, but I suppose Sutcliff was more interested in the conflicted-loyalty 'friends on opposite sides' plot than the politics—and that's certainly the sort of thing she does well. :D

And the Linnaeus book sounds absolutely fascinating! I love reading historical descriptions of places I've been and seeing what has changed and what hasn't, and the exuberant interest in everything of eighteenth-century science/natural history is always fun, if sometimes a bit weird. Very interesting about the similarities between eighteenth-century Swedish and English! —I've heard about the influence of French on Swedish in this period and I wonder if that could be what's going on here, since all those words you list are of French or Latin origin, and French was also very fashionable in 18th-century Britain. And 'fäj' is a very cool find.

[luzula]

I think you would enjoy Simon; it's one of her early books, but according to Wikipedia it's the first one where she really hit her stride.

Yes, that's true, I suppose it could be the influence of French on both languages. By the way, Linnaeus described graffiti in northern Finland by some French guys, who wrote that they had traveled everywhere, but that this was really the end of the world… *g*

[regshoe]

Linnaeus described graffiti in northern Finland by some French guys, who wrote that they had traveled everywhere, but that this was really the end of the world… *g*

Oh dear, what a compliment XD

[riverlight]

OMG, my mother would love that Linnaeus book! He's her favorite historical figure and she loves botany. I'm going to have to see if I can find a copy that I can get shipped to the States!

[luzula]

It's not the same, of course, but you can find some of his books digitized here. But I hope you find a physical one! He did lots of other travel books as well, in other parts of Sweden.

[luzula]

Hey, for some reason I was browsing this post again and thought that maybe I should help you with that...here is a copy that seems to ship abroad, if you haven't found one yet.

[nnozomi]

It's also stuffed full of notes about plants, insects, possible mineral ores, how people were dressed, how they ate, which diseases they had, etc etc.
He was a Mass-Observer! I love it the way people interested in seeing, and writing down, things like these appear in all kinds of times and places.

I was fascinated to see that 18th century Swedish has a lot of words in common with 18th century English, which are common in neither language today!
These are neat! Do you know if they were in common use outside of the writings of Linnaeus-type people, I mean in everyday speech, or what?

[luzula]

I think he actually had a state sponsored mission to investigate things like this, with the goal of improving productivity and resource use. It's so interesting how he says about the vast forests in the north that they're just standing there and rotting to no good end, and someone should make better use of them! Not exactly my perspective today, knowing about the exploitation that would follow during the 19th-21st centuries…

Do you know if they were in common use outside of the writings of Linnaeus-type people, I mean in everyday speech, or what?
I don't know, given that I haven't read anything about how common people actually spoke. My sense is that at least some of these words are part of a common elite culture in much of Europe during the 18th century. The word 'gallant', for example, exists in a lot of European languages (English, French, German, Swedish, Spanish, Russian…). I asked my Spanish flatmate, and he said it had very much the same connotations in Spanish as in English.