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Christmas in Lothlorien.
Dec. 14th, 2010 11:14 amIt was one of those crisp and sunny Decemmber mornings last Saturday; not to cold and rather pleasant, and so the she-David and I wandered off to Borough Market to stock up because in my opinion you really can't ever have too many sausages.
Anyway, wandering past Southwark Cathedral which stands right next to the market it was clear some sort of event was going on inside, and so we wandered in to take a look.
"Sorry", said the chap at the door. "Tickets only."
"Tickets?"
"Yes", he said, slightly apologetically. "They're twenty pounds each."
"Twenty quid?" What's going on?"
"It's a carol concert."
I must have looked at bit disappointed. Only a carol concert. I had been hoping for something a little more thrilling. He must have clocked my expression, because he added in a you-definitely-won't-be-interested sort of tone: "It's in Finnish".
"Finnish?"
"Finnish."
"So... just to be clear, songs like Jingle Bells, but sung in Finnish?"
He nodded.
"Where do I pay?" I asked.
Predictably, the Cathedral was full of high-cheekboned, half inuit-half elfin looking folk which was presumably pretty much the entire Finnish expatriate community of London getting a festive fix in far from home. Some short welcoming speeches were made by the pastor of the Cathedral, and the pastor of the Finnish church in Rotherhythe (if that's not a day out waiting to happen, I don't know what is) and the Finn ambassador (who seemed a jovial sort of chap, and looked a bit like Joss Ackland in a comedy bowtie), and then an unaccompanied choir spent about an hour singing a mixture of jolly Christmas Carols and Finnish folk hymns.
Given that Tolkien based the High Elven language on Finnish, I think the best way I can describe the experience is to suggest you imagine the Lothlorien scenes from the Lord of the Rings films, but instead of singing a lament for Gandalf all the elves were singing Winter Wonderland and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
I'll tell you what, Galadriel wouldn't have been anything like so po-faced if they'd all just had a jolly singsong.
And that was the most interesting thing I did this weekend. What about you?
Anyway, wandering past Southwark Cathedral which stands right next to the market it was clear some sort of event was going on inside, and so we wandered in to take a look.
"Sorry", said the chap at the door. "Tickets only."
"Tickets?"
"Yes", he said, slightly apologetically. "They're twenty pounds each."
"Twenty quid?" What's going on?"
"It's a carol concert."
I must have looked at bit disappointed. Only a carol concert. I had been hoping for something a little more thrilling. He must have clocked my expression, because he added in a you-definitely-won't-be-interested sort of tone: "It's in Finnish".
"Finnish?"
"Finnish."
"So... just to be clear, songs like Jingle Bells, but sung in Finnish?"
He nodded.
"Where do I pay?" I asked.
Predictably, the Cathedral was full of high-cheekboned, half inuit-half elfin looking folk which was presumably pretty much the entire Finnish expatriate community of London getting a festive fix in far from home. Some short welcoming speeches were made by the pastor of the Cathedral, and the pastor of the Finnish church in Rotherhythe (if that's not a day out waiting to happen, I don't know what is) and the Finn ambassador (who seemed a jovial sort of chap, and looked a bit like Joss Ackland in a comedy bowtie), and then an unaccompanied choir spent about an hour singing a mixture of jolly Christmas Carols and Finnish folk hymns.
Given that Tolkien based the High Elven language on Finnish, I think the best way I can describe the experience is to suggest you imagine the Lothlorien scenes from the Lord of the Rings films, but instead of singing a lament for Gandalf all the elves were singing Winter Wonderland and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
I'll tell you what, Galadriel wouldn't have been anything like so po-faced if they'd all just had a jolly singsong.
And that was the most interesting thing I did this weekend. What about you?
