The Deorhord: An Old English Bestiary, by Hana Videen This followup to The Wordhord was a lovely read. Videen uses her wordhord format to write a bestiary, explaining how medieval people loved to used animals as examples of Christian ideas. Plus I always enjoy learning about Old English words, because they are often cognate with both modern English and with Danish. Deor (animal), which in English evolved into deer , is also related to Danish dyr (animal). Videen has sections of everyday animals, 'wonder' animals (such as elephants), creatures that especially symbolized good and evil, and just plain mysteries. The good animals are the lion, deer, phoenix, and panther, and the evil ones are the whale, snake, dragon, and wolf. The mysteries are usually taken from Alexander the Great's writings about his conquest of India; one sounds kind of like a crocodile, except that it has a head like the moon and also crocodiles were well-known. Another...
Tristran , by Thomas of Britain One of the earlier versions of the Tristan and Isolde tale is one by "Thomas of Britain," who was probably writing for the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine. It's all rather fuzzy, but the clues seem to point that way, and certainly Thomas was writing for a courtly audience who expected certain things out of the story. This divides Thomas' story from the earlier Beroul, who is known as 'primitive' in contrast. This tale of Tristran and Ysolt only survives in fragments. There are about 50 pages of material, and they start with the story already well underway. Tristran is living in the wilderness alone, after King Mark's suspicions got to be too much. In a truly strange addition, Tristran has life-like mechanical statues made of Ysolt and Brangvein (and their dog!). He keeps them in a cave, which he visits to lament his awful fate. Before long he marries Ysolt of the White Hands, and Thomas includes a long lament o...
I did it, I read all of Book I! My minimum requirement was two cantos a day, but I managed three a couple of times. I'm hoping to read ahead, because I'll be gone for two weeks in the middle of this event and I'd like to be able to prep a post ahead of time...but the schedule is already pretty demanding. The reading is not terribly difficult, but it is slow. I keep thinking that I've read a large chunk, only to look back and realize that in fact I have read six verses. So here we go with analysis... Each book in the Faerie Queene features a knight, and a story, about a particular virtue. The Redcrosse Knight, to be known as St. George after he accomplishes his feats, is all about Holinesse . This does not mean that Redcrosse already exemplifies holiness; he doesn't. Holiness is what he's working towards and struggling with. His foes symbolize various forms of unholiness, and he falls into their clutches at least as often as he ...
Hooray! I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of it!
ReplyDelete