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Written by fellpony
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09 January 2007 |
I started to review a comic piece (Magnus Opus, 5 words, 8/1/07) and found myself with rhymes so I copied it out and hammered at it a bit.
I met him, once. A scholarly, unlikely star, Too quietly bright: Magnus, son of Magnus, Dry voice of focused light. "Look upon it as a play;" To reassure competitors, "Only a bloody game," he'd say. Smoking, he'd pace the corridors Before the show, too tense to chat. In pace, now, requiescat. |
touché!
Written by Bagheera (679 comments posted) 8th January 2007 | Very appropriate, and exactly the self-deprecating, modest tone which I always imagined was this brilliant man's real nature.
He will be sadly missed - and you have described him with a truly impressive economy of words!
Thank you
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Written by Phil (6393 comments posted) 8th January 2007 | I read Oli's piece earlier too. I like this a lot, particularly the simple opener.
Did you know he wrote and edited quite a few history books?
Phil. |
Written by fellpony (1507 comments posted) 8th January 2007 | Yes, Phil, he was an expert on the Vikings. The night I met him (at York Railway Museum) a girl contestant took The Vikings as her specialist subject. Imagine her mortification when she only scored 5, in front of Magnus whose latest book on the Vikings had only just been published.
| HI Fellpony
Written by jean.day (2196 comments posted) 8th January 2007 | | This is great. I really enjoyed reading it. And as Phil said, so much said with so few words. | Wonderfull!
Written by Talisker (1300 comments posted) 9th January 2007 | A fitting tribute.
I'm almost ashamed that I tried to make merriment of his demise - I did like him a lot. He had a lot of strings to his Viking bow (more like a harp really) - e.g. he wrote the foreword to one of my ornithology books!
It would be so appropriate if they cast his remains adrift in a burning boat - much better than a traditional funeral.
Oli |
Written by Witzl (1585 comments posted) 9th January 2007 | | This is beautifully written, and I echo all the above sentiments and statements. And the first time I ever heard of this man was five minutes ago, after reading your poem. Dry voice of focused light. Jeez, that is brilliant! And it is what sent me off to find out who this man was. |
Written by fellpony (1507 comments posted) 9th January 2007 | As a rider (having just, 9/1/07, read his obit on the Times web site) may I add that I didn't take my line "only a bloody game" from the anecdote about Magnus's 1993 remark, viz, "it's just a bloody game". He had already said it to the contestants (of whom I was one) during a pre-recording talk in 1982, and I can believe it was a regular phrase of his.
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