The Life and Times of Miblo del Carpio

Due to the extraordinarily far-reaching and deep appeal of his works set in the fictional world of Arda, and Middle-earth within it, J. R. R. Tolkien is perhaps the most well known of philologists. He is certainly the only one I know, and it is in his footsteps I now tread in my studies of Language and Literature.

Language has always fascinated me, I was a very sociable child and I cannot remember a time when I haven't read books, so it is only consistent that I was drawn to Tolkien's stories and have then in turn been inspired to discover further things related to them. For example, I would be unlikely to have discovered Finland and then later the Finnish music group Loituma, had I not learnt that Tolkien loved the Finnish language and that the Elven languages he created were inspired by Finnish. But I've gone into this aspect of Tolkien in an article of last year.

Language is essentially one of the defining characteristics of humans, as is our yearning to learn (unless either have been dulled by misuse or miseducation), so it could be said that philology is one of the purest fields of study. Let us celebrate it, and let me urge you all to study it. For, were it not for a very mild form of philology, the study of which being undertaken by yours truly, this blog would not exist, and there would be little to distinguish it from the vast masses of blogs there are out there, and, furthermore, due to a shallower understanding of the craft, I personally would not have the same delight in writing and by extension the end result would perhaps be not as delightful to read.

Word of the Week

Philology

philology /fɪˈlɒlədʒɪ/ n. 1 the science of language, esp. in its historical and comparative aspects. 2 the love of learning and literature. [F philologie f. L philologia love of learning f. Gk (as PHILO-, -LOGY)]

Definition courtesy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary

The next article will be on the subject of 'paleomammalogy'.

I'm afraid I'll have to short-change you once again, old thing. I've been struggling profusely with this second assignment, and after going up to bed momentarily and then waking up refreshed in the morning I'll soon be right into last-minute-handing-in territory, but not before the sickening urgency of writing the damn thing.

It now just leaves me to say that what with being insufficiently healthy to read my news feeds for the past few weeks, my feed-reader Akregator now has 2052 unread feeds for me; and that the delights of Fedora 10 with be with us in 6 days!

Whilst we're indulging in this mid-chapter interval, let me take this opportunity briefly to congratulate my friend (and Yarema's guitarist) Pinny and his beautiful wife Iryna on their recent (and multiple, spanning much of Europe) marriage. The ceremonies culminated in a blessing at Manchester Ukrainian Church on Saturday 8th November, with the reception and late-running Zabava being held at Ashton Ukrainian Club. 'Twas a pleasant day for all concerned, I think, and I wish Pinny and Iryna full and entire happiness together for the future.

Just while we're here, and before steering our course back into the central flow of the chapter with next week's article (at least, so we should hope!), I've recently begun researching and recording my family history, using a program called GRAMPS to keep all the information together and in a useful and easily expandable format; so we may soon find a chapter here being devoted to my findings (probably with pretty pictures of trees and the like).

And finally to make something of a full-stop to this interval (five weeks, now, of interval!), let us enjoy some music by Murcof, his piece 'Ulysses' from the album Utopia, with a video directed by Tijuanan film director Aaron Soto.

P.S. Any remedies for the common cold, or flu? Or possibly for my exact condition? No? Oh well...

Would that delight were a lasting remedy for ailments both physical and mental, rather than the simply ephemeral (if powerful) emotion that it is. I did sacrifice my Open University tutorial on Saturday in favour of the evening gig in Coventry (you see how it is my great folly to put mine own needs last in most circumstances), was kindly delivered home by Graham barely conscious, and now the poor health continues with my trying to rid myself of it for Pinny's wedding celebrations this coming Saturday.

The delight to which I alluded at the beginning is that arising from the historic election in America yesterday. Bearing in mind that I still am yet to be compelled to vote for a political party to govern England, the night before the election I was even dreaming in America that I was speaking to someone about how I wished I could vote for Barack Obama. (Despite my being held captive on here until after half past two, I'm still not feeling well and will keep this very brief, merely finishing with quotes from two people.) Simon Schama yesterday said that 'this will be seen as a New America', with Eddie Izzard declaring that 'the Third Millennium starts here'. As for myself, I had for some time closed my eyes to America, but with this wonderful victory for Barack Obama and the American people, the world is now for me a bigger, brighter and, hence, better place.