Sita Sings the Blues

Here is a wonderful example of a modern adaptation of a mythological tale.  It's called "Sita Sings the Blues and is Nina Paley's retelling of the Hindu epic The Ramayana. It is a musical, using jazz from the 1920's and blends a variety of animation styles to tell the story of the Ramayana from the perspective of the hero Rama's wife, Sita.

Check it out.  It remains one of my very favorite examples of 'modern mythology.'

Pepsi celebrates the Year of the Monkey with a tribute to the Monkey King

Just in case you had any doubt about how pervasive Monkey is in Chinese culture here is another example.  Yes, it is ostensibly an ad for Pepsi, but beyond that there is a truly remarkable story about four generations of one family who have portrayed the Monkey King.  Check it out here. It really is  a bit touching and pretty cool to see a major worldwide brand making use of everyone's favorite monkey.

Monkey Resources

If you're struggling to get into Monkey or are confused about what's going on and what it all means, you can check out the links below for some helpful information.

Chapter by chapter breakdowns as well as many, many beautiful illustrations for Monkey can be found here:

http://www.innerjourneytothewest.com/english/en-resource.html


For summaries, info on the author, character descriptions, historical info and a bit on modern takes on the story, you can check out World Literature Compass. NOTE: Some of the links are broken but there is still a fair amount of available information in the sections that are working.

http://rocket.csusb.edu/~dmarshall/World_Literature_Compass/journey/journey_home.html

"A Norse Temple for the 21st Century"

Here's an article about the new Norse Temple being built in Iceland.  Included in the article is a link to the founder chanting The Voluspa in old Icelandic -- certainly worth checking out if you want to hear what the poem may have sounded like coming out of the mouth of a skald 1000+ years ago.  Also covered in the article is the connections between Norse paganism and Nazis-ism and how the modern Asatru movement handles it.

Variations in Translations

Translating poetry is never simple.  A translator must consider how (or if) they use the original rhyme and meter in the translation, and they must find the balance of poetic language and colloquialisms with making the work understandable to a new audience.

Skaldic poems came in several basic forms: Fornyrthislag ("Old Verse" typically identifiable by having a title that ends in "-kvitha"), Ljothahatrr ("Song Measure," typically identifiable by having a title that ends in "-mol"), and Malahattr ("Speech Measure").  That being said, few poems perfectly follow form so there is no formulaic way to translate them.  Mix in the use of alliteration, assonance, caesuras and those often troublesome kennings and you have a Sisyphean task ahead of you.

Jackson Crawford, translator and editor for The Poetic Edda that we are using in class set out to create a translation that could be understood without the use of footnotes. It's one of the main reasons why I chose his translation to use as the text for Modern Mythology. It is a very readable version, but it still retains the vitality, and the "oomph" of the original.

Other translators, however, aim for translations that fit more accurately the original meter and sound of the poems -- which means they are a bit less readily accessible, but often (I think) a bit more savory to the ear.

As an example of how much one's approach to translating can change the sound and feel of a poem, here are three different translations of Hovamol stanza 10 (one of my favorites).

Jackson Crawford:
"A traveler cannot bring
a better burden on the road
than plenty of wisdom.
It will prove better than money
in an unfamiliar place --
wisdom is the comfort of the poor."

Carolyne Larrington (Oxford World's Classics):
"No better burden a man bears on the road
than a store of common sense;
better than riches it will seem in an unfamiliar place,
such is the resort of the wretched."

Henry Adams Bellows (Dover Publications):
"A better burden         may no man bear
For wanderings wide than wisdom;
It is better than wealth       on unknown ways,
And in grief a refuge it gives."

Even in these very short passages you can see that line structure, word choice and (to some extent) the meaning of the poem changes. Are we talking about "wisdom" or "common sense"? Is it a "comfort of the poor," a "resort of the wretched" or a refuge in grief?

Not speaking or reading old Icelandic myself I can't say which translation is the most accurate, though I suspect that ultimately depends on what you mean by "accurate."

As a side note, there's a word in old Icelandic that Crawford addresses in his introductory notes  that does not have a direct translation into modern English. The word is argr and Crawford describes it as "a highly pejorative adjective implying a lack of manly qualities, and, especially, imputing to another a desire for a passive role in sex with a male" (page xxii). Crawford translates it as "sissy," Larrington uses "pervert" and Bellows goes with "womanish." I find all three of these translations a bit troublesome, but then maybe since it is a "highly pejorative" term it should be troublesome.  Knowing a culture's insults can be just as informative as knowing their myths.

Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson, the man responsible for much of what we know of Norse mythology, is a fascinating figure in his own right. It's rare that we have any information about the people who passed down their culture's myths so we are quite lucky to know as much about Snorri as we do.

I can't recommend more highly Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths by Nancy Marie Brown. As far as I'm concerned, this is the authoritative look at Snorri.  It provides a fascinating look at Icelandic history, and Snorri's crucial role in it along with very compelling arguments for why we owe Snorri credit for keeping Norse myth alive.

If I ever get a chance to teach a course on just Norse Mythology it would include Song of the Vikings alongside the Eddas.

I also recommend Brown's blog God of Wednesday which, along with links to her other writings, it contains a lot of beautiful pictures from her own travels in Iceland.

In his time, Snorri became the most powerful man in Iceland, but he wasn't always the smartest politician -- which lead to his untimely and inauspicious death at the hands of Norwegian soldiers.  Rather than facing death like Odin (whom he liked to compare himself to) riding into the mouth of Fenrir, Snorri was killed unceremoniously while cowering in his home.

Here is the Jorge Luis Borges poem about Snorri's death. I wonder if Snorri was as disgusted with himself in his final moments as Borges clearly is.
[This translation and seven of Borges other poems can be read in pdf here]

Snorri Sturluson
(1179-1241)

"You, who left to posterity an unsparing
Tribal mythology of ice and flame,
You, who made fast in words the violent fame
Of your forebears, their ruthlessness and daring,

Were stunned to feel, as the mythic swords towered
Over you one evening, your insides churning,
And in that trembling dusk that bides no morning
It was revealed to you you were a coward.

Now in the Iceland night the heavy seas
Tower and plunge in the salt gale. Your cell
Is under siege. You have drained to the lees

A shame never to be forgotten. Now
The sword is falling above your pallid brow
As in your book repeatedly it fell."

Welcome!

Welcome Mythographers!

This blog exists as a resource for the mythology courses I teach at KCAD.  If you are not one of my students you are also welcome and will (hopefully) find this to be a handy collection of mythology related excitements.

More to come soon.