The last year has been an absolute whirlwind. Acting as one of the royal bards, and planning and hosting my elevation to the Order of the Laurel and Alherin's to the Chivalry was intense and wonderful, but didn't leave a great deal of time for writing or recording the costuming projects that took up so much of my time. But I did embark on a project that was interesting and has been well received.
I've been asked several times to document and explain the translation process. That's a layered, complex task. I decided to do it by documenting my own translation process and then teaching a class on how I do what I do, and what tips I have for other translators. I didn't want to use something super short like Dan do Amergin, because it seemed too brief to elucidate the entire slog that is translating an epic. And I didn't want to use something terrible depressing like the Exile of the Sons of Usnech (the piece from which we take the story of Deirdre of the Sorrows) because it's just too sad. Instead, I revived a literal translation I had done as a student and began building it into a performance piece. Scéla Muicce Meicc Da Thó/The Story of Mac DaTho's Pig is a funny, strange story about a hosteler who owns two of the best magical animals in Ireland--a magical giant boar and a magical hound named Elvis. It's funny, scatological, strange, and not terribly sad.
The inaugural class session seems to have gone well. I will teach it again at Gulf Wars in a couple of weeks, and I hope it will be well received. I'm still honing the work down to a performance piece, but that always takes time. The packet is here, and likely to keep changing. My goal is to have a finished work that will display the weird tone of the original, engage audiences, and be worth memorizing and foisting upon audiences. I'll know I succeeded if people ask for it at circles. Fingers crossed.
Mar 2, 2020