John D. Rateliff's Blog, page 63

The Trip to Egypt (Day Six)

Wednesday April 15th
DAY SIX

So, this day we would have gone to the Valley of the Kings. While there, we wd have visited the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, one of the few women in Egypt's long history to have ruled as pharaoh in her own right.

If that's not enough, we were also due for a trip to the Colossus of Memnon: two colossal statues that once, back in Roman times, made an eerie moaning noise around dawn. Unfortunately the phenomenon has long since ceased.

Any spare time this day wd most definitely been spent on visiting as much of the Valley of the Kings as we cd managed.

--John R.

The Trip to Egypt (Day Five)

Tuesday April 14th
DAY FIVE

So, our schedule for this day of the trip, had all gone according to plan, would have found us starting the day at Dendara with a visit to the Temple of Hathor (previously home to the famous Zodiac of Dendara). The zodiac is now in the Louvre but here below is an image of it on a piece of papyrus I bought years ago (I think in a little shop tucked in a corner on the bottom level of the Pike Place Market) -- partly because I wanted to see what a real, if modern, piece of papyrus looked like and partly because it was a striking image of an interesting piece.





Even with such damage the Temple of Hathor is in much better shape than the Temple of Karnak we'd visited the day before, being more than a thousand years newer. Apparently it even has a large image of Cleopatra VIIth carved into one wall.

That afternoon then it wd have been back down the Nile to Luxor, where the afternoon was to be devoted to a visit of the Temple of Luxor. It's a huge and impressive place but I cdn't find a good walk-through of this one, so instead here's a nice twenty-minute sequence of Egyptian antiquity highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtw2vfKihXA


Then after Luxor Temple it'd be time to rest up for the next day's big event: The Valley of the Kings.

--John R.
--current reading: Garry Wills PAPAL SINS (resumed)

The Trip to Egypt (Day Four)

Monday April 13th
DAY FOUR

So today according to the plan we wd have left Cairo in northern (Lower) Egypt to fly down to Luxor in central (Upper) Egypt, where our ship wd have waiting for us.

Originally this was to be the inaugural voyage of the S. S. Sphinx, then this got switched to the larger S. S. Tosca; now it's back to the S. S. Sphinx. Fine by me. Note that these are riverboats and as such much smaller than the enormous ocean-going cruise ships that keep getting in the news (and not in a good way).

Here in Luxor we were scheduled to stop for a visit to the Temple at Karnak, the iconic Egyptian temple. So much so that when you hear the words 'Egyptian Temple', what come to your mind are probably images of this temple.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp4XjPdS6fc

Afterwards wd come a start to the actual cruising on the Nile part of our trip, ending up the day at Dendara, home of the famous Zodiac.*

Then in the evening there was to be a 'Folkloric Group Performance', whatever that might be.

Then our first night on the boat, to rest up for the next day's visit to more temples.


--John R.

*which alas turns out to no longer be there, having been looted long ago by the French. Who no doubt can offer up excellent reasons why it was perfectly all right for them to have blasted it out of the temple ceiling and carried it away.

The Trip to Egypt (Day Three)

Sunday April 12th
DAY THREE

So, today would have been our first full day in Cairo, staying in a nice hotel and seeing some of the city sights. But as impressive as the Citadel of Salah al-Din and Alabaster Mosque sound, I didn't come to   the site of one of the world's most ancient civilizations to see medieval (the famous fortress) or relatively modern (nineteenth century mosque) sights. That's why the afternoon event is the one I was eager to see on this first day of acting like a tourist: two hours in the great Museum of Egyptian Antiquities (aka the Egyptian Museum).  Just to get an idea of how jam-packed with one-of-a-kind treasures the place is, watch or skim through videos of walk-throughs available on YouTube like the ones linked to below. As you can see, there's so much to see they've split it into two videos:

Ground Floor Level:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdCReWs6-wI

Upstairs Level
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWcPNrWNDPgLINK



They not only have most of King Tut's belongings but also a lot of Akhenaten's art and much, much more. There's so much here that even on the video tour there were things I'd have liked to linger over --for example, I'm pretty sure I caught a glimpse of the Narmer Palette.

In short, two hours or so may seem too short a time to take in all the things I'll want to see up close and personal.  not to mention that I'd really like a quick look in the museum book shop just inside the entry doors.

And just one day seems too short a time in Cairo too: with the Sphinx and Pyramids so near (they shd be visible from our hotel), it'll be hard to wait till the end of the tour to see them up close.

That evening there's a dinner cruise on the Nile, so we'll get a good look at one of the world's greatest rivers.

And then the next day it's time to venture further afield.

--John R.
--current reading: various
--current viewing: the National Theatre Company's adaptation of JANE EYRE (streaming)

Sad News about Lady Dunsany

So, thanks to Doug A. for sharing the sad news that Lady Dunsany, who was married to the grandson
of the famous writer,* has died from the corona virus.

Here's a link to the story.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/lady-dunsany-dies-from-coronavirus-1.4226330
My sympathies go out to the family.
--John R.


*she was married to the late Edward Carlos, 20th baron; the son of Randle, 19th baron (the Lord Dunsany I met); son of Edward, 18th baron (and our writer). The title is currently held by the 21st baron (this Lady Dunsany's son and 21st baron)

The Trip to Egypt (Day Two)

DAY TWO
Saturday April 12th

So, today we were scheduled to arrive in Cairo and check into our hotel. There was an optional evening side-trip to Alexandria, which we wound up giving a pass. It wd have been interesting to see the site (more or less) of the great lost Library, see the famous harbor (once site of the famous lighthouse), or wander through their antiquities museum. But given that we'd have just come off a long set of flights, it seemed better to devote the rest of that first day in Egypt to resting up for all the activity to come, which was due to start  up the next morning.

(to be continued)

--John R.

The Trip to Egypt (Day One)

So, today's the day when we wd have left on our long-awaited trip to Egypt to see the Sphinx, the Pyramids, and so much more.

That, of course, is before the pandemic struck.

We're grateful not to have fallen ill, or gotten over there and been stranded, with no place to stay and no way to get back. But we're rueful to have so much planning just fade away. So since it was already so much on my mind I thought I'd make a series of posts of where we were going to be and what we were going to be doing on the ten days of our trip.

And who knows? We've rescheduled the trip for next year, and if things calm down and stay calm we may yet make it over there. But for now, we'll console ourselves with tracing our steps and best we can with what we were


April 11th.
DAY ONE: Travel

Today  wd have been our big travel day -- first a long flight to Frankfurt, then on to Cairo. Though we leave home the early afternoon of Friday the 11th, with the long flights and time change and moderate layover it'd be mid-afternoon Saturday when we'd arrive -- just over twenty-four hours.


Next Up: we're in Egypt!

--John R.

The Auburn Crow

So, all those years of feeding crows has finally paid off.






Thanks to Janice for the photo. We headed down to Enumclaw today to help support a great little local shop, The Pie Goddess, only to unfortunately find it closed. So we walked around the mostly empty streets of Enumclaw, something we've been meaning to do for quite a while now and just never gotten around to. In addition to a variety of local shops (all currently closed, of course) we saw some interesting green spaces and public sculpture, including a Purple Heart park,* a bronze pony, and two huge bronze bulls pulling a log.  Worthy additions to the appealing public sculpture like the Kirkland Crows, the Renton Reader, and the Kent gumballs.**

A monument in the park was a memorial to a planeful of Marines who went down on Mt. Rainer not long after the end of World War II and whose bodies were apparently never recovered: I was surprised to see that one of them was from Texarkana, the town I was born in, though the private was from Texarkana Texas, whereas I'm from Texarkana Arkansas (across the street).

All the time we kept being reminded of how much noticeably larger The Mountain is from Enumclaw, which is not that far a drive from Kent (maybe thirty miles).


On the drive out while passing through Auburn we'd sadly noticed that Proper British Bacon, the shop where I got all my English cheeses, has indeed shut down -- for good, not just the duration of the present crisis. But we also spotted the giant statue of a crow, which we made a point of pulling over on the way back to get a closer look at it. I really liked it. The sculptor's name is Peter Reiquam, and I liked how he not only made an eye-catching and appealing image but clearly knows his stuff. Not only are crows fond of french fries (their favorite scavenged fast food) but they've been proven to have brand loyalty. Given a choice, they go after McDonald's over other brands of fast food french fries --and while the logo is discreetly missing the coloring makes it clear it is indeed McDonald's.


--John R.
---current reading: PAPAL SINS by Garry Wills (which is unintentionally turning into my Easter book)
--current viewing: JESUS CHRIST SUPTERSTAR (tonight)

*Which made me wonder: did Uncle Trig have a purple heart? He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, a disfiguring but not life-threatening injury.

**the kind that fall from trees, not the confectionary.

Reorganizing My Library

So, one thing about staying home and practicing social distancing is that it's helped me concentrate on my current project, as well as provided an impetus to learn some about various online virtual meeting programs.

It's also made for a good time to straighten up my Tolkien shelves. By clearing other things away I managed to add a shelf to those dedicated to books on Tolkien, so that I now have eleven shelves of books about Tolkien in my office. At a rough average of about thirty to thirty-five books per shelf, that's a lot of books (somewhere between three hundred and four hundred books). There's a twelfth of my own Tolkien publications (i.e. MR. BAGGINS, WILDERNESS OF DRAGONS, TOLKIEN'S LEGENARDIUM, &c). And this is not counting the shelves of books by Tolkien, shelves for Tolkien journals, a shelf for Tolkien-audio, and a shelf for current projects.*



The main problem with books on Tolkien --and it's a good problem to have-- is that they keep writing new ones. And while I reluctantly gave up trying to get everything a few years ago, there are still interesting and original works coming out that I want to read. So every once in a while I need to integrate the new-ish books into their proper places. I also do some re-arranging to keep essential books, those I frequently consult, ready at hand.

Here's a list of recently added (within the last year or two) or recently moved books:


Amy Amendt-Raduege. THE SWEET AND THE BITTER: DEATH AND DYING IN J. R. R. TOLKIEN'S THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Craig Bernthal. TOLKIEN'S SACRAMENTAL VISION: DISCERNING THE HOLY IN MIDDLE EARTH

John M. Bowers. TOLKIEN'S LOST CHAUCER

Devin Brown. TOLKIEN: HOW AN OBSCURE OXFORD PROFESSOR WROTE THE HOBBIT AND BECAME THE MOST BELOVED AUTHOR OF THE CENTURY  [and yes, all that is in his title]

Jane Chance. TOLKIEN, SELF AND OTHER: "THIS QUEER CREATURE"

Christopher Vaccaro & Yvette Kisor, ed. TOLKIEN AND ALTERNITY   [festschrift for Jane Chance].

Oronzo Cilli. TOLKIEN'S LIBRARY: AN ANNOTATED CHECKLIST

Lisa Coutras. TOLKIEN'S THEOLOGY OF BEAUTY: MAJESTY, SPLENDOR, AND TRANSCENDENCE IN MIDDLE-EARTH

Leslie A. Donovan, ed APPROACHES TO TEACHING TOLKIEN'S THE LORD OF THE RINGS AND OTHER WORKS     [MLA]   [two copies, one hc one tp]

Martha Driver & Sid Ray, ed. THE MEDIEVAL HERO ON SCREEN: REPRESENTATIONS FROM BEOWULF TO BUFFY

Angie Errigo. THE ROUGH GUIDE TO THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Dimitra Fimi. CELTIC MYTH IN CONTEMPORARY CHILDREN'S FANTASY: IDEALIZATION, IDENTITY, IDEOLOGY

Dimitra Fimi & Thomas Honneger, ed. SUB-CREATING ARDA: WORLD-BUILDING IN J. R. R. TOLKIEN'S WORK, ITS PRECURSORS, AND ITS LEGACIES


[here I'm reserving a spot on John Garth's new book, due out the month after next, so I won't have to redo the shelving when it does arrive]


Catherine McIlwaine. TOLKIEN: MAKER OF MIDDLE-EARTH  [Bodley catalogue]

Vincent Ferre & Frederic Manfrin, ed. TOLKIEN: VOYAGE EN TERRE DU MILIEU

Verlyn Flieger. THERE WOULD ALWAYS BE A FAIRY TALE: MORE ESSAYS ON TOLKIEN

Philip Ryken. THE MESSIAH COMES TO MIDDLE EARTH: IMAGES OF CHRIST'S THREEFOLD OFFICE IN THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Toby Widdicombe. J. R. R. TOLKIEN: A GUIDE TO THE PERPLEXED

Helen White. RACE AND POPULAR FANTASY LITERATURE: HABITS OF WHITENESS


--John R.
current reading: Trilobite book.

*Note that this is also the room that's home to most of my rpgs, with two and a half bookcases filled with D&D rulebooks, boxed sets, and modules, plus another bookcase filled with CALL OF CTHULHU

Dee Brown wd be proud

So, there's a movement underway to posthumously revoke the medals given to soldiers who carried out the Wounded Knee massacre back in 1890.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/28/warren-bill-revoke-medals-of-honor-wounded-knee-massacre

Some moments in US history are so iconic, like the events at Wounded Knee or My-Lai, that they need some sort of commemoration. We need to remember both the best and the worst of our history. But I don't think gestures designed to punish people who have been dead a hundred years or so is the way.

--John R.