The Pardoner's Tale -- The Old Man and Death

We discussed in class today the Pardoner’s Tale from the Canterbury Tales. I remember reading it in my freshman year western literature course but that was so long ago, and a translated edition. It’s incredible how different the stories are in their original words. Everything has a deeper meaning.

Well, in the Pardoner’s tale (which is really just a short tale with a lot of preaching from the Pardoner) there are three “revelers” who are angered that the thief “Death” has killed one of their friends when he was in a drunken stupor on the beach.

A servant boy warns the men that this “Death” cuts the hearts of men in two and they should be wary.

The men decide still to form a brotherhood and to search for this thief “Death”. Now remember, they have also been drinking so they run off after death in a drunken fury.

At one point they are jumping over a “stile” and they run into an old man. No, to me this is the most interesting part of the story, and according to our text and professor, it is still uncertain who this old man is, what he represents.

The old man can not die; he is looking for a young man willing to exchange his youth for the old man’s age. The three revelers are rude to him, and say he is a spy for death. The old man chastises them and then tells them they can find death under an Oak where they actually find a pile of gold that they end up killing each other over.

Now, the old man, who is he? What is he? At first I lean towards him being Death, but perhaps he is just a tool of death… an informant? A worker of death? Somehow indebt to death? Why is he on this search to find someone who will trade youth for age?

Maybe, and I have nothing to back this up, maybe he made a deal with death long ago, when he was young. And the deal was that he could live forever if he worked as Death’s servant and the only way he could die was if he could find a young man willing to trade youth for age (which of course he will never find). Now he realizes the deal was not as sweet as it seemed when he was young, now that he is forever old. And he remains eternally Death’s servant.

the Lewis Chessmen

Saw a NYT article on the 12th century Lewis Chessmen today and thought they were just incredible:

Devil found in detail of Giotto fresco in Italy's Assisi

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/05/us-italy-giotto-idUSTRE7A417420111105

Chaucer -- Troilus and Criseyde -- The Myth of Modern Progress

Began reading Troilus and Criseyde in my Chaucer class and
it is incredible. I can’t believe I have never read this or been told about
this work of Chaucer’s before this! It is so beautifully done. It’s an epic, a
romance, and a humor. Like I said, it is
incredible and enjoyable to read.
I love some of the themes and how forward thinking it is, or
maybe it isn’t so forward thinking, maybe it is just that we are constantly
told the modern has progressed and yet we read such works as these that makes
one realize that people, art, and culture haven’t changed/progressed as much as
we might like to think…
For example:
The dialogue is really entertaining and I can see people
having the same sort of conversations today, granted, not using such beautiful
turns of phrase:
"How hastow thus unkyndely and longe
Hid this fro me, thow fol?" quod Pandarus.
"Paraunter thow myghte after swich oon longe,
That myn avys anoon may helpen us."
"This were a wonder thing," quod Troilus;
"Thow koudest nevere in love thiselven wisse.
How devel maistow brynge me to blisse?"
(I.617-623)
Troilus basically saying “dude, how the devil are you going
to help me when you couldn’t help yourself in love” made me laugh and think of guys
I know today and how they interact.
And later Pandarus mentions how Troilus has mocked love:
For thow were wont to chace
At Love in scorn, and for despit him calle
`Seynt Idiot, lord of thise foles alle.'
(I.908-910)

Another example is Criseyde’s reluctance to marry:

Not unlike the Wife of Bath and the old woman in The Romaunt of the
Rose, Criseyde believes men, notably husbands, can be restrictive to their
wives, controlling, and jealous, and she values her freedom from such domestic
tyranny.

"I am myn owene womman,
wel at ese --
I thank it God -- as after myn estat,
Right yong, and stonde unteyd in lusty leese,
Withouten jalousie or swich debat:
Shal noon housbonde seyn to me
`Chek mat!'
For either they ben ful of
jalousie,
Or maisterfull, or loven
novelrie.”
(II.750-756)

Of which to telle in short is myn entente
Th' effect, as fer as I kan understonde.
She thanked hym of al that he wel mente
Towardes hire, but holden hym in honde
She nolde nought, ne make
hireselven bonde
In love; but as his suster,
hym to plese,
She wolde fayn to doon his herte an ese.
(II.1219-1225)

Aleppo -- 1138 Earthquake

So today in history in 1138 the Aleppo (Syria) earthquake happened which caused 230,000 deaths. The United States Geological Survey considers it the 3rd deadliest earthquake in history.

Ok, so, I would never have even given this little fact a second thought if I hadn't been at my Medieval Middle East History class last night and my Professor began talking about the Sunni Revival Period (11/12th cent.). She mentioned that with the revival of the Sunni's, Baghdad began to fall and the power center started to shift West, to cities like ALEPPO, Cairo, and Granada/Cordoba.

It makes sense then why this would have been an especially devastating earthquake at this time. It occurred just when Aleppo was growing and benefiting from the Revival and shift west.

St. Augustine -- Cuiusdam Ciceronis

In translating Augustine's third book you cone across his comments on Cicero's book Hortensius,

"inter hos ego inbecilla tunc aetate discebam libros eloquentiae, in qua eminere cupiebam fine damnabili et ventoso per gaudia vanitatis humanae. et usitato iam discendi ordine perveneram in librum cuiusdam Ciceronis, cuius linguam fere omnes mirantur, pectus non ita. " (III.4)


Augustine is talking here about how at a tender age he discovered an eloquent book (the Hortensius)

...and now in the ordinary course of study I had reached in the book of a certain Cicero..."

One of the comments on this flippant way of mentioning Cicero (as if people wouldn't know that there was one and only one Cicero that mattered) was that Augustine was trying to distance himself from the paganism of Cicero. In a way, he was saying "I know he is a pagan but maybe we can just overlook that for now..."

I'm not sure yet if I agree with this. He uses an awful lot of classical "pagan" quotes and allusions in his works to make me think he thought any less of them for being pagan. I don't know that he would apologize for their being pagan. Perhaps he was just being sarcastic?

Chaucer -- The Wife of Bath -- Children? Literate?

Some of my notes from my Chaucer class today:

In the Last Will and Testament of Edmund Denny (handout) it states that if the wife marries again the property goes to Denny and her's son. So, if the Wife of Bath had had children, she might not have been able to accumulate the wealth she did by the fifth husband This may be a good argument for her not having children. Especially since she married Janekyn for love and not for money, she must have been independently wealthy from some of her husbands. I guess she could have still had children, maybe from an earlier marriage, but then not from the others. She would have still had wealth and yet lost some from one husband to one of her children. Were all the Wills made like this? Maybe she could have still had children and yet kept the money? Especially if they were all younger children. But I don't think it makes sense with her character that she would have had children.

The question of whether she was literate I think is still up in the air. I lean towards her not being. First, Janekyn read to her from the "Book of Wicked Wives." Second, she did tear the book and then order him to throw it in the fire. I'm not sure, as angry as she was at the book, she would have condoned this if she was literate.

I've been reading Chaucer, don't know why I've never read him in the original Middle English before. It's a struggle to get through the language sometimes but it certainly adds a new depth to the stories. I really like the Dream Vision tales, especially the Book of the Duchess:

One of my favorite sections is when the dreaming man (Chaucer?) first comes upon the Black Knight mourning in the forest during the hunt. One of the things I really was struck by throughout the entire story was the repetition of "heart" (hert, herte, hart), at times meaning "heart" and at other times meaning "hart" and once meaning "hurt".

And I herde goynge bothe up and doun Men, hors, houndes, and other thyng;

And al men speken of huntyng,

How they wolde slee the hert with strengthe,

And how the hert had upon lengthe

So moche embosed -- y not now what. (lines 348-353)

445	I was war of a man in blak,
	That sat and had yturned his bak
	To an ook, an huge tree.
	"Lord," thoght I, "who may that be?
	What ayleth hym to sitten her?"
450	Anoon-ryght I wente ner;
	Than found I sitte even upryght
	A wonder wel-farynge knyght --
	By the maner me thoghte so --
	Of good mochel, and ryght yong therto,
455	Of the age of foure and twenty yer,
	Upon hys berd but lytel her,
	And he was clothed al in blak.
	I stalked even unto hys bak,
	And there I stood as stille as ought,
460	That, soth to saye, he saw me nought;
	For-why he heng hys hed adoun,
	And with a dedly sorwful soun
	He made of rym ten vers or twelve
	Of a compleynte to hymselve --
465	The moste pitee, the moste rowthe,
	That ever I herde; for, by my trowthe,
11	-ch 467 Hit was gret wonder that Nature
	Myght suffre any creature
	To have such sorwe and be not ded.
470	Ful pitous pale and nothyng red,
	He sayd a lay, a maner song,
	Withoute noote, withoute song;
	And was thys, for ful wel I kan
	Reherse hyt; ryght thus hyt began:
475	"I have of sorwe so gret won
	That joye gete I never non,
	Now that I see my lady bryght,
	Which I have loved with al my myght,
	Is fro me ded and ys agoon.
	"Allas, deth, what ayleth the,
	That thou noldest have taken me,
	Whan thou toke my lady swete,
	That was so fair, so fresh, so fre,
485	So good that men may wel se
	Of al goodnesse she had no mete!"
	Whan he had mad thus his complaynte,
	Hys sorwful hert gan faste faynte
	And his spirites wexen dede;
490	The blood was fled for pure drede
	Doun to hys herte, to make hym warm --
	For wel hyt feled the herte had harm --

Hieronymus Bosch -- Seven Deadly Sins

"Superbia" Sin -- Note the little wolf-like demon holding up the mirror for the woman to see herself

One of the four last things "Death of a Sinner" where an angel and demon are weighing the man's soul



Hieronymus Bosch -- c.1500
"The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things"

Hieronymus Bosch

"The Garden of Earthly Delights" Hieronymus Bosch c. 1500 (Dutch)

Surprising abstract triptych that is reminiscent (at least to me) of the Dante's hellish horrors

Chaucer's General Prologue

Chaucer's General Prologue to the Caunterbury Tales

WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth 5
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open ye, 10
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages:
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmers for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from every shires ende 15
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The holy blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.

The Decameron-- First Day: Third Story

(Excerpt)

'Honest man, I have understood from divers persons that thou art a very learned man and deeply versed in matters of divinity; wherefore I would fain know of thee whether of the three Laws thou reputest the true, the Jewish, the Saracen or the Christian.' ...

"An I mistake not, I mind me to have many a time heard tell that there was once a great man and a rich, who among other very precious jewels in his treasury, had a very goodly and costly ring, whereunto being minded, for its worth and beauty, to do honour and wishing to leave it in perpetuity to his descendants, he declared that whichsoever of his sons should, at his death, be found in possession thereof, by his bequest unto him, should be recognized as his heir and be held of all the others in honour and reverence as chief and head. He to whom the ring was left by him held a like course with his own descendants and did even as his father had done. In brief the ring passed from hand to hand, through many generations, and came at last into the possession of a man who had three goodly and virtuous sons, all very obedient to their father wherefore he loved them all three alike. The young men, knowing the usance of the ring, each for himself, desiring to be the most honoured among his folk, as best he might, besought his father, who was now an old man, to leave him the ring, whenas he came to die. The worthy man, who loved them all alike and knew not himself how to choose to which he had liefer leave the ring, bethought himself, having promised it to each, to seek to satisfy all three and privily let make by a good craftsman other two rings, which were so like unto the first that he himself scarce knew which was the true. When he came to die, he secretly gave each one of his sons his ring, wherefore each of them, seeking after their father's death, to occupy the inheritance and the honour and denying it to the others, produced his ring, in witness of his right, and the three rings being found so like unto one another that the true might not be known, the question which was the father's very heir abode pending and yet pendeth. And so say I to you, my lord, of the three Laws to the three peoples given of God the Father, whereof you question me; each people deemeth itself30 to have his inheritance, His true Law and His commandments; but of which in very deed hath them, even as of the rings, the question yet pendeth." ...

Medieval Ships

IN my History of American Piracy Class my professor went over a little bit of Medieval ship building so I thought I would find some more info online...

http://www.medievalarchives.com/tag/friends-of-newport-medieval-ship

^ this is an archaeological site working on a medieval ship

and this is an image of a medieval ship from our lecture. Our professor commented on how medieval ships had square sails and still used manned oars as rudders...

C.S. Lewis's Lost Aeneid: Arms and the Exile

Started reading the recently published C.S. Lewis's Lost Aeneid: Arms and the Exile (ed. A.T. Reyes). Lewis begins his translation of the Aeneid with four unfamiliar lines that according to the introduction are lines that did not appear til (or at least, that there is no recording of until) the 9th century.

"Ille ego, qui quondam gracili modulatus avena

carmen, et egressus silvis vicina coegi

ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono,

gratum opus agricolis: at nunc horrentia Martis

***

Arma virumque cano..."

"Lo I am he who led the song through slender reed to cry

And then, come forth from out the woods to hide, the fields that are thereby

In woven verse I bade obey the hungry tillers' need:

Now I, who sang their merry toil, sing Mars and dreadful deed.

***

Of Arms and a Man I sing..."

Medieval Depictions of the Trojan War

Found this, cant find any reference to it or who painted it or anything. Found it just on some website that had a conglomeration of Trojan War pictures. It is obviously medieval. That is about all that is known. I thought it was an interesting depiction of the Trojan Hors, then again most medieval era Trojan war depictions are interesting...

This one is supposed to be Hector saying goodybe to his wife and son before he faces Achilles...

11th century Anglo-Saxon World Map

"Unsurprisingly, Britain itself is depicted in some detail. Great Britain, unusually by medieval standards, is shown as one island, albeit with an exaggerated Cornish promontory, and Mona, Ireland and the many Scottish islands are all indicated. The cartographer is slightly confused by Iceland, depicting it both by a version of its classical name 'Thule', north-west of Britain, and as 'Island', logically linked with Scandinavia."

Elephants in Art

I recently saw a medieval picture depicting Alexander the Great and some elephants so I thought I would find as many as I could on the same subject. The first and third look as if the artist was told/read about what elephants look like, whereas the middle one, which, unlike the other two european pictures, is middle eastern and based on the much more accurate elephant the artist must have actually seen an elephant. Elephants being presented to Alexander the Great^ I can't remember the story that is supposed to be behind this picture^

Elephants going to war with fortresses on their backs^

a medieval pilgrimage

so I thought since I've been doing fairly well with my reading journal I would try my hand at a blog for all my "medieval travels." I am a medieval history major, so, what follows should be whatever I'm working on concerning the medieval at the time... normally its personal studies or readings but sometimes my classes also have medieval components. Hopefully this will be a good place to keep a log of these studies.