So, Nicolette, you want Norwegian lessons, do you? Well, I have started, haven’t I? Not sure tenke koffert and reisefeber are the most useful words in the Norwegian language, though…
Norwegian lesson of the day: mørkredsel s. “dark-fear”, fear of the dark. Also: mørkredd advb. “dark-scared”, being afraid of the dark. As in “Jeg er mørkredd” – “I am afraid of the dark”. One example of how the Norwegian concatenation of words leaves us with one word where in English you need a phrase.
I used to be really scared of the dark as a kid. I had to have a light on in order to go to sleep. I was not afraid of anything tangible or defined – robbers, murderers, ghosts, mummies, giant spiders, you know, that sort of thing – just of the dark and unknown, the sense of not knowing what was out there. Hence I also never liked to swim in places where I couldn’t see the bottom (still don’t, as a matter of fact). I wouldn’t imagine sharks or crocodiles, or even giant squids or other mythical beast, but I’d fear a something, a presence, an unknown.
I remember the boy next door had a book called something like “The Giant Book of Monsters and Ghosts”. Stupidly (and against the wishes of my family, and, I hardly need add, my own better judgement… Oops, hang on, sorry, wrong movie, wrong context – but you get the point, right?), I looked at it. It had lots of pictures of frightful-looking beings – werewolves, hags, trolls, ghosts and ghouls – but they all seemed pretty harmless to me. The one image that still sticks in my mind, and that, at the time, gave me nightmares for weeks, depicted a crack in the ceiling through which Something was, literally, clawing its way – all you could see was the claws peeping through the crack, trying to get a hold in order to widen it… *shudder*
And, obviously, there was a crack in the ceiling above my bed…
This is why I’ve never been a great fan of scary movies. My imagination has always (still does) provided me with quite enough “scare” without help, thank you very much – I still have to tell myself not to be stupid in order to go down to the basement if it’s dark. looming, unidentifiable shapes in the dark can still make me start. I need the room to be dark in order to fall asleep nowadays, though.
Random quote of the day (in Danish…):
Trist
(Minde-gruk)
Hvor trist at N.N.
har sagt livet farvel!
Jeg har glædet mig sådan
til at slå ham ihjel.
Kumbel (Piet Hein)