If I ever see Craig Ronalds again

[highlyeccentric]

(which is unlikely, since he disappeared in Mysterious Circumstances), I am going to have to make exaggerated gestures of gratitude and adoration.

Good things Craig Ronalds has done for me:

* carefully annotated all the way through Fisher's copy of Die "Institutes of Polity", translating relevant bits of German and scribbling down which MS Jost has put where, every time the layout gets confusing.
* marked off useful articles in England Before the Conquest.

and best of all (not that I cared at the time...)

* taught me functional grammar. Which, as a philological tool, is aggravating and not fun at all. But he was the first person to get me to engage with the words on the page, so to speak, to get me thinking about the way grammar encodes certain things about a character. Particularly verbs. Perhaps Craig can ultimately be blamed for my obsession with verbs of thought (I remember analysing the lack of thought-verbs assigned to the character Phuong in The Quiet American, for his class).

now I have awesometastic thoughts about Sir Gawain and grammar, and I wonder if, without Craig and his stupid functional grammar course, I would be thinking these thoughts now?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

It's not really an interesting story. I think you might be reading too much into the academics' reactions.

H.

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

Don't spoil our fun.

I think he was kidnapped by space nazi gypsies, personally. And the academics are under an oath of secrecy.

[kayloulee.livejournal.com]

Space nazi gypsies in a submarine with lasers and ninja bears, obviously.

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

Obviously.

[kayloulee.livejournal.com]

Yep!