History – Tse Moana

Johanna Ripperda

Sunday, June 21, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Today was father’s day. Mom was away to spend the day at my aunt’s so I headed over to my parent’s house to hang out with dad. I brought a nice drink and cake and we spend the afternoon watching sports on TV. Not normally something I enjoy, but it was tennis first and show jumping afterwards. Tennis is okayish, but I do love watching show jumping. It was a good day.

Yesterday evening I attended an open air performance in town of a play about the Ripperda’s. The Ripperda’s were an influential family in the area back in the 16th century. Told from the point of view of daughter of the family, Johanna, the play chronicles about 15 years in their lives. The play was comedic in nature and uses modern things in places for humourous effect.

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The town square of Winsum, circa 1565. It is market day, except there’s nothing to sell as it is only allowed to sell wares at the market in Groningen. The people are poor, and even the Ripperda’s, in charge of town, are having trouble. Asinge is the eldest, he runs things with help of his brother Peter. They have a sister, Johanna, who is still unmarried. To safeguard their property and interests, Johanna is to be married off. Her husband to be is a German noble who will come for her later.

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The coach of the Ripperda’s arrives to bring home the other brothers of the family: Wigbolt and Onno. They have been studying abroad for several years and became Calvinists. This is risky as most of the North is the hands of Catholics at this time. They also brought a friend of theirs, Rennenberg, from Flanders.

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The townspeople already hate the citizens of Groningen and the Catholics so they follow the brothers in Calvinism. They lure the Catholic monks from their monastery under the guise of a party in their honor. While the monks are on the square, the monastery is invaded, trashed and emptied of valuables. The monks are then tarred, with cheese, and feathered. Shortly after, Onno and Wigbolt leave to join the war efforts in the 80-year war.

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While waiting for Johanna’s fiance to show up, she grew closer to Rennenberg the Fleming. Despite their love being mutual (culminating in a one-night stand). She fulfills her duty and marries Folkmar von Beninga. He’s a fat, older man who smells of bratwurst. His demented old mother has also come along for the wedding. She keeps forgetting why she’s there and does not believe that Folkmar is actually getting married.

After Onno and Wigbolt’s departure, the remaining brothers fight the good fight closer to home. As this is seen as heresy, Asinge and Peter are to be arrested. Luckily, with some advanced warning, the brothers escape. They leave directly after the wedding and go back to Germany with Folkmar and his mother. As the coach is full, Johanna stays behind, promising to come as soon as possible. Folkmar dies shortly after returning home, never having seen his wife again.

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12 years later, it is now 1580. Johanna is the only Ripperda of her generation left. All her brothers have died, all through beheading, either in battle or as punishment. Johanna has a roughly 12 year old son. Everyone thinks he’s Folkmar’s but we all know he’s really the result of the one-night-stand with Rennenberg.

Technically Asinge’s son Focko is the heir to the Ripperda estate. However, he’s mentally not all there so in reality Johanna and her sister-in-law Bauwe run the place. The people of Groningen and the Spaniards are at the doorstep, wanting to annex Winsum. To help fight them, Johanna’s sends a letter to her uncle Johan van Ewsum to come with an army. The mailcoach leaves immediately.

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Johan comes to help his niece and brings along a contingent of Scottish warriors. He is ready to fight the Spaniards!

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Johanna tries to convince him that he does not need to go into battle, he just needs to defend the town. Johan will not budge, tomorrow they will go.

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The Scotsmen get along great with the townspeople. Except they have gone out plundering nearby farms and Johanna is ill pleased with this. After arguing with Johan, he decides to leave to fight the Spaniards elsewhere. A few of the Scotsmen stay behind, though. They have found love 🙂

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Rennenberg returns to town. He is stadtholder of Groningen by now and has been sent to annex Winsum, whether they want to, or not. After reuniting with Johanna, he chooses her and the town over Groningen. Groningen retaliates and attacks. The Spanish commander Verdugo invades the town with an army of Frisians. Winsum burns.

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The villagers have been corralled off to the side while Verdugo searches for Rennenberg.

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Through a ruse the villagers manage to send the cheese monger to warn Rennenberg. The cheese monger gives Rennenberg his clothes so Verdugo won’t recognise him. The next morning, after the Verdugo and his army have left, Rennenberg and Johanna reunite.

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Rennenberg proposes to Johanna. Marry him and come live in his manor in Groningen.

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Johanna speaks to her son, Hendrik. She tells him the Ripperda’s have a mission. It is their duty to care for the Winsum and its people. To attain good positions in life, make good deals and through this make the town prosper. She refuses Rennenberg, her place is here. Together with Hendrik they will rebuild Winsum.

Michiel de Ruyter

Monday, February 23, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Ferdinand Bol. Michiel de Ruyter. 1667

Okay, so I went to see Michiel de Ruyter tonight. It’s a Dutch movie about one of our best known admirals, back in the 17th century. As a lover of history, I had been intrigued about the movie ever since I saw trailers, so Gert and I decided we had to go see.

I didn’t remember a lot about Michiel de Ruyter himself from my history classes. I recognised some names of characters, and I remembered the brothers De Witt as I’d seen a painting of them last year at the Rijksmuseum.

The movie starts with a sea battle in which fleet admiral Maarten Tromp dies, witnessed by Michiel de Ruyter. After, when Michiel comes home he has been ~~on the road~~ out on the oceans for the better part of the last fifteen years with only occasional breaks and he’s tired of it. As Michiel gets used to home life again with Anna, his wife, and his three remaining children (an older boy and two young girls) we cut to politics. And from here on out, there be many spoilers. Be forewarned!

Johan de Witt is named the Grand Pensionary of the States of Holland, and as a consequence of that, due to the power of Holland, the de facto leader of the whole of the United Provinces. At this time, the Anglo-Dutch War is going on, and Johan realises they need a strong man to lead their navy. Unfortunately, with the admiral of the fleet dead, he needs a new one.

Cue Michiel de Ruyter. Michiel doesn’t want to, he wants to retire. But Johan is his friend, and Michiel is dedicated to his fatherland so he relents and accepts the commission. We then get shown, in quick succession, a number of sea battles Michiel leads, winning most of them. Taking pointers from The Matrix, every time a cannon ball hits a ship we see sailors and crewmen flying around the decks in slow-motion, accompanied by a blast of sawdust and splinters.

While well-shot battle scenes, using replicas of period ships for the main action and filling it in with CGI for background, this sequence got tiresome as it was very repetitive, and besides on screen titles naming the battles, there were no dates to indicate flow of time.

Peter van de Velde. The Dutch burn down the English fleet before Chatham, June 20, 1667. ca. 1670

During one of these battles his second in command Cornelis Tromp snaps and disobeys an order. As the son of the previous admiral, who was a hero to his men, he fully expected to take over the job. He doesn’t like Michiel and doesn’t trust his strategies. So he breaks formation to pursue two straggler ships and as a consequence, the battle is lost. Michiel is furious and fires him on the spot.

On the whole, though, the Dutch are decimating the English, culminating in a sneak attack on the Medway near London where they burn part of the English fleet anchored there, and steal the flagship. This is also the founding of the Dutch Marine Corps. The English are then somewhat willing to sign a peace treaty. Charles II of England (very well played by Charles Dance, aka Tywin Lannister) is pissed of at this, though, and conspires with the French.

At the same time, in the United Provinces, William III of Orange (nephew of Charles) is unhappy because he isn’t Stadtholder yet, and there are continuing clashes between republicans (anti-him) and orangists (pro-him). He is also a bit of a wet blanket. However, the peace treaty also comes with a demand by Charles for a better position for William so he ends up Stadtholder after all.

Jan de Baen. De lijken van de gebroeders De Witt. ca. 1672-1675

As time goes on, the unrest grows, the peace is broken, battles keep on happening. Political scheming also increases greatly. Meanwhile, the French are knocking at our doors in the south and Louis XIV‘s armies invade, secretly helped by Charles II. The orangists are getting really sick of Johan de Witt and his brother and conspire to have them killed. This is done in a rather gruesome way, matching the earlier mentioned, and shown here, painting.

Michiel is devastated, Johan was his best friend, but he remains first and foremost loyal to his country. Despite being a republican, William likes De Ruyter and wants to keep him on as Admiral. He reinstates Tromp and orders them to put on their big boy pants, suck it up and work together. Despite no love between them, they shake hands and seal the deal. As strategies are devised and battles planned, Tromp begins to see that Michiel is a really brilliant strategist with an excellent grasp of battle dynamics, and the role the ocean plays.

William is influenced by his power-hungry orangist retinue and starts to distrust Michiel. After a glorious victory, William announces it was thanks to Tromp’s achievements they won and Michiel realises he’s pretty fucked. He tries to retire again, so he and his wife and kids can live out their lives in (relative) peace. William has other ideas, however. After a wee shouting match in the hallways, they part. Only for William to stop him at the last minute. Michiel has declared his continuing loyalty to the land and has reaffirmed he will follow orders during the argument. So William sends him, severely outgunned, to the Mediterranean to fight.

There, Michiel and his men, knowing they will not survive, engage the enemy. When indeed he gets shot down and dies, the French they are fighting stop and give him a gun salute. Michiel is brought back home, and given a state funeral.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie. It is of an un-Dutch style and grandeur and evokes patriotism in an almost American way (think lots of flags flying and grand-standing speeches). I am personally rather allergic to patriotism, but even I could not escape it wholly while watching the film. And I don’t think I would’ve wanted it any other way. Michiel de Ruyter is, after all, one of the heroes of our tiny country. There’s some ruckus about this now, because he also did things that we now see as bad (slavery, whaling) so some people are clamoring we shouldn’t see him as a hero.

But we must keep in mind that this is centuries ago, in a society, a world, with different morals, different laws, and frankly, a different reality. Within that context, Michiel gave everything for our country and worked tirelessly to keep us free, free to trade, free to live. Looking back on that now, we should realise that, as morality and ethics have changed over the years, so has our reality. We enacted new laws, stopped practices we now deem wrong. So yes, definitely acknowledge our history, good ánd bad, so we can learn from that, but stop overlaying (y)our current moral viewpoint on a time and place where it is not (fully) applicable.

The actors are good, with one or two exceptions, and I liked most of the characterisations. I especially enjoyed Frank Lammers (Michiel), Sanne Langelaar (Anna) and Barry Atsma (Johan de Witt). I found William III (Egbert Jan Weeber) and his boy-toy Hans William Bentinck (Jelle de Jong) to be played rather as if they were prissy weaklings, which annoyed me.

Other than that, the movie is rife with historical inaccuracies. The writer(s) played loose and fast with the timeline, both compressing it, and rearranging events as they liked it. Historically speaking, the movie covers a period of about 25 years. In the movie, it can’t be more than about three years. And even that is a stretch. There are never any dates shown, but his children at the beginning of the movie are played by the same actors as at the end, and none of them are aged in any way. Therefore, it can’t be more than just a few years.

Jurriaen Jacobsz. Michiel de Ruyter and his family. 1662. In the back: Engel (with falcon), Michiel, his wife Anna, her son from an earlier marriage Jan, Alida (with flowers) and on the right Cornelia and her husband Jan. In the front are the two daughters from Michiel and Anna playing with their cousin Cornelis (son of Cornelia and Jan).

And speaking of his children, as an example of things changed in the movie, Michiel de Ruyter married and then lost that wife, as well as the child, in childbirth. He then later married again and, with that wife, had a son named Adriaen, a daughter named Cornelia (Neeltje), a child that died a few days old, another daughter named Alida (Aaltje), and another son named Engel. His wife then died about a year later, and two years after that, in 1652, he marries Anna. This is the wife he has in the movie.

Anna was a widow at that time, with a son and a daughter from a previous marriage. Together, they have two more daughters, Margaretha in 1652 and Anna in 1655. Also in 1655, his oldest son Adriaen dies, leaving them with six or seven living children between them (I couldn’t find if the daughter is still alive at this point).

In the movie, Anna is pregnant at the beginning. She gives birth and loses that baby. Beyond that, they have a son, Engel, and two daughters, Neeltje and Greetje. So, the number of kids is wrong, the order of the kids is wrong, and the names of the kids are wrong. And none of these kids have aged in any way at the end of the movie… This while Engel in actuality also went out to sea, fought alongside his father and separately, rising to a rank of vice-admiral two years after his father’s death.

Having said that, I recommend you watch the movie, and then spent an hour or two reading up on Actual History. The Wikipedia articles I linked are an excellent starting point. If you read Dutch, though, I recommend the nl varieties of he Wikipedia links, they are more in depth.

Mary Stuart

Thursday, December 11, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

ms 9092_791x545 Yesterday I went to see the play Mary Stuart, written by Friedrich Schiller. It was performed by Toneelgroep Amsterdam together with Toneelhuis, from Ghent, and directed by Ivo van Hove. It features Chris Nietveld as Queen Elizabeth and Halina Reijn as Mary Stuart. The play covers the final months of Mary Stuarts captivity. She has been convicted of treason, for which the sentence is death, but the sentencing, by the Queen, has not yet been done. The Queen is in doubt. One the one hand, she cannot let Mary live, she will always be a threat to her reign, and it will make her seem weak. On the other hand, she also can’t order the execution, as she is then directly responsible for killing another queen, which will incite the part of the populace that is sympathetic to Mary.

The play is fairly cerebral. It is sparse in decor and costume. A bare back wall with some benches in front for the actors to sit on while they wait their turns, a door in the middle for dramatic exits and entrances. The actors are all dressed in black. The men in costume, the women in basic dresses. All the attention is on the lines, the delivery, the interplay between the characters as they speak, fight, beg, command and despair.

ms 9114_791x545 The moment where Elizabeth and Mary meet, even though they never did in real life, is the the best part, performance wise. They speak of their lives as ruling women in a men’s world. About power, about responsibility, loneliness, strength and the perception of weakness, and about personal and public lives. About knowing that they are more than just Elizabeth and Mary, they know these are the moments of History. What they do then and there, is what History will reduce them to.

At the end, when the execution has been ordered, in a round-about way, we see the only moment of extravagance. Mary Stuart appears, dressed as we all know her from paintings and descriptions. No longer herself, she is (and knows it) now just the historical figure, about to be executed, about to be placed on the wrong side of History. When the deed is done, Elizabeth appears, likewise dressed as we all know her. She knows that, whatever her personal feelings on the matter, she, too, has been placed in the annals of History to be judged by the generations after her.

ms 100_791x545 The only thing I couldn’t really get into was a bit in the middle where Elizabeth goes a walking, and dances in the park with one of her underlings. And since they chose, for the music, an electronic rendition of music of that period, the dance is also a weird, modern thing that I didn’t really like.

That notwithstanding, the play is excellent and deserves to be seen by as many people as possible!

All-Night Vigil

Friday, September 26, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

St. Petersburg Chamber Choir The concert last night was fantastic!

The St. Petersburg Chamber Choir was founded in 1997 by Nikolai Kornev who is still its main conductor. The repertoire is wide, ranging from renaissance to more contemporary; and the singers, 20 men and 20 women, are trained at top musical institutions in Russia. They have won many prizes, even a Grammy, and made a number of albums.

The programme for the night was to sing a number of parts of the All-Night Vigil, which is a part of the Vespers of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943). They started off, however, with some other pieces that offered context for Rachmaninoff and his work.

The first were four pieces of A Russian Requiem, by Alexander Dmitriyevich Kastalsky (1856-1926). Kastalsky, who studied under Tchaikovsky, was a prolific composer, writing at least 130 choral pieces between 1896 and 1917 and as such greatly influenced, among others, Rachmaninoff. Then came six pieces of the Liturgy of St. John Crystostomus by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). His work in composing these pieces allowed others to also write new music to known hymns. People such as his student Kastalsky, and Rachmaninoff. Combined, Tchaikovsky greatly influenced Russian sacred music, and Kastalsky influenced, and advised, Rachmaninoff. Together, this brings us the masterpiece that is the Vespers.

The Vespers are a complicated work, with melody lines and dynamics that go all over the place, from serene to exuberant. It hearkens back to older church traditions, even though Rachmaninoff was fairly ambivalent towards the church, by using older melodies and an occasional more recitative style. Vocally, the Vespers ask a lot from the singers, with extreme highs and lows, and complicated techniques.

Now, I’m not well-versed, or versed at all, in classical singing so I have no words to describe what they did and how they did it. I just know I loved it. And based on the standing ovation, so did the rest of the audience.

The only shame was that there were so many empty spots in the room. The performance was in the great hall of the Oosterpoort, and it can seat a great many people, but that great many people weren’t there. It almost felt a little disrespectful 🙁 Although I can imagine that the accoustics of the great hall are better for a work like this.

Programme:

Alexander Dmitriyevich Kastalsky: A Russian Requiem

Requiem aeternam
Ingemisco
Confutatis
Hostias

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Liturgy of St. John Crystostomus

Symbol of belief
After the symbol of belief
After the exclamation “Thine from Thine”
After the words “Especially for our most Holy”
The Lord’s Prayer
Communion hymn

Intermission

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Vespers op. 37 “All-Night Vigil”

1. O come, let us worship
2. Bless the Lord, o my soul
3. Blessed is the man
4. O Jesus Christ
5. Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant
6. Virgin, Mother of God
7. Glory to God in the highest
8. Praise ye the name of the Lord
9. Blessed art thou, o Lord
10. Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ
11. My soul doth magnify the Lord
12. Glory to God in the highest
13. Today is salvation come
14. Rising from the tomb
15. To thee, o Mother of God

If you want to listen to the Vespers yourself, the album they made of it a few years ago is available on Spotify.

Drents Museum

Monday, September 1, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

The Drents Museum has an exhibition about mummies. Or had, I should say, yesterday was the last day. Nico, Jeroen and I had been planning to go for a while, but hadn’t managed to set a date yet. Until I realised, in early August, that we only had the month left. After some scheduling mishaps, we settled on yesterday, the 31st. Unfortunately, Nico had to bow out at the last minute 🙁

Drentish Rain I met up with Jeroen near the station in Assen and we walked to the Museum. Along the way it started raining, and it got so bad we stopped for about ten minutes to hide out under an overhang in front of a realtor’s office.

The rain kept going but lessened some, so we risked it for the final bit. It wasn’t that far anymore, and with the waiting we arrived just minutes after it had opened for the day. After getting our tickets (free due to a promotion on their website) we went straight for the mummy part.

The exhibition aimed to show what mummies are, how they came to be and what makes them so well preserved. Mummies generally elicit surprise and fascination so they got together about 60 human and animal mummies to show the diversity. Mummies aren’t just Egyptian pharaohs like Tutankhamen, mummies are also Nazca people from Peru buried in their arid climate, or Hungarian people laid to rest in an airtight sealed crypt below their church, or the bog bodies the Drents Museum already had and is famous for (like the Yde Girl).

Early Medieval Coin Hoard There were many educational wall panels detailing mummification and its rituals through the ages, which was very interesting to read and see. The floor layout was bit weird as it all circled around which led to some confusion at some points which way to go and what we had already seen.

After finishing the mummies, we had lunch in the Museum Café and then wandered through some parts of the permanent exhibition. Most of that hadn’t changed since last time, though, so we were done pretty fast. We did see the new early medieval gold coin hoard they acquired early this year after it was found by two dudes with a metal detector.

The hoard consists of 47 gold coins dating to the 5th and 6th centuries. They are primarily Byzantine with a few Merovingian, Ostrogothian and Late-Roman ones thrown in.

Of course we also had to check out the Museum shop. I bought the book/catalog of the Exhibition, as well as a book on Prehistoric Netherlands and some postcards.

[PBP] D is for Divination

Saturday, August 16, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Divination is a practice wherein one, through ritualistic method, tries to find meaning and gain insight to answer a question or help make sense of or deal with a situation. The name implies that the found insight is given by a a deity. However, I believe that the answers and insights found are a combination of factors. We have many layers of consciousness and are often unaware of a lot of things inside our own brain. Working with a divination method can bring things to the surface. Also, the energy with which you surround yourself influences how you see things. And beyond that, I believe the universe, or even one or more entities can push things when you’re interpreting if they feel you need to know something, or take something into account.

There are so many forms of divination, but I am mostly interested in two of them: tarot/oracle decks and runes.

Tarot and Oracle Decks

Tarot is a deck of cards with a specific set of cards divided in two subsets. The full deck consists of 78 cards of which 22 numbered ones make up the major arcana and the remaining 56, split up into four suits, are the minor arcana. There are many variants in design for a tarot deck, but all generally use the same terms and numberings. Oracle decks are similar but generally have different terms, different number of cards, different themes. The general idea in using them, though, is mainly identical to how you would use a tarot deck.

For a standard tarot deck, like the Rider-Waite version and direct spin-offs, there are standard interpretations of the cards. However, interpretation can differ from deck to deck as the individual designs evoke different feelings and insights. Plus, I’m notoriously bad at remembering the standard meanings, and don’t like to continuously consult a book or booklet. So for me, a more organic reading feels better.

Oracle decks are generally already built for a more organic reading, and I think that’s why I like them. There is no implied ‘right’ way to read a card. Plus since they lack the constraint of the standardized tarot deck, they can be in literally any theme you can think of.

The use of a deck is also varied. You can pull a single card from the deck as a card-of-the-day type thing or have an elaborate layout to answer questions or process complicated situations. I prefer simple spreads because I like to ponder over the result and extrapolate from there. So card-of-the-day things, or maybe a basic three card spread in a past-present-future setup. There, the first card details what came before the current situation, the second indicates what’s up at the moment, and the third card gives insight in what might happen.

It’s important to have clear, before you start a spread, what the function of each place in the layout is. If you use the aforementioned three-card one, you need to narrow down what exactly you need it to show. Because ‘the past’ and ‘the future’ are too broad. If, for example, you feel stressed out at work, you can define the past-card as ‘what is the root cause of the stress’, the present-card as ‘what is currently the main thing keeping me stressed’ and then define the future-card as ‘what do I need to focus on to get past the stress’ . While not strictly foretelling a future here, it can give you insight into what to do in the future to help your current situation. Extrapolating, you can build a spread to suit your question or situation.

As such, tarot isn’t so much ‘telling the future’ as it is a tool to help you understand yourself, your situation, your life.

I’m a very minor collector of decks. I don’t have as many as I would like, but good decks can be pricey. I started out with a regular Rider-Waite deck, bought in my teens during my first steps on the pagan road. For years that was the only deck I had. I used it occasionally. It’s only been the last year or two that I’ve gotten more interested, even though I still don’t read as much as I’d like. But step by step we also get where we go. I have in that last two years acquired more decks, and it’s fun to see that each has its own vibe and different decks fit different moments, questions or feelings.

I’m currently eyeing this oracle deck. I bought her tarot deck in the same style in her previous kickstarter and it is fabulous.

Runes

Runes fascinate me because they are also an alphabet. And languages in all their forms are like magic unto itself to me. Plus, they have this long history, which is another passion of mine. Runes were in use among Germanic tribes in the first couple centuries of the common era and evolved in form. In Scandinavia the Elder Futhark was simplified into the Younger Futhark with less characters, while Frisians and Anglo-Saxons did the opposite: they created the Futhorc which had more characters.

Every rune isn’t just a letter, it is also a word. And from and through that, it derived meaning. The runes were used as signs and charms, ascribed magic powers they got imbued with it. They were also used for divination by throwing them on a piece of white cloth and then taking a number of them and interpreting their meanings together.

As such, they are still used today. However, since very little is known about how the divination was done exactly, there are different interpretations on how to do this. Some people use runes in a way that is similar to tarot/oracle decks in that they use spreads and layouts where runes are placed as they are drawn and then interpreted according to the layout. I, however, prefer to use casting whereby I throw the lot of them on a cloth.

I then take the ones that fell blind (since the rune is only on one side) out, as they don’t count for that casting. I also take apart the ones that fell outside the cloth, or the shape that I’m using. Depending on the question, these runes either get interpreted as being outside influences, or also get discarded. The remaining, open, runes get interpreted together.

A quicker method, for a simple draw if you have little time or a simpler question is to cast your runes as above. Discard the blind ones and the ones outside the perimeter and then grab three at random from the remaining open ones to interpret. You can also use a daily rune draw as a motivator or power word for the day.

If you want a middle ground between casting and spreads, you can construct a pattern with different areas and then cast the runes on to that. This allows you to interpret groups of runes together, as they apply to the area they fall in.

In the end, for both systems, it’s important to do what feels right for you. Only you can tell what does and does not work for you.

Blog About Me [12/52] Ten Books I Love

Monday, September 16, 2013 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I have read so many books in my life, it’s hard to narrow them down to just ten that I love. In the end, the books (or series) listed here are ones that have influenced me, or those that just make me feel good, or just have this undefinable thing. Also, they’re in no particular order.

The Future Trilogy by Thea Beckman: Kinderen van Moeder Aarde, Het Helse Paradijs & Het Gulden Vlies van Thule.

I read these while in elementary school. I read a lot of more fantastic books and historical ones, so when I first picked up Kinderen van Moeder Aarde (Children of Mother Earth), it seemed like the perfect book. I had experience with Thea Beckman’s historical books which I really liked, and this had fantasy and scifi stuff in it. So I took it home from the libary, and I think I finished it in one day. I became near obsessed with it. Went back to the library at my first opportunity and got the other two parts Het Helse Paradijs (The Hellish Paradise) and Het Gulden Vlies van Thule (The Golden Fleece of Thule). I copied the map, wrote down things from the books to create a reference for myself to this world Thea had created and I spent so much time in my head creating more stories and exploring the world. I would periodically borrow them from the library again, to reread them. These books really jump started my interest in world building and cartography.

I haven’t read them in a good number of years now, not since I stopped having a library membership. Weirdly enough, I only added the books to my permanent collection about a year and a half ago. They’re currently on my to be (re-)read pile. I estimate I’ll get around to them sometime next year 😀

The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.

I was first introduced to the Discworld series in my first year of High School. I started out, if I remember correctly, with a Dutch translation of Witches Abroad, which I really liked. Over the next few years I read more Dutch Discworld, and even bought a few. However, it wasn’t until I’d started reading in English and picked up my first original Discworld, that I truly fell in love with the series. I started reading them all in English, including those I’d already read in Dutch. And I started collecting the books. Terry manages to do something that, I find, is a tricky thing to do. He writes “funny books” that are so multi layered with references to so many things and manages to tell very serious stories through this. His main characters are some of the best I’ve seen. And the ever evolving nature of the world of Discworld is a joy to experience.

The Belgariad/Malloreon series by David Eddings.

This series really cemented my love of more traditional fantasy. I read them in Dutch first, starting in the first year of High School, like with Discworld, including the companion novels about Belgarath and Polgara. I bought English versions of the companion novels some years ago and really enjoyed rereading them. I managed to snag a complete collection of both the Belgariad and the Malloreon in a second hand book shop a year or two ago and jumped on it right away.

Fortunately, upon rereading, I still loved them as I did before. The base story is a quintessential one in Fantasy: peasant boy finds out he is descendant from an old line of kings and needs to reclaim his heritage and defeat the big evil. The way in which it was dressed up, though, really did it for me. There’s prophecy and wizards and fascinating other party members and tertiary characters, and a cool magic system, old gods, powerful women and so on. In the second series, the Malloreon, the story repeats itself. And the books get some crap for that. Except that’s a major part of the overall theme. The base concept behind the whole series is that history basically keeps repeating itself until we can finally make the universe right again. The second series therefore has many parallels with the first, and I think that makes it a better series.

The Giver by Lois Lowry.

Another book I first read in elementary school. My first experience with more dystopian elements and more scifi than fantasy. It made such an impression on me that I kept looking for the book for years, on and off. I remembered parts of the plot and then I’d think, “I wanna re-read it.” But I could never remember the title or the author. So it was years before I used The Google to try and find it. And then I found it, and I was ecstatic 😀

The bits I kept remembering over the years were things I wouldn’t right away associate with a children’s book, which technically it is. A very rigid control of society. Everyone does things exactly like this, and no deviations are accepted. Those that deviate, or can no longer contribute to society are killed off. Of course that is done in a perfectly sterile manner, with a ceremony and all, but the effect is the same. And I was appalled by that, and it opened for me the doors to dystopian fiction, especially featuring children or teens. That’s probably why The Hunger Games resonated with me as they did.

Articles of the Federation, by Keith R.A. DeCandido.

I read a lot of tie in fiction, books written about, and taking place in, universes from other properties. Mainly movies and TV shows. One of the bigger properties I read in, is Star Trek. The expanded universe of Star Trek spans so much space and time, and goes so much deeper than can be shown in just the shows and movies. Articles of the Federation is on my most loved Star Trek books because it tells the story of background characters, the ordinary people of the Federation. It details a year in the office of Federation president Baco and how she deals with all the crap going on. Diplomatic ouvertures, threats of war, the press, all in a context of the Star Trek future. I’ve heard it described as a cross between the West Wing and Star Trek.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I’ve read this book so many times. I always wanted to be Jo, when I was a kid, because she was tough, and a writer and got to do her own thing in a time where that wasn’t generally allowed. I also watched the various movies repeatedly, and the cartoon series that was made of it and this all became this awesome amalgamation in my head. Historical time period, costumes, and awesome actors/cartoons to represent the characters.

Dinotopia by James Gurney

Oh! The illustrations! I looooove worldbuilding so very much, and the illustrations bring alive the world of Dinotopia so much. It’s a historical fantasy thing, where people in the past get stranded on this deserted island. Only it’s not so deserted as first thought. There live people there, in harmony with intelligent dinosaurs. And they have this whole pretty advanced society with even a dinosaur assisted military of sorts. I still have to get my hands on some of the additional books, and a proper copy of this in English.

Rowan, een verhaal uit de middeleeuwen, by Henk Kroesveld

One of the better historical youth books I’ve read. It tells the story of thirteen year old Rowan who needs to leave his home town for a while after an altercation with the bailiff. When he comes back again, he finds his home locked up, the plague is active in his town. He has to leave again, and find his own way in the world and he does this, among other things, by becoming a healer and learning about herbs and such.

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

A glorious fantasy novel about memory, and music and how history is written by the victors. After a devastating war, the losing side gets erased from the history books. The magic-wielding tyrant makes it impossible for the name of the losing province to ever be said, and even remembering it. In this way, the people slowly forget their own history. Only a small group of rebels manages to precariously hold on to their past and sets out to reverse the spell.

Vrijheid als prijs by Catherine Christian

Another historical novel. The first I read about Roman times. It tells the story of rich young lady Clyta, her sort of foster brother Flavius and the slave they get for their combined 10th and 12th birthday, Hillarion. It chronicles the lives of these three as Clyta and Flavius get married and Flavius goes into the military. It’s been a while since I read it, so I’m not sure anymore how, but Flavius dies, and Hillarion ends up being sold, and Clyta falls onto poor time. Hillarion eventually becomes a gladiator, also gets married, and finally manages to buy his freedom and settles on a small farm. In the mean time Clyta has gotten herself sold into slavery causing Hillarion to work and buy her free as well. Late in life, finally, he and Clyta reunite and life out their lives on his small farm.

Books 2010 // Runemarks

Sunday, January 9, 2011 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Finished Joanne Harris’ Runemarks yesterday, definitely a recommended book for teens and adults alike. Despite the teenage protagonist, the book does not read as a young book. The magic/religious system, utilising Norse mythology, is complex in nature (and not just because Norse mythology can be quite complex to those not familiar with it), but Harris manages to explain and describe it clearly, without lecturing.

Maddy, the main character, is a likable heroine. Slightly the stereotypical ‘regular girl who’s an outcast in her society discovers she isn’t what she thought she was’ but well pulled off. It helps that, as the book starts, Maddy already knows she not like everyone else. Saves us from having to go through a whole forced discovery.

The character progress Maddy makes develops from the story and is plausible within the book’s system. The secondary characters are mostly well fleshed out, with multiple character traits, and personal development. I especially like how Harris’ portrayed Loki. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Trickster, and prefer the slightly more soft portrayal here, where he works for himself, but is capable of forming relationships and attachments beyond that me-me-me drive.

The story starts off 500 years after Ragnarók* with 14 year old Maddy using her magical talent to fix a problem. The people around town are aware Maddy is different, she was born with a rune birthmark, or as the townsfolk call it: a ruinmark. They have some fleeting knowledge that she has abilities no one else has, but are mostly in denial of it. Maddy tries her best to fit in, but knows she never will.

The only person she feels comfortable with is One-Eye, a traveler she met as a young girl. He comes by every summer, and teaches her about the old days, the stories of the Gods, and the things she can do. The summer of her 14th year though, everything changes. Starting with One-Eye who is late in showing up, it leads to Maddy using her power to open a portal to the World Below. Which then, as Maddy has been seen by a village boy, leads to a whole host of people getting involved. All with their own goals, everyone ends up trying to stop everyone else.

First person to get involved is Sugar-and-Sack, a goblin. He shows her around World Below, leading to Maddy meeting Loki. And from there the action really starts. Because one thing is for sure, as long as you’re with Loki, you’re in for one hell of a ride, for better or for worse.

*In Norse mythology, Ragnarók is the final battle between the Gods, the end of the world.

In Short

Pro: Well fleshed out characters, very interesting world-building,

Con: For the scope of the story, it seemed to happen in too short a period of time

ISBN: 9780552555753

Celtic Midsummer Fest (KMF)

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 by Tse Moana 7 Comments

19 Groep So, I went to re-enact the Iron age over the weekend at a festival. I’ve still got everything jumbling around in my head so not really a proper telling in story order, more this was awesome and this was awesome kinda bulletpoints.

The group of people was awesome. I’m not always very good with larger groups, let alone when there’s people in it I don’t know or don’t know very well, but I liked the (for me) new people and got along very well with those I did know but not very well.

I slept outside the first night. It was very cool to see the stars, plus, it’s something that was on my 101 list 😀

It was insanely warm the two days and my hair was really getting in the way. Too long in the neck and hanging in my eyes near the sides. So I asked Eva if she would cut it, Iron age style 😀

On Saturday we cut the back side. First I got soapy water poured over my head (remnants from the wool felting) Then Eva massaged some of the camomile blossoms (actually there with other herbs and such to demonstrate plants that can be used to dye wool…) in my head, all the while bullshitting the spectators on how they first needed to calm the skin on my head 😀

Then the awesomely made (by our very own blacksmith Juut) Iron age knifes were grabbed and Eva and Wilma started cutting my hair. It was a hit with visitors, people stopped at the camp in droves, intrigued at what we were doing. Some must have declared me crazy for letting them do that to me 😀

48 Yngvar kus Sunday we finished the job with the front end.

Eva and Signe brought their horses. This made the whole encampment come alive, and look much more real life than without it. It was too warm to do anything with them during the day, but we did some pulling with Yngvar on Sunday evening. It was hilarious dragging the event volunteers from one point to another.

All the various works that were done/demonstrated over the weekend were all very well thought out (the group’s been doing this for about a year now, this was my first time going with them) and it felt completely natural to be doing them or to see them done around. Wool felting, card weaving, scraping horns to prep them for being turned into drinking horns, chopping wood, carving wood, cooking over fire, blacksmithing (normally done, but this weekend it was too warm), the aforementioned hair cutting, sewing etc… The whole experience felt very natural, just like a regular kinda lifestyle (as opposed to really feeling like you’re playing or something) 🙂

Wool and plants to make dyes

Food stuff

More food stuff

Felted wool and card weaving

Everyone has something they can do for when there are spectators. I brought a tunic so I could sew edges on it

Cooking set up

Felting

I hit, and tore open, my small toes on a tent pike…

Feeding the fire

Also music

Eindelijk, Eindelijk (met foto’s)

Saturday, April 23, 2005 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Vrijdag 22 April 2005

Erg lang geleden. De boel niet bijgehouden terwijl ik thuis was in Nederland. Maar nu ben ik weer terug in Engeland (woensdag aangekomen) samen met Nienke die maandag weer terug vliegt.

Woensdag was weer een lange dag, niet heel erg wat uren betreft maar gewoon vermoeiend enzo. We hebben ‘s ochtends de half elf trein naar Schiphol gepakt waar we, met een vertraging van 15, 20 minuten, tegen kwart over 1 aankwamen. Daar vervolgens de incheckbalie van Easyjet opgezocht en ingecheckt (nummers 58 en 59). Daarna maar naar de Gate enzo en begon het wachten.
Het vliegtuig zelf was ook wat vertraagd en arriveerde pas rond tien over drie waarna het boarden begon. Uiteindelijk vlogen we tegen kwart voor vier. En een uur later (om kwart voor vier) ongeveer kwamen we aan op Luton waar we snel overal doorheen waren en buiten stonden. Het duurde even voor het shuttlebusje kwam maar toen waren we ook zo op het station. Daar heeft Nienke een kaartje gekocht en toen moesten we een 40 minuten wachten tot de trein ook daadwerkelijk ging (16:54).
Uiteindelijk waren we om 6 uur in Leicester en tegen kwart over, 20 over op mijn kamer. Die avond niet heel veel gedaan, beetje geluilakt, Shrek 2 nog een keer gezien en vroeg gaan slapen (half 10 ofzo).

De volgende ochtend zijn we om half 11 ofzo opgestaan. Ook niet heel veel gedaan die dag. Eerst boodschappen, want anders geen eten (de dag ervoor twee Aldi kant-en-klare kipmenuutjes opgegeten die ik had meegenomen). Daarna ‘s middags braaf gestudeerd (Nien met biological psychology bezig en ik met mijn landscape archaeology opdracht). ‘s Avonds zijn we naar de film gegaan. We waren rond half 8 bij Odeon (de bios) en Valiant, die we wilden zien was om 7 uur begonnen dus te laat.
Daarop besloten we Constantine te gaan zien maar die begon pas om kwart over negen. Dus wij kaartjes gekocht en toen nog even weer naar buiten. Naar de Morrisons gegaan weer en daar heb ik nog even een computerblad gekocht. Vervolgens hebben we nog even een rondje gelopen en was het iets van tien over acht dat we terug waren bij Odeon. Daar toen maar even gaan zitten bij het ingebouwde ijs/drink hoekje en een lekker ijsje gehad en gewacht tot ongeveer kwart voor negen. Toen popcorn en wat drinken gaan kopen en naar de filmzaal.
De film uiteindelijk was wel leuk maar ze hadden er rustig een half uur tussenuit kunnen halen (vinden Nien en ik allebei). Op een gegeven moment keek ik op mijn horloge in de veronderstelling dat er al wel twee uur voorbij was en de film dan ook niet heel lang meer kon duren. Ghuh, was er nog maar een uur voorbij… Nou ja, de film eindigde uiteindelijk en was ook wel amusant, zeker geen afrader, maar ook geen echte aanrader. Het was uiteindelijk half 12, kwart voor 12 ofzo dat we terug waren en toen hebben we nog een poosje zitten lezen voor we gingen slapen.

Vandaag zijn we uitgebreid de stad in geweest. Vanmorgen de half 12 bus gepakt naar het centrum en geshopt in de verschillende winkelstraten. ‘k Heb Nien alle leuke boekwinkels laten zien en we hebben allebei verschillende boeken gekocht. Nienke 3, een genaamd Spiral, een eerste deel in een fantasy trilogie genaamd Magician’s Guild en een kleine Dictionary of the Occult. Ik heb drie Star Trek boeken gekocht (het zal ook niet); Klingon for the Galactic Traveler; I,Q; en Worlds of the Federation. Daarnaast ook nog een anthologie met Comic Fantasy verhalen en een fotoboek met hondenfoto’s.
Verder heb ik alvast een verjaardagskadootje gekocht voor Gert (hoewel hij pas in oktober jarig is…), een doosje met Star Trek kaartjes voor Gert (waar hij om gevraagd had), en een setje sponsjes (voor afwassen) die nog goed van pas kwamen later vandaag…
Naast winkelen zijn we ook verder het centrum in geweest en heb ik Nien de Castle Gardens laten zien en zijn we ook bovenop de heuvel geweest waar het Castle vroeger stond (de vorige keer dat ik er was, was het hekje op slot). De Gardens waren erg leuk, veel bloeiende bloemen enzo en ook bovenop de heuvel was het leuk. Een tikkeltje saai ook wel, het was alleen een grasveld waar het kasteel dan gestaan heeft, je zag er geen resten van of zoiets, maar we hebben leuke foto’s gemaakt. Dat is het leuke van ergens met z’n tweeën zijn, je kunt elkaar mooi op de foto zetten, ik sta nu zelf ook wat vaker fatsoenlijk op de foto. Nadat we bovenop de heuvel klaar waren gingen we maar weer naar beneden. Halverwege het trappetje stonden we even stil om nog wat foto’s te nemen toen er ineens iets viel.
“Wat viel daar?” vroeg Nienke.
“Eh… vogelpoep… op je hoofd…”
Inderdaad, een leuke klodder geelgroenbruine vogelpoep op Nienke’s hoofd. Gelukkig had ze zakdoekjes maar niet heel veel. Na twee zakdoekjes was het op. En toen kwam het heel handig uit dat ik twee sponsjes had. Dus met spons natgemaakt met Dr. Pepper (eerder gekocht bij de supermarkt) de boel nog wat verder schoongemaakt. Toen maar weer verder met de toer van de stad en hebben we de Castle Gardens verlaten en zijn verder gegaan naar het Jewry Wall museum.
Daar konden we alleen niet naar het museum of echt bij de wall kijken omdat het museum dicht was. Het bekijken was dan ook gelimiteerd tot vanaf de straatkant kijken en foto’s maken. Daarna maar weer terug naar het winkelgebied en nog wat geshopt.

We hebben ook nog even koffie gedronken bij Starbucks (wat erg lekker was met heerlijke wegzakstoelen) hoewel ik me even niet meer kan herinneren of dat voor of na de Castle Gardens enzo was, volgens mij na. Eten hebben we uiteindelijk bij de MacD gedaan waarna we de kwart voor 6 bus terug hebben genomen.
Nu vanavond hebben we allebei zitten lezen in onze nieuwe aanwinsten. Morgen of zondag gaan we nog een keer naar de film (ik denk dat het zondag wordt) maar dan naar Valiant. Die draait op beide dagen om kwart voor 1 ‘s middags dus dat moet lukken.

Morgen staat een uitje naar Vicky Park en Queen’s Road (hele leuke 2e hands boekwinkel) gepland. Ik denk dat ik Nien dan maar meeneem naar Vicky Park via de ingang vanaf het Universiteit’s terrein zodat ze dat ook te zien krijgt.

Foto’s

Moi in de Castle Gardens.
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Nien & Ik op bovenop de heuvel waar het Castle stond.
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Nien met de Dr. Pepper en de spons…
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Nien & Jewry Wall.
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