The Pirate Primer

[beige_alert]

Today at the library I found The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers & Rogues, by George Choundas. This is a book about how to talk like a pirate. A 470 page book. With excruciating detail. Citations of the books and movies the phrases were found in. And, as an added bonus, printed on paper with printed-on browned edges and fake tears and bound with faux-aged cover, for the ancient text look. The mind boggles at the effort that went into this. It's not entirely clear who needs this book. I suppose you'll appreciate it if you are one of those people who takes Talk Like A Pirate Day really, really seriously. (You know who you are.) Also, it might be handy if you LARP aboard a pirate ship, though less so if you speak German on your vessel, unless you can convince the rest of the scurvy ignorants swashbucklers to learn English. (According to my plan, at this point jaelle_n_gilla should be laughing really hard. I'm sure she'll let us know if my plan is a success.)

Good luck to you and a fair wind!

Comments

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

WUH-HAR-HAR *ARRRRRRR* I need that book translated! I *neeeeeeeeeeed*!!!! English won't help me a bit, and I fear most of this can't be properly translated. Are there any German speaking pirates in history anyway?

We watched "Muppets Treasure Island" and "Pirates of the Caribbean III" last night. This is SO fitting. Maybe I should get this one for J. He's a sucker for pretty books, don't mind the content :-)

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

English won't help unless you're going to play the role of foreign captive who the crew can't successfully interrogate because they can't understand a word she says. (Spricht sie was Sprache? Nicht Englisch! ...Britischpiratsprache???)

There must have been German pirates. Not something we over here tend to think about, though, so I don't know anything.

I've only just leafed through the book a bit. It ought to at least be good for some laughs, though.

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

I'm ordering it from Amazon.de for J. His birthday is in June, but you can't start early enough, can you?

There are of course German pirates, but they are of rather local fame. The one I sort of grew up with is Störtebecker. His fame is mostly in the north, Hamburg and around (well, d'oh, only open water we have here, right?). Legend says he was captured and beheaded. They granted him that he could free some of his men by walking past the line *after* the beheading and he walked past 11 of them before the executioner threw the block in front of him and he tripped over. They still beheaded all of his crew, though. Cheats!

There are yearly Störtebecker festivals and plays in the north.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Always good to plan ahead!
(You realize the first thought I had when I saw the book was that I had to tell you about it?)

Oh, yes, Störtebecker. I had heard that story, while I was in Germany. You'd think you'd just have to honor a deal like that after the guy actually does it!

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

(You realize the first thought I had when I saw the book was that I had to tell you about it?)

I feel honoured :-)

With Störtebecker - I think they considered it more of a guideline...

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

By the way, speaking of pirates, you've seen this? (http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/12/16/funny-pictures-you-had-a-parrot/)

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

*LOL* No I hadn't! That's awesome! I need to take one like that with our Dawn. Not that she would ever catch a parrot (except if it were dead already) but she likes to sit on shoulders. Usually backwards, though, with the arse in one's face.

[madfilkentist]

So did real pirates say "Arr"?

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

The publisher is Writer's Digest, so maybe the book is intended for authors of "pirate novels"

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

That appears to make sense.