hron-rāde ≠ rail-road

[rootofnewt]

So, um, everyone gets into self-righteous shrieking bouts regarding one's spouse's lack of recognition when one mentions the whale-road, right?

And when one indignantly fetches out Beowulf, that's perfectly acceptable, right? And the beating of one's spouse with the text, that's okay?

Professor ExplodingCat thinks I'm wrong. He insists it's a mispronounciation of "railroad" and he's prepared to write a dissertation on this.

Then again, he thinks "nipples" are the most important theme/word in the Iliad, so I'm not sure anyone should trust him.



Everyone gets into conversations like this while reading ancient literature, right? It's a perfectly natural direction for a discussion about a water-oriented society and nautical themes.


. . . .

In other news . . .

explodingcat: I like how we have one quivering ball on the inside of the tree.
krasota: It's the squid. It makes it nervous.

Comments

[ismene.livejournal.com]

I've thrown books at people before, so I see nothing wrong with beating a person with a book as long as no harm comes to the book.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

And the beating of one's spouse with the text, that's okay?

Just don't damage the text. ;-)

I'm not sure anyone should trust him.

Consider his analyses of the Old Testament so far as well. :-)

[sophy.livejournal.com]

That all sounds perfectly normal to me. Of course, I come from a family in which family members will call one another long distance to settle an argument they are having with other family members in the middle of dinner and nobody blinks twice about it, but rather, everyone on the other end gets into the argument, so that when the phone is hung up, there are now two raging debates going on. Usually about something ridiculous like "what was the name of that one guy in that movie about the thing?"

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

The ...railroad. In Beowulf.

If he's prepared to explain how he means a path taken by shorebirds, I'll listen, but otherwise...

[explodingcat.livejournal.com]

While my ken of the kennings     says they each are the sea,
A swanrade not a hronrade     a shorebird path seems.

[lupa.livejournal.com]

well, i did with my ex-fiance (over things such as whether the moon or one's mother has more gravitational effect on a newborn infant, or data arrays) but i haven't with anyone else. usually it's a big debate - just without shrieking or beating with texts.

[futabachan.livejournal.com]

Everyone gets into conversations like this while reading ancient literature, right?

My boyfriend and I do -- he has a doctorate in Anglo-Saxon literature.

[krasota.livejournal.com]

You egg him on, don't you? In alliterative metric verse? *nods*

[yurikokinje.livejournal.com]

Yes yes... (looks over post) yeah this all seems to be in order. Perfectly normal. While I like the imaginative implications that it is indeed some sort of railroad I think I have to side with krasota on this one.