Oh, NSFR is Not Safe for Ramadan, but the post was in my queue so I wasn’t sure if it was going to post during Ramadan or not (I tagged it for profanity). I can actually remove the tag though, since Ramadan is over. 🙂
Hahaha yes I am!!! It’s been a long time (a year) since a book has made me want to write fic for it immediately, but I love these characters and I’m excited to play in the sandbox a bit. I don’t plan for this to be an enormous fic (I have a goal in mind but I don’t know how long it will take to get there), but it should be a fun time!
T thing/ explain to me why Norwegian has two written languages.
psssh why you need t thing WHEN YOU HAVE ME??
Long ago the three Scandinavian countries lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the black plague attacked!
Norway was hit especially hard, the plague killed one third of the entire population. And who did the plague completely wipe out? Educated people. Because educated people, pastors, doctors, etc. are usually in a job where they help the sick or bury the dead. And what happens when you’re constantly around a bunch of sick people? You get sick too!
So because Norway was suddenly so much weaker, both economically and martially, and even academically, they decided to join up with Denmark.
An this is where Norway ceased to be a country. The great strong and fearsome viking kings were all but forgotten. Centuries of unions under either Sweden or Denmark had robbed Norway of land they had once conquered, like Greenland, Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, Skaania. All we had left was a thin strip of coast, Svalbard and Jan Mayen.
But then, 400 years later, the age of National Romance happened. Suddenly being nationalistic was a good thing. And the Norwegian people remembered who they once were. Norway was the poorest country in Europe. All the universities were in Denmark. All education was in Danish. If you were someone, you spoke Danish, not that barbaric noise called “Norwegian”. There is no Norwegian nobility, only Danish.
Suddenly France is on fire.
The Americans are declaring independence
Such beauty. Such impress. Such national pride to the people and for the people!
Then Napoleon came along and pulled all of Europe into war.
Denmark joined on Napoleon’s side
Sweden, who has never gotten along with Denmark, backed England up
When England won, Sweden, as one of the winners, wanted Norway
And in the one brief week, between Denmark relinquishing its hold and Sweden taking over, the Norwegians saw their chance and took it.
A couple politicians stuck their heads together and wrote a constitution in only a handful of days. This constitution was heavily influenced by the French one written during the revolution, as well as the American Declaration of Independence. The constitution declared Norway as an independent country, and ever since that day, May 17th, 1814, 17th of May has been known as the Norwegian Constitution day, our national holiday.
Unfortunately, however, the Swedes were not persuaded by a silly little piece of paper and took over anyway, but hey. We tried.
Luckily they were much more lax than the Danes and let Norway basically rule themselves, as long as they followed the law of the Swedish king.
The Norwegians never forgot their brief moment of supposed victory though, and only a generation or two later they staged one of the most peaceful freedom wars in known history and Sweden went “well fuck you, you can have that damn country of yours! Just leave us alone”
sixty years later we found oil and became the richest country in the world but that has nothing to do with the language
ANYWAY, so Sweden left Norway basically to its own devices, and the Norwegians decided they no longer wanted Danish to be the main language. They wanted Norwegian. Problem is, at that time, after 400 years of rule, there was no such thing as anything specifically Norwegian. So they had a dilemma.
One guy, Knud Knudsen, took the structure of the Danish language and mixed it with what he heard the people speak around him. He called it Bokmål
This other guy, this slightly more nationalistic guy, Ivar Aasen (we like him), travelled around the country and found the most isolated farms and villages. The places that had not been touched and influenced by the Danish rule over the past 400 years. These were the thickest and most unique dialects and accents. He mixed them all together and created Nynorsk.
Bokmål means Book-language and Nynorsk means New-Norwegian
Fun fact: They actually held a vote deciding what to name these two languages and Nynorsk & Bokmål won over Dansk-Norsk (Danish-Norwegian) & Norsk (Norwegian) by ONE SINGLE VOTE.
So here they had a problem
‘Cause you see Nynorsk was something that was REALLY Norwegian. Something the nationalists had been pining after for decades, centuries. And it was easy to learn for those whose lives hadn’t been ruled by Danish language for as long as they could remember.
But Bokmål was a mix of two languages, and you know what happens when you mix two languages: It is greatly simplified. This made it easy to learn and it was something “norwegian enough to pass”. It was much easier to go from Danish to Bokmål for those who lived in the cities and had written Danish all their lives.
And while Nynorsk was the one that embodied the goal of this whole language hunt, and the one most loved by the peasants, Bokmål as the “easy way out” for the people in the cities, for the educated politicians and journalists and doctors and pastors who spoke Danish, even though they identified as Norwegian
And this is where they came to a standstill
People who liked Nynorsk used it and refused to give it up for Bokmål
People who liked Bokmål used it and refused to give it up for Nynorsk
and.. well that brings us to today
Though over the years the two languages have slowly been drifting towards each other, becoming more and more alike, Bokmål has also been taking over because it is what is most commonly used in the media. Because the media originates in the cities after all.
Both T thing and I are partial to Nynorsk though we use Bokmål more often in daily life, simply because it is more practical.
And that is why Norwegian is actually two languages.
“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.
Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.
The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.
But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.
Date Started: July 6th, 2017
Date Finished: July 8th, 2017
Recommended By: Many people!
Acquired: Public Library, Later Purchased
Trigger Warnings: Sexual Assault
Rating: 5/5 Stars
The Good: What can I say? This book definitely lived up to the hype! Considering all the hype, I knew next to nothing going in, only that it was “unique” and “amazing.” Which it is! I absolutely love Agnieszka as a character and narrator, and I loved that the story was about her, and not entirely about any kind of relationship she had with the Dragon. Also, I really loved the way the magic worked in this book–not just hers, but in general. I was totally swept away by this world and so invested in every step. I had feelings reading this book that I haven’t in a while: that wonderful, hold-your-breath, can-we-tie-up-this-story-in-100-pages feeling. I had a moment of panic that this was going to be a series because there was SO much happening and I was on the edge of my seat … I stayed up until midnight reading because I couldn’t put it down, then immediately picked it up again when I woke up. It was really nice having that reading experience again. It feels like it’s been a long time. The prose was skillfully done, though it wasn’t “poetic” in the way it had been described to me (I was anticipating something like Tahereh Mafi or Roshani Chokshi, but it wasn’t that). It was just very well-written, skilled prose that I admire so much. I’m honestly worried that both Novik and Rothfuss have spoiled me.
The Bad: There was not much to dislike about this book! I thought the pacing was a little fast in the beginning, but it evened out after the first few chapters. Some readers might not like The Dragon, but he really grew on me personally. The only thing I didn’t like about it consistently was that I felt I didn’t really know what he looked like, besides all the shapes his mouth made (she describes his mouth a lot, lol). I could also potentially see people not liking the ending, but all I can think about is the fic potential (also Naomi Novik helped found Ao3 so you know she’s 100% cool with it). For me, there wasn’t really anything I disliked that drew me out of the story–only skillfully-designed frustrations that made me want to keep reading! So, anything to dislike is really a matter of personal taste.
Representation: So, this book is based on Eastern Europe, which doesn’t get the spotlight all that often, so there’s that! I don’t necessarily give rep points for this, but it’s worth noting. I was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of a black woman as one of the other wizards. She was an awesome character! The only downside about her inclusion was that the explanation of her presence in the kingdom includes slavery in her parents’ past, which kind of falls back on the impulse to explain the presence of people of color in European-inspired settings. It’s not made a big deal and it far from defines this character, but I noticed it. I also read The Dragon as being on the autism spectrum, perhaps? That’s just a reading, not canon, but I think it fits. There was no LGBT rep, in this book, sadly (no homophobia either, at least), though not every book can do everything.
Favorite Line: “‘It comes, I suppose,’ I said thoughtfully, speaking to the air, ‘of spending too much time alone indoors, and forgetting that living things don’t always stay where you put them.’”
Bonus Spoiler-y Freakout Below!!!
OKAY SO I AM OBSESSED WITH AGNIESZKA AND SARKAN. I LITERALLY COUNTED THE NUMBER OF TIMES HE SAID HER NAME AND I WANTED HIM TO SAY “NIESHKA” AT LEAST ONCE AND HE DIDN’T AND I FEEL ROBBED!!! BUT ALSO STILL OBSESSED!!! I was so into their developing relationship the whole time but I also feel like I shouldn’t be??? Because it’s not the best relationship because Sarkan Does Not Do Feelings but that’s also so endearing? I don’t know!!! There’s still so much unresolved between them and I’m going to be thinking about this forever! These two are definitely in my fleet of ships now and if I ever have it in me there may be fics about it. I am Attached. It’s just going to be a thing now.
Sarah Viehmann 