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 V

Ván

Mythology
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

A river or stream mentioned in eddic poetry, possibly flowing from Hvergelmir.

Detailed Definition
Ván is listed among the rivers originating from Hvergelmir, though its specifics are obscure. In poetry, it contributes to the mythic geography of Yggdrasil’s roots, enriching the cosmological tapestry with fluid, life-giving imagery.
Example
Example in poetry:
Ván, the river mentioned in Völuspá that flows with venom during Ragnarök; Poets use Ván to symbolize poisoned waters or moral decay in apocalyptic verse; In eddic poetry, it’s one of the rivers that swell as the world unravels; Its name, possibly meaning “hope” or “expectation,” adds ironic contrast to its toxic flow; Modern eco-poets reference Ván to critique polluted rivers and broken promises; It appears in kennings for betrayal or corrupted sustenance.
Additional Notes
Ván is a lesser-known river mentioned in the Poetic Edda (specifically in Grímnismál) as one of the many streams flowing from Hvergelmir in Niflheimr; though sparse in mythic narrative, its inclusion among the Élivágar (ice rivers) situates it within the Norse cosmological framework of primordial waters that feed the world’s roots—poets may use Ván to evoke obscure, ancient currents or as a subtle allusion to the hidden hydrology of Yggdrasil, enriching landscape imagery with mythic depth without overt symbolism.
Other Meanings of “Ván”
Also Known As
Van Vanguard
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