Viking glory

I saw a shield maiden this morning. At least, I think I did. She was your typical Nordic goddess with thick blonde plaits, her blue eyes fixed to the road ahead as she drove her massive compactus away from the recycling centre. She was Lagertha reborn.

As I approached her truck, I smiled, warily. She gave me the slightest of nods as she expertly manoeuvred between two street lights, before driving off down the road.

Then, as I wheeled my trolley home, a group of very small children and their minders were exercising on the woodland track. A couple of the kids smiled up at me and said something in Swedish. One pointed at my t-shirt. I said “Homer,” given I had him printed on my chest.

The kid looked confused. In retrospect, she could have been wondering why I was only wearing a t-shirt while they were all wrapped up against the cold.

I’d started off wearing a fleece but was soon sweltering in the double figured sunshine. In fact, it was very pleasant sitting, relaxing among my dead friends on the way home.

I really need to learn how to say I don’t speak Swedish when responding to small children.

Language proved to be a problem for the Canadians during World War I as well. I discovered this during a WFA webinar tonight titled A House Divided: French Canada and the First World War. It was presented by Jesse Alexander.

The last time I watched a webinar by Jesse was almost a year ago. It was excellent and I was hoping for more of the same. I wasn’t disappointed.

It seems that there was an issue in Canada regarding the English and French speakers. This was before the war. In fact, in 1912, the Canadian government banned the teaching of French in schools. This, needless to say, pissed off a lot of French Canadians. They were also staunchly Catholic as opposed to the Protestant English speakers.

So, anyway, the war comes around and being in the Commonwealth, Canada feels it has to join in and help the mother country. This doesn’t appeal much to the French Canadians, even though the French were also involved. Some volunteered and set off with their Anglo compatriots. The trouble was that these volunteers didn’t have much English and there wasn’t any French spoken.

Eventually, a French Canadian regiment was created: The Royal 22nd Regiment. It was funded by Arthur Mignault to the tune of $50,000. He was a pharmaceutical entrepreneur, philanthropist, doctor and all round good guy. He also served in the Royal Canadian Medical Corp during the war.

It all sounded a bit dire for the French speakers until they started getting to know the French locals, a lot of whom had no idea there were French speakers in Canada. Jesse put up this wonderful photograph of a group of soldiers helping people in a field, talking away. There was no mention whether the French thought the Canadians spoke funny.

Of course, it could also have been an advantage being able to talk to pretty French women in the fields.

Overall, it was another excellent webinar from Jesse.

Oh, and weather-wise, today marked the first time I didn’t bother with the heating in the house and spent the day with doors and windows open. It was a lovely day.