Projects also tend to have spin-offs ... other branches of inquiry emerge, is a posh way of putting it. Anyway, the other day ..yesterday in fact ... a neighbour of mine, knowing my proclivity for Welsh, put into my hands a slim volume ...... but it didn't have that crap cover ....
So ... immediate questions were ... who/what are the Lions ... and has "dagr" got anything to do with tears ? Then there's the blurb on the back ...
Dyma antur gyntaf y Llewod.
Hofrennydd yn disgyn yn Eryri ganol nos. Ond nid yw'r Llewod yn cytuno â'r heddlu fod y peilot wedi ei ladd. Pwy sy'n byw yn nhyddyn unig yr Awstriad ar y mynydd ? Beth yw trysor gwerthfawr y fawnog ?
Mae yma ddirgelwch ... ofn ....peryglon. Ewch ar trywydd gyda'r Llewod !
Aha. So, for a start, -od is an interesting plural ending, mostly used for animals, as in this case. Mr. King says that " birds and fishes are represented here as well. And here's me thinking that [a] birds and fishes ARE animals and [b] the plural of fish is fish.
Here's some -od ending nouns .... animals first
chwilod ystlymod teigrod crwbanod colomennod tylluanod
some of the non-animal ones ..well, some of them are animals, but human ones ....
gwrachod genethod nythod llygod bythynnod nionod
Then there's the dagr/dagrau/deigryn business. I can't really think what the link might be between tears and a dagger. A dagger "tears" your clothes, and your skin ! A tear is very vaguely dagger-shaped .... a rather broad dagger. Ho-hum.
So, I've got going reading it. So far there's been a helicopter crash ( hofrennydd) and this gang of kids ( Y Llewod) climb up the mountain to have a look. A policeman tells them not to, and they glimpse a mysterious man. They also stand under a forehead a few times, which I thought was very odd. By the way, the gang build a tree-house as a meeting-place, and go up to it using an "ysgol raff. "
I'll let you work out what's going on there .... it's interesting. I can't say I'm gripped so far, but you never know.
Oh .. by the way ... older readers might remember the "Blurb game"
It's simple ... you give people the "blurb" off the back cover of a book, and they have to invent the first sentence of the book. The one who is nearest to the real thing is, er, the winner.
So, you know what the blurb for this book is . So what, in your opinion, might be its first line. There are no prizes, except a big head for the winner ... entries please to ths blog's very own email ..... [email protected]
Terms and conditions apply, but they're too small and faint for you to read.
Music time approaches ... you're going to get two bits today..... first off, the Welsh music spot .. this isn't my sort of music, but some of you might like it .... it's Nos Sadwrn Bach in action ...at least they don't seem to be taking themselves too seriously...