The Power of Three

I. We had our first campfire of the year a couple days ago. This included s'mores made with German chocolate (with toffee chucks in it). That's the kind of campfire I can get behind.

II. My life lately has been consumed by the show Merlin. I've always loved the story of King Arthur and his knights, and this rendition is right up my alley. I love the character development, and the way the show sort of follows the traditional tale of King Arthur but also does it's own thing, very much like Sherlock in my opinion. I'm in season four right now but at the rate I'm watching this show, I'll be done with it by the end of next week.  It makes me happy every time I sit down to watch an episode, but it also makes me very very very sad, which I knew would be the case from the outset and yet I still decided to watch it. Deciding to watch Merlin is like standing on the edge of a cliff and looking down past through the thorns at the rocky desert far below and deciding to jump down anyway because you enjoy the sensation of falling (in an image: this). If you don't want to watch your heart be broken into a thousand pieces, this show is not for you. But if you enjoy tragic heroes, chivalry, courage, selflessness, traitors (whom Dante rightly assigned to the ninth circle of hell), friendship, humor, romance, sword fights, battles, magic, dragons, and tragic endings then this show is definitely for you.

III. I've also been digging into my new Tolkien Beowulf book. This is another thing that's right up my alley. His translation is quite enjoyable (although the word order is mixed around a bit which makes it a slower read) but the commentary is also surprisingly interesting. It's like taking an in-depth class on the poem. You'll learn all about difficult Old English passages, the historical and faerie stories that combined in Beowulf, Old English customs and history and many other things. I can't say that everyone would enjoy the commentary, I think you'd have to be somewhat of an obsessive language/Beowulf/England/Tolkien fan, but since that describes me I am enjoying it immensely.