'besöksstol' The Millennium Trilogy. An observation.

No spoilers.

A friend gave 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' by Stieg Larsson to me ages ago and I'd never been able to get my teeth into it, then we went on holiday and 'bingo' I was hooked.

I was two thirds of the way through the first book when it struck me that visitors chair was an odd phrase but thought nothing of it, then on Wednesday I heard Front Row on radio 4 about authors and translating books

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b037v4gb

And it made think about the visitors chair again and if what I was reading was as intended etc etc but I didn't want to spoil my own enjoyment of the book so put it out of my mind again. 

I was close to finishing book 1 and my birthday was on Friday so I dropped boulder sized hints to the kids for book 2, they did pick up on them but no book materialised - so off I went to the local charity shops, I picked up the third book in Barnardos for 49p and the second book in Oxfam for £1.09 (ooh and a new bag) 

I'm now very nearly at the end of the second book and there's been lots of people sitting in visitors chairs, so I downloaded the Google translate app and set it up for English to Swedish and put in visitors chair. 

besöksstol

I even went back and forth between a few languages and always got visitor chair. 

I imagined a scenario when an English man/woman was sat with a Swede asking them to explain things, pointing at objects...

What's that?

-Bord-Table

That?

-Thats my chair, Stol. 

Your chair?

-Yes

So that? 

-Um, another chair, a visitors chair, besöksstol. 

Ooh besöksstol I like that. 

Maybe they'd had trouble with visitors and seating etiquette, visitors climbing on the lap of their hosts, so there was a need for visitors chairs?!? 

Who knows. 

I put  besöksstol into Google again and found this...

http://www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/index.php/book-translation-an-insiders-perspective/

Seems I'm not alone!

So when does a stol become a besöksstol and when does a besöksstol become a stol?

And am I a visitor in my own home sat here at my Ikea 'Norden' table on my Ikea 'Gilbert' chairs?

Ramblings of a mad woman or why I like Scandinavian Crime Drama

(Your lucky I didn't write this at midnight last night when I originally thought about it...)

My theory on why I (we) like Scandinavian crime drama.

Or

Why I want a Volvo, padded jacket and a wooly jumper and listen to A-Ha.

 I had this poster, it had a crease through Pål's face so Smash Hits sent me a new one.

Firstly I reckon we need to have a quick look to our past, our invaders, we can forget the Europeans, Italians or Romans I think history likes to call them as I believe they probably kept themselves to themselves, invaded and then returned leaving behind a few broken pots, straight roads and sanitation.

lights on in search of straight roads and sanitation.

Ah, but let's look east (or is it west, no hang on west is Wales) to Scandinavia and think Vikings, you know the hairy guys, I reckon they invaded, stayed and did a bit of genetic knitting... or 'raping and pillaging' as the history books like to call it.

Have I mentioned my mum is a Lund...

Well that's my theory on why we - I love Scandinavia drama it's in our blood like a child likes to hear stories from their grandparents ...
Why I secretly believe if I watch enough of The Bridge or Borgen I might actually be able to speak Danish or is it Swedish, no its Danish were they speaking both?? and why Seb Larsson was really waving to me at every home game.

 *waves back like a mad thing embarrassing children and husband*

Well these were my mad thoughts last night when I got into bed after watching Wallander and why I was wondering why I had a strange affinity with wind swept ferries and cold baron landscapes... ooh and stylish architecture ... damn I think I've missed the Ikea sale... Oh and did you ever see those Norwegian farmers on that programme ... my god they were gorgeous ...is this why I like Lego...and Hans Christian Andersen...don't start me on Dancing Queen...Do you remember that 80s programme called Annika...Even though I'm vegetarian I loved the way Peter Schmeichel said 'theres no better bacon'...I did a project on Denmark when I was 8...H&M where's that from...did mice really make the Norwegian coastline!

 any way godnat.