þó sjáumk meir um Munin
But I fear more for Muninn…
Muninn.net, which will serve as my online Blog (Web Log), is working after a fairly smooth installation. As I am an extremely forgetful person, anyone who knows the background of the name “Muninn” might find my domain name an ironic choice.
The Norse god Odin had a collection of pets whose names are recorded in legend and which have gone on to much success as trademarks. Muninn, also spelled Munin, is one of two ravens that Odin sent out into the world in search for knowledge each day. What we know of Huginn (Hugin), “Thought” and Muninn “Memory” are, as far as I can tell, only recorded in a few lines of the Grimnismál. However, I am going to try to find out where else one can find mention of them.
The quote from Grimnismál is below, but I will add a translation some other time:
Huginn og Muninn
fljúga hverjan dag
Jörmungrund yfir;
óumk eg um Hugin
að hann aftur né komi,
þó sjáumk meir um Munin.
Odin reports that, of the two ravens, he fears the most for Muninn. I have latched on to that for the slogan of this site, not only because of my own absent-minded nature, but out of a deep love for history – which can be described as a form of social memory.
Language Reform
Konrad Lawson, whom I’ve long known only as the person behind the Macintosh software company Fool’s Workshop, has an excellent blog, Muninn, which I will soon be adding to my blogroll. LanguageHat brought my attention to two posts in particular: One on…
Hey Konrad,
Saw that you are in Korea for the summer. How’s Korean going this time around? Hope it’s more fun than those lousy Korean teachers at you know where :) ha ha.
I just got back from China with two brief layovers in Japan. Would have been great to have met up. Spent some time searching for Shangri-la. Turns out that the Chinese govt decided that this industrial town called Zhongdian is Shangri-La. A very odd choice. Also went to Tiger Leaping Gorge and took Asia’s tallest cable car on Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (you’ve gotta love these names).
Hope you’re well amigo,
Tom