I Am Tired. I Will Be There.

Finished this art for @liviapeleia as part of the @merlin-gotcha4gaza event!

I absolutely adore your story https://archiveofourown.org/works/57536806 and I hope you like the my little drawing inspired by Merlin answering the door and seeing Uther :)

Voice of the Nightingale, 1923, Wladyslaw Starewicz

Greek Child's Play

Published in 1945 by Little Brown & Company, Adventures with the Gods by Catharine Sellew and illustrated by George and Doris Hauman is a charming primer created for young children. It contains sixteen stories featuring the heroes of Greek mythology as well as the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus. The book even includes a handy index of all the characters' names and how to pronounce them. This delightful collection of stories provides an accessible introduction to the fascinating world of Greek mythology, making it an enchanting read for both children and adults.

Catharine Sellew, an American author, has a talent for turning ancient myths and legends into children's stories. Written using simple language and ideas, her stories create an almost fairytale-like experience for readers. It's no surprise that her works are captivating and beloved by many.

George and Doris Hauman were a married couple and American children’s book illustrators. They are perhaps most well-known for illustrating the popular 1954 edition of The Little Engine That Could. The couple decided to collaborate on projects because they had so many customers in common. They also used a joint signature for all of their illustrations.

View other Classics posts.

View our other posts on children's books.

-Melissa, Special Collections Classics Intern

I redrew some Merlin characters to be more historically and culturally accurate! The text is their original names in a later Latin script, yoinked from a display in the Corinium Museum, Cirencester. (Sneaky edit to add: Y'all are incredibly welcome to use this in any way you want, I would love to see more of my home's culture being represented more accurately in media!!)

Unlabelled version under the cut!!

the lady of the lake

What advice do you have for a 14 year old girl?

This is so vague I love it. The voices you are hearing are real, god is speaking to you. The nation of France needs you. Don your armor, take up arms, lead the French army. This is your destiny, joan. When the flames come for you let them lick your bones and laugh.

I really feel like le morte darthur lends itself to a the green knight 2021 esque interpretation a little too well

Certified Irish person here with my own tried and test resources for learning Irish! Disclaimer, I am not fluent but you could call me a lifelong learner.

General Info

I could say a lot here but I'll start with some general info. I encourage anyone interested to go and look up these things and learn more, you'll be well on your way if you do!

We refer to the Irish language either as Irish or as Gaeilge.

It's taught as a mandatory subject in schools in the Rep. of Ireland from primary all the way to secondary level. In my opinion however, while there are genuinely good teachers out there, the syllabus leads a lot to be desired, many are backing its reform. Most of us have a similar level of Irish unless we have an Irish speaking background or have put in a lot of effort.

Irish has a different alphabet to English, some letter combinations will sound different than expected to English speakers, e.g., bh is a 'v' sound. We also use accents called fadas: á, é, í, ó, ú. The YouTube Channel Gaeilge i mo chroí is great for these kinds of explanations (see below).

We have a unique sentence structure: verb, subject, object.

There are 11 irregular verbs. All others have a predictable structure.

There are special mutations known as séimhiú and urú, these create differences in words depending on the situation/sentence structure. For example, Dublin in Irish is 'Baile Átha Cliath,' but if I wanted to say I live in Dublin it's 'táim i mo cónaí i mBaile Átha Cliath.'

There are three different counting systems, you'll find a good explanation here. Once you've read this, there are plenty of YouTube videos that teach you each one.

We don't have proper words for yes and no. Positive and negative replies to questions will use the verb back at the question asker.

There are three primary dialects but we tend to understand each other alright most of the time!

Online Resources!

I promise you Irish isn't dead, there's a lot to get your teeth into!

Get used to how it sounds! TG4 is the name of our national Irish language TV station and the Irish is usually very clear. I'm partial to documentaries myself, I recommend Fíorscéal (general topics) and Domhan an Dúlra (nature). It's all available online but you'll likely need a VPN to access it. I can also recommend a Raidío na Life, a radio station based in Dublin. You can listen back to shows of your choice or listen live.

Bitesize Irish: They have short explanation and pronunciation videos on YouTube, interspersed with some culture. On their website they also have a free learning challenge called Gaeilge Gach Lá (Irish Everyday), they will email you every day with a small assignment for a calendar week and send you a newsletter every week thereafter. This is highly beginner friendly and mostly gets you used to the idea of daily practice and effort. For those who really want to get stuck in, they have some paid resources including connecting you with other learners so you can practice.

Gaeilge i mo chroí: A really great all-rounder of a YouTube channel. They explained some grammar rules that I'd never quite got my head around in school.

Úna-Minh Kavanagh: I cannot sing Úna's praises enough. I'm sure my knowledge of her only scratches the surface of her achievements but she's translated Among Us into Irish, she streams games in Irish (she's Yunitex on Twitch), she forages in Irish and she teaches you how to use existing online resources and communities in your learning journey. She really specialises in the "how" of learning the language today. She is also a published author and she speaks out against racism in Ireland.

Online dictionary: foclóir.ie

Similar resource to the above with more explanation and pronunciations in the three dialects for learners: teanglann.ie

Books:

Gaeilge gan Stró! by Éamonn Ó Dónaill at beginners level and Gramadach gan Stró by the same. These books helped me return to Irish as an adult and are geared towards adults.

These books and other physical resources can be bought from siopa.ie, which ships worldwide.

Courses:

Gaelchultúr, the publishers of Gaeilge gan Stró offer group online courses. There are others but this is one I've tried myself. They use Gaeilge gan Stró as their course book.

Well, this post was longer than I expected it to be but for any of you who decide to give Irish a go, go n-éirí libh!

Sign Ups Are OPEN for this year's 'Finish that Fic, Merlin! (2024/2025)

Another year has passed with you being completely unable to finish those darn WIPs in your folder. Fear not! 'Finish that Fic, Merlin!' is once again here to w(h)ip your arse into shape so you can finally clear your conscience! (and you WIP-folder)

The fest will run from November 1st 2024 till March 31st 2025!

If you've never heard of 'Finish that Fic, Merlin!' before, the short answer is that it is, like the same suggests, a fest to help you finish your WIPS. All those fics you've started but for whatever reason never finished. Maybe life got in the way, maybe you just didn't have the motivation, and without a deadline, it's easier to just do other things instead. Well, now's the time to sign up for this fest, so you can finally finish!

Before you sign up, however, please be sure to read 'How This Fest Works' and the 'FAQs' for the long answer on what 'Finish that Fic, Merlin!' is. I know it sounds weird, but there's some rules to follow, and more importantly, an explanation on how you can get a prize for your hard work! After you've done that, you can sign up here via Livejournal or here via Google Forms.

If you need some cheerleading, you can head over to Discord to join The Tavern(18+) server where I've been graciously allowed to host a channel for this fest. Please note that while The Tavern server is for 18+, if you're under 18, you can still participate in 'Finish that Fic, Merlin!' you just can't be part of that particular Discord server. Fortunately, there are other Merlin servers for people of all ages to help you with your writing. You can even find me in some of them :D

And don't forget to reblog this tumblr post to help spread the word!