sér

Sjåande


Køyrande nordover frå 
Akureyri,
såg eg eit skip med raude segl.
Eg snudde meg mot deg og
spurde
Om du såg det òg.

Vel kveðið, finnst henni enn. En kvæðin er leyfi útásandafarna ástarsambands. Textinn fangir raunverulegt augnablik: hún var ekki viss um hvað hún sæi, hvað henni fyndist. Hún bjó í svo miklum vonum, samt. Vildi svo geta treyst tilfinningunum.

En hún reyndi ekki skyggn, ekki sjáandi, heldur blind.

Nú sér hún.

incisive

It's only been clever since about 1850.

Before that it was only the quality of the literal cutting edge, zipping swiftly to some in-more place. The heart? The quick, at least. 

lesbrigði

Transciption error.

Happens all the time in manuscripts. Copying by hand invites certain kind of errors. All of them have technical names. Of course they do. The work of the sort of people who copy by hand attracts the sort of people who study that kind of thing, and they are exactly the same sort of people: they like system and dead languages.

Handverk. Work by hand or, also, craft. Mostly craft, an activity that requires skill. Even the skilled can err. Homer nods, and all that. Even the tiniest, with the finest dainty hands, may slip and churn out nonsense.

What if, what if (a zillion-to-one) it weren't nonsense but the worst incantation, a formula, once read, that would summon the worst of monsters? The emperor of monsters. What if.

Quick -- tear out the page.