In Old English, a mann is a human being of any gender, translated into modern English as anyone, they, people, a citizen, a human. Mann is not a male person here, so when you see Mann as the name of this rune, it does not mean man as in male. Most correctly it can be either Person or Human but I need to pick one: Human. Person says more about ourselves as bodies. We carry things on our person, we are a person in a room. We are also a human in a room, but we do have a collective human nature, a human understanding, and human sensibilities. Human is a word that suggests the connection we have from our shared experience of being people in the world. It’s a choice that feels right to me as an answer to the riddle of the stanza. Maybe I’m wrong. As a person I’m only human.… More
Tag Archives: The Game of Shadows
I Sing This Wretched Song
I sing this wretched song, my full sorrow
Of my departure by myself, that I might speak
That I dwelt in destitution, since I grew up,
Newly until of old, no more than now,
Forever I suffered my compensation, a journey of exile.
First my husband departed away from our people,
Over the tumult of the waves; I have sorrow at dawn
Of where on this land the leader of our people might have been.
Then I departed on a journey, seeking to follow
A friendless exile, because of my woeful need.
I began so that after, my kinsmen consider the servant
Through secret council, that they separate the two of us,
That we two, in the widest wealth of the world
Lived we most horribly, and grieved for me.
I commanded myself, my man, to take a dwelling in the sacred grove,
I had few loved ones in this place
Of loyal friends, because … More
D is for Dark
Are you awake? You up? Shh. Go back to sleep. Too much light in the room, I know. Go back to sleep at a darker time. Go back to sleep about a millennium and a half ago. That better? See? You can’t. It’s dark. It’s not the dark ages for nothing, except now dark’s your problem. The moon is your nightlight and when it’s not around you can’t see your hand in front of your face.
Other stuff out there can see just fine. They can see you specifically. The wolves are right outside. They’re here. They live here too. So do rats, and they like the dark as well. They really live here too. Right here. Here here. And they’re not the only ones. If you think you are alone right now you’re dreaming. You are sleeping with an enemy that is legion, hungry at night.
