Latibær Books Translated:

[EmAsPerUsual]

Re: Latibær Books Translated:

I know why talking to the sun happens in the book, but it still feels odd here.

[EmAsPerUsual]

Re: Latibær Books Translated:



Chapter 11: Game or Violence

The Sports Elf raced across the pavement. When he passed the butcher’s trashcans*1, he heard a scream, a scream of agony. He instantly stopped. This outcry was like someone whose hair was being pulled.*2 Most people know that it’s bad to have their hair pulled. He jumped over the trashcans. And who do you think was on the other side of the cans? It was none other than Halli Holligan and he was pulling the hair of a little girl.*3

When Halli saw the elf with the beard he stopped dead in his tracks. He released the girl and she ran away crying. Halli Hooligan held a slingshot in his other hand. The elf didn’t hesitate to walk up to him. Halli saw that. He reached into his pocket with his other hand*4, grabbed a bean, placed it in the slingshot and shot at the Sports Elf with lightning speed. But his reflexes were so quick that he grabbed the bean with his other hand*5 and put it straight in his pocket. Halli Hooligan stared in shock at this. No one had even been able to grab a bean that was shot from a slingshot.

I told you that no one in Lazytown except the mayor bothered to move around. But that was not completely true because I forgot someone. But when this fellow moves around he always does something illegal.*6 Do you know who that is? Yes, you’re right!*7 He was called Halli Hooligan. He never did anything but tease, bully*8, steal or beat up other kids.*9 He was accustomed to pulling kids’ hair, stealing their hats and running away with them.

Notes:

*1 The word for trashcan used here isn’t the normal one. It can also refer to ashtrays. There are such things as trashcans with trash bags full of ashes from a fire that was kept burning for a long time. Perhaps the butcher was roasting or smoking meat for a long period of time and most of his trash is ashes from cooking over a fire.

*2 That is incredibly specific. Can elves just identify specific types of pain based on screams or something?

*3 A nameless little girl. We never find out who she is. The play replaced this with having Halla shoot at Solla, a character we’d already met. The book could’ve easily done the same thing, but as usual, even basic writing and storytelling techniques completely elude this thing.

*4 The constant use of “other hand” is poorly worded.

*5 The use of “other hand” here doesn’t even make sense. At least with Halli, he went from a little girl’s hair in one hand and a slingshot in the other to a slingshot in one hand and a bean in the other. What did the elf have in one hand that required him using the other?

*6 “af sér” is literally “of himself”, but according to every source I can find, that means illegal. Halli is literally a juvenile delinquent, apparently.

*7 That was condescending…

*8 “hrekkja” is actually a synonym for “stríða”, the word used prior, though “hrekkja” can also mean “prank”, but I’ve been translating “hrekkja” as bully up until now, so I’m leaving it to be consistent, especially since “hrekkjusvín” translates as “bully”.

*9 This was literally something like “use violence on other kids”, but that is really awkward wording in English. It’s the way someone speaking to a very young child would scold them for being rough. Maybe this doesn’t sound as condescending in Icelandic, but this book already has a serious issue with talking down to its audience, so I don’t know. Either way, I changed it to sound like something someone would say when they weren’t trying to talk down to someone.



The other kids couldn’t run after him. He was also had a habit of stealing bicycles.*1 He’d gathered many bicycles behind his house.*2

Every day, he walked around the town and stole bikes or he sat for hours out on the balcony and shot beans from his slingshot.*3

Yes, Halli Hooligan was always breaking things or hurting people. If someone tried to talk to him, he’d shoot a bean straight at his thigh or eye.*4 So, he was wasn’t appreciated very much by the residents of Lazytown. He wasn’t a model child that any parent would want to have.*5

When the Sports Elf came jumping over each trashcan*6 one after another toward Halli, he started to get worried. He was so scared that he threw his slingshot and intended to run instead. Of course, he didn’t know that this elf had a world record in running!*7 So, he caught him in three seconds.

Do you know how long three seconds is?*8 Test it by saying: “One thousand and one, one thousand and two, one thousand and three.” When you’re finished, then three seconds have passed!*9

The Sports Elf grabbed Halli by the shoulders, lifted him up so that he was almost thrashing in the air and asked:

“Why were you pulling that girl over there’s hair?”

“Oh, I was only teasing her.”

“Don’t you know that it’s wrong to tease kids? asked the Sports Elf.

“I don’t care at all about that.” said Halli Hooligan. “I also like kicking kids.”

“Yes, you think it’s fun to kick and tease people? Now I’ll tell you a little something and I want you to listen well.”

The Sports Elf held Halli in one hand, lifted a trashcan lid with the other and set him down in the trashcan!*10 He didn’t get out of the can and therefore remained in it. Next, the elf asked:

“Do you know the difference between a game and violence?”

“Do I know the difference between violence and a game? Yes, of course.” answered Halli, his words echoing from the can.

“Then can you tell me what a game is?”

Halli thought about it and said:

“What’s a game! Yeah, everything that’s fun. I, for example, think it’s fun to kick kids.”

“Can you tell me what violence is?” ask the elf, who was now taking a more serious tone.*11

He of course knew like we all do that Halli didn’t know the difference between a game and violence.*12 Halli thought about it for a long time.

Notes:

*1 But none of the kids in town ride bicycles anyway. He’s just stealing stuff that no one else wants. Isn’t that like “stealing” food that someone else threw away?

*2 I wonder if his parents ever question this strange bicycle collection in their backyard. Maybe they’re too lazy. Potential Bully Motivation 1: Maybe Halli acts out for attention because his lazy parents ignore him.

*3 Potential Bully Motivation 2: Maybe Halli, being the only kid in town interested in active play, is constantly bored and tries to get the other kids to be more active by making them. If he chases them, then they have to run. He might be like if the Sports Elf had no emotional restraint along with his lack of empathy.

*4 The fact that thigh and eye are treated as equally bad places to be hit makes me suspect that “thigh” might actually be a euphemism for “balls”.

*5 Potential Bully Motivation 3: Maybe Halli’s in a vicious cycle of feeling unloved and lashing out in anger, only for that to make him even less popular, and thus the cycle repeats. What I’m getting at with these Potential Bully Motivation notes is that, out of all social problems to teach kids about, bullying, though extremely common, is one of the more difficult ones to explain. Bullies are as diverse as their victims and can have a wide variety of reasons for being bullies. No two bully problems can really be solved the same way, because of how important context is. This is a similar problem to Maggi’s chapter and the subject of picky eating, but this time, there is an attempt at finding context for Halli’s behavior. However, the context given is a little abnormal.

*6 And now we’re back to the regular word for “trashcan” because continuity is for lazy people.

*7 I MIGHT DIE FOR THIS ONE: Add another thing to the list of “things the Sports Elf is the literal best at.” In this case, it raises a lot of questions. Is this a world record among elves or one given to him by humans? If it’s a human record, giving it to an elf, who has supernatural abilities, isn’t at all fair. Did the judges know he was an elf? Did the Sports Elf compete for a world record in running against humans that he knew he could easily beat, lying about having an advantage and setting a record that might be literally impossible for a human to beat? Why? What’s the point? This note is way too damn long, but here’s something I want you to think about: The Sports Elf is a star athlete who decides to dedicate a lot of time to helping children be more active, but in such a way that he’ll be hero-worshipped and given lots of attention from both showing off in athletics and being a hero to children. His heroics and care for children are written as genuine, but they seem a bit fake from a distance.

*8 About three seconds, I think.

*9 It took more than three seconds to read that and it felt like an unnecessary pause in an action scene.

*10 Okay, we all know the scene in Áfram where Halla gets put in the trashcan, but it’s actually toned down from the book. In the play, Halla and the elf circle around the trashcan, tugging on the lid and the elf pulls her in, basically beating her in a fight. In the book, Halli had already lost the fight and he was very deliberately placed in the trashcan. Putting Halli in the trashcan was planned out, while Halla was almost accidentally knocked in in the heat of battle.

*11 As if he wasn’t taking a serious tone before this…

*12 INCOMING TANGENT: Okay, this is the point where I follow up on *5 and Halli’s motivation for bullying. A kid older than preschool age is unlikely to simply not know when they’re being violent. Halli even said that he knew it was wrong to tease, but he didn’t care. He knows that pulling hair and kicking is being violent, but it’s a game to him. It’s a game AND violence. This explanation for bullying was probably chosen because it was the easiest to solve with a simple lecture. If a kid just doesn’t know when he’s being too rough, the solution is just to tell him. There’s no need to factor in personal stuff like problems at home or if he might be being bullied somewhere else. Both Maggi and Halli’s chapters take a complicated problem and assume the least complicated and least likely explanation for the behavior, because the book’s gotten in over its head. In this case, because a younger kid could actually learn something positive from this chapter, it’s not even a serious problem. Though, I’d still like to brag that I came up with three more realistic explanations for Halli’s bullying off the top of my head while translating this. This translation project is just a clash of egos between me and the author at this point.



“Uhhh…violence! What’s that?”

He couldn’t answer.*1

Then the Sports Elf sat up on one trashcan, took off his hat*2, wiped the sweat from his forehead and said:

“Halli, my boy, see here now. If you pull the hair of someone who doesn’t want it then that’s violence. If you kick someone who doesn’t want to be kicked then that’s violence. If you shoot your slingshot in the eye, thigh or in the direction of anyone whether they’re human or animal, then that’s violence. If you, on the other hand, ask for permission…”

“Ask for permission??? What do you mean?” shouted Halli Hooligan, the question muffled by the can. “Do you mean that I should ask for permission to pull a kid’s hair?”

“Exactly.” said the elf. “If you ask: “May I pull your hair?” and it’s agreed to then that would be a game. If the answer is negative it’s violence. If you say to someone: “Want to fight?” and he agrees then it’s only a game. But if you attack someone who’s not at all cool with it*3 then it’s violence. You must never-listen to me-you must never beat someone up.*4

Halli Hooligan felt bad. He’d never asked for permission when he kicked kids or shot his slingshot at people.

“But no one wants to fight or have their hair pulled.” he said after some consideration.

“That’s just it.” said the elf. “Of course no one wants their hair pulled. Who likes that? Nobody. That’s no surprise. No one wants a snowball straight to the face. If kids have a snowball fight then everyone should agree that it’s a game. But they must never aim for the head and absolutely mustn’t throw hardballs. If we use snowballs with rocks in them and try to hit people’s faces then it’s violence. It should be very clear to you now. You don’t want to beat kids up, do you?”

The Sports Elf got up off of the can.

“No.” said Halli sadly. “Of course I don’t want that. I just have no friends. No one wants to play with me.”

“That’s no surprise to me.” said the elf, putting on his hat. “Would you want to play with me if I was always pulling your hair?*5 Or if I was endlessly stealing from you?”

“No, maybe not.” answered Halli.

Notes:

*1 *insert redundant remark regarding redundancy here.*

*2 The illustration still has his hat on because it feels like it just naturally belongs on his head.

*3 The words used here mean something like “doesn’t at all fly”, so I used what sounded like a similar English phrasing, though it’s odd for an elf to use slang like that.

*4 THIS NOTE CONTAINS AN ANECDOTE: I’d like to point out that, though I actually like the way the lesson about violence is handled, even if it’s not good as a lesson about bullying, the play managed to do it better by phrasing it in simpler terms. However, this note is actually to give credit where credit is due, which is a rare thing for this book. This applies equally to the stage adaptation, though. Most lessons about violence that are taught to children just amount to “don’t ever be violent!” and leave it at that. This lecture acknowledges that violence as part of a game can exist, but only if everyone involved agrees to it. This is actually how I would’ve defined the difference between a rough game and violence when I was around ten and liked to fight with other kids on the playground. We actually had rules that to have a fight, you had to challenge someone and that challenge had to be accepted. This also included a rule that the game could be stopped at anytime, so if someone surrendered in a fight, the fight was over. If someone tried to start a fight without challenging or asking, if someone tried to fight someone who’d refused a challenge, or if someone kept attacking someone who’d surrendered or said that they didn’t want to play anymore, someone would report them as a bully. I have no idea how a group of 4th-5th graders just figured out all these rules on their own, but the fact that they did means that this is a pretty simple message that even this book can’t completely screw up.

*5 The Sports Elf using himself here is kind of a bad example, seeing that Halli has a reason to already see him as violent and not fun to play with. If you toss someone into a trashcan when they don’t want to be tossed into the trashcan, then that’s violence. This applies to the play as well. TLDR: This line is a bit stupid.



“You know that it’s bad to steal. Nobody should do that. Some people have maybe been saving for a long time for a bicycle.*1 Maybe they’ve worked in the countryside all summer*2 and saved their earnings and put them in their piggybank.*3 They never buy candy and they eventually have enough to buy their bike.*4 Then you show up all of a sudden and steal the bike. You’re going to stop doing that. Aren’t you?”

The Sports Elf lifted Halli up to look him in the eye. Halli Hooligan had a hard time looking the elf in the eye.*5 He looked to the side, up in the air and down at the earth. When the elf finally released him, he looked up and said:

“I’m never going to steal again, I promise.”

“You will return all the bikes today immediately. said the elf. Halli agreed. Then he gave the Sports Elf the slingshot and said:

“Take this weapon.*6 I don’t need to have it.”

The Sports Elf was satisfied but then said to him.

“And remember now to play with the kids instead of teasing them. Then you’ll make many friends. Maybe you could go to see Goggi.*7”

“Goggi! Do you mean Goggi who sits inside all day and watches TV?” asked Halli surprised.

“Yes, I taught him many games that you can maybe try with him. You would have fun.”

“Yeah, maybe I’ll do that.”

The elf said goodbye to him with a handshake and said he intended to visit in two days.

“You know that a sports festival will be held here in Lazytown soon and you will without a doubt have a lot of fun taking part in it. There you could get an outlet for your energy by competing in sports instead of shooting and hurting people.*8 I know that you’re very good at snowball fights and so it would be ideal to compete in shot put or javelin throwing.*9”

Halli saw that this was a good idea and said goodbye to the Sports Elf happily. The elf watched him proudly but he needed to hurry to the next destination. It was getting close to the sports festival and he had no time to lose.*10

Notes:

*1 But why would anyone in Lazytown do that? Nobody in the town rides a bicycle. The book stated this specifically! For a book that’s so redundant, it somehow can’t remember it’s continuity!

*2 Even a kid who isn’t from Lazytown would be unlikely to leave town for a summer job.

*3 The Icelandic word for piggybank is literally “saving bank”, but those are strongly associated with pig-shaped banks in English, so it’s a piggybank, no matter what shape it is.

*4 Working hard and not eating candy to afford sporting equipment wouldn’t happen in Lazytown at this point. Halli probably would’ve never heard of someone doing such a thing. It’s still odd that bicycles are the things that he steals, since nobody uses theirs and wouldn’t want them anyway. Couldn’t Halli have been stealing lunch boxes or pocket change or toys that a kid in this town would actually have on their person?

*5 I’m not even morally objecting to this. I’m just pointing out that this is the book’s version of Goggi’s television being possessed: unnecessarily creepy.

*6 The Icelandic word for “slingshot” is a compound word like the English one is, but it’s a different combination, literally meaning “elastic gun”. It sounded weird to have Halli straight-up call a slingshot a gun, when he only used the second half of the word, so I used “weapon” instead, which sounds slightly less weird. I could’ve just used slingshot, but after *5, I’ll just say that Halli’s acting weird from being creeped out.

*7 Thinking about it, Goggi is actually a good choice to be Halli’s friend. Since he never goes outside, he might not be aware of Halli’s reputation as a bully, and he’d probably be fine with it if Halli wanted to play-fight, since it would be a chance to try out some Mortal Kombat moves irl.

*8 The most realistic explanation of Halli’s behavior is that, as the only kid who’s both willing and able to be active, we was just bored, so sports would actually solve the problem. We’ve found a problem that sports can actually solve!

*9 I won’t repeat my “how does the Sports Elf know this shit?” complaint, even if this is probably something the Mayor wouldn’t have told him. However, there was a way to get around this problem: The sports festival could have an archery contest. Summer camps teach archery and it’s an official Olympic sport, so I don’t see why not. The Sports Elf couldn’t have seen Halli in a snowball fight, but he would’ve seen him use is slingshot, which is shot similar to a tiny bow and arrow. As long as he shot at targets instead of people, Halli could get good at that. It would be an even more obvious outlet for his violent streak.

*10 I translated the last line somewhat loosely. It was closer to “mustn’t waste time” but “no time to lose” sounds more urgent and doesn’t imply that paying attention to one of the children is a waste of time.

[EmAsPerUsual]

Re: Latibær Books Translated:



Chapter 12: Stinginess and Selfishness

The richest man in town was the owner of the video rental store in Lazytown. The townspeople were basically always renting or buying videos so he’d become very wealthy. His son was named Nenni and he got nearly everything he wanted. If he wanted a toy then his dad*1 would buy it for him. All he had to do was lay on the floor and scream. He demanded this and that. He had an electric car*2, a plane*3 that could fly, soccer shoes, a basketball*4 and many things. But he never used any of this. He just wanted to own it. If he didn’t get the newest in everything, then he just laid face down, hit the pavement and screamed until his parents gave up and bought what he wanted.

Kids who have everything often become selfish. And that was Nenni. Because of this, he went under the name of Nenni Penny-Pincher.*5 He never shared anything he had. It was the same no matter how much of it he had. Let alone give gifts!

Notes:

*1 Most languages aren’t quite as diverse as English in how parents are referred to. English has a difference between “mom and dad” and the more childish “mommy and daddy”. In Icelandic, “pabbi” can mean “dad” or “daddy”. In most contexts, I translate this as “dad”, which is more common, though when more childish characters say it, I’ll use “daddy” to match. The narrator says “dad” but Nenni himself, as a very immature kid, would say “daddy”.

*2 This most likely means an electronic toy, not a real electric car, but it seems that Nenni/Stingy has always had a car!

*3 The Icelandic word for plane literally means “flying machine” and I’m noting that because there’s something amusing to me in how direct that is. English words that had to be created as new things were invented were often named based on Greek and Latin words, while Icelandic just sort of calls things what they literally are. It actually makes more sense that way.

*4 Okay, so we go from probably expensive electronic toys to “he had a specific type of shoe and a ball!”. That is not in any way impressive.

*5 I decided to use this as Nenni’s nickname in an earlier chapter, but it’s a bit confusing because Nenni is selfish in multiple ways. He demands a lot, doesn’t share what he has, and he puts a lot of value on money. We have selfish as in “greedy”, selfish as in “stingy”, and selfish as in “cheap”, so it’s actually hard to nickname him while still using a rhyme or alliteration. The nickname I ended up with refers to the third definition only, so I’m willing to take suggestions for a better one, but as of right now, we’re kinda stuck here.


The good book*1 says: If you have two of something then you should share it with others. -But Nenni Penny-Pincher knew nothing about that.

The Sports Elf was standing at a bus stop*2 right in front of Nenni’s house. He sat down to stretch out and rest for a little bit. The shelter there was naturally not used much because the townspeople didn’t bother to use the buses.*3 When he’d just gotten comfortable, he heard a scream from the steps of Nenni’s house:

“Get out of the bus stop! Get out of the bus stop!”

He looked out from the shelter and saw Nenni Penny-Pincher shouting and red in the face from the steps of his house.

“Go away! That’s my shelter! That shelter’s mine!*4 You must leave the bus stop!”

The Sports Elf was astonished. Who could own a bus stop? They’re public property. That’s why we must treat them well. We must never draw on or crack the walls. That’s ugly.*5

“Who on Earth stands on the steps for their home and screams that he owns a shelter?” the elf thought to himself.

He looked at the house to see who was there. There was Nenni coming across the yard. He walked across the pavement and screamed:

“You must leave the bus stop! That bus stop is mine! This garden*6 is mine! This street is mine! This is my street!”

He carried on just like that until he came to the shelter. When he saw that there was an elf sitting there, he asked in astonishment:

“Who are you, exactly?”

“I’m a sports elf” said the elf “And I came to get you to compete in the sports festival.”

“I never compete with other people. If I compete in a sporting event then it’s my event, my competition, and I win!*7” said Nenni Penny-Pincher. “And you must get away from this shelter! This shelter is not to be used! It’s mine!”

He threw himself on the ground.

The Sports Elf couldn’t help but smile and said:

“Do you know that the worst thing a person can be is to be selfish? It would do you good to come and exercise with me in two days. I live on the hill just outside of town. I want you to please come over.”

“Do you mean the hill above the town?” asked Nenni from where he laid on the ground.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Yeah, but you know that I own that hill.” said Nenni.

“Nuh-uh*8, you don’t own that hill.” said the elf, laughing. “I live on this hill. I want you to come over there to workout sometime this week. It will do you good to come to such a workout because then you will learn to work well with people. Sports are based on learning to be around other people, to include others, work together as one whole and reap the benefits after. Sometimes you lose and sometimes you win.”

Notes:

*1 Since this book is completely secular outside of this one biblical reference, it feels weird for religion to just be dropped into this. This book thinks that Nenni needs more Jesus and I don’t know what to say to that. I’ve got no problem with religious kids’ stuff as long as it’s not used to preach about sinners and Hell. But, this isn’t a religious thing. At least, it shouldn’t be.

*2 The phrase here literally translates to “bus shelter” referring to the shelter at outdoor bus stops where people tend to crowd if they have to wait for the bus in the rain. I’ve decided to just say bus stop when the whole word for “bus shelter” is used, but to translate “shelter” by itself as “shelter”.

*3 It doesn’t take a lot of effort to ride a bus. It actually requires less work than driving a car. Unless the bus drivers are too lazy to work, I don’t see why they wouldn’t take buses when they could.

*4 Nenni’s catchphrase is “ég á X” meaning “I have” or “I own”. “I own X” can often sound odd in English, so I threw in a few “X is mine!” lines, because why not? The subtitles made for the plays do this as well, though in Áfram, it’s actually a bit confusing, since the various “mines” in Áfram’s Mine Song (Just called Nenni Níski) are both about things that he owns in the location he’s in and things he owns in general. So, switching “I own this street.” with “This street’s mine” makes sense, but “I have a fat elephant” got swapped with “that fat elephant is mine.”, which doesn’t make sense in context. So, I used “mine” where it fit and didn’t where it didn’t.

*5 This has been a Random Moral. There was no reason to talk about this at this time, so now the narrator is just finding extra things to lecture about.

*6 As is often the case in the UK, what an American would normally call a yard is called a garden here, but, like with football/soccer before, I’m leaving it this way, because it’s easy to figure out what was meant.

*7 The Selfishness Character has both the Sharing Moral and the Good Winner/Loser Moral for some reason. He’s also competitive or incapable of accepting loss. Nenni seemed to be intended as a collection of flaws within the same vague category. If this hadn’t been done, there could’ve been a character in the second book whose flaw was a “winning is everything” mindset, which would’ve worked better than a lot of what the second book actually did. It would’ve been better than having a second “stealing is bad” message. I’ll get into that more when we get to the second book.

*8 “Nehei” is “nei” or “no” but said while laughing. Nuh-uh is sillier than a simple “no”, so that’s why I used it.


Nenni Penny-Pincher said he didn’t want to reap those benefits with others. He just wanted to reap them and get all the prizes himself.

The Sports Elf took out his notebook, wrote a date on a page, gave it to Nenni and said:

“Come to exercise at eight o’clock*1 on Friday. You may have this paper!*2”

He took off before Nenni Penny-Pincher could read what was on the paper.*3

And so the day went. The Sports Elf rushed from house to house and gave different advice*4 and had written through nearly all the pages in his notebook before the day was over.

The last house that he came to was the Mayor’s house. He was very worried that there were now only five days until the sports festival. No one had announced their participation and he hadn’t even had any help. He knew nothing of the little bit of help that was going to fix everything in the gym.*5 It hadn’t been used in so long. The Sports Elf knocked at the Mayor’s door. He was startled and quick to open the door. It wasn’t very often that guests came to his house.

“Good evening.” said the Sports Elf.

The Mayor stirred up his courage*6 and asked:

“How are you? How did it go?”

“It’s gone very well.” the elf answered. “I’ve gone to every single house in town. I intend to come back in a week and see how it’s gone. I also intend to get all the kids to exercise with me up on my hill and go over what they’re supposed to do.”

While they were chatting about this, the Mayor made rice porridge and then they both ate the porridge with a big appetite, as it had been a very difficult day- but maybe the best ever for Lazytown.

Notes:

*1 AM or PM? If we’re on a 24 hour clock, that would mean AM, but either way, that’s a bad time. You’re either dragging people to a workout at a time before a grade school would normally start, possibly depriving these kids of needed sleep, or this is happening around what’s supposed to be bedtime. Why was this time chosen?

*2 Nenni, having been bribed with yet another thing that he could own, decided to go along with this. Considering how he doesn’t really learn anything from his chapter, that’s the only way this would make sense.

*3 Like I said in *2, while the other five chapters ended with the kids thinking about changing their ways, Nenni never said anything to imply that anything the Sports Elf said had convinced him of anything. He’ll magically lose his flaw like everyone else, but it’ll somehow make even less sense. The play does this too, so this was never fixed. How did Nenni actually learn to be less selfish? He just ignored everything he’d been told. Both the book and play (meaning the play of Áfram, as GGIL rewrote the characters) characterize him as a very young, or at least very immature child, making it hard to say if he even understood it.

*4 Here’s another preview for the second book. Most of the new kids introduced in the second book are said to be from out of town, but a few of them, such as Eyrún’s male counterpart, are treated as if they’ve always been there. For some reason, The Sports Elf either didn’t give them advice or they ignored it, only to stop ignoring it when it was later repeated.

*5 The word for “gym” is “Íþróttahús” literally meaning “Sports House”.

*6 Please remember that elves are powerful supernatural being who can cause serious problems for people who piss them off. The Mayor made a sort of deal with one, which is naturally a little bit scary.

The next chapter will be as bad as Goggi’s chapter with translating instructions.