A quiet notice V2Melody closes at midnight on , Spanish time.

Closes

A note from Richard

V2Melody will close at midnight on 20 January 2028

This site has been a retirement project in musical poetry: poems chosen with care and set to music, offered freely for as long as it felt right to keep the garden open.

The work no longer holds the place it once did in my life. I have gone as far with it as I wish to go. Like a sand mandala, it was made to be completed and then released. I am not attached to its permanence, and I do not believe any of it needs to last beyond the time it was given. The poems were already here before I arrived and began to experiment with them. They will still be here when these musical experiments, and indeed myself, have been swept away, like the sand of a mandala. Nothing has been lost.

I want a simpler end to my life, days of simple love and enjoyment with my wonderful wife of 20 years. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit that life.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the site.

The experimental music I am making now is on my Suno profile. Those pieces stay there, and are not added to this site.

Until midnight on 20 January 2028, Spanish time, everything remains available exactly as it is. That is when my VPS server contract comes to an end, and it will not be renewed. After that, the server will be switched off and the site will disappear.

The Mandala Is Finished explains this more fully.

Thank you to anyone who found a poem, a track, or a quiet moment here.

The pleasure was in the making.

Richard

Home › Glossary › Letter E

echtrae

Dialect
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An Irish adventure tale describing a hero's journey to the otherworld, closely related to the imram but set on land or through a supernatural threshold rather than across the sea.

Detailed Definition
The echtrae (adventure or expedition) belongs to the mythological and Ulster cycles of early Irish literature, describing journeys into the sídhe mounds, encounters with otherworld beings, and returns transformed. Where the imram crosses the sea, the echtrae typically passes through a fairy mound, a lake, or some liminal boundary. The genre encodes Irish beliefs about the permeability of the boundary between the human and supernatural worlds, and its conventions — the invitation from a beautiful otherworld woman, the land of perpetual youth, the strange distortion of time — became foundational imagery for later Irish poetry. Yeats drew heavily on echtrae conventions in his early mythological verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
The echtrae recounts extraordinary adventures in supernatural realms; Heroes embark on echtrae that test their courage and moral character; The echtrae often involves journeys to islands or underwater kingdoms; Poets use echtrae framework to explore psychological and spiritual transformation; The echtrae concludes with hero's return bearing wisdom or magical gifts; Structure of echtrae influences later quest narratives in Irish literature.
Additional Notes
Echtrae is a genre of adventure tale involving a journey to the otherworld, often initiated by an invitation from a supernatural being. Unlike the imram (sea voyage), the echtrae can take place on land or in caves. It tests the hero's courage and moral integrity, often resulting in transformation or acquisition of wisdom. In poetry, echtrae elements are used to explore themes of exploration, temptation, and the unknown. The structure allows for episodic encounters with magical creatures and realms, expanding the narrative scope.
Also Known As
adventure tale otherworld journey expedition
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