Encounters

A short story

Thalia balanced the heavy bags in her hands. Doing the groceries while she was visiting home was the least she could do to help her mother. She was starting on her way home when a woman stood in front of her and beamed a smile: „Hi, do you remember me?“

Thalia stopped and looked at the stranger, who was not a stranger after all. Sandy blond hair cut in a pageboy fashion and blue eyes, upturned nose. The developing triple chin was news, but a memory still bubbled up. „Kati?“ she tried. 

„I thought you wouldn’t recognize me at all, it’s been many years, after all,“ the woman replied. If she tried to smile any wider, Thalia thought, her face would rip across. Yes, of course, Kati. A schoolmate from grammar school. Never been much of a friend to her. In fact, Thalia didn’t have many friends as a child. She would have been called an outsider, if such words had been in use back then.

„You visiting? Whatcha doing now?“

„I live abroad, in France,“ Thalia started reluctantly. „I’m at the university, writing my doctoral thesis.“ 

„Oh, wow, still studying?“ Thalia just nodded. She didn’t feel like explaining the difference between being a student and an aspiring academic. Kati seemed satisfied. „So no husband or kids yet?“

„No, thank you. I’m just enjoying life as it is, and my freedom.“ 

The flash of pity that shot through Kati’s eyes was too well known to Thalia. It was the customary reaction when she told people that at her age her ambitions were aimed at freedom and a career and not at domestic bliss. It was as if time had stopped a long time ago in this part of the world and a „spinster“ was still a part of people’s mental vocabulary, although no one would use it in speech nowadays.

„You’re a nurse, aren’t you?“ Thalia tried to remember scraps of information she knew about her former mates.

„Yes, although now I’m on maternity leave,“ Kati puffed up her buxom chest. „We moved back to my mum’s house. Why don’t you come for coffee sometime?“

„Uh-uh. You’ve got ... how many children? Two, is that right?“ Thalia asked, trying to change topics.

„Yes, yea, it’s three, actually.“

„Three?“  Oh gosh, three children. That’s one chin for each child, Thalia thought to herself. 

„Yes. I married after high-school and I couldn’t conceive for five years, so we were really desperate. We even tried artificial insemination but it didn’t work.“ The words poured from Kati’s mouth like a spring shower and Thalia wondered why she was being fed so much private information she wasn’t interested in. Probably there was no reason at all, she just happened to be someone who still didn’t know the facts of Kati’s exciting life. 

Her former mate went on without a break. She got pregnant after five years, went on to have a second and a third child and now she has been on maternity leave for years and still has got one and half left.

Kati was 33 now, like Thalia. She used to be a moderately pretty girl with  the great advantage of early budding breasts and straight, honey-blond hair. As Thalia remembered, she had one peculiar skill: because of her extremely long tongue she could touch the underneath part of her chin (she only had one back then) and the joke went she could also pick her nose. She was the most popular girl in the class. 

Kati‘s breasts were still large, larger even than in her girlhood, swollen and stretched from maternal delights. The fat that usually hugs female bottoms and hips seemed to have crawled upwards to her belly and created a comfortable pillow for her slightly sagging bosom. The result was hips still relatively narrow and a figure tapering downwards, which didn’t look flattering at all, combined with the increased bulk of her upper body. The fashionable tight jeans and open leather jacket accentuated this upturned conical shape even more. Thalia snapped out of her thoughts. Her companion had been asking her something.

 „I’m sorry, can you repeat that?“

Kati blinked several times and then fixed her gaze. Her eyes were still bright blue. „So...I have plenty of time. My mum helps me out with the kids so um...won’t you come for coffee sometime?“

Thalia groaned inwardly. While she was sorting some of her old school time doodles earlier, she has found a drawing of Kati, who was depicted wearing a fashionable ponytail, with her head turned haughtily  upwards. One of her legs, which was stretched forward, was being kissed by another girl. A pair of girls were drawn next to them, whispering to each other with a frightened look on their faces, preparing to be next to prostrate themselves in front of their friend-slash-boss. Kati, the queen of school. Or of their class, anyway. She was pointing to a lone figure: Thalia drew herself standing aside with arms crossed on her chest and a bubble attached to her mouth, containig a single word: „No.“

Thalia remembered this scene and smiled. „Well, perhaps next week. I’m staying here until next week-end.“

„Then it’s settled. Please come, I insist.“

 „Yes, I’ll try,“ she said evasively. „I don’t know when though.“

„Oh it doesn’t matter which day, just drop in some afternoon, just for a coffee, ok?“

„Yes, I will do that, next week.“  Thalia shifted her weight from one leg to the other and faked another smile. „I’ll be on my way now. It was nice to meet you, Kati.“

„It was so nice to chat with you,“ she answered and crushed her in a hug that Thalia couldn’t return, her hands full of groceries, although it didn’t seem to disturb Kati. „See you soon.“

„See you,“ Thalia replied.

As she walked away, Kati called out to her once again: „Just come for a coffee, ok?“

Shiina The Fox and The Shooting Star.

 A short story

Shiina was a fox like any other. And like most of them, she possessed magic and she could also change her shape according to her wish. Yet there was one thing in which she was different from her brethren: Shiina liked people and therefore chose to dwell among them, and she has been living so since many years ago. After she’d decided to forsake the green shadows of her birth forest, she went to live between the deep shadows of the city skyscrapers. She lived in an old little house that stood squeezed between two huge concrete blocks of flats and offices. As for her human form, she chose the likeness of a young woman. When she left her native land, first she tried to look like a young man; that she did not fancy for long, because things were expected from her she didn’t want to do, like fighting other young men. Then she looked like an old woman, but that meant her limbs were ought to be weak and her sight poor and her teeth made from plastic and she did not like that either. Finally she changed to a young woman of a homely face and a rather stocky body, who, while taking a walk or bringing home groceries from the nearby store, would stir about as much commotion as a golden autumn leaf floating in the air. In contrary to her short limbs she posessed long deft fingers, a smiling round face with a pointed chin, red cheeks, slightly slanted eyes of the colour of honey and merry eyebrows. The only vanity she allowed herself was a shoulder long mane of auburn red hair, which she liked to describe as spun golden illuminated by the red rays of the setting sun, although a poet or an artist could maybe label them as titian. Others simply called them ginger. In short, her appearance was in no way beautiful, but at least it was interesting.

Spln

 Poviedka

 

Mladá zdvihla hlavu a zavetrila. Korisť bola neďaleko a ešte nespozorovala prítomnosť vlkov. Vlčica vydala niekoľko krátkych štekavých zvukov, ledva nad hranicou počuteľnosti, aby upútala pozornosť ostatných členov loviacej svorky. Nastražila uši a opatrne sa približovala ku skupine sŕn. Pod huňatým kožuchom sa jej vlnili pružné svaly, srsť mala lesklú a hustú, sivastú s nádychom do pieskova. Mladá bola nádherný exemplár svojho druhu, mocná a dobre stavaná. Nohy mala dlhé, laby široké a isté. Ostrým zrakom sledovala korisť, nepoľavila ani na chvíľku. Toto bol jej druhý lov. Narodila sa len tohto roku v skorom lete a spolu s ďalšími vĺčatami – bratmi a sestrami – vyrastala pod ochranou svorky, a keď pokročilá jeseň pozvoľna prechádzala do zimy zmocnela natoľko, aby sa mohla zúčastniť lovu. Potlačila vzrušenie, ktoré jej ihralo telom a stavalo jej chlpy na zátylku a chvoste. Celú svoju pozornosť sústredila na pach koristi, ťažký a bohatý, doposiaľ nepoznačený strachom z nevyhnutného osudu. Vydávali ho teplé pulzujúce telá štíhlych sŕn s mladými, ktoré si hasili smäd pri lesnej rieke.

Loki Laufeyson 3. Myth vs. pop-culture: Popular media and literature

3. Loki and his image in the popular media and literature

In the third and final part of this article I’d like to take you on a journey into the more recent time times and in the present. We can skip forward a few centuries, because the Nordic Pantheon was quite neglected in late medieval times and early New age - at least outside Northern Europe. A revival came in 19th century in the form of German romanticism, when we witnessed an emergence of „national“ themes. Terms nation and folk-lore appeared in the vocabulary of the freshly formed scholars of folklore studies and linguists, who discovered the charms of non-classical languages (classic languages are classic latin and ancient Greek). In the whole Europe these scholars and enthusiasts started to collect folk tales and fairy-tales, of which we are perhaps most acquainted with The Brothers Grimm. In addition to their collections and their fixing fairytales in writing, they also engaged in German mythology, folk-lore and linguistic. They authored a volume of Deutschen Sagen (German tales) and a dictionary, among others. 

The first part of the article - mythology - is here

The second part of the article - loki as trickster - is here

Loki Laufeyson 3. Mýtus vs. popkultúra: Populárne médiá a literatúra

 3. Loki a jeho obraz v populárnych médiách a literatúre

Loki Laufeyson

 

V tretej časti eseje sa presunieme o pár storočí dopredu. Tento skok si môžeme dovoliť, pretože nordický panteón bol v neskorom stredoveku a novoveku pomerne zabudnutý- aspoň čo sa týka neseverskej Európy. Oživenie prišlo až v 19. st v podobe nemeckého romantizmu, kedy sa do popredia dostali „národné“ témy- a vôbec, národ a folklór sa začali aplikovať vo vedeckej obci novo vzniknutých fokloristov a jazykovedcov, ktorí objavili čaro neklasických jazykov- t.j. nie latinčiny a starej gréčtiny. Po celej Európe sa začali zbierať ľudové povesti a rozprávky- nám sú najbližšie mená bratov Grimmovcov (a popr. nášho národovca, Pavla Dobšinského), ktorí okrem toho, že spísali rozprávky, venovali sa aj nemeckej lingvistike, foklóru a mytológii. Sú autormi diela Deutsche sagen (Nemecké povesti).

Prvú časť- Mytológiu- nájdete tuto
Druhú časť- Loki ako trickster- tuto

Night Rendez-vous (The Barney Chronicles) by Martin Petrovský

Chicago at night is wonderful. Among all the artificial lights I get the feeling, as if it was day here all the time. This was a pleasing fact considered that I haven´t seen the real sun since long. I roamed the city streets without any goal. I was unemployed, poor, homeless and most of the time drunk like a Russian after he got his pay check. This was the fault of the homies and their blood richly diluted by cheap alcohol, which besides tastes like piss. How do I know how it tastes? Don´t even ask. Another part of my life I am not proud of at all. All this got me to think – where did I make a mistake?

Loki Laufeyson 2. Myth vs. pop-culture: The Trickster

2. Loki as a trickster

When talking about Loki, the name trickster comes up several times. What does it mean exactly? True to his very entity, there is no uniform definition despite the fact, that you can find the figure of a trickster in almost every culture and religion (or at least figures which share several of its characteristics). According to some scholars a trickster is an archetypal figure, who is a primary stage of a type later developed into a culture hero. 

Loki and his children (by Audrey Koch)

(You can find the first part- mythology- here)