þó sjáumk meir um Munin
But I fear more for Muninn…

In 2003 I transformed an old static website into what was then coming to be known as a blog using a content management system called PostNuke (RIP, 2001-2008). Eventually I moved this to Wordpress blog, and during my long years as a PhD student from 2004-2012, I posted a variety of thoughts on the site.

As I sit here in my hometown of Stavanger on midsummer eve, 2015, I thought I might relaunch this blog along with a move again from Wordpress to Jekyll, perhaps somewhat ironically, bringing the platform full circle from static HTML, to PHP, and a dozen years later, back to good old HTML (though composed in markdown) plain text as part of the trend back to simpler file formats.

I named the site Muninn, after one of the two ravens Huginn (Hugin) and Muninn (Munin) representing “thought” and “memory” who explored the world on behalf of the norse god Odin. It was a nod to my own terrible forgetfulness, and my desire to record something of my life and thoughts along the way.

The quote from Grimnismál where we learn a little bit about the two ravens is below:

Huginn og Muninn
fljúga hverjan dag
Jörmungrund yfir;
óumk eg um Hugin
að hann aftur né komi,
þó sjáumk meir um Munin.

Huginn and Muninn
fly each day
over the worlds;
I fear for Hugin,
that he may not return,
But I fear more for Munin.

Photo: A somewhat younger me at Preikestolen in 2009.