Books! Sumerians 1, Egyptians 0

I scored two books at the British Museum as I rushed on through.

"Tales From Ancient Egypt" by J. Tyldesley. Oh. My. God. Why did I buy this! It's just what I don't like! On first glance it seemed like a book of tales and letters, backed up by some scholarly introductions. I had opened it up on "A letter from King neferkare Pepi II, Day 15 o fhte third month of innundation, Year 2. Written under the king's own seal." All in formal language, a letter thanking the king's scout that he has "obtained a pygmy from the land of the horizon-dwellers". Super awesome! BUT NO. That was the one good bit in a book that was like, the syrupy worst of re-writes of myths mixed with Cliff Notes, reading in a ton of crap that there's no way was in the original stories. The scholarly bits are embarrassing. I'm not a fan of inept popularizations!

Now onward to the good stuff. "The Literature of Ancient Sumer" by J. Black, G. Cunningham, E. Robson, Gábor Zólyomi. Maps! Footnotes! Line numbers! Comparisons! Actual words in Sumerian! Explanations of place names and variant spellings, ie. Nibru rather than the more familiar "Nippur"! gaps, question marks! Get real! Stories that you can piece together, that seem like stories other than we tell now, that don't follow our patterns or expectations. Formal language, and "foreignized" translation. If I wanted a girls' own bedtime story of Inanna and Dumuzi I'd go back in time to 1897 and scare one up! Instead I get the most delightful monologue of the fisherman to the fish.

The home of the fish

My fish, I have built you a home! My fish, I have built you a house. I have built you a store! I have built you a house bigger than a house, in fact a large sheepfold. Inside there is incense, and I have covered it in cloths for you: in this happy place I... water of joy for you....in the house, there is food, food of the best quality...In the house there is beer, there is good beer. ..
Let your acquaintances come! Let your dear ones come! ... Let your wife and children come!
Enter, my beloved son! Enter, my fine son! Don't let the day go by, don't let the night come! ...My fish, no one who sleeps there will be disturbed; no one who sits there will get involved in a quarrel.

I can't wait to read the bits about Sumerian poetic & literary forms. This looks so great!

I love invocations and formal histories, and very long praise names, and all strange literary formalities.

p.s. These are the rules to the first known board game!