Alle beon hi blithe that to my song lithe!

*emerges from seclusion, spluttering* Well, that was a lateral couple of days. Bloody David's epic cold has been with me all week, now sitting cosily in my chest, coughcough. It and the 'flu meds have been making me even more spacey than usual (if possible). Possibly the ideal state of mind for the activity of the last two days, viz. translating into (fairly literal and unlovely) modern English the 1542 lines of "King Horn", the earliest Middle English verse romance. This is because I've gaily set it for my second-years to read, promising them that they could read it with a translation since I'm more interested in the story than the language - but, yup, you guessed it, there is no actual translation available. At least, none that I can find in South Africa. Only solution: translate the whole darned thing myself. Which was, in the event, bizarrely enjoyable, it's lovely language with its own odd logic and elegances, and the story is fun - golden poster-boy Horn gets stalked across three continents by his boss's love-crazed daughter, slaying pagan Saracens at every turn. He has a magic ring, too, that makes the wearer "of none duntes ofdrad / ne on bataille beon amad". Being afraid of no blow, all good, but I'm not quite sure why he needs protection from being crazed in battle...? honestly, these chivalric types.

Saw Being Julia with starmadeshadow, to celebrate her acceptance into the Texas opera school (yay!). Fun movie, lovely period setting, brilliantly acted - I have almost forgiven Jeremy Irons for the ham house of horror that was Dungeons and Dragons, he was good in this. Weird, though, to find oneself wholly behind the nasty, cruel revenge exacted by the main character on a rival. In retrospect, a slightly emotively hollow ending. starmadeshadow spent most of the latter part of the film alternatively muttering, in fear and fascination, "I want to be the lead actress!" and "I want to be an accountant!"

Mad SCAsims all week - Shire pavilion-making discussion last night, and painting of Manesse-Codexy wall hangings this afternoon. And the official word is that the TV is dead, so no video or DVD watching. Woe. My life, one mad, drug crazed whirl.