May the Force be with you ... AND ALSO WITH YOU
QUESTION Who was Princess Leia’s stunt double in the Star Wars films?
Tracey eDDON, who was born in Harrow, Middlesex, in 1958, has carved out a successful career as a stunt double, starring in popular movies from Labyrinth and Mission: Impossible to Johnny english and Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2.
She was the stunt double in 1984’s Supergirl and her most recent work can be seen in the 2016 Marvel blockbuster Doctor Strange.
carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia, did not require a stunt double for the first two original movies, Star Wars and The empire Strikes Back. But in return Of The Jedi, eddon was required to be her stunt double in the scene where she leaps about the barges above the Great Pit of carkoon, home of Jabba the Hutt’s pet Sarlacc in the Dune Sea of Tatooine (actually the desert near yuma, arizona).
The scene is famous for the skimpy costume worn by Fisher as Jabba The Hutt’s prisoner.
The metal bikini was designed after Fisher had complained that her costumes in the first two films were so long that you could not tell she was a woman.
It led to one of cinema’s most famous behind-the- scenes shots of Fisher and eddon sunbathing together.
Dave Stuart, Maidenhead, Berks.
QUESTION In a Wallander story, his daughter travels from Sweden to Denmark and chats with a local. Are Scandinavian languages that similar?
THe North Germanic language group includes Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese.
Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are similar in the written form and are mutually comprehensible. However, conversation can be more tricky.
In terms of vocabulary, Norwegian and Danish are the most similar. However, in terms of pronunciation, Norwegian and Swedish are the closest. Norwegians are famous for their sing-song delivery and many Swedish regions do likewise.
Danes, on the other hand, speak in a flatter, more muted style, famously described as talking ‘as if they have a potato in their mouth’.
compared with Swedish, Danish words are shortened, the consonants softened and the endings almost swallowed. Many words contain the characteristic stød, Danish’s answer to the glottal stop. This can make it a bit of an effort for Swedes and Danes to communicate.
Norwegians are the best positioned to understand their neighbours because their language is written like Danish, but sounds like Swedish. and Norwegians are used to Swedish and Danish TV and radio programmes.
Most Scandinavians are unable to understand Icelandic and Faroese. Finnish is completely different, belonging to the Finno-Ugric language family.
Erica Wilson, London SW15.
QUESTION We take 40 winks, Ali Baba had 40 thieves, if it rains on St Swithin’s Day it will carry on for 40 days and nights, and the Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness. Why is the number 40 so significant?
IN THe Bible, next to the number seven, the number 40 occurs most frequently and has the most significance.
Forty signifies a period of change. according to the Talmud, the text from which the Jewish laws are derived, at the age of 40, you transition from one level of wisdom to the next. you reach binah — the deeper insight of understanding one matter from another.
after Moses led the Jewish people for 40 years in the wilderness, he told them: ‘God has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day’ (Deut. 29:3-4). It had taken them 40 years before reaching full understanding. Forty is seen as the period of trial — the temptation of Jesus by the devil lasted 40 days and 40 nights.
The Greeks viewed the 40th year as the height of a man’s life.
roman philosopher Marcus aurelius wrote: ‘any man of forty who is endowed with moderate intelligence has seen the entire past and future.’
The number is also important in Islam. Muhammad was 40 when he received the revelation from the archangel Gabriel.
R. E. Michaels, Combe, Oxon.
QUESTION I’d like to create a music playlist with songs about artists. Vincent by Don McLean is an obvious example. Any other suggestions?
TO aDD to the previous correspondent’s wonderful list, you could also include Paul Gauguin In The South Seas by Jimmy Webb from his 2005 album Twilight Of The renegades; andy’s chest ( inspired by the 1968 assassination attempt on andy Warhol’s life) by Lou reed from his 1972 album Transformer; and Dali’s car, an instrumental inspired by a Salvador Dali exhibit, by captain Beefheart and his Magic Band from the 1969 album Trout Mask replica.
The 23rd Turnoff, a psychedelic band from the Sixties, released the single Michael angelo, an obvious pun on the renaissance artist’s name.
Lyrics that mention artists include Henri Toulouse- Lautrec in John’s children’s Desdemona (Marc Bolan was a member of the band and wrote the song); auguste renoir in Don McLean’s Three Flight’s Up; Henri rousseau in Neil Diamond’s Done Too Soon; and Pablo Picasso gets a name- check in clifford T. Ward’s Scullery.
Richard Myers, Dagenham, Essex.
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