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Saturday, April 29, 2006

Walpurgis Part V

Aaaaaand, last but not least, there are two scenes in Goethe's Faust named after Walpurgisnacht.

A little bonus trivia: my mother once gave me copy of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther--I think it was for an Easter present. (My mom is like that.) Anyway, she told me that it was the one novel that had inspired more suicides than any other. Does anyone have any statistics to back this up? E-mail me! Also... do you think my mother was trying to tell me something?

Labels: Walpurgis

Friday, April 28, 2006

Walpurgis Part IV

...you thought I was done, didn't you?

The second act of Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?* is called "Walpurgisnacht".

*Completely and totally not Wordcandy-approved. Makes The Master and Margarita look like Fluffy Bunny Goes to the Mall.

Labels: Walpurgis

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Walpurgis Part III

Aaaaand in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita*, there's a scene where Margarita goes to Satan's Walpurgis Ball...

*Good book. Not Wordcandy-approved.

Labels: Walpurgis

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Walpurgis Part II

J. K. Rowling once mentioned in an interview that the original name for the Death Eaters was going to be the "Knights of Walpurgis". Frankly, I think "Knights of Walpurgis" sounds a lot less dorky than "Death Eaters", but I'm sure Ms. Rowling had her reasons. (Maybe she thought that Saint Walburga might object to the use of her name...?)

Labels: Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, Walpurgis

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Walpurgis Night!

The very Wordcandy-worthy holiday "Walpurgis" is coming up this week (the night of April 30th). Walpurgis Night celebrations in Finland are marked by the publication of two humor magazines: Apy and Julkku. (Both of these magazines are apparently totally tasteless.) Julkku is released as a standard magazine, while Apy is famous for its gimmick format--it's been printed on toilet paper and bedsheets, stuffed into milk cartons and sardine cans, and shaped like a cell phone.

Below--another fine Walpurgis tradition: biiiiiig fires!

Labels: Walpurgis