Forüt!
Alas, last year I completely forgot to make this posting - and it was on my mind constantly! For tomorrow is the great day on which geologists - and indeed all scientists - all over the world remember the beginning of a most amazing adventure - the adventure which began in Iceland so many years ago on a clear, crisp, sunny June 28.
Might I be permitted to recall the document which made it possible?
In Sneffels yoculis craterem kem delebat Umbra Scartaris Julii intra calendas descende Audas viator, et terrestre centrum attinges.Which dog Latin being translated, reads as follows:
Kod feci.
Arne Saknussemm.
Descend into the crater of Yocul of Sneffels, which the shade of Scartaris caresses, before the kalends of July, audacious traveler, and you will reach the center of the earth.Indeed, though few of the wonderful tales of the great Jules Verne remain to be fulfilled, yet this one still stands as a triumph to the audacious - thank God it is a quality not restricted to geologists, or even scientists!
I did it.
Arne Saknussemm.
On one of the first days after I arrived as a brand new curious freshman at the-school-which-must-not-be-named, I went to the library, wandering in utter delight at the thought of so many new books to read - and I remembered that here would surely be a place wherein I might find highly detailed maps... so I sought out an atlas which would show Iceland in as high a resolution as might be available.
And behold, I saw that there really is a Jokullsneffels and a Scartaris!
So! When shall we go and follow the audacious Arne Saknussemm? What an adventure! What possibilities of new knowledge! What are we waiting for?
Note: Saturday is the kalends of July, we must not let it slip by this year!
No, let us make haste, and then join with Hans as he orders "Forüt" - Forward! To the center of the earth!
posted by Dr. Thursday @ 6/27/2006 11:00:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Hi--I just found your blog when I googled (after a word from the depths of my memory had been nagging at me all day) "polyphloisboisterous." I'd had this weird idea that it was Pound (who was no shabby Hellenist) who had coined it.
Was it Chesterton? That really makes it even more delightful!
anyway, I just thought I'd let you know that you made my day and made me think about temporal augments (or lack thereof--et bonus dormitat Homerus) for the first time in a long time.
Dr Thursday, you are a nut. The best kind. (Almond? Hazelnut? Cashew?)
There was a Wishbone episode entitled "Hot Diggity Dawg" about A Journey to the Center of the Earth. (Why is it the bad performances stay with you longer than the good?)
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