The past while has been quite the adventure: that is for sure. I guess the highlight of the last month or
so has been Maslenitsa, but I'll save that for the end. My life over the past two weeks has been dominated by work and translation, and that's been good, I guess, but I am glad to have today as a break from it all. I decided to take my honors thesis in a new direction, so I'm now translating and analyzing Russian verbal charms, which has been a lot of fun. My analysis is based on the confluence of Christianity and paganism within these spells, which will likely be pretty apparent to you in the short charm that follows:
94. Charm against bleeding
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is a sea-ocean, from the sea-ocean rides out a man so old, the steed beneath him brownish-gold, but thou, blood, stop for all time. For ever and ever. Amen.
Anyway, so that's that. It's been super interesting and super difficult at times, because a lot of the terms and ideas are pretty old. The texts themselves are from the 17th century, and I would say that I know only about half to two-thirds of the words. For the rest I spend forever guessing roots and modern variants and then looking them up in one of four or five dictionaries, both print and electronic. I've had some good success so far, though, and it's honestly been a lot of fun. I like the old, magic-esque quality that they all have. It seems right up my alley in terms of interests.
