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S&S+, Judo, Kendo, Historical & Modern Fencing, Walking.

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masa said:
I heard that Tolkien wrote prose version of Beowulf. I wonder if it’s ever been published. That would be interesting to read.
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Sort of an update on my reading adventures. I've ordered a lot of Anglo-Saxon / Old English poems, sagas etc in translation. I figured I ought to start with my own culture's Viking Age literature first... just seemed more accesible to start with for me. Of course the Anglo-Saxons were Christians from around 600AD onwards, but what's interesting is that they Norse-ized the religion, if I can make up that word. So, when I'm reading the poems etc, they are still very similar to the Icelandic sagas and eddas, just that the gods are different, and not even so much, haha. Their version of God etc is a lot like Woden! It's still the same legendary pan-Germanic background, with Volund the Smith, Eormanric, the Volsungs etc, but Moses, Pharoah and Jesus get mixed into it too... It's a very interesting fusion-culture they created there in England back in those days.
 
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Thank you for your update. I’m going to concentrate on sagas, but I have to read three books about Linux and Python coding first. Job stuff.
 
marvinthemartian said:
Aren't those from the christian medieval period as well?
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Well, sort of... Snorri Sturlusson (one of the big saga writers in Iceland) is adamant at the start of his Heimskringla saga collection that he got the stories from the writings of a very old scholar who had personally lived during the Viking Age. Snorri himself was a chieftain who died in a Viking raid on his homestead. He was slain by a sword. I'd say the writers were still Vikings. :)

The Anglo-Saxon writings are ALL from the Viking Age and even earlier...

In the opinion of a lot of people who study this stuff professionally (like the Youtuber Jackson Crawford etc... but also the translators of the books I'm reading) a lot of people who come to this stuff for the first time think it's "tainted" by the fact that it was written by Christians, assuming that becoming Christian totally changed the people's culture... which it just simply did not. Norse were still Norse, Anglo-Saxons still Anglo-Saxons.
 
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Just to give you a sense of what I'm saying, here is an excerpt of a Christian religious devotional poem of the Anglo-Saxons:

God had made them stronger with true craft and honored
the prince of that army, Pharoah’s foeman on the forth-ways.
Soon most of that multitude were swallowed up by death,
with [seven] ancient torments. For the fall of the first-born,
wailing was renewed, their hall-joys snuffed out,
bereaved of treasure. In the middle of the night
God had fiercely cut down his sinning enemies,
and many of their first-born, shattering the city-wards.
A killer glided about widely, a hateful folk-hater,
the land darkened with the corpses of the dead—
the warriors fared forth, wailing was wide, light of worldly joys. (30-42)

Not quite what you'd hear in a Sunday School classroom in the 21st Century somewhere! Haha!
 
The last few days I've been doing single and double clean and presses, and actually some snatches if you can believe it, all this with 24s and the 28. Kind of similar movements those two, no, C&P and snatches? I might just keep at this for a while for fun. I wasn't feeling up to intensive cardio sweaty stuff the past few days and the C&P has the big pull and push in it, so it's a complete move. If I could get it up to the 32kg for multiple sets and reps, I think this would be a "no-joke" level of strength and conditioning.
 
It's going well I think, this C&P and snatching stuff, mostly C&P though. I'm going to see how long I can keep at it before or if my callouses give out, since these moves are traditionally taxing on the hand skin. I've been focussing on getting higher numbers of reps in at a time with each arm, still mostly with the 24kg. I did a GTG kind of one set each thing this morning when I got up with the 24kg and it was 8 times each arm fully comfortably C&P.
 
masa said:
I started to do the C&P and the snatch too, in a form of the ROP though.
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Yes, I always in some way follow the guidance of the ROP system when I do the snatches and clean&press.

I'm using the ROP moves for days when I don't feel like doing S&S. Today was not one of those days however. I did S&S today, squats and swings with the 28kg and the getups with the 32kg.

I'm starting to decide though that the C&P and snatches should be added to one's training after attaining Simple, which is exactly what the 2.0 book recommends. All the "Big Six" moves of Strong First are recommended after attaining Simple. I can see the wisdom in this now. There are aspects of movement and strength that can each move gives you in its own unique way. For instance, I've been finding the ROP moves are helping my lateral core stability which is important for daily tasks, carrying things and kendo. They are giving me a bit of something I wasn't getting through S&S, and of course S&S gives you things ROP can't.

The double clean and press is also wise to do. I'm doing all six big moves these days:

  • goblet squat
  • 1 arm swing
  • getup
  • clean and press (and simple press)
  • snatch
  • double clean (and press)
That's what it's all about! :)

Oh, I was going to add that after about a month of daily study that I've pretty much "got" Old English. It was mostly a case of getting used to how the spellings have changed over the years. It's still "just English". It's a lot like the English of Shakespeare's time. I am going to read as much as possible in Old English for a while and then start Old Norse! FUN!
 
Hello @Kozushi

When you go for these walks, did you consider doing them with a weighted backpack, even fairly light ? This builds great conditioning and strength-endurance and eventually you can train while enjoying time with your family

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
pet' said:
Hello @Kozushi

When you go for these walks, did you consider doing them with a weighted backpack, even fairly light ? This builds great conditioning and strength-endurance and eventually you can train while enjoying time with your family

Kind regards,

Pet'
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Yes, I do this sometimes, or I do it holding light dumbbells in my hands. Usually though it's just a heavy coat I'm wearing, haha! My own bodyweight is already pretty high (105kg).
 
Yesterday was a hike, online kendo training followed by S&S (swings 24kg - easy day, TGUs 32kg.)
I'm tending to do clean and presses and snatches for warmup for S&S these days.
 
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