the wonders of usenet

[kip_w]

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THE FÚFUMAL
by Kate Gladstone

Fúfu, small rabbit,      fastest of hoppers,
Works in woodland      his ways of evil:
Field-mice he finds,      then hammers with head-blows,
Vexing the queen      of the Vanir folk.

Down came good Freya,      frowning at Fúfu.
Said she to the warren-born:      "No worth I find
In your smiting of cheese-thieves.      Smirk not, but obey me.
To change from your ways,      three chances you'll have.
And if you change not,      then a nithing you'll be."

Yet Fúfu, four-footed,      fastest of hoppers,
Still works in woodland      his ways of evil:
Field-mice he finds,      then hammers with head-blows,
Vexing the queen      of the Vanir folk.

Down came good Freya,      frowning at Fúfu,
Said she to the short-tailed:      "Shame do I find
In your smacking of squeakers,      Smirk not, but obey me.
To change from your ways,      two chances you have
And if you change not,      then a nithing you'll be."

Yet Fúfu, long-footed,      fastest of hoppers,
Still works in woodland      his ways of evil:
Field-mice he finds,      then hammers with head-blows,
Vexing the queen      of the Vanir folk.

Down came good Freya,      frowning at Fúfu,
Said she to the buck-toothed:      "Badness I find
In your smashing of hole-gnawers,      Smirk not, but obey me.
To change from your ways,      one chance you now have
And if you change not,      then a nithing you'll be."

Yet Fúfu, carrot-glad,      fastest of hoppers,
Still works in woodland      his ways of evil:
Field-mice he finds,      then hammers with head-blows,
Vexing the queen      of the Vanir folk.

Down came good Freya,      frowning at Fúfu,
Said she to the long-eared,      "You've lost your last chance.
Three warnings you've wasted.      Now you shall obey me.
To change from your ways,      no chance you now have:
Now and forever,      a nithing shall be!"

THE MORAL:
Hare whose heart      hates field-scurriers
Soon shall see      himself made outlaw.

The preceding is from rec.music.filk. Kate, after having heard somewhere that "Little Bunny Foo Foo" is based on a Verdi tune (can't verdify this myself), wrote a set of Italian operatic lyrics to LBFF. After that, of course, she had to bardify it. Reprinted with permission.

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5/1/2007 Update: The Italian opera version is here.
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Comments

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

That is *awesome.*

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Waugh!

[petronelle.livejournal.com]

This is the best thing I have seen all week. Thank you for sharing it in this venue.

[katarik.livejournal.com]

Betty: http://kip-w.livejournal.com/215011.html
BEST THING EVAR
me: that is a thing of AWESOME
Betty: YES YES IT IS
Petra: DIES
me: haaaaaaaart

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

This is a thing of beauty.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

Beautiful!

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

*falls off chair laughing*

Thank you. It's been too long since I read rmf, I see!

[meggins.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed. I learned "Little Rabbit Foo Foo" many years (and have forgotten most of it), but this is awesome.

[alcarilinque.livejournal.com]

I would be very pleased to read this in Old Norse, as well.

if I'd known Old Norse, in Old Norse I'd have written

[kategladstone.livejournal.com]

If I'd known Old Norse, in Old Norse I'd have written
The fell deeds of Fúfu. Find, if you can,
Somebody learned in that language who can
Do a translation. Let him or her send it
Out on the Internet, also to me:
"Handwritingrepair" first: put then an "at" sign,
With "gmail" to follow, then finish "dot-com."

;-)

rawr!

[esmerelda001.livejournal.com]

Hillarious! I totally love that!

[janni.livejournal.com]

That is wonderful.

And I say that as a Girl Scout leader. :-)

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

YEAAA!

[serizawa3000.livejournal.com]

Hee hee hee

[cheshyre]

LOL (literally)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

What a good thing.

[larryhammer]

*awe* -----> me

(That's an arrow of striking.)

[doire]

Was linked to this and I'm so glad I followed it. It's great.

[jennlk]

LOL. v silly.

Although now I'm flashing back to college band. We used to filk on the band director/student directors, and one of the older filks was "Little Mikey Dodo" (tto LBFF).

[sarah-create.livejournal.com]

Love it. I haven't seen any rabbits here in Iceland, yet.

[peneli.livejournal.com]

*bows before the awesomeness of this*

MetaFilter

[taosbat.livejournal.com]

A small world THE FÚFUMAL is posted
On the unread blog my childhood friend wrote

http://www.metafilter.com/60706/The-Fufumal

Re: MetaFilter

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

The world isn't small enough -- haven't seen you in ages. Gix said you'd called.

This has gotten more comments (not by me) than anything I've ever written, I think. I'm sure the robot spammers will start putting messages here one day. Hey, tell those metafilter folks who asked about it that this is, indeed, the same Kate Gladstone with the handwriting web page. I was going to do it, then I saw it would cost me five quid to sign up.

[incandescens]

Absolutely awesome.

[chomiji]

This former student of Anglo-Saxon can only say ... well, dammit, I can't find my Bright's Old English Grammar and Reader! I'll just have to say "awesome" and "thanks"!

[elisem.livejournal.com]

That is beautimous.

[kimberly-t.livejournal.com]

Beautiful, just beautiful! Thanks for the best chuckle I've had in weeks!