The great Faroe Islands Podcast has turned me onto a German short story set in the Faroe Islands. The German author, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, who, despite never visiting the islands, manages the distinct Faroese landscape fairly well. "Manor" begins by describing the precarious position of the distant Faroe Islands with its unforgiving landscape, before a grim scene unfolds and dead bodies wash ashore.
Written over 130 years ago, the short story brings vampires and themes of homosexuality to the jagged shores of Vagar - quite ahead for a story of its time, calling some in the Faroese LGBT community to consider Ulrichs as a pioneer for gay rights.
There's much more to the story - and behind the story, including how the story resurfaced. The story of the story can be found at the Faroe Islands Podcast. Manor has been recently translated into Faroese by Birgir Kruse and Eiler Fagraklett and is available for sale at H N Jacobsens. Read the English translation of the short story for free, too.
Showing posts with label podcasts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label podcasts. Show all posts
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Nothing gets in the way of learning a language and travel quite like a full-time post-secondary education. I figure for every week that I don't brush up on the words and phrases I have learned, I unlearn one day of hard work. By now, I have forgotten a lot. Can I still recite Eg oyggjar veit? My heart is dedicated and my body seems to be pulling me towards those far-off islands, and yet my mind is elsewhere, even if it does often drift. And all you need is your girlfriend to send you the most random text while she's at work and while I'm typing this very page. That restarts everything. I admit it has been a few months, and I can be honest, I haven't read a shred of Faroese since then.
When planing for a few summer escapes over these past few weeks, the Faroe Islands have been a distant thought, being too, expensive, far and difficult for us to get to for now. Our trips away would be by tandem bike to local areas, or kayaking to the Toronto islands...maybe a bus to a nearby city. But never Faroe. Not this year. I have to be honest, the text from Jane was not random. I sent her a text earlier saying we should support The Faroe Islands Podcast on Kickstarter. This podcast has often been a source of relief and contentment from my work as a bike messenger, when I tried to sit and wait patiently for the days of traveling to Faroe. I think it helped me relax when all I would hear was the hustle of the city traffic. But my simple request sparks in her what I imagine to be a lifelong ambition: when she says, "I want Faroe", I think, "so do I". Let's see if we can use some simple accounting and spin to make it happen this summer. I have to be careful though, thoughts of Faroe often begin to override most things in my life. But I promise, if I can go to Faroe, then I will do really well in school.
Okay, back to school.
When planing for a few summer escapes over these past few weeks, the Faroe Islands have been a distant thought, being too, expensive, far and difficult for us to get to for now. Our trips away would be by tandem bike to local areas, or kayaking to the Toronto islands...maybe a bus to a nearby city. But never Faroe. Not this year. I have to be honest, the text from Jane was not random. I sent her a text earlier saying we should support The Faroe Islands Podcast on Kickstarter. This podcast has often been a source of relief and contentment from my work as a bike messenger, when I tried to sit and wait patiently for the days of traveling to Faroe. I think it helped me relax when all I would hear was the hustle of the city traffic. But my simple request sparks in her what I imagine to be a lifelong ambition: when she says, "I want Faroe", I think, "so do I". Let's see if we can use some simple accounting and spin to make it happen this summer. I have to be careful though, thoughts of Faroe often begin to override most things in my life. But I promise, if I can go to Faroe, then I will do really well in school.
Okay, back to school.
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