So I have written about Erlend Loe before. He is a fairly well known Norwegian author. While many of his works are only available in Norwegian, a few have been translated (side note: Democratic presidential nominee Pete Buttigieg apparently learnt Norwegian just to read more of Erlend’s works).
Anyway, a little over a year ago Erlend learnt to unicycle and has cycled almost constantly since. I discovered he was a unicyclist some time later. In part because people confused us on social media (spoiler we don’t look similar), mainly due to the fact that we both frequently cycle around Oslo.
Later still I met him, first to lend him my 36" and later for a couple of rides with @UniMyra. The latest of which I posted about here.
Anyway, now he has written a book about learning to unicycle. So far it is only in Norwegian but he has promised me that he will get it translated into English at some point.
If you can read Norwegian (Danish or Swedish readers shouldn’t have too much trouble either I guess). Here is a link
I think @rogeratunicycledotcom should order a few english copies for unicycle.com, because his nimbus hatchet is featured on the cover.
I hope this will speed up the english translation.
Yeah I have read it and indeed it relates to the book. However, while somewhat interesting, it requires a subscription, tells you nothing you wouldn’t find out from the book and there is also a slightly weird implication from the title/intro that he was “down” (depressed) and is now feeling good (“up”), which I know is not remotely true (having had that clearly confirmed first hand). It seems as though the journalist added that for a fun wordplay about being down and now being up (on top of a big unicycle). Still giving this implication just for a fun wordplay leaves a kind of bitter taste in the mouth, so in summary I would probably suggest you just skip this article (even if you do have access and can read it) and buy the book instead. Then you will know Erlend’s real thoughts about how and why he got into unicycling.
Norwegian is pretty easy if you speak German or English; it’s sort of halfway in between. I don’t really speak it, but I understand it well enough to have read a couple of Erlend’s books. I’d say learning it is a safer bet than waiting on a translation!
This is the first time speaking norwegian is an advantage in the unicycle world. Erlend Loe is one of several writers who will be speaking about their new books on a live event. It will stream on facebook this friday (the actual event is the day before). https://www.facebook.com/events/356999018980624/
I’ve also noticed that it’s out on both audio book and e book now. So far it’s all norwegian.
That’s true. When learning this language there was literally not a single word that had no connection to an English or German word of the same or nearly the same meaning. If you speak German and English, it’s definitely the most easy language to learn next. And the adavntage is also that Norwegian seems to be kind of the middle of the Scandinavian languages. If you are able to read Norwegian, you will probably understand a lot in written Danish. Swedish is slightly different than Norwegian and Danish… well, they say Drunken Norwegians speak Danish.
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