London

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You can read a Danish translation of this article here. 

There is a good chance that the word poles (or should I say pøules?) came immediately to mind. The Danish politician Villy Søvndal’s speech at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009 became an instant meme because of the way he spoke English: with a (strong?) Danish accent.

People being judged (typically negatively) as a result of the accent they speak is not an uncommon phenomenon. Quite the opposite, in fact. Similar stories are found elsewhere. In 2016 Angela Rayner (UK Shadow Education Secretary) received abusive emails after an appearance on Channel 4 because she spoke with her native Northern British accent. Check The Accentism Project … ↪

Hvítasunnubrúðhlaupin – Philip Larkin’s best known poem found to be based on previously lost Old Norse manuscript

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The poet Philip Larkin might be said to have been the bard of modern Britain, narrating the post-war transition from a boasting, marauding Empire to a world of rickety consumer goods, stale cigarette smoke – and everywhere, the smell of mildew and rain on concrete. But startling new research has revealed that this most modern of poets apparently based his best known poem on a medieval manuscript. In fact, “The Whitsun Weddings”, published in 1964, is not an original composition at all but a translation of a much older work entitled Hvítasunnubrúðhlaupin.

Professor Kaj Kage of the Leyton Technical Institute identified the manuscript: “Every now and then my bookseller, Johnny Openhouse on Paradise Street, gives me a tip … ↪