What's this? Another web site some random individual consumed by a fit of megalomania has created for the purposes of self-promotion to a world that really would have preferred not to know?

Well, basically yes. So, too bad.

What's this "Carlaz" business?

Fair question. Well, my name is Carl, my academic work dealt with the culture of early Germanic peoples, and the reconstructed proto-Germanic form of "Carl" is usually given as *karlaz. But my own name is (usually) spelled with a "c", and besides you can't register karlaz.kom. (See? I told you.) So there you go.

(You ask a silly a person a silly question and darned if you don't get a silly answer ....)

And who is this "Carl" person, anyway?

I was born on Long Island (New York State, USA) in 1971, living most of my life in Stony Brook until I went to university at Harvard College in Massachusetts, USA. There in 1993 I received a A.B. in Folklore & Mythology (Special Field: Medieval Scandinavian; Secondary Field: Celtic).

Then, after a couple of years working in computing, in 1995 I went to graduate school in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic (Faculty of English) at the University of Cambridge in England (my family had already spent one year in 1983-84 living in Cambridge) where I was a member of St. John's College. I submitted my dissertation (Formation and Resolution of Ideological Contrast in the Early History of Scandinavia) in June 1999, and I received my Ph.D. in July 2000.

Between submission and graduation, I lived and worked in the Boston area in Massachusetts, USA as a content writer for AOL/DigitalCity Boston. After graduation, realizing that I couldn't afford to take an academic job even if I could get one, in October 2000 I moved back to Cambridge, England to take a job at a computing company there. In September 2001, I met my wife Paola; we got married in July 2002. In September 2007, we relocated to Bogotá, Colombia where we plan to stay for the forseeable future (until an opportunity opens up in Cartagena! ;)

And, as Walter Cronkite would say, that's the way it is.

In my spare time (spare time!?), I dawdle away at a book-length historical fantasy fiction project -- which is not online, but if you are sufficiently bored to be interested you can me about it. Since I get a lot of questions about it, I've put a little blurb about it here. Plus, I hope to continue my on-and-off musical projects. If wants to jam out -- or collaborate on stuff over the 'net -- drop me a .

And the future holds …? Well, if you have an idea about that, do let me .