I’ve started so I’ll finish

The Scottish Society for Northern Studies had their annual conference in David Hume Tower today. The theme of the day was Hermann Pálsson, the late Icelandic academic. There was an obituary by Magnús Magnússon of Mastermind fame, who disappointed me by not using his signature phrase “I’ve started so I’ll finish”. Instead he quoted from Hávamál:

Deyr fé, deyja frændur
Deyr sjálfur ið sama
En orðstír deyr aldregi
Hveim er sér góðan getur

Then a lecture by someone whose name I can’t spell on vicious women in Laxdæla saga who invoke a fight between their two lovers and make sure the fight will last until Ragnarok. After lunch a nice lecture on place names with ‘eið’ in the North Atlantic, by Doreen Waugh. I promised her a copy of my map of the Faroes to get some data from there. Then the boring AGM, for which I had to stay, because...

They had an essay contest which I entered... and won! So I got an envelope with a nice cash prize, plus the essay will be published in the next issue of Northern Studies, to appear early 2006.

In the words of L.G.: BOUNCE!