Vacation Mysteries & Life's Novels

Saturday night (before leaving for vacation the next day) I remembered I planned to run by the library and pick up a novel for vacation reading.  Rats!  Oh, well... next best plan, scan our shelves and pull a book you've not read.  I settled on The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien, a well-worn paperback probably purchased in a yard sale who-knows-how-long-ago.  I've read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but never The Hobbit.  My true and honest motive in this selection?  ...that I might be more conversant with my older grandchildren when the movie comes out later this year.  

Thomas intentionally selected a book from our shelves because he occasionally purchases used books for light reading for times such as this.  Browsing our shelves he found a hardback novel, Headlong, by Emlyn Williams.  Proof that the book came from a used bookstore a neon orange label on the dust cover says B. Dalton Bargain Books, stamped 'special' and marked down from $1.99 to .99....   Bargain Books, indeed.

So with reading material tucked into the proper satchel, along with laptops and all the extra cords they need, we finished packing and made our way toward the Florida coast--scheduled to arrive about the same time and in about the same place that Tropical Storm Isaac was forecast to make landfall.  Long story short, Isaac took a different direction and visited Louisiana...  but our beach closed down until water danger passes.  

This morning a couple of heavy rain showers kept us inside and caused me to finally reach for The Hobbit.   I opened the cover to begin reading and to my surprise this paperback had obviously been used as a text book in a school somewhere in its previous life!  The form glued inside the front cover was like the the form in all textbooks--Name--Class--Year.  But on this form  it said Navn--Klasse--Ar (and the A had a tiny little circle over it--a punctuation neither Thomas nor I recognized)!  

We are puzzled to know where we purchased the book and we are equally curious as to the language on the form--probably one of the Scandinavian tongues, but which one?  The heading VIRUM STATSSKOLE must perhaps mean Property of State School (or public school).  The years of circulation when the book was issue to students are 78/79, 79/80, and 80/81.  Charlotte Holst had it the first year; Thomas Glistberg, the second; and Thomas Kjor, the third.  No one we know. 

Inside the book a fine hand has penciled in words, sometimes in the foreign language, but most often in English.   For example, in the margin beside the word mince, in tiny letters stands cut into very small pieces.  Pickle = bad situation.  Unawares = unprepared.  But at the end of another sentences I find: trcengt op i et hjome   Further proof that the book was used as a text book is found on several pages.  The lines are marked in intervals of 5s... 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35.  

Thomas opened his novel to find an equally interesting surprise. Embossed one of the first inside pages: E N H encircled by Library of E.N. & C. F. Hunt.  This book in its previous life belonged to one of Thomas' professors at Asbury Seminary!  And, again, we are scratching our heads, trying to remember where we bought it.   As you see, this vacation keeps getting more mysterious and novel!