Pithy, evocative imagery in three-legged microcosms of meaning. Having coined the term ‘triologism’ I believe this to be the only collection of these tum-tee-tum phrases in the universe. Updated Tuesdays … triologism day!
Tawny-maned horses
A journey you would never want to end, the way Leigh Fermor describes it.
'Poppies scattered the green crops, the...
Hard-hearted Hera
Hera is Goddess Numero Una, but for all her beauty and creaminess, she is, as Virgil has it, full of...
All-seeing eyes
A fictitious dedication in the novel, imbuing its artist-narrator with an almost godly omnivision, although he doesn't portray himself as...
Phallus-wielding Bounariots
One of a long and impossibly exotic ethno-linguistic, map-straddling shopping list that Leigh Fermor reels off like a roll-call of...
Sun-whitened clouds
This is part of a poetically imagined overview of joyous, resilient and pure-spirited swallows contemplating their coming continent-spanning migrations.
'They...
Gum-burning brandy
A toothache-anaesthetizing solution gives a jaunty air to this fun concept of the Dullest Exhibition-case Award. But lest you think...
Technicolor-green fields
Fermín is a character who has done time as a tramp, and perhaps because of the hunger he's suffered, he...
Worm-like creature
Balint is one of the most engaging characters in Banffy's splendid trilogy of novels covering the closing decades of the...
Low-gliding and pale-beaming
We are early enough in the year for the sun to still be 'low-gliding' in the sky and 'pale-beaming' in...
Sun-refracting facet
Mani is a stark and unforgiving landscape, conveyed with sharp-edged precision by Leigh Fermor.
'But there were no bridges or...
Sickle-shaped curves
We speak of 'hair-pin bends' for sharply curved roads, and I liked this place-and-time relevant equivalent. It is from a...
Ever-narrowing gyres
Swelter, the button-popping portly chef and Flay, the all purpose butler, valet and loyal servant of the Earl of Gormenghast,...
Squashed-fly biscuit
A hard, flat, rectangular British biscuit formally called ‘Garibaldi’, we called them ‘squashed-fly biscuits’ because of the tiny dark currants that...
Age-long silt
Time flowing and settling in sand and sediment, steadily accreting new landscapes.
'As the river grew older, so the meadows...
Cactus-haunted emptiness
One of the features that vibrates through Leigh Fermor's writing on the Mani is the blinding light and heat, compounded...
Iron-braced door
A door to keep enemies at bay? Except perhaps Grendel who would have torn it off by the hinges.
Source: Seamus...
Flat-bottomed clouds
Leigh-Fermor's continent-straddling meander encompasses pre-war scenes of breath-taking bucolic beauty. A decade after his peregrination this world had been turned...
Dark-plumed name
The name of the man Orlando will marry is ornate and rare and fully deserving to be called 'dark-plumed': Marmaduke...
Frayed by sin
A surprising one, this, as sin is often presented, nowadays, as socially acceptable, even desirable 'vice' - something naughty-but-nice, essentially...
Basket-hilted sabres
Seems an odd juxtaposition, woven hilts for metal sabres, but I have a vague notion of having seen them in...
© Beatrice Otto 2021 - design & content unless otherwise stated - all rights reserved
Interesting! Your triologisms remind me of the two-word kennings in Beowulf.