Nov 27 2008
Thesis proposal submitted
Well my thesis proposal is finished and submitted to the department for review. Actually I did that on the 21st of November. I just haven’t had a lot of time to write about it or the other stuff that’s been going on.
The lectures for the semester have finished. I have one more assignment to submit (more on that below) and one written exam for Old Norse then I’m done my first of four semesters.
Well let me tell you about some of the things I’ve been doing. On Sunday the 23rd Anne and I went to the Norsk Teknisk Museum and got to play around with some neat sci-tech demos. The science and tech museum had an assortment of the usual items one would expect such as oil platform displays, mining technology and a huge exhibit on medicine, as well as a large floor for transportation tech. Oddly enough, this museum has, what is believed to be, the world’s oldest jet turbine from 1924. They also had a neat global warming exhibit that required the donning of rubber boots because the floor was under 20cm of water. It had a thermal camera that showed how much heat one loses through their head when they don’t have hair (that compared to Anne’s full head of hair). It was a great time, I had a lot of fun and I’m guessing that I will be going back there to visit again.
On Tuesday I went to the National Library, along with some fellow students and my prof, to study some manuscripts. The library is grand of course, it wouldn’t be a national library otherwise. The ceiling and arches are beautifully painted with various scenes. Unfortunately I don’t have photos of it, though I may get some, one of the gals did have a camera, I’m going to talk to her and ask.
A bit about my manuscript assignment now. I have one law in three different manuscripts written by the same scribe. In other words, the same law written three times by one scribe, presumably for law books that went to different places. I have to transcribe them into readable lettering then talk about them for ten pages. The law is about concerns itself with insult. As my thesis is about honour, I chose to analyze a legal manuscript that deals with one of the most dishonourable events possible: insult.
Below are the first lines of each of text, starting with the big letter. Can you see the that they are the same text with small differences?
AM57 27v
AM302 31r
AM305 28r
So that’s about it for now. I have to actually get to work on this thing. So I will write more later. But probably not before the 3rd of December, that’s the exam date.