The Banner Saga - Austin Wintory

Look. LOOK! I mean, LISTEN! It was enough to make me weep when I played Journey, but the soundtrack itself was stunning. Now, Austin has made another, equally stunning soundtrack that isn't only epic, but massively relevant to my writing. I'm unsure at this point as to whether I'll play The Banner Saga (mainly because I have, as expected, become exceedingly busy), but for now, the soundtrack is enough.

Wholeheartedly recommended!

(told you I'd post something about Austin Wintory)

Age of the Sturlungs

Apart from indulging most of my free time into endless reading (currently reading Thud! by Sir Terry Pratchett) and not exactly being inundated with postgraduate project work at this point, I've been reading up on some historical essays regarding the internal political disorders of Iceland in medieval times. One period I've found particularly striking revolves around the Sturlunga Sagas. This was a period of internal strife during the 13th century; the time of King Haakon IV of Norway (otherwise known as Haakon the Old, due to the long period of his reign). It was widely considered as one of most violent and radical times of Iceland's history.

This paper by Jesse L. Byock, however, suggests that the period of change might be exaggerated and calls into question our understanding of Einar Ólafur Sveinsson's influential study into these years. Basically, it could have been a lot worse for Iceland back then, according to Jesse.

However, it's likely that I'll be making a violent fantasy version of these events in my first story, based in my own fictitious world (ever a work in progress). From what I gather with the Age of the Sturlungs, it was ultimately a time of shifting change, and the best thing to do was to submit. But these changes, even though they weren't as bloody as initially perpetuated, weren't easy.

A reflective blog for dumping everything about my fantasy word emissions...

People may know me as "the very unheard of student majoring in fine art and interaction design," mainly because I haven't bothered to promote my IxD blog - often referred to as my "reflective journal," especially after the presentation I did today after three hours of sleep beforehand. That presentation, like 99% of student presentations, was essentially about how pedantic I could be to get a good mark by telling others What I Has Learned! and Look At This Dishonestly Stupid and Overly Glossed Thing I Did etc.

That blog is mainly for my tutors, examiners and every now and then, close friends. No biggy.  

This blog, however, may serve as a personal and far more prolific journal into my reflective accumulation of useless knowledge in history; critical analysis - either bumming or slagging off - into the works of contemporary writers as well as definitely dead ones, and sources of inspiration which can be anything from the liberal arts to the sciences. I'll probably submit odd snippets of fantasy fiction chapters that I eventually pull out of my head (at least after this MA course is done and I sod off somewhere for a couple of weeks in the summer).

Right now, I'm extremely busy with my course, so this blog will initially not be very active. But the next posts you'll see will most likely have something to do with Icelandic sagas, or the latest eargasms by Austin Wintory. Whatever floats my way and fancy!