Literary Considerations

Beowulf

2011-10-21T01:27:00.001-07:00

Narcissus

2009-12-15T15:39:00.001-08:00

... god-like ...... ...He had a cruel heart, and hated all of them,Till he conceived a love for his own form:He wailed, seeing his face, delightful as a dream,Within a spring; he wept for his beauty.Then the boy shed his blood and give it to the earth... to bear

Narcissus Ovid

The Transformation of Echo

Fam'd far and near for knowing things to come,
From him th' enquiring nations sought their doom;
The fair Liriope his answers try'd,
And first th' unerring prophet justify'd.
This nymph the God Cephisus had abus'd,
With all his winding waters circumfus'd,
And on the Nereid got a lovely boy,
Whom the soft maids ev'n then beheld with joy.

The tender dame, sollicitous to know
Whether her child should reach old age or no,
Consults the sage Tiresias, who replies,
"If e'er he knows himself he surely dies."
Long liv'd the dubious mother in suspence,
'Till time unriddled all the prophet's sense.

Narcissus now his sixteenth year began,
Just turn'd of boy, and on the verge of man;
Many a friend the blooming youth caress'd,
Many a love-sick maid her flame confess'd:
Such was his pride, in vain the friend caress'd,
The love-sick maid in vain her flame confess'd.

Once, in the woods, as he pursu'd the chace,
The babbling Echo had descry'd his face;
She, who in others' words her silence breaks,
Nor speaks her self but when another speaks.
Echo was then a maid, of speech bereft,
Of wonted speech; for tho' her voice was left,
Juno a curse did on her tongue impose,
To sport with ev'ry sentence in the close.
Full often when the Goddess might have caught
Jove and her rivals in the very fault,
This nymph with subtle stories would delay
Her coming, 'till the lovers slip'd away.
The Goddess found out the deceit in time,
And then she cry'd, "That tongue, for this thy crime,
Which could so many subtle tales produce,
Shall be hereafter but of little use."
Hence 'tis she prattles in a fainter tone,
With mimick sounds, and accents not her own.

This love-sick virgin, over-joy'd to find
The boy alone, still follow'd him behind:
When glowing warmly at her near approach,
As sulphur blazes at the taper's touch,
She long'd her hidden passion to reveal,
And tell her pains, but had not words to tell:
She can't begin, but waits for the rebound,
To catch his voice, and to return the sound.

The nymph, when nothing could Narcissus move,
Still dash'd with blushes for her slighted love,
Liv'd in the shady covert of the woods,
In solitary caves and dark abodes;
Where pining wander'd the rejected fair,
'Till harrass'd out, and worn away with care,
The sounding skeleton, of blood bereft,
Besides her bones and voice had nothing left.
Her bones are petrify'd, her voice is found
In vaults, where still it doubles ev'ry sound.

The Story of Narcissus

Thus did the nymphs in vain caress the boy,
He still was lovely, but he still was coy;
When one fair virgin of the slighted train
Thus pray'd the Gods, provok'd by his disdain,
"Oh may he love like me, and love like me in vain!"
Rhamnusia pity'd the neglected fair,
And with just vengeance answer'd to her pray'r.

There stands a fountain in a darksom wood,
Nor stain'd with falling leaves nor rising mud;
Untroubled by the breath of winds it rests,
Unsully'd by the touch of men or beasts;
High bow'rs of shady trees above it grow,
And rising grass and chearful greens below.
Pleas'd with the form and coolness of the place,
And over-heated by the morning chace,
Narcissus on the grassie verdure lyes:
But whilst within the chrystal fount he tries
To quench his heat, he feels new heats arise.
For as his own bright image he survey'd,
He fell in love with the fantastick shade;
And o'er the fair resemblance hung unmov'd,
Nor knew, fond youth! it was himself he lov'd.
The well-turn'd neck and shoulders he descries,
The spacious forehead, and the sparkling eyes;
The hands that Bacchus might not scorn to show,
And hair that round Apollo's head might flow;
With all the purple youthfulness of face,
That gently blushes in the wat'ry glass.
By his own flames consum'd the lover lyes,
And gives himself the wound by which he dies.
To the cold water oft he joins his lips,
Oft catching at the beauteous shade he dips
His arms, as often from himself he slips.
Nor knows he who it is his arms pursue
With eager clasps, but loves he knows not who.

What could, fond youth, this helpless passion move?
What kindled in thee this unpity'd love?
Thy own warm blush within the water glows,
With thee the colour'd shadow comes and goes,
Its empty being on thy self relies;
Step thou aside, and the frail charmer dies.

Still o'er the fountain's wat'ry gleam he stood,
Mindless of sleep, and negligent of food;
Still view'd his face, and languish'd as he view'd.
At length he rais'd his head, and thus began
To vent his griefs, and tell the woods his pain.
"You trees," says he, "and thou surrounding grove,
Who oft have been the kindly scenes of love,
Tell me, if e'er within your shades did lye
A youth so tortur'd, so perplex'd as I?
I, who before me see the charming fair,
Whilst there he stands, and yet he stands not there:
In such a maze of love my thoughts are lost:
And yet no bulwark'd town, nor distant coast,
Preserves the beauteous youth from being seen,
No mountains rise, nor oceans flow between.
A shallow water hinders my embrace;
And yet the lovely mimick wears a face
That kindly smiles, and when I bend to join
My lips to his, he fondly bends to mine.
Hear, gentle youth, and pity my complaint,
Come from thy well, thou fair inhabitant.
My charms an easy conquest have obtain'd
O'er other hearts, by thee alone disdain'd.
But why should I despair? I'm sure he burns
With equal flames, and languishes by turns.
When-e'er I stoop, he offers at a kiss,
And when my arms I stretch, he stretches his.
His eye with pleasure on my face he keeps,
He smiles my smiles, and when I weep he weeps.
When e'er I speak, his moving lips appear
To utter something, which I cannot hear.

"Ah wretched me! I now begin too late
To find out all the long-perplex'd deceit;
It is my self I love, my self I see;
The gay delusion is a part of me.
I kindle up the fires by which I burn,
And my own beauties from the well return.
Whom should I court? how utter my complaint?
Enjoyment but produces my restraint,
And too much plenty makes me die for want.
How gladly would I from my self remove!
And at a distance set the thing I love.
My breast is warm'd with such unusual fire,
I wish him absent whom I most desire.
And now I faint with grief; my fate draws nigh;
In all the pride of blooming youth I die.
Death will the sorrows of my heart relieve.
Oh might the visionary youth survive,
I should with joy my latest breath resign!
But oh! I see his fate involv'd in mine."

This said, the weeping youth again return'd
To the clear fountain, where again he burn'd;
His tears defac'd the surface of the well,
With circle after circle, as they fell:
And now the lovely face but half appears,
O'er-run with wrinkles, and deform'd with tears.
"Ah whither," cries Narcissus, "dost thou fly?
Let me still feed the flame by which I die;
Let me still see, tho' I'm no further blest."
Then rends his garment off, and beats his breast:
His naked bosom redden'd with the blow,
In such a blush as purple clusters show,
Ere yet the sun's autumnal heats refine
Their sprightly juice, and mellow it to wine.
The glowing beauties of his breast he spies,
And with a new redoubled passion dies.
As wax dissolves, as ice begins to run,
And trickle into drops before the sun;
So melts the youth, and languishes away,
His beauty withers, and his limbs decay;
And none of those attractive charms remain,
To which the slighted Echo su'd in vain.

She saw him in his present misery,
Whom, spight of all her wrongs, she griev'd to see.
She answer'd sadly to the lover's moan,
Sigh'd back his sighs, and groan'd to ev'ry groan:
"Ah youth! belov'd in vain," Narcissus cries;
"Ah youth! belov'd in vain," the nymph replies.
"Farewel," says he; the parting sound scarce fell
From his faint lips, but she reply'd, "farewel."
Then on th' wholsome earth he gasping lyes,
'Till death shuts up those self-admiring eyes.
To the cold shades his flitting ghost retires,
And in the Stygian waves it self admires.

For him the Naiads and the Dryads mourn,
Whom the sad Echo answers in her turn;
And now the sister-nymphs prepare his urn:
When, looking for his corps, they only found
A rising stalk, with yellow blossoms crown'd.

Naucissus Pausinus

So widely different are the traditions of Hesiod himself and his poems.

[7] On the summit of Helicon is a small river called the Lamus.2 In the territory of the Thespians is a place called Donacon （Reed-bed）. Here is the spring of Narcissus. They say that Narcissus looked into this water, and not understanding that he saw his own reflection, unconsciously fell in love with himself, and died of love at the spring. But it is utter stupidity to imagine that a man old enough to fall in love was incapable of distinguishing a man from a man's reflection.

[8] There is another story about Narcissus, less popular indeed than the other, but not without some support. It is said that Narcissus had a twin sister; they were exactly alike in appearance, their hair was the same, they wore similar clothes, and went hunting together. The story goes on that Narcissus fell in love with his sister, and when the girl died, would go to the spring, knowing that it was his reflection that he saw, but in spite of this knowledge finding some relief for his love in imagining that he saw, not his own reflection, but the likeness of his sister.

[9] The flower narcissus grew, in my opinion, before this, if we are to judge by the verses of Pamphos. This poet was born many years before Narcissus the Thespian, and he says that the Maid, the daughter of Demeter, was carried off when she was playing and gathering flowers, and that the flowers by which she was deceived into being carried off were not violets, but the narcissus.

Ovid's version

In Metamorphoses, Ovid tells the story of a graceful and pretty nymph named Echo who loved Narcissus in vain. Narcissus' beauty was so unmatched that he felt it was godlike in scope, comparable to the beauty of Bacchus and Apollo. As a result, Narcissus spurned Echo's affections until, despairing, she faded away to nothing but a faint, plaintive whisper. To teach the vain boy a lesson, the goddess Nemesis doomed Narcissus to fall in love with his own reflection in Echo's pond. Entranced by his own beauty and enamoured with his own image, Narcissus lay on the bank of the river and wasted away staring down into the water. Different versions of the story state that Narcissus, after scorning his male suitors, then was cursed by the gods to love the first male that he should lay his eyes on. While walking in the gardens of Echo he discovered the pond of Echo and saw a reflection of himself in the water. Falling deeply in love with himself, he leaned closer and closer to his reflection in the water, eventually falling into the pond and drowning.

Archaic version

This, a more archaic version than the one related by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, is a moral tale in which the proud and unfeeling Narcissus is punished by the gods for having spurned all his male suitors. It is thought to have been meant as a cautionary tale addressed to adolescent boys. Until recently, the only source for this version was a segment in Pausanias (9.31.7), about 150 years after Ovid. However, a very similar account was discovered among the Oxyrhynchus papyri in 2004, an account that predates Ovid's version by at least fifty years.

In this story, Ameinias, a young man, loved Narcissus but was scorned. To tell Ameinias off, Narcissus gave him a sword as a present. Ameinias used the sword to kill himself on Narcissus' doorstep and prayed to Nemesis that Narcissus would one day know the pain of unrequited love. This curse was fulfilled when Narcissus became entranced by his reflection in the pool and tried to seduce the beautiful boy, not realizing it was himself he was looking at. Completing the symmetry of the tale, Narcissus takes his sword and kills himself from sorrow.[

The new version of the Narcissus story is much more concise than Ovidâ€™s. Ovid devotes many verses to the nymph Echo, who in her unrequited love for Narcissus wastes away until only an echo remains: she can only repeat what others say. There is no trace of her either in the papyrus text or in Cononâ€™s account. There, Narcissus is a young boy and his lovers are all male. Ovid also distinguishes himself from the other two authors by having Narcissus, like Echo, simply waste away. His body mysteriously disappears, and when the nymphs come to collect it, they find the flower in its place. In Cononâ€™s version, as in the new papyrus, the boy kills himself. It is his blood that produces the narcissus flower. (In this respect, the story resembles that of Adonis, told on the other side of the papyrus fragment.) In the light of the new evidence, it seems that Ovid may well have been the first to give the myth its now familiar form.

It is noteworthy in view of the fundamental role assigned to narcissism by Freud that there exists no detailed analysis of the myth which immortalized the handsome youth, Narcissus and provided psychoanalysis with so felicitous a term. Certain essential features of the myth are well-known, and these may serve as convenient initial material for analysis, the more so, as they raise certain problems of considerable importance for investigation. Narcissus, as will be recalled from the frequently cited version of the myth, was a youth of extraordinary beauty who fell in love with his image as he leaned over a pool of water. Fascinated by his own reflection, he pined away and died. There appeared in his stead the flower which bears his name. What is usually emphasized in this touching story is the extreme self-love which Narcissus manifests, the very quality which is designated by the term narcissism. But is self-love the only essential aspect of the myth? Apparently what has been less em

NARCISSUS, in Greek mythology, son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Leiriope, distinguished for his beauty. The seer Teiresias told his mother that he would have a long life, provided he never looked upon his own features. His rejection of the love of the nymph Echo drew upon him the vengeance of the gods. Having fallen in love with his own reflection in the waters of a spring, he pined away (or killed himself) and the flower that bears his name sprang up on the spot where he died. According to Pausanias, Narcissus, to console himself for the death of a favourite twin-sister, his exact counterpart, sat gazing into the spring to recall her features by his own. Narcissus, representing the early spring-flower, which for a brief space beholds itself mirrored in the water and then fades, is one of the many youths whose premature death is recorded in Greek mythology (cf. Adonis, Linus, Hyacinthus); the flower itself was regarded as a symbol of such death. It was the last flower gathered by Persephone before she was carried off by Hades, and was sacred to Demeter and Core (the cult name of Persephone), the great goddesses of the underworld. From its associations Wieseler takes Narcissus himself to be a spirit of the underworld, of death and rest. It is possible that the story may have originated in the superstition (alluded to by Artemidorus, Oneirocritica, ii. 7) that it was an omen of death to dream of seeing one's reflection in water.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=pQkopT9bXmAC&pg=PA151&lpg=PA151&dq=narcissus+Pausanias&source=bl&ots=gHNrlShiO0&sig=ye7Xb7LNx1MLqNp7D_3gDYVwxW4&hl=en&ei=28pFTYOfF831gAeYgKWKAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=narcissus%20Pausanias&f=false

Oxyrhynchus Online

2009-12-10T13:25:00.001-08:00

Christian Inheritance 2

2009-12-08T11:54:00.000-08:00

Essay: The Christian Inheritance
Thesis: The tribes inhabiting Europe (the Celts, Britons, Picts, Goths, Vandals, Angles-Jutes-Saxons) (this study could be extended to the Eastern regions of Christianity) inherited from the colonisers of the Roman Empire and later Christian missionaries a concept of identity as part of a larger region. Small scale fighting continued, but the concept of a larger body of belonging is evident in the attitudes expressed in the crusades, laws, racism against muslims and other peoples, philosophical literature, etc. All of Europe became Catholic (except the Norsemen for a while) until the abuses of power in that church led to the protests for reform which split Europe into two religeons (which each had members everywhere, and religeous membership based on personal belief and not circumstance such as political or cultural membership).
What was the nature of the identity adopted by the Europeans when they learned Christianity? What were the uses of it's tenets and condemnations in daily life situations which would have strengthened it's validity? What ethics did it enforce, and provide authoritative validity for enforcing?What was the narrative Christians adopted with Christianity? That is, what history was now theirs. Contrasted and compared with the folk tradition and history native to their culture, were there any differences to adapt to, and how were these adaptations made and expressed? What sort of people did their history/tradition/identity as Christian people mean they must reasonably be? Does that conflict with their less-reasonable instincts? What is their purpose, goals, and future, individually and communally?
Specific Questions needed to research: (anyone reading my page please contribute)
1. What was the nature of the tribes before Christianity? The Celts (Gauls, Britons), Picts, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Anglo-Jute-Saxons...
___Germanic and Celtic People:
___Reputation society, esteem paramount. Boasting about abilities and accomplishments. Presenting credentials as worthy. Defend himself. Taunts, refutation: enhance reputation. Desire for fame, Beowilf's Barrow. (In end of Beowulf..."no one could try. And this dragon's treasure, his gold and everything hidden in that tower, will be mine. Or war will sweep me to a bitter death."), proprietary interest in combat, others as witnesses. Revenge another aspect of personal reputation. Duty. Swearing by oaths, word bond. All great civs, in their early stages, are based on success in war
___Fear and punishment primitive? Daytoday struggle existence, nighttonight fear, darnt question, change anything
___Gift-giving: conferred status. Intrinsic value and token of esteem.
___Arts: made princely weapons as well as ornaments, as necessary to a chieftain's status (craftsmen take with them) as were bards who celebrate courage
___Banquets, revelry, tales and poems.
___Dominant figure: fighting king or chieftain; favorite pursuit: war (either X neighbors or saracens); goals: power, wealth, glory; primary virtues: valor and loyalty. Literary pattern based on actuality, of which it presents a kind of idealization. Dominant interest in B: the good ruler in contrast to the bad ruler. B: the good man who also becomes a good king. The act of benevolence, also pursuit of fame, faithfully serving, avenging, fighting, protecting, kind, mild, eager to be worthy of praise.
___Gods of nature secondary/nonexistant; principal gods tribal gods; patrons of tribes, exclusive (contrast Greco-Roman principal dieties support universe, syncretic; secondary tribal patrons. Artur bear Artemis Arcturus.
___The knight's son is a courtly lover.
___Women. Evidently Higd is in position to offer the crown to anyone.
___Gnarled old woman, cursing, prophesy.
___Britons:
____Superstitious rites. Human sacrifice. Vows of self-immolation. Life of a man must be paid for with the life of a man, otherwise the gods cannot be appeased. Wives in common, children belong to house woman first contracted to. Milk and flesh diet, dye with woed, long hair, shave all but head and upper lip.
___Warlike, fragmented, difficult to get agreement. Warriors with no intentions accepting the Roman's writ. "Majical inventiveness of the wild Britons" in war. At battle, black-clad women waving torches, druids waving arms. A tougher branch of Gauls. Pottery, coins.
___54AD (Boudica, flogged, daughter outraged by Nero when Claudius dies): Frenzy, upsurge of hatred, nearly all Britons within reach rallied. Colchester-Roman base- taken. Destroyed everything Roman. Slaughtered every man. "Britons happiest about looting. 70,000 Romans and Roman friends anihilated: hanging, burning, crucifying. Vengeange. 10000 Romans come and take 230000 Britons. Masacred, ancients, women, children, on hilltop. Briton now embarked on a civilized way of life, for next 350 years. Written accounts, until they leave.
___Wergild for every man, cow, sheep. Everything had price (slaves had no werguild). Better than the bloodfeud: a spiritual and temporal fairness.
___Anglo-Saxons:
___Mead hall. Think of war... success... most common failure. Romantic love hardly appears. In bleakest moments, recall return of spring.
Germanic society values. Heroic and kinship, heroic world like Homer's. King surrounds himself with band of retainers. Royal generosity. Obliged to fight to death, avenge or die in attempt. Blood vengeance a sacred duty, and in poetry an everlasting shame fail to observe. Tacitus on Germans: "To leave a battle alive after a chief has fallen means lifelong infamy and shame." The king keeps the treasure the kin protects, their only possession and defense.
___Beowulf: young warrior at beginning, old grey-haired king at end, facing the dragon and death.
___Franks: Charlemagne saved civ not too far wrong, through him Atlantic world reestablished contact w ancient culture of Med world. Like most able men who have had to educate themselves the hard way, C felt strongly the value of ed, saw the imp of an educated Italy. Once more in touch w outside world, elephant from Haroun al Rashid, sent ornamented bibles as presents all over W Eu. (Idea material substances could be made spiritual by art alone later phase thought), no longer the symbol of a wariors courage and ferocity, but is used for the glory of God (splendiferous objects, appetite for gold and wrought gem-work), make the front of the cross look worldly, and the work of a believer,
___Irish Celts: Life a passionate, all-or-nothing affair. "If I break oath with you...",
___surprising preX lit antiq preserved at all,
___Vikings: They set out from a base and with unbelieveable courage and ingenuity they got as far as Persia, via the Volga and the Caspian Sea, and they put their runic writing on one of the lions at Delos, and then returned home with all their loot... coins Samarkand Chinese Buddha.
___Huns created chaos, totally illiterate and destructively hostile to what they couldnt understand, preferred to live in prefabs and let the old places fall down, surviving things: stone stuctures? Pitifully humble and incompetant, durable habitations,
___Constantinople: untouched by wanderers, civ all right, but almost sealed off from W Eu(Greek lang, relig dif, didnt want to involve self in bloody feuds of W barbs; eastern barbs)
***
What was their nature afterwards?
___Tradition
___A new power in Eu, greater than any king or emperor. Men belong to Bishoprics. Organizer also a humanizer (THROUGH). These men know the pathos of life, and mortal things touch their hearts (Virgil)
___Regarded old revenge-system as a form of "wild justice," but revenge could not be supressed entirely, some areas expressly integrated into legal system. Rex Arturus rides goat in hell, assoc by orthodox with demon worship.
___Baptism. Church politically and economically, monasticism most important spiritual and cultural force in Europe.
___Other Roman elements come with X: ideas of law and govt, art of writing, Latin and X learning and literature. (Romanization reached climax in west only after collapse of RE.
___Conversions usually from kings and aristocrats.
___If either had achieved absolute power, soc might have grown static as civs of Eg and Byz, tension (kept alive? Eu civ)
___Many saw pagan barbarians of north, etc, outside by will of God: outside Roman Empire, Cath establisment in RE had no missionary policy for them
___devel new lands and outoftheway districts, monasteries building and churches, movement led to crusades in Spain and East, spread of partic learning and culture of the age excelled.
___Clergy composed music, developed arts; manuscript illum, woodcarving, classical lit owed to (that survived destruction of Rome by Barbs)
___recognized meaning of Christ's sacri, + able to fully to sublimate it into ritual. Consciousness of the symbolic power of the Mass.
___Church in RE: retreat from world; Church run by secular clergy, quite separate from monasteries. Ireland and north: monasteries central institutions: bases for missionary activity, centres for basic ed in Latin, book production, training of clergy, and major eco/poli centres also (as lay people donated land)
___Dissipated its strength by theological controversies—Muslims invincible solidarity
___Anglo-Saxons
___Gregory sends Augustine: converts king Ethelberht of Kent (Wife Bertha Frankish princess X)
___English Church: best of both worlds (unlike Ireland): new connections with Rome, borrow books from Ireland and clerics go to Ireland for education. Soon: best stocked library in n Eu. Produced Bede in 8th (Europes greatest teacher and scholar)
___Fascinated by distant culture of Pagan ancestors. The old poets happiest when dealing with themes of the Germanic past. Admired courage, capable. Mixed with elegaic sympathy for its eventual doom. Distastful for Christian of that time to depict or celebrate the Germanic gods and goddesses in the manner of earlier poems. At first fits hero into pre-X ethical code, boasting, defending.
___B: a man who can live energetically according to the mores of a preconversion Germanic society and also practice the ehtical teachings of X in the conduct of his life.
___View of past: as in the Wanderer: "the old work of giants," describing the piles of stone AS could not maintain or rebuild, and had no interest in doing so either. Baths, sports, gladitorial games.
___View of present: World growing old. A declining age, close to the end of time.
Art, literature, science flourished during middle ages. Rooted in X, transmitted and transformed by classical tradition. Augustine: recognized decline of Empire but considered it secondary to instruments of salvation, the visible church and the true community of the just (City of )
___What is the Wanderer's and the Wife's Lament? Separation, exile, malice of kinfolk.
___Until 1530s (disbanding of monasteries, subsequent destruction of texts) made and held only manu-scripts, expensive--religeous (to the buisness of the church), few. A-S live oral poetry.
___Visigoths
___Saw mandate passed from weak and heterodox Romans to powerful Catholic rulers of Germanic West.
___Celts
___Inaccessible fringes of Cornwall, Ireland, Hebrides, 550 boatload of 50 scholars arrived at Cork, security modicum, hundred years X survived by clinging to places like Skellig Michael, pinnacle off Irish coast, If one couldnt read and had nothing else to look at for weeks at a time. Hypnotic effect.
***
2. Depict their identity and community inheritance from Rome...
___Greek 500 years satisfying, stereotyped convention, same architec lang, imagery, theatres, temples
***
3. What characteristics allowed for easier, or, (not necassarily also) deeper adoption of Christian identity? What clashes vinced. Depict the adoption of Christianity (the becomming Christian) of the Barbarians, and the adaptation of Christianity to the Barbarians already-held ideas and stories. Depict the differences in tribes wierding.
___Fascinated with legendary Arthur.
___Heroic ideal: Moses, St Andrew, Christ (the young hero... strong and stouthearted), God (created an "establishment of wonders", mighty deed). Cast in heroic mode, represented in style of heroic verse. St Helen, expedition to Holy Land to discover true cross "battle queen", Judith Germanic heroic poetry cast.
___Inherent conflict: heroic code / teachings: "forgive all who tresspass. Those who take up the sword..."
___A-S warrior-thane-land-king pattern, seeds of landed gentry, aristocracy.
___Literature of North especially not dominated by X hierarchy of values.
___Clovis, King of Franks. Owed some of political success to he brought his people to Catholic X (Most barbarians who settled in southern Europe Arian heretics), thus making the Franks acceptable to the Gallo-Romans he wished to rule. Church of Gaul duly grateful, offered its support to Clovis's dynasty. Gallic churchmen continued work of conversion of peasants
___Barbarian land law: often unable to donate land to X. 'Family monasteries' Abbot from founder's kin, favors granted on land. A worry for those enthusiasts who saw monast a way of escaping ties and tempts of world. Left Ireland for sake of their souls. Uninhabited Iceland.
___Franks convert Saxony as part of conquest: 772: Irminsul, sacred oak of pagan Saxons, felled. Baptism came to be regarded as affirmation of loyatly to Franks. Charlemagne: refuse baptism, or eat meat during lent, etc, insult X: death penalty. Church set up in Saxony enforced by Frankish army. This "horrific" 'conversion' of Saxons last great conquest of X in period before 900.
___Denmark, and Sweden: mission, founded churches, did not lead to lasting communities: ensuing Viking raids.
___Slavs: mission. But Greek mission of Cyril and Methodius fr. Const 863 more successful there. Brothers organized first Slavic state, churches, fortified centres. Magyars invade, collapse of Moravian state.
***
4. What effect on belief, certainty, and committment did the martyrs have?--the fact people gave their lives in belief of this religeon? What were the expectations on each person of what their religeon meant as far as committment?
***
5. What were the effects of the common morbid threat of plague, infant mortality, abuses of overlords, subsistence-level poverty on the acceptance of this religeon?
***
6. What effects does preaching have? Christian missionaries were the only active preachers, who would go forth to various lands to try to reqruit individual and groups of peoples.
___590's preacher Augustine sent by Gregory to bring English in line (since 450 A-S MIGRATION pushed last of Christians into mountainous Wales). Same time missionaries from Ireland preach X. Within 75 years, island predominantly X again: A-S conversion to X. Augustinian arrogant but trained clergy which will do work. (Brittons had been X like most of R.Empire since Constantine's conversion in 4th C.)
___Real process of Christianization: training of priests, preaching to people in the countryside, elimination Xization of pagan customs, teaching of X doctrines, was a process which lasted for centuries.
___Needed converts. Crucifiction not encouraging???, miracles, healings, hopeful aspects, Ascension and Resurrection. Surviving Crucifictions make no attempt to touch our emotions,
***
7. During conquest, what did the Romans provide to the Barbarians that their culture did not (The same for the British Empire and the American takeover of land)?
***
8. What did Christian unification provide? Laws, clauses?
___"Just as the Great Goddess, Danu, Anu, or Don, was the mother of the Great Tribe which we have identified as the Celts, whose people are from every race..."
___Gradual assimilation of Celtic/Germanic hero to new ends made possible by the religeous unity and authority of W.Europe.
___First half: winning people to X. Then: Crusades began. And had to be offensive in political and ideological spheres. W.Europe political disunity at max, but under leadership and direction of Church, achieved unanimity of spiritual, moral, and intellectual attitudes and ideals. Europe: community, like central nuclear force, individual countries regional manifestations of that. Students, scholars, poets, artists, clergy much travelled. X common subject matter for artists, and biblical stories had same meaning in every country, Charlemagne, Roland, Arthur, Aeneas, Troy, Thebes common. Much handled and adapted. No ideas of copyright, authorship. Anonymous.
___Political state relatively weak. Loyalties: individual, lord, code, chivalry, order, monks/friars.
___Dominant heirarchy of values based on X view of humanity. All 's. Civilization designed to assist all people to union with . Spiritual side of humanity transcends material: saint ideal. Human life judged according to scale of values.
___"The deities of the Celtic people were frequently demonized by Christian missionaries."
___Continuity. In time of enormous historical, social, and linguistic change.___Impact of X on literacy. First extended written specimen of OE code of laws promulgated by Ethelbert, first English Chrisian king.
___1381: Blackheath, Kent: renegade Lollard priest John ball gives the peasant revolt a sermon, "When Adam delved and Eve spun, were there any class distinctions?" (In the Garden, were there any class distinctions?)
___The whole sea shared a common destiny... with identical problems and general trends. A Roman lake. The R. Empire had provided political unity, law, and order to ensure the success of secular pursuits.
___Muslims: There is no God but God. Time when X arguing relationsip Song to Father and HG to the Father and Son etc. --statement anihilated phil and theological arguments, relief. Islam swept thru much of former RE and within 1 century Moors into Spain and gates of India.
___Norsemen: Oh, God, deliver us! Towers of refuge built.
___Charlemagne empire, 3 divisions. 1066 Norman conquest of Brittain. 1097 Pope Urban preaches crusades, squabbling Europe unites.
___11th 12th every young man's life: had to be warrior, knight, fighter. When war career, war games play. Jousting, battling, ladies watching, each goes into battle wearing his lady's scarf under helmet.

History of Lear, from Geoffery of Monmouth

2009-12-02T13:39:00.000-08:00

From: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/king-lear/background-on-king-lear/sources-for-king-lear/from-geoffrey-of-monmouth/638/

When Bladud was thus given over to the destinies, his son Lear was next raised to the kingdom, and ruled the country after manly fashion for three-score years. He it was that builded the city on the river Soar, that in the British is called Kaerleir, but in the Saxon, Leicester. Male issue was denied unto him, his only children being three daughters named Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia, whom all he did love with marvelous affection, her most of all the youngest born, to wit, Cordelia. And when that he began to be upon the verge of eld, He thought to divide his kingdom amongst them, and to marry them unto such husbands as were worthy to have them along with their share of the kingdom. But that he might know which of them was most worthy of the largest share, he went unto them to make inquiry of each as to which of them did most love himself.
When, accordingly, he asked of Goneril how much she loved him, she first called all the gods of heaven to witness that her father was dearer to her heart than the very soul that dwelt within her body. Unto whom saith her father: “For this, that thou hast set mine old age before thine own life, thee, my dearest daughter, will I marry unto whatsoever youth shall be thy choice, together with the third part of Britain.” Next, Regan, that was second, fain to take ensample of her sister and to wheedle her father into doing her an equal kindness, made answer with a solemn oath that she could no otherwise express her thought than by saying that she loved him better than all the world beside. The credulous father thereupon promised to marry her with the same dignity as her elder sister, with another third part of the kingdom for her share.
But the last, Cordelia, when she saw how her father had been cajoled by the flatteries of her sisters who had already spoken and desiring to make trial of him otherwise, went on to make answer unto him thus: “Father mine, is there a daughter anywhere that presumeth to love her father more than a father? None such, I trow, there is that durst confess as much, save she were trying to hide the truth in words of jest. For myself, I have ever loved thee as a father, nor never from that love will I be turned aside. Albeit that thou are bent on wringing more from me, yet hearken to the true measure of my love. Ask of me no more, but let this be mine answer: So much as thou hast, so much art thou worth, and so much do I love thee.”
Thereupon forthwith, her father, thinking that she had thus spoken out of the abundance of her heart, waxed mightily indignant, nor did he tarry to make known what his answer would be. “For that thou hast so despised thy father’s old age that thou hast disdained to love me, even as well as these, thy sisters love me, I also will disdain thee, nor never in my realm shalt thou have share with thy sisters. Howbeit, sith that thou art my daughter, I say not but that I will marry thee upon terms of some kind, unto some stranger that is of other land than mine, if so be that fortune shall offer such an one; only be sure of this, that never will I trouble me to marry thee with such honour as thy sisters, inasmuch as, whereas up to this time I have loved thee better than the others, it now seemeth that thou lovest me less than they.”
Straightway thereupon, by counsel of the nobles of the realm, he giveth the twain sisters unto two Dukes, of Cornwall, to wit, and Scotland, together with one moiety only of the island so long as he should live, but after his death he willed that they should have the whole of the kingdom of Britain. Now it fell out about this time that Aganippus, King of the Franks, hearing report of Cordelia’s beauty, forthwith dispatched his envoys to the King, beseeching him that Cordelia might be entrusted to their charge as his bride whom he would marry with due rite of the wedding torch. But her father, still persisting in his wrath, made answer that right willingly would he give her, but that needs must it be without land or fee, seeing that he had shared is kingdom along with all his gold and silver betwixt Cordelia’s sisters Goneril and Regan. When this word was brought unto Aganippus, for that he was on fire with love of the damsel, he sent again unto King Lear saying that enow had he of gold and silver and other possessions, for that one-third part of Gaul was his, and that he was fain to marry the damsel only that he might have sons by her to inherit his land. So at last the bargain was struck, and Cordelia was sent to Gaul to be married unto Aganippus.
Some long time after, when Lear began to wax more sluggish by reason of age, the foresaid Dukes, with whom and his two daughters he had divided Britain, rebelled against him and took away from him the realm and the kingly power which up to that time he had held right manfully and gloriously. Howbeit, concord was restored, and one of his sons-in-law, Maglaunus, Duke of Scotland, agreed to maintain him with forty knights, so that he should not be without some semblance of state. But after that he had sojourned with his son-in-law two years, his daughter Goneril began to wax indignant at the number of his knights, who flung gibes at her servants for that their rations were not more plentiful. Whereupon, after speaking to her husband, she ordered her father to be content with a service of twenty knights and to dismiss the others that he had.
The King, taking dudgeon, left Maglaunus, and betook him to Henvin, Duke of Cornwall, unto whom he had married his other daughter, Regan. Here, at first, he was received with honour, but a year had not passed before discord again arose betwixt those of the King’s household and those of the Duke’s, inasmuch as that Regan, waxing indignant, ordered her father to dismiss all his company save five knights only to do him service. Her father, beyond measure aggrieved thereat, returned once more to his eldest daughter, thinking to move her to pity and to persuade her to maintain himself and his retinue.
Howbeit, she had never renounced her first indignation, but swore by all the gods of Heaven that never should he take up his abode with her save he contented himself with the service of a single knight and were quit of all the rest. Moreover, she upbraided the old man for that, having nothing of his own to give away, he should be minded to go about with such a retinue; so that finding she would not give way to his wishes one single tittle, he at last obeyed and remained content with one knight only, leaving the rest to go their way.
But when the remembrance of his former dignity came back unto him, bearing witness to the misery of the state to which he was now reduced, he began to bethink him of going to his youngest daughter overseas. Howbeit, he sore misdoubted that she would do nought for him, seeing that he had held her, as I have said, in such scanty honour in the matter of her marriage. Nonetheless, disdaining any longer to endure so mean a life, he betook him across the Channel into Gaul. But when he found that two other princes were making the passage at the same time, and that he himself had been assigned but the third pace, he brake forth into tears and sobbing, and cried aloud:
“Ye destinies that do pursue your wonted way marked out by irrevocable decree, wherefore was it your will ever to uplift me to happiness so fleeting? For a keener grief it is to call to mind that lost happiness than to suffer the presence of the unhappiness that cometh after. For the memory of the days when in the midst of hundreds of thousands of warriors I went to batter down the walls of cities and to lay waste the provinces of mine enemies is more grievous unto me than the calamity that hath overtaken me in the meanness of mine estate, which hath incited them that but now were groveling under my feet to desert my feebleness. O angry fortune! will the day ever come wherein I may requite the evil turn that hath thus driven forth the length of my days and my poverty? O Cordelia, my daughter, how true were the words wherein thou didst make answer unto me, when I did ask of thee how much thou didst love me! For thou saidst, ‘So much as thou hast, so much art thou worth, and so much do I love thee.’ So long, therefore, as I had that which was mine own to give, so long seemed I of worth unto them that were the lovers, not of myself but of my gifts. They loved me at times, but better loved they the presents I made unto them. Now that the presents are no longer forthcoming, they too have gone their ways. But with what face, O thou dearest of my children, shall I dare appear before thee, I who, wroth with thee for these thy words, was minded to marry thee less honorably than thy sisters, who, after all the kindnesses I have conferred upon them, have allowed me to become an outcast and a beggar?”
Landing at last, his mind filled with these reflections and others of a like kind, he came to Karitia, where his daughter lived, and waiting without the city, sent a messenger to tell her into what indigence he had fallen, and to beseech his daughter’s compassion inasmuch as he had neither food nor clothing. On hearing the tidings, Cordelia was much moved and wept bitterly. When she made inquiry how many armed men he had with him, the messengers told her that he had none save a single knight, who was waiting with him without the city. She commanded also that he should have a retinue of forty knights well appointed and armed, and that then he should duly announce his arrival to Aganippus and herself. The messenger accordingly forthwith attended King Lear into another city, and hid him there in secret until that he had fully accomplished all that Cordelia had borne him on hand to do.
As soon therefore, as he was meetly arrayed in kingly apparel and invested with the ensigns of royalty, and a train of retainers, he sent word unto Aganippus and his daughter that he had been driven out of the realm of Britain by his sons-in-law, and had come unto them in order that by their assistance he might be able to recover his kingdom. They accordingly, with the great counselors and nobles, came forth to receive him with all honour, and placed in his hands the power over the whole of Gaul until such time as they had restored him unto his former dignity.
In the meanwhile, Aganippus sent envoys throughout the whole of Gaul to summon every knight baring arms therein to spare no pains in coming to help him to recover the kingdom of Britain for his father-in-law, King Lear. When they had all made them ready, Lear led the assembled host together with Aganippus and his daughter into Britain, fought a battle with his sons-in-law, and won the victory, again bringing them all under his own dominion. In the third year thereafter he died, and Aganippus died also, and Cordelia, now mistress of the helm of state in Britain, buried her father in a certain underground chamber which she had bidden be made under the river Soar at Leicester. This underground chamber was founded in honour of the two-faced Janus, and there, when the yearly celebration of the day came round, did all the workmen of the city set hand unto such work as they were about to be busied upon throughout the year.
Now, when Cordelia had governed the kingdom in peace for five years, two sons of her sisters began to harass her, Margan, to wit, and Cunedag, that had been born unto the Dukes Maglaunus and Henvin, both of them youths of notable likelihood and prowess, Margan being son of Maglaunus and Cunedag of Henvin. These, after the deaths of their fathers, had succeeded them in their dukedoms, and now took it in high dudgeon that Britain should be subject to the rule of a woman. They therefore assembled their hosts and rebelled against the Queen, nor were they minded to put an end to their outrages until after laying waste a number of provinces, they had defeated her in several battles, and had at last taken her and put her in prison, wherein, overwhelmed with grief for the loss of her kingdom, she slew herself.
Forthwith the youths divided the island between them, whereof that part which stretcheth from the Humber towards Caithness fell to Margan’s share, and the other, on the other side of the river, that vergeth toward the West, was allotted to Cunedag. After the space of two years, certain of them that rejoiced in making disturbance in the realm, joined them with Margan and began to tempt him to walk in crooked paths, saying that foul shame it was he, the eldest born, should not have dominion over the whole island; so that, what with this and other grievances, they at last egged him on to march with an army into Cunedag’s territories, and thus began to heap fuel on the fire they had kindled. On the war breaking out, Cunedag with all his host marched out to meet him, and in the battle that was fought inflicted no small slaughter, driving Margan in flight before him, and afterwards following his flight from province to province, until at last he overtook and slew him in a village of Wales, which after that Margan was slain there hath been called by his name, Margan to wit, ever since by the country folk even unto this day. Cunedag, accordingly, having won the victory, possessed himself of the monarchy of the whole island and governed the same gloriously for three and thirty years.
(At that time Isaiah and Hosea prophesied, and Rome was founded the eleventh of the *Kalends of May by the twin-brethren, Romulus and Remus.)
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Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100—c. 1155), an English bishop and scholar, wrote what he called a translation of an ancient history of English kings which told largely legendary stories of English kings from the original Brutus, held to be a descendant of the Greek founder of Rome, Aeneas, through the seventh century AD Cadwallader. It includes the earliest extensive treatment of King Arthur. He wrote an independent treatise on Merlin. His early kings included Leir and Gorbuduc, both of whom divided their kingdoms among their children with disastrous consequences.
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Synopsis:
After leading his country for 60 years, Leir, without male issue, decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, that they might attract thereby the most suitable husbands to rule the segments. He proposes a love test to judge their worthiness. After Goneril and Regan flatter him outrageously, Cordelia promises no more than her natural love for her father. Angry, he dispossesses her, marries Goneril to Maglaunus, Duke of Scotland and Regan to Henvin, Duke of Cornwall, grants them some portion of the country, but keeps half for himself, promising it to them when he dies. Meanwhile, Aganippus of France, hearing of Cordelia’s beauty, decides to take her regardless of her dower-less status.
As Leir grows more sluggish, his two sons-in-law usurp his half, but, to smooth the pain, agree to maintain him with forty knights. But after two years living with Maglaunus and Goneril, Leir is reduced to twenty knights because they complain too much. Affronted, Lier moves to Regan’s, who after a year reduces him to ten. Goneril then reduces him to one when he returns to her. Aggrieved, he swallows his pride and moves to France, suffering the further indignity of third place behind his sons-in-law who circumstantially make the same journey. Learning of his arrival, Cordelia forgives Leir, restores his forty knights and regalia, and hides him in another city until he has regained his regal bearing. Royally fit, he meets Aganippus, tells him that he was driven out of England, and comes in hopes of aid in recovering his lost lands. Aganippus raises the necessary army, and with Leir and Cordelia leads it to victory over Leir’s renegade children. However, three years later Leir and Aganippus both die, leaving the realm to Cordelia. Five years later, the sons of her sisters, now Dukes themselves after the deaths of their fathers, find it not fit to be ruled by a woman, and rise up and usurp her crown. In prison, overwhelmed with grief, Cordelia takes her own life.

Lear of History, from Holinshed

2009-12-02T13:18:00.000-08:00

(Where in the Holinshed is Lear? second book, chaps. v, vi.)
(Holinshed’s narrative follows essentially the same lines as Geoffrey of Monmouth. It omits the detail about the daughter’s reducing Leir’s knights, leaving their abuse in generality, measure’s Leir’s reign as 40 years, not 60, and makes the deaths of Cornwall and Scotland specifically during the incursion.)
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The text translated at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/king-lear/background-on-king-lear/sources-for-king-lear/holinshed-chronicles/640/
Leir the sonne of Baldud, was admitted ruler ouer the Britaines, in the yeere of the world 3105, at what time Ioas raigned as yet in Iuda. This Leir was a prince of right noble demeanor, gouerning his land and subiects in great wealth. He made the towne of Caerlier nowe called Leicester, which standeth vpon the riuer of Sore. It is written that he had by his wife three daughters without other issue, whose names were Gonorilla, Regan, and Cordeilla, which daughters he greatly loued, but specially Cordeilla the yoongest farre aboue the two elder. When this Leir therefore was come to great yeeres, & began to waxe vnweldie through age, he thought to vnderstand the affections of his daughters towards him, and preferre hir whome he best loued, to the succession ouer the kingdome. Whervpon he first asked Gonorilla the eldest, how well shee loued him: who calling hir gods to record, protested, that she loued him more than hir owne life, which by right and reason shoulde be most deere vnto hir. With which answer the father being well pleased, turned to the second, and demanded of hir how well she loued him: who answered (confirming hir saiengs with great othes) that she loued him more than toung could expresse, and farre aboue all other creatures of the world
Then called he his yoongest daughter Cordeilla before him, and asked of hir what account she made of him: vnto whome she made this answer as followeth: Knowing the great loue and fatherlie zeale that you haue always borne towards me, (for the which I maie not answere you otherwise than I thinke, and as my conscience leadeth me) I protest vnto you, that I haue loued you euer, and will continuallie (while I liue) loue you as my naturall father. And if you would more vnderstand of the loue that I beare you, assertaine your selfe, that so much as you haue, so much you are worth, and so much I loue you, and no more. The father being nothing content with this answer, married his two eldest daughters, the one vnto Henninus, the Duke of Cornewal, and the other vnto Maglanus, the Duke of Albania, betwixt whome he willed and ordeined that his land should be deuided after his death, and the one halfe thereof immediatelie should be assigned to them in hand: but for the third daughter Cordeilla he reserued nothing.
Neuertheles it fortuned that one of the princes of Gallia (which now is called France) whose name was Aganippus, hearing of the beautie, womanhood, and good conditions of the said Cordeilla, desired to haue hir in mariage, and sent ouer to hir father, requiring that he mighte haue hir to wife: to whome answere was made, that he might haue his daughter, but as for anie dower he could haue none, for all was promised and assured to hir other sisters alreadie. Aganippus notwithstanding this answer of deniall to receiue anie thing by way of dower with Cordeilla, tooke hir to wife, onlie moued thereto (I saie) for respect of hir person and amiable vertues. This Aganippus was one of the twelue kings that ruled Gallia in those daies, as in the Brittish historie it is recorded. But to proceed.
After that Leir was fallen into age, the two dukes that had married his two eldest daughters, thinking long yer the gouernment of the land did come to their hands, arose against him in armour, and reft from him the gouernance of the land, vpon conditions to be continued for terme of life: by the which he was put to his portion, that is, to liue after a rate assigned to him for the maintenance of his estate, which in processe of time was diminished as well by Maglanus as by Henninus. But the greatest griefe that Leir tooke, was to see the vnkindnesse of his daughters, which seemed to thinke that all was too much which their father had, the same being neuer so little: in so much, that going from the one to the other, he was brought to that miserie, that scarslie they would allow him one seruaunt to waite upon him.
In the end, such was the vnkindnesse, or (as I maie saie) the vnnaturalnesse which he found in his two daughters, notwithstanding their faire and pleasant words vttered in time past, that being constreined of necessitie, he fled the land, and sailed into Gallia, there to seeke some comfort of his youngest daughter Cordeilla whom before time he hated. The ladie Cordeilla hearing that he was arriued in poore estate, she first sent to him priuilie a certeine summe of monie to apparell himselfe withall, and to reteine a certein number of seruants that might attende vpon him in honorable wise, as apperteined to the estate which he had borne: and then so accompanied, she appointed him to come to the court, which he did, and was so ioifullie, honorablie, and louinglie receiued, both by his sonne in law Aganippus, and also by his daughter Cordeilla, that his hart was greatlie comforted: for he was no lesse honored, than if he had beene king of the whole Countrie himselfe.
Now when he had informed his son in law and his daughter in what sort he had beene vsed by his other daughters, Aganippus caused a mightie armie to be put in readinesse, and likewise a greate nauie of ships to be rigged, to passe ouer into Britaine with Leir his father in law, to see him againe restored to his kingdome. It was accorded, that Cordeilla should also go with him to take possession of the land, the which he promised to leaue vnto hir, as the rightfull inheritour after his decesse, notwithstanding any former grant made to hir sisters or to their husbands in anie maner of wise.
Herevpon, when this armie and nauie of ships were readie, Leir and his daughter Cordeilla with hir husband tooke the sea, and arriuing in Britaine, fought with their enimies, and discomfited them in battell, in the which Maglanus and Henninus were slaine: and then was Leir restored to his kingdome, which he ruled after this by the space of two yeeres, and then died, fortie yeeres after he first began to reigne. His bodie was buried at Leicester in a vaut vnder the chanell of the Riuer of Sore beneath the towne.
Cordeilla, the yoongest daughter of Leir was admitted Q. and supreme gouernesse of Britaine, in the yeere of the world 3155, before the bylding of Rome 54, Uzia was then reigning in Juda, and Jeroboam ouer Israell. This Cordeilla after hir father’s deceasse ruled the land of Britaine right worthilie during the space of fiue yeeres, in which meane time hir husband died, and then about the end of those fiue yeeres, hir two nephewes Margan and Cunedag, sonnes to hir aforesaid sisters, disdaining to be vnder the gouernment of a woman, leuied warre against hir, and destroied a great part of the land, and finallie tooke hir prisoner, and laid hir fast in ward, wherewith she tooke suche griefe, being a woman of a manlie courage, and despairing to recouer libertie, there she slue hirselfe ‘
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Raphael Holinshed (died c. 1580) is one of the mysterious souls from the English Renaissance who left a lasting mark but almost no other trace of himself. He published in 1577 the Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, a massive compilation of history and myth that served among other purposes to furnish Shakespeare with whatever factual basis he used for his history plays, and two of his tragedies—Macbeth and King Lear. His will was attested on 24 April 1582, but it is generally believed he died some years earlier. Otherwise, his life, ironically, was not chronicled.

White Tits

2009-12-02T13:06:00.000-08:00

Can be found almost everywhere, in fields, on hillsides, on mountainsides, on golf courses, village greens, sports fields, and gardens. They prefer a south facing slope with wet soil.
DESCRIPTION: This fungi is known for its 'Breast or Tit' like shape. The mushroom has a crooked stem with a cone shaped cap, with a nipple in the middle. Grows in clumps sometimes hundreds per square meter. Is a brown colour when first out, fading to a yellow then to a Gold or golden yellow when dry. Life span is from 3 to 4 days with more coming up to replace those that die.
FLOWERING PERIOD : Can be found on mountain tops from the end of July if it has been a wet year. Will spread down into the low lands as the ground get wetter from August onwards. The mushroom will move down off the mountain side and hillsides into the low lands as the climate gets colder to go completely with the first frost. Around the middle of October. Can sometime continue to be found in low-land areas up until the middle of November if it is a mild Autumn.
When picking, the stem should be cut so as the removal of the root does not take place. All the fungi in an area are a few oraginisms which is mainly the root systems and damage can cause the death of the root system and therfore the loss of the fungi over a large area.

Carry some dried liberty caps to attract lovers.

From: http://www.shee-eire.com/Herbs,Trees&Fungi/Fungus/Fly-agaric/main.htm

the Red Bulb

2009-12-02T12:59:00.000-08:00

Some on Fly Agaric, the red bulb, from a site on Celtic information at the following address...

http://www.shee-eire.com/Herbs,Trees&Fungi/Fungus/Fly-agaric/main.htm

It was referred to as the 'Flesh of the gods', or 'Food of the Gods' because they believed that they were in direct communication with the Earth and the Universe when they consumed this Fungi.

These fungi are the fruit of an Organism that can live to be thousands of years old. Most of this organism is the root system with only the fruit being seen here in the photos. The fruit of this organism is well known but few realise the fruit found over a certain area will usually all be from the one organism.

The smoking of the fungi would have been done when it was dried and where possible they would have tried to sun-dry the mushrooms. It would then have been mixed with other herbs and/or fungi and smoked through a pipe.
It would also have been burnt or mixed with the water in the sweat-lodges to be consumed through the pores in the skin.

It takes no more that a few days for the fungi to grow from the root to a full cap. If it is not eaten by another of Mother Earth's creatures.
Eating of the Fly-Agaric Mushroom : The most common way that this mushroom was eaten was when it had been dried. The Druid or Druids fasted for at least 3 days, drinking only water although sometimes small amounts of purifying herbs may also be taken and meditating before consumption of the fungi. This was done for a number of reasons, not only to purify the mind but also it purified the body because the body acts in a strange way to this fungi. When consumed the body removes the Mind-Expanding substances before the poison. So the Psychedelic is in the body before it starts to react to the poison. This reaction is violent stomach emptying as the body rejects what's left of the mushroom before it absorbs any more of the poison. The Druids were well prepared for this sickness as it was part of taking the fungi. After the poison is rejected the Psychedelic starts to act, this is when the second reason for body purity was needed as the first urine expelled after consumption is nearly all Psychedelic and this was either consumed at the time to give full effect of the fungi or stored for a later ritual. It may also have been used in some of their Beverages or Potions. This may sound a bit sick to some but with the 3 day fast and only water going in, only water was coming out.
Smoking the Fly-Agaric Mushroom : The dried mushroom can be broken into small amounts and smoked on their own or with other herbs or fungi in a pipe, chillum or bong. The effect can be felt almost immediately and is much milder than eaten, and there is no sickness when smoking as the poison is destroyed by the heat. Some of the poison is also removed during the drying process.

The Organism that these photos are taken off, would be from 200-300 years old. So I for one do not have the right to destroy this old an living growing organism. As a Celtic Pagan I also have a right to use these tools of exploration and no other human has the right to deny me these tools. There is an arrogance from the politicians of today that they have the right to interfere in the lives of others, this is not so and if these politicians don't realize this soon there will be a breakdown of the system as more and more people take radical action against their unjustifiable laws.

Audrey Pyramid

2009-11-25T01:36:00.000-08:00

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2009-11-25T01:24:00.000-08:00

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What is this. It's in India

2009-11-24T23:56:00.000-08:00

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Atlan

2009-11-24T22:30:00.000-08:00

First some images of the last glacial extent (16000 BC). If anyone has any hi-res of these, especially the areas of the equator of that time, please hook me up. Especially Southern Japan islands, Bimini, you know the areas.

Anyone have a Southern Hem of this type following?

Following is 's a projection of the Piri Reis, compiled by an Arab cartographer in 1513 our calendar. It is matched up with a view from space to show the differences. Is it more similar to the approximated coast 16000BC? I wonder how well they take into account the sea level difference of 120 meters. Piri's map sources included recent sources like columbus, explaining the modern and clear little dots for Caribean Isles.

you can find this picture here: http://www.scotese.com/lastice.htm I have heard the red dot is near some points that stick out of the ocean nowadays, St Michaels or something. Anyone know about this? Photos? Sonar?

Piri's mountains.

The old equator? When was this? Can anyone corrolate the ice age extent and the equator?

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199203/piri.reis.and.the.columbus.map.htm

some text by the arabs involved in the compilation.

http://home.hiwaay.net/~jalison/Reis.htm

Lots of the world's mysteries.

yeah but can you dance

2009-11-22T23:07:00.001-08:00

French Mideival Literature

2009-11-22T11:04:00.000-08:00

interpretation, reinterpreted, history primarily the history of the "soul," all created, incl Nature, assumed symbolic, moralistic value, Aristotle the DISCOVErer of the laws of reason; reason given man to apprehend faith, thru faith complete understanding.One ideal, faithin establ order, dominant emot: honor or obligation to one's trust. liege, lady, God, in same manner nearsame terms. =lit restricted: vivid intense, poetic imaginative RATHER real. Mystical lit fraught personal longings aspiration grasp infinite witihn vessel of finite. Didactic and formalistic, moralizes life, lays code conduct, even in the AFFAIRS of the HEART, neglects intrinsic values life (Beaut indivhapp, justice)Lapidaries astrologies bestiaries of M-ages, sought to reveal symb ethic meaning of Nat herself.Universe limited, in its narrow scope as then known, no conscious effort to change: widen horizons, better material condits. Highest aim liberation from sin, avoidance or expiation.11th 12th: warlike conditions. pilgrimages to holy places, expeditions vs saracens in Spain, wars Crusades.Hierarchies of Demons and saints, in pilgimages, fastings, physical suffering, material Hell, material Purgatory.Not yet reflect truly national spirit (10th, 11th, lives of saint, saint alexis, poem of passion)Chansons de geste (deeds) products of the race Hugh Capet and successors called upon to govern. Jongleurs (minstrels) arranged epic poems into cycles, each headed by name of ancestor.A crucified savior, a Christ victorious over bodily pain, quintessence mystical, medieval spirit. Pietistic note.Feudalism: guiding princ: obligation, "commended himself" A mutual guarantee of person and property in an age of weak government. Fuedalism favors crown. Soc in gen now reflects F ideals.Distinctions BEtween: noble and serf, knight and yeoman, courtois and vilain (vulgar), definately drawn. 4 Great Classes or castes: noble, clergy, townsfolk/bourgeois, peasantry.Crusades begin and chivalry milit and soc org sweeps Euro.Polite (Courtois) soc comes into being.When not fighting, these paladins of Fra play warlike games; old men chess young fence or joust.ROLANDchanted at Hastings 1066 (chronicler William of Malmesbury)Serious tone.
Roland NOT courtois. manners of knights crude, tribal or family bond strong.
Ganelon's hatred becomes ruin of French. Roland designates as return-messenger to Marsile. equal to part, enraged presumption, braves Marsile, defies him, as any follower of Charles, sense of solitary grandeur amid the warring factions of state, would, cannot forgive R, insensate hatred, in his passion makes M believe that the destruction of the rear-guard will destroy the Fre. Oliver (reason), 11th hour logic tells him R responsible for Fre defeat, affection for friend mingles w cruelty of a reproach, for thus his conscious compels him to do.
Women: If I could see my lovely sister Alde,
Thou should'st never lie within her arms' embrace. (No refining influ of women)
Charles offers griefstricken Alde consolation son Louis as sub
News? Compacted? Roland w 20000 guard left behind in Sp attacked by overwhelming SaracensRoland is brave and Oliver is wise --Last efforts break sword save from pagans. Sacri for king country honor.Charles having crushed Saracens, returns Fra bodies of beloved knights. Alde, R's betrothed, falls dead at Char feet. Ganelon brought to justice torn pieces 4 stallions, Emperor under weight of sorrows 200y-o lives wearily on.X feudal valor. Relig + Patriot are one: knights fight greater glory of X Fra.Fighting bishops, Valkyrielike angels carry souls of valiant to Para, no place for sophis emots
Pelerinage de Charlemagne a Constantinople (before 1150)
Spirit of braggadocio and rollicking fun, market place epic addressed to populace of a great church fair, amuse rather than uplift.
Charles who wears crown at St Denis, asks the Queen whether there can be a more imposing monarch than himself. Rashly she names Hugo of Constantinople. At once Charles and the Twelve Peers journey to the Orient for the purpose of disproving the Queen's assertion.
In C linger, relics enable preposterous boasts or gabs. Thus majestic Hugo does homage, admits Charles no ordinary mortal. "Never shall we come into a land where renoun is not ours."
Ganelon treachery, Roland pride and loyalty, Charles sorrow--obvious kinship French Classical tragedy (clarity of outline, sense of proportion--Fre lit art)
William of Orange Cycle (Couronnement de Louis 1130)
exhaltation of X. Loyalty to Carol Dyn, tottering to its fall in the successors of Charles.
As in general: tragic muse, reiterating and reinforcing heroic motives, glorify Fra.
Louis too timid, William hastens to aid, protection, feeble, kills off usurpers marries Louis to own sister. To William he bore no love.
Guiborc fails to recognize him, partly because she cannot believe that W would have fled.
Doon de Mayence cycle (Raoul de Cambrai, Gerard de Roussillon 1150)
Raoul driven demand of Louis his just inheritance. L promises then wavers--perfidy, infuriates, destroys town Origini and its cloister of nuns, although in true Mid fashion he refuses to eat meat on Friday. Finally reconcil effected, in which King also pays forfeit.
Still no depiction of imaginative passion
Char Bernier "dull, expostulatory, helpless" excellent exampl hero marked by fate.
But the sight of her husbands degradation moves Bertha to urge...
ecclesiastical and feudal ideas, king and baron, castle and monastery, struggle for possession of the land.
Monastic schools, feudal castles arose on every hand. Great cult upheaval 1150-1200. Polite soc takes form definite molds. Women play part affairs of state, gave tone to ideals of which they themselves the object. Era: warlike, but war no longer opposition of popular forces, conflict of rival clans, but SOCIAL game, waged according to fixed rules: those of Chivalry. Heroic gives place to sentimental and adventurous; epic poetry dies out or bc merged w new genre, “romance”, Huon de Bordeaux 1220 heroic followed by purely fanciful or magical. Aiol 1250+ ttansfuses epic background w romantic motifs and vein of real humor. 1250+: heroic motivation disappears altogether, chansons de geste translated to prose bc part of romantic narrative lore of Europe.
(CH II Lyric and Romance)
12th cen Fra: personal or “lyric” inspiration, songs originally accompany dance (la carole), hands all joined in the refrain, leader. Dating from a time when there was no formal division between polite soc and the people as such. Spring-tide, nightingale, and love. Loving hearts burn secretly.
Northern Fre Type: independ of S, provencal influ. Addressed to soc at large, wo expressed distinction of cast. Product of jangleurs: narrative in form, love experience told as a story. Alliteration of names. Ending in a refrain of 1 2 or 3 shorter verses. Reveries or Mal Mariee(pungent synical, embody the lament of those wedded unhappily. Protagonist as elsewhere is a woman. Consoles herself by taking lover.) Pastourelle: the “shepherdess”, graces celebrate, while riding thru the country meets a sheperdess whose love he implores. Wishes to remain true, he comes to her rescue, attacks importunate nobleman, freq to the regret of the girl.
Her shapely form brought joy to me,
Her glowing color too;
And stopping there, her close to see,
I straightaway 'gan to woo.
Succumbs to his beau parler, forgets rustic in the arms of the new lover.
Southern: encouraged by rivalry of the courts of Champagne, Blois, Flanders, England. Gave to the new age a distinction (second only to Renaissance). William IX 1087-1127, earliest known tropator (composer of tropes), grandfather lighthearted Eleanor, mother of Marie of Champagne and Alice of Blois. Avenue northward, baggage of poets travelling over it. Gai saber, new poetic art. New Ovid of age written Tractatus Amoris / De Amore. A poetry of “art”, point of departure: idenitification of love w relig: Omnia vinvit amor. Purely sensuous ideal of antiquity changed: conviction of the unattainable, like mystic before the Virgin he humbled himself before his lady. Result: phil interpretation of love as the source of Noble Traits (valour), lover became: perfectworshipper of his unattainable mistress. System has laws, precepts, remedies: code: complex in extreme and administered by Love (the Lord of Terrible Aspect). Poetry becomes a difficult and subtle art, trobar clus, conceits and euphemisms, every natural note banished: dishonorable vulgar vilain. Gain in poetic expression. Psychology of emotion. Lyric not of the people, in artistic form. German Minnesong largely importation. Themes: crusades suggest Conon de Bethune 1180), conceit of wandering body cors and captive heart cuers, subtleties of mind, art turnd to rhetoric. Tenson and Jeu parti: debates or contests in verse on some problem of love casuistry: should a lover prefer the marriage or the death of his beloved? Which lover has the greater chance, one who is blind, or one who is deaf and dumb? Chanson. Game toy with ideas.
Peotry is ever ready to draw on pop sources, just as the people are willing to adopt courtly forms and modify them. Morning song, salut d'amour,
The courtois ladies were enamoured of the art of Provence also reacted to the wonder of the Orient, now made accessible by the Crusades, and the tales of marvels and enchantments, legend of Troy, Aeneas, The past, by degrees, seemed contemporaneous and actual: genuine renaissance, chivalric garb, Troilus a fate-stricken lover, matchless like Helen, lovelorn like Dido, bewitching like Medea, was the aim of most 12th cen heroines. Past exploited (monasteries) as to its sensus “meaning”, Ovid, sanction of age, elaborated, metaphor and hyperbole, gains almost freedom of prose 8-syl replaces 10, a whole literature drawn from the Latin, in the vernacular: roman to romance, assumes the function of a distinct genre, independent of any Latin origin, prototype modern novel. Matiere: fra National Epic, Rome, Britain Arthur.
Rome:
Alexandre Strange animals, amphibiuos men, Valleys from which None Return, Fountain of Youth, speaking trees fortell his doom, Wonderbook of East, spirited style and richly flowing narrative.
Thebes 1150 , posit woman stil subordinate to man.
Eneas 1150+ circle about Dido and Lavinia, as the moth plays about the flame, thru Lavinia, more skilled in artifices of love, he regains his prowess and accomplishes the high emprise of defeating Turnus—and, incidentally, of founding Rome. Deft and vivid handling of dialog.
Troie 1165 , wrote 30000 verses in honor of Eleanor of Poitou. Dares and Dictys furnished only the background and the main characters; medieval alaboration. Fall of Troy becomes typ 12th cen mil exploit, knights in armor, ladies in castle and bowers, behind it all the trials and tribs of courtly lovers. Helen too puzzling, as well as too Greek; Andromache only a faithful wife; Cassandra a scolding sorceress; Polyxena a victim; whereas Briseida had a fairly clear record. Benoit gave feudal soc an ancestry in the halls of Ilion (as Virgin imperial Rome). Narrative has some flow and charm, picturesque.
Britain:
Celtic stories: in England thru Wales and Cornwall, on continent thru Armorica or Brittany. Commerce, and therefore literature, musical accompaniment, in the French court circles, folklore character much,
Geoffery on Monmouth: Historia regum Britanniae: mingles legend w fact in a resonant pseudo-historical style, Brutus—eponymic of Britain, so that Arthur appears the exemplar chiv, curtois B counterpart of the Fr Charlemagne, Mordred—not Lancelot—lover of Guinevere, court the center of “politeness, which people of other countries thought worthy of immitation, “love” inspires “knighthood”, crux, discussion, “the women of As court esteem none worthy of their love who have not given proof of their valor in three days' battle”,
Wace (Norman poet) put Historia in Fr verse, elab, adds account of Round table—became framework for later A story.
Tristan: Celtic magic combin of human passion, prim adven and custom, which is unique in Fr romance. Unlike Arthur, Tristan romances apparently come straight from the vernacular. Lost Estoire written in Eng in Norman French probably. Tristans expeddition to Ire to fetch the blond-haired Isolt for his maternal unkle, King Mark of Cornwall. Love-philter, stung by repentance, passion, endeavors to renounce Isolt, flees, marries second Isolt, decieved by false report boat was to bring true Isolt black sail, falls dead.
Beroul: same story but primitive traits, midas-like ears, concealed under a cap, cunning of the dwarf Frocin, reveals tristans guilt to mark, leap to freedom from chapel window, Iselt handed over to band of lepers, insight, humor, connects the legend, another world, does not narrate, he psychologizes, knights of Brittany, treats Tristans desir, and his volunte (which tears him from her), develops the conceit of Iselts cuers (TR) and her cors (which to his and her shame Tristan shares with Mark), lays foundation for theme, manage a trois, penetrates the tragedy of Mark's life, crystallize, triumph of life over death,
Old Norse Sir Tristrem, Folie Trisan (T disquised as 'fool')
“With such models as guide, the Romance enters upon a fruitful career.” So they say when Troyes comes up. Troyes late 12th. Active in court 1160 1170 semetime.
“Perceval and other forms in Fra of Grail legend. Robert de Boron (prob from Bergundy) wrote the Roman de l'Estoire dou Graal or Metrical Joseph, a poem on the career of Joseph of Arimathea. The connects the Grail definitely with the cup of the Last Supper and relates how the followers of Joseph brought the Grail to England. Thus the foundation is layed for an entire Xation of the legen and a general remodelling of the Grail quest, which is largely the wor of the first quartre of the thirteenth century.”
Crestien's poem inspire masterpiece in Germany—Middle High German Parzival 1215 Wolfram von Eschenbach. Makes Parzival an exemplar of German treue or fidelity of character. (creates a type second only to faust)
Next to cretien, British matter: Raoul de Houdenc (after 1200). Accords prize of beauty to Idoine, lets the hero accomplish impossible tasks in the pursuit of prowess, little to hold reader except thrill, one of its fairest blossoms, bravery and courtesy, humor and fancy.
Chivalry having become a thing apart, the courtly “love adventure” treated w more an dmore realism, own path, for its own sake, as fate.
Love of abstraction, gothic art after 1200, not merely a personification, but the conscious representation of one action in terms of an entirely different action. Without ceasing to be a true story, becomes a volume of symbols. “vision” literature of med church.
Jean de Meun: his scorn of the fair sex helped to keep his work alive at a time when many of his other ideas were out of date or inappropriate. Uphold science against superstition. Proverbial.
Making the fable reflect contemporary manners. Wolf stands for hypocritical priest, calf fleeing . Novice escaping the cloister. The drama
does not reach its flourescenece until the later mid ages, in the 15th cen, It waited for a public which came with the development of the great industrial centers and the rise of the Bourgoise to a place of prominence.
Later developing the so-called mystery play1374 or miracle play: 13th Miracle de Theophile by Rutebeuf : a monk has bartered his soul to the Devil and finally having grown repentant, he recovers it thru the intercession of the Virgin.
Wife slandered by revengeful lover fav theme.
Adam de la Hale: Jeu de Robin et Marion. Obvious adaptation of the Pastourelle to a musical, dramatic form. Spoken of as forrunner to comic opera. Robin loves Marion, and together they ward off an importunate knight. This occus amid scenes of merrymaking and frolic; a wolf is driven from the flock attended by 2 shepherds and the play ends in a dance which carries the company off to the woods. The beauty and grace of the entire compos\ition has often been noted. Certain lines breathe the spring time of life, altho many of the motifs are commonplacesfor example the refrain: Robin M'aime, Robin M'a, / Robin m'a demandee, si m'ara,END:human institutions decay, by degrees.monarchy forced win support bourgeois class, power great nobles wanes, feudalism disintigrates. Scientific knowl rises medieval fixity broken and Renaissance.Begin w satire and irony. Gallic commonsense, protest: fabliaux, beast-epic.
Courtly love reaches its apogee, “third estate” hard commonsense earliest victory: 1270 Clopinel.
A time when courtly idealism was disintegrating and burguois irony scored its first victories.
Receives its coup de grace in the undying pages of Don Quixote—exaltaion of chivalry and not to the romances as such.
14th cen crusade-cycle romantic compositions: become object burlesque and parody, fate awaited all epic and chivalric expression at close of MiddleAges.

Pictorial Stones, Gotland

2009-11-20T10:49:00.000-08:00

700-900 Picture Stones in Gotland
Pictoral Stones in the Historical Museum of Gotland

You're...

2009-11-14T22:28:00.001-08:00

Sweet

2009-11-14T21:42:00.001-08:00

They say

2009-11-14T21:34:00.000-08:00

Eye Say Better

2009-11-14T21:25:00.000-08:00

S'that look

2009-11-11T00:17:00.001-08:00

Start on Page 8. Before the 7 Cardinal vices, there were these 6 things God hated, as written in Proverbs

1 Haughty eyes / a proud look, when a mortal looks down his nose at his brother, when we feel the right to disregard the interests and pains of others, and act as if we are the centre of the universe, assuming we exist for our own enjoyment, or rely on natural instincts rather than taking pains to pursue the wisdom and knowledge of God.
2 A lying tongue
3 Hands that shed innocent blood
4 A heart that devises wicked plots
5 Feet that are swift to run into mischief
6 A deceitful witness that uttereth lies
7 Him that soweth discord among brethren

So strangely, ...

2009-11-08T15:16:00.001-08:00

Native American Photo Collection

2009-11-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

บอย ตรัย - เพื่อนของเราชื่อความเหงา From Oneen Chi's hi5 - Happy Birthday sweetheart

2009-11-08T14:17:00.000-08:00

Juvenal, 10th Satire, The Vanity of Human Wishes

2009-11-07T18:26:00.000-08:00

Is there nothing then for which men shall pray? If you ask my counsel, you will leave it to the gods themselves to provide what is good for us, and what will be serviceable for our state; for, in place of what is pleasing, they will give us what is best. Man is dearer to them than he is to himself. Impelled by strong and blind desire, we ask for wife and offspring; but the gods know ot what sort the sons, of what sort the wife, will be. Nevertheless that you may have something to pray for, and be able to offer to the shrines entrails and presaging sausages from a white porker, you should pray for a sound mind in a sound body; for a stout heart that has no fear of death, and deems length of days the least of Nature's gifts; that can endure any kind of toil; that knows neither wrath nor desire, and thinks that the woes and hard labours of Hercules are better than the loves and the banquets and the down cushions of Sardanapalus. What I commend to you, you can give to yourself; for it is assuredly through virtue that lies the one and only road to a life of peace. Thou wouldst have no divinity, O Fortune, if we had but wisdom; it is we that make a goddess of thee, and place thee in the skies.

Pic I stole from a book on Celts

2009-11-07T01:43:00.000-08:00

Little Perspective on the Roman Confrontation with Northerners

2009-11-07T01:40:00.000-08:00

Otho,

2009-11-07T01:03:00.000-08:00

young comrade of Nero, betrayed by a wife, exile for 19 years, earner of credit and support, rebelion, ascendant to Emperorship, war, loss, decision to sacrifice, speech and suicide.

and the life of his love Poppaea,

set amongst the lives of the gentlemen and ladies of Rome.

Note: You havn't finished Plutarch yet: Plutarch's Life of Otho
or Tacitus. Book 1: 3o's where you left off...

Jeuvenal, in Satire 6, on Messalina

2009-11-07T00:34:00.000-08:00

Then consider the God's rivals, hear what Claudius
had to put up with. The minute she heard him snoring
his wife - that whore-empress - who dared to prefer the mattress
of a stews to her couch in the Palace, called for her hooded
night-cloak and hastened forth, with a single attendant.
Then, her black hair hidden under an ash-blonde wig,
she'd make straight for her brothel, with its stale, warm coverlets,
and her empty reserved cell. Here, naked, with gilded
nipples, she plied her trade, under the name of 'The Wolf-Girl',
parading the belly that once housed a prince of the blood.
She would greet each client sweetly, demand cash payment,
and absorb all their battering - without ever getting up.
Too soon the brothel-keeper dismissed his girls:
she stayed right till the end, always last to go,
then trailed away sadly, still | with burning, rigid vulva,
exhausted by men, yet a long way from satisfied,
cheeks grimed with lamp-smoke, filthy, carrying home
to her Imperial couch the stink of the whorehouse.

Then look at those who rival the Gods, and hear what Claudius
endured. As soon as his wife perceived that her husband was asleep,
this august harlot was shameless enough to prefer a common mat
to the imperial couch. Assuming night-cowl, and attended by a single maid,
she issued forth; then, having concealed her raven locks under a light-coloured peruque,
she took her place in a brothel reeking with long-used coverlets.
Entering an empty cell reserved for herself, she there took her stand, under the feigned name of Lycisca,
her nipples bare and gilded, and exposed to view the womb that bore thee, O nobly-born Britannicus!
Here she graciously received all comers, asking from each his fee;
and when at length the keeper dismissed his girls,
she remained to the very last before closing her cell,
and with passion still raging hot within her went sorrowfully away.
Then exhausted by men but unsatisfied,
with soiled cheeks, and begrimed with the smoke of lamps,
she took back to the imperial pillow all the odours of the stews.

1st ranslation by Peter Green. 2nd translation from wikisource.

The Willow Song

2009-11-05T20:49:00.000-08:00

The bulk of this post is taken from John Launer here.

By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof
For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song ...
(Psalm 137)

The poore Soule sat sighing by a Sicamour tree,
Sing all a greene Willough:
Her hand on her bosome, her head on her knee,
Sing Willough, Willough, Willough,
The fresh Streames ran by her, and murmur’d her moanes,
Sing Willough &c.,
Her fast teares fell from her, and softened the stones,
Sing Willough, Willough, Willough ...(Othello, Act IV, scene 4)

I was sceptical that you could hang any kind of harp on a weeping willow, even if—as was presumably the case here—your instrument was more like a Welsh harp than a concert one. Of course, the passage is meant to be figurative rather than literal, and it has its counterpart in Psalm 126 when the exiles return to Zion with songs of joy.

A song of ascents.

1 When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.

2 Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."

3 The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

4 Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negev.

5 Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.

6 He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.

As it happens, willows (aravim in Hebrew) appear six or seven times in the bible, generally as ‘willows of the brook’. However, modern commentators seem to agree that the aravim mentioned in the Psalm 137 are not in fact willows at all but Populus euphratica.

This is a kind of poplar native to Iraq, apparently similar in some ways to our own black poplar. It has two different kinds of leaves—long pedunculated ones as well as deltoid ones—and this may explain why it was regarded as a willow. Poplars and willows are closely related anyway, and people in biblical times may not have distinguished one from the other. And who knows, maybe the psalm was written by a Jerusalemite who had never actually been to Babylon or looked at the trees there very closely.

Populus euphratica appears in only one other place in the bible, in the prophecies of Ezekiel. There it has a different name—tsaftsafah, which is thought to be onomatopoeic, echoing the characteristic rustling of the leaves. For Ezekiel, the tree symbolized the deep-rooted imperial power of Babylon. This certainly adds some poignancy to the image of hanging up your harp in despair.

However, if you look more closely at Desdemona's song, it leads to some more arboreal surprises and pleasures. For a start, the tree in the song, like the biblical one, cannot have been a weeping willow either. They were unknown in Europe until they were imported from China at the beginning of the eighteenth century: the Chinese connection is commemorated in the willow pattern plate, designed in 1779. Popular myth attributes the first weeping willow grown in Britain to Alexander Pope, who is said to have planted a budding wand from a basket containing figs that a Turkish lady admirer had given him. A later inhabitant of Pope's villa in Twickenham then cut it down, to deter tourists who came especially to gawp at it.

It was Linnaeus who gave the tree its Latin designation Salix babylonica, also on the mistaken assumption that it was the psalmist's tree. The English term ‘weeping willow’ was first used around the same time, presumably because of the psalm as well, although the description might be justified by the tree's drooping appearance alone. Ironically, most weeping willows nowadays are not the real thing, but a hardier hybrid with the native white willow Salix alba.

Which brings us, finally, to the sycamore, and the intriguing question of why the poor soul in Desdemona's song should sit by a sycamore but sing about willows. Part of the answer, apparently, is that the sycamore is not a sycamore either, or at least not the familiar Acer pseudoplatanus, or English maple, that we now mistakenly call a sycamore. Instead, the song refers to the mulberry fig, Ficus sycomorus, which appears many times in the bible as a symbol of rejuvenation, but seems, by Shakespeare's time, to have acquired an association with infidelity—not that anyone is suggesting for one moment that there is a link between the two.
The ironic contrast with Desdemona's position, as a faithful wife about to be murdered by a pathologically jealous husband, would probably not have been lost on the audience.

The Willow Song

The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree

Sing all a green willow

Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee:

Sing willow, willow, willow, willow!

My garland shall be;

Sing all a green willow, willow, willow, willow

Sing all a green willow

My garland shall be.

The fresh streams ran by her, and murmer'd her moans

Sing willow, willow, willow

Her salt tears fell from her and soft'ned the stones.

Let nobody blame him, his scorn I approve

Sing willow, willow, willow

He was born to be fair, I to die for his love,

I call'd my love false love but what said he then?

Sing willow, willow, willow

If I court more women, you'll couch with more men.

They might also have understood why an encounter with a sycamore (which also sounds remarkably like ‘a sick Moor’, not to mention ‘a sick amour’) might lead a woman to bemoan her fate under a willow. Certainly, the association between willows, sadness, loss and weeping appears to have been fixed by then in the European mind, regardless of the botanical facts. But I won't harp on about that.

Our Willow, by the way, makes aspirin

Common Names: Willow

Latin Name: Salix spp.Parts Used: Bark, wood

Cultivation: Cuttings will root in moist soil. Start them where you want them to grow, as willows are difficult to transplant. Willows prefer soggy soil and full sun.

Cosmetic Uses: Decoctions of white willow bark make good facial astringents.

Magickal Uses: The willow tree is associated with the moon. Its wood is frequently used to make magick wands, and willow branches are used to bind a witch's besom. Use willow leaves in love mixtures, and carry them to guard against evil.

Medicinal Uses: Willow bark has been used for thousands of years to treat fevers and relieve the pain of headaches and arthritis. The bark contains salicin, the natural source of the chemicals used to make aspirin. It is also good for heartburn and digestive upsets (unlike aspirin, which can irritate your stomach).

Othello text link

2009-11-05T20:33:00.000-08:00

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2009-10-23T19:23:00.001-07:00

(Musicians of the Globe)

The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy

2009-10-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

My own translation (from the old scots to our tongue) of this early 16th century flyting...

Sir John the Rose, one thing there's written:
In general, Kennedy and Quinting,
Who himself is is above the shining stars
And if any threat were made him
Such a stint of strife would arise
And with pride-swelled breast
As Lucifer that from the heaven descended
Hell couldn't hide their heads from harm's hunting.

The earth would tremble, the firmament would shake
And all the air of venom suddenly stink
And all the devils of Hell fear quake
To hear what I would write with pen and ink.
For if I flyght, some men for shame would sink.
The sea would burn, the moon would suffer eclipse,
Rocks would rife, the world would have no grips
So loud exclaiming the common-bell would clink.

But wonderous loath would I be to bard,
Flyghting to use, right greatly ashamed,
For in its neither winning nor reward,
But tinsel of both honor and fame.
Increase of sorrow, slander, and ill-name,
Yet might they be so bold in their backbiting
To spur me to rhyme and raise the fiend with flyghting
And through all countries and kingdoms them proclaim,
Quod Dunbar to Kennedy.

Durtin* Dunbar, on whom do you think you throw your boast? [beshitten]
Of claiming to write such scabrous verse?
Stank-mawed ribald, you fall down at the feast,
My leareate's letters at you I'll loose.
Mandrake dwarfkin, master but in scorn,
Thrice-shown trumper with one threadbare gown,
Cry for God's Mercy before I cry you down,
And leave thy ryming, ribald, and thy rolls.

Dread, dirtcaked dwarf, that though he disobey it,
My cousin Quintene and my commisar* [deputy]
Fantastik fool, trust you will be put to flight.
Ignorant elf, ape, mishapen owl,
Scabrous skaitbird and common sponger,
Wanfukkit* foundling that nature made a dwarf, [misconceived]
Both John the Rose and you all will squeel and shriek
If ever I hear more of your making poetry.

Here I put silence to thee in all thy parts,
Obey and cease the play that you're pretending.
Weak wastrell and puller of the carts,
See that you make my commisar amends
And let him lay six leeches on your loins,
Meekly in recompensing for your scorn,
Or you shall bane the time that you was born:
For Kennedy to thee this document sends.
Quod Kennedy to Dunbar.

Juge in the nixt quha gat the war

Irish bumming bard, vile beggar with your rags,
Cuntbitten* craven Kennedy, coward by nature make,
Evil-farit* and dried as a Danesman on the wheel,
Like as that kites had on thy gulesnout dined.
Mismade monster, ilk of men our of his mind,
Renounce, ribald, your ryming, you but rave,
Your...
A lowland arse would make a better noise

Riven ragged roook, and full of ribaldry,
Skitterand scorpion, scold in scuriliee,
I see the haughty in your harlotry,
And other sciences nothing sly* [knowledge, skilled]
Of every virtue void, as men may see,
Quit-claim clergy* and take to you a club, [learning]
A bard blasphemer in bribery* for to be, [beggary]
For wit and wisdom one wisp from thee may rub.

You ask, dastard, if I dare with you fight.
Yea, Dagone dumwit, thereof have no doubt,
Wherever we meet, there my hand I pledge,
To rid your ribald rhyming with a rout.
Through all Brittain it will be blown out,
How that you, poisoned pelour*, for your ______, [thief]
With a dog leash I'll make you shout,
And neither to you take knife, sword, or axe.

You crop and rute of traitorous tressonable*,
The father and mother of murder* [and mischief, Dunbar was suspected/accused of murder]
Deceitful tyrant with serpents tongue unstable,
Cuckold, craven coward, and common thief,
You purposed to undo our lord's chief
In Paisley with a poison that was fell* [deadly. Dunbar also accused of attempted mutiny]
For which, you brim, yet will you get a brief.* [summons to court]
Pelour, on you I will this prove myself.

Even if I lie, your frawart* physique [vile]
Does manifest your malice to all men.
Fie, traitor thief, fie glengoir doun*, fie, fie!
Fie, fiendly face far fowler than a fen*, [midden]
My friends you accused with your pen.
Even if I lie, tratour, which on you I'll prove,
Suppose your head was armed times ten,
You will recry* it, or thy crown will cleve. [retract]

Before you dare move your mind malicious,
You saw the sail above my head updrawn.
But Eolus, full wroth, and Neptunus,
Mark and moonless us met with wind and wave,
And many hundred mile hense we were blown
By Holland, Zeeland, Shetland, Norway coast,
In sea desert where we were famished all,
Yet came I home, false bard, to lay low your heart.

TBC

The Individual Path of Europe and the Book of 1001 Nights' Tales

2009-10-22T15:31:00.000-07:00

Europe, the land of a mythology uniquely individual in orientation, distinct from the Orient's member-oriented societal mythology, has accepted and seen become popular one book more than any other from the East, and that is 1001 Nights' Tales. Can you even name another book from the East, (besides the religeous books the Koran, the Confucian Analects, Lao Tzu, and maybe you can name some of the Sanskrit Literature of India, all of which are not stories in focus, but religeous/quasi-religeous dialectics).
Why does this book more than others appeal to the minds of the West? Is it because of the individual-course nature of the tales and the setting of Sherazade? Does it have something to do with the stories in the tales from Egypt and Arabia (not farther east) and their origins? What sort of appraisal do Westerner's give the 1001 Nights' Tales: mere silly escapades, predicaments of a light antical form?
What is the opinion of Eastern people of the 1001 Nights contemporarily and in the past? Were they taken seriously as literature? What was the appraisal of such stories that have individual-themes? I know that because they were written in very commonish prose instead of the high poetry respected in court circles, they suffered in respect (these traits were also a key to their popularity, though). Are they regarded as antics? laughed and looked sort-of down at?

In Case You Forgot

2009-10-17T22:28:00.001-07:00

The Oaths of the Heroic Age

2009-10-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

When gatherered around a mead-hall, listening to a poet recite episodes of history, what would be more relevant and vital to the heads of the warriors and wives therein than tales of other warriors in other kingships, and the complications that occured there, the predicaments of men and women, and how they were resolved?
When Hnaf's Sister married Finn, when then Finn attacked without warning Hnaf, killing him, half his tribe, and Hnaf's Sister's Son, what was the word of Finn worth, who was now leader of these men? And husband of Hnaf's Sister? What was she to do? What were the thanes to do?
Finn and Hengest (leader of Hnaf's followers) made peace, and gave gifts. That both men would be equal. This peace was made on solemn oath, that they would live like brothers. Neither leader nor led would break the truce, and neither would talk of evil things or remember the past: that Finn had killed their leader. And Finn swore any who stirred up such hatred, who "brought back the past," would be silenced. What should a thane do? What of the oath of loyalty to his lord? who he must die protecting or die avenging for his own honor's sake?
Hengest hated Finn. He waited and planned. He could never forget. He longed for home, but revenge came first. One day a thane dropped a sword in his lap, and the time had come. He drove the sword through Finn's belly, and all the men painted the Finn's hall red in the work they had waited for. They looted all Finn's possessions, and took the queen Hnaf's Sister back to the land she'd longed for.
As you might imagine, the hall of listeners erupted in loud pleasure of laugh and drink.

The Decameron

2009-10-16T22:37:00.001-07:00

Italy,

Mester de Juglaria
12th and 13th cen
uneducated, popular-themed, simple, un-, uncredited and unwritten
offerering diversions to the public: poetic, theatrical, acrobatic
cantar de gesta "Songs of heroic deeds"
13th, spanish clergymen, Mester de Clerecia
educated compositions in meter
the serious topics
religeous, historical, novelesque
The Book of Good Love one such
Variety

"A kindly thing it is to have compassion of the afflicted
and albeit it well beseemeth everyone,
yet of those it is more particularly required
who have erst had need of comfort, and have found it in any, amongst whom, if ever
any had need thereof of held it dear or took pleasure therein aforetimes,
certes, I am one of there."
So begins the book called Decameron and Surnamed Prince Galahalt wherein are contained an hundred stories in the ten days told by seven ladies (not one of them had passed her 28th year nor was less than 18 years old, and each was of descreet and noble blood, fair of favor and well-mannered and full of honest sprightliness) and three young men (yet not so young that the age of the youngest of them was less than 25, in whom neither perversity of the time nor loss of friends and kinsfolk, no, nor fear for themselves had availed to cool, much less to quench, the fire of love.) And glad it was that there were such men availing, for remember that none of these women were child enough not to know how little reasonable women are among themselves and how ill, without some man's guidance, they know how to order themselves. They are fickle, wilful, suspicious, faint-hearted and timorous, for which reasons we might misdoubt them sore, if they take not some other guidance than their own, that their company would be far too soon dissolved and with less honor to themselves than were semely. Men are the head of women, and without their ordinance seldom cometh any enterprise of theirs to good end.
These seven ladies are outset inside a church where they are chatting, and this is in the time of a death-dealing pestilence on Europe sent down upon mankind for their correction by the just wraith of God, which had come from the East, which no wisdom or human forsight might avail. It took evidence in what the vulgar had named plague-boils, and which would take it's course from first appearance of the swellings in armpit or groin, which waxed bigness to the size of an apple or an egg, which then began to grow indifferently on the parts of the body, and change to black or livid blotches, and were a very certain token of coming death to everyone to whom they came, within 30 days. No cure, no medicine, and would take even those who touched even the garments of the diseased, or even the animals who touched them. And all tried to flee, even leaving their children or parents to die alone, whereas the tradition in Italy was to die surrounded by many women. Some tried to escape to the country, but some country villiages were entirely bereft of individuals.
So they were in the church together, some the sole remaining member of their households, and the oldest, Pampinea made a long discourse to the effect that feeling ill at ease there in the notable city of Florence it would be well to leave to, taking pleasance and diversion as the season may afford, and on this wise abide till such a time (an they be not earlier overtaken of death) as they should see what issue Heaven reserveth unto these things. They recruit the three men who enter, and plan to leave.
The next morning, which was a Wednesday, they set out early, and about 2 miles out of the city found a pleasant place well furnished, clean, and bedded. Pampinea suggests that on their trip they each day have a leader, a king or queen of the group, whom the others may honor and obey as chief and whose especial care it would be to dispose them all to live joyously. They will take turns. Much pleased at her words, the party appoint her first queen. She delegates jobs to others, and headed the proceedings of enjoyment.
When she woke them the next day at none (3pm), she furthered suggested that they should pass the sultry part of the day, not in gaming,--wherein the mind of one of the players must of necessity be troubled, without any great pleasure of the other or of those who look on,--but in telling stories, which, one telling, may afford diversion to all the company who hearken, and the story would last until the sun had declined and the heat be abated, and they could then go a-pleasuring whereas it might be most agreeable to them. All approved of her idea. She suggested that the first day each be free to tell of such matters as are most to his liking. Then she turned to Pamfilo and smilingly bade him give beginning to the storytelling with one of his. And so he began the first tale.

1001 Nights' Tales

2009-10-15T17:33:00.000-07:00

We are told when we hear the beginning of the background of the 1001 Nights' tales, that the younger brother of the king of the land was going out to visit his older brother the king, and just happening to pop back in his place around midnight to say goodbye to his wife, he found her wrapped up with a kitchen boy. He took a sword and cut them down, and then rashly sped away on the road, beginning, as sorry as any cavalier, the course of the cuccold's education. Feeling heartsick and liferavened, he tossed around and he wrung his hands, until sitting alone in the garden-view window of his guest palace quartres at his brother's, he saw the orgy which brought him a new perspectiveon things, a perspective that was even farther away from the innocent one he had once had. Then on he consumed food and drink and ravished life's offerings, seeming merry. After he was forced to tell the truth to his older brother, the king invited him to leave their kingdom and travel unattached throughout the world, until they found a sheep blacker even than the king was himself. Not long afterwards, then, after being forced down out of the tree where they had been hiding, and after giving the 99th and 100th rings to the treasured honeymooner, and jumping and marvelling at the wiles of women, the king bid his brother return with him to their homes and marry to not again. As for the king, he would show his personal solution when he got back to his palace, and that he did, by slashing down all the girl slaves in his hold and replacing them. His wife also he had taken care of. From then, every night, he would take a virgin daughter of some commoner, a soldier's daughter or a merchant's daughter, wed her, and after the night, slay her in the morning to save from any breach of fidelity. Surely this can't be the first time someone has tried to solve this old problem this way.
Scherazade volunteers herself, despite her father the visier's words: "Foolish child, if I give you to him, he will sleep with you for one night and will ask me to put you to death in the morning, and I shall have to do it, since I cannot disobey him." He furiously tries to disuade her with many timeless adages:
"The misbehaver ends up in trouble!"
"He who doesn't think about the effects is unhappy in the world!"
"If I wasn't so adventurous I'd be much better off now!"
Then he said, "I'm afraid what happened to the Donkey and the Ox will happen to you, my daughter."
She looked up, "What happened to the Donkey and the Ox, father?"
The visier starts on the tale for her. To spoil it in short, the cunning Donkey talks the honest Ox into playing sick so he can lounge around like the Donkey. The Farmer overhears, and so he does let the Ox rest, but puts the Donkey to work, from which he thinks he'll die.
"You, my daughter, will likewise die because of your miscalculation. Give it up, sit quietly, and don't expose yourself to trouble. If you don't give it up, I'll do to you what the farmer did to his wife."
Sharazad perks up and asks what happened.
So he tells her how the Donkey said he heard the Farmer saying he'd turn that good-for-nothing Ox into meat, so the Ox goes back to work. But he couldn't tell his wife what they said, because he was not allowed to tell the secrets of the animal language. She became very curious, and insisted, though he would die. She still insisted, so he spent a year putting his things in order, releasing his slave girls and so forth, and then he overheard a Rooster chatting with a Dog. The Rooster told the Dog what the Farmer ought to do, which was take his wife into a room and fix her with an oak branch until she'd not want him to explain anything anymore, and then keep on until she's fixed for life. The Farmer did this, and everybody was happy because he'd learned good management and the wife had become docile.
"If you don't give it up, Sharazar, I'll do you like the Farmer did his wife."
"Father, such stories don't put me off my intention. If you want, I could tell a million such stories. If it comes down to it, I'll tell the king you'd deny me such a match, and that you'd deny him such a girl."
When the wedding comes around, Sharazar asks her little sister to hide under the bed, and when the king is all finished for the night, to ask Sharazar to tell them one of her great stories. "May I have the kings permission to tell one story?" says Sharazar. He assented. She began to tell a story about a wealthy, content merchant who was travelling, and he was taking a rest on his way back. It was under a walnut tree by a spring and threw some of the date seeds he was eating on the ground. When he's done and about to go, an old demon appears and blames him for killing his son by throwing his date seeds. He pleads his innocence, but the demon insists on taking "blood for blood." The merchant prays to God, but the demon insists. He recited a poem, but the demon insists just the same. "By God I must kill you, as you killed my son, even if you weep blood." "Must you?" "I must," and he raises his sword to strike. But morning overtook Sharazar, and she was too sleepy to go on, though Shahrazad the king was burning with curiousity what would become of these happenings. "What a strange, lovely story, sister," said Dinarzad. "That is nothing compared to what I will tell you tomorrow night, if the king permits. It will be even better and more entertaining, sister." The king thought that he would just put her death off until after the next night when she would tell the end of the story. He would then slay her the next day. Even when a man is as firmly determined as this king was, how long do you think a woman's words could lead him to delay?

The Three Apples. Earliest murder mystery and suspense thriller with multiple plot twists and detective fiction elements.

People Get Ready

2009-10-15T02:24:00.001-07:00

"the preachings of my grandmothers and most ministers when they reflect from the Bible:"

There's a train a-comin.
Don't need no ticket, you just get on board.
All you need is the faith to hear those deisels hummin,
You don't need no ticket, you just thank the

Raised in Chicago projects, Curtis left highschool to be in a band which in 2 years became the Impressions. That was in '56 when he left school. He was a songwriter and singer and he wrote "message songs" to a sound of funk. His songs were a source of pride for black Americans. He wrote this song when he was 23 in 1964. It was a year after Johnson had taken office, the civil rights march on Washington, D.C, the arrest of Martin Luther King for parading, the test ban treaty had been signed by John Kennedy, the war in Vietnam was still going on, and Sam Cooke's A Change is Gonna Come.

Sam Cooke had a name for his great singing of light tunes. When he was 32 in 63, his baby boy was drowned. At around the same time, Sam was arrested for disturbing the peace after his band was denied rooms in a whites-only hotel. He was worried this song might lose him some of his white fans, which was most of them, but he never saw that time anyway. He was shot one night by a hotel manager. The story goes that he was chasin down some doll who'd taken off with his clothes while he was in the bathroom. He was irate when the manager told him she didn't know where the woman was, and he took hold of her, and she fled to her gun and shot Cooke. Anyway, that was later and this song was sooner. The song ended up being what people consider Cooke's finest song, and it became an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement.

Before that 32-year-old Sam wrote this song, which he wrote it after one of his concerts talking with some sit-in demonstraters, he was impressed by a song written by a 21-year-old folk singer of little fame, and, actually, that song had impressed many black people in the same way. They were shocked how a white kid could write a song that caputured so well what the black people were feeling at the time. That song was Blowing in the Wind, and the singer you know already. Sam liked to sing it live in his set.

Yeah, well, I like the way Cooke used to sing those sweet songs of his.

Ramblin Jack on Johny Cash's Show

2009-10-14T22:57:00.001-07:00

Rambling jack once played in Dylan's movie Renaldo and Clara and in the movie he even sings a song about his character, "Longheno de Castro"...

"My name is Longheno de Castro
My father was a Spanish grandee.

But I won my wife in a card game
To Hell with those lords o'er the sea"

Joseph Campbell's Interview Series: The Power of Myth, Part 1 of 5

2009-10-14T22:46:00.000-07:00

Joseph Campbell - The Hero's Adventure (1 of 6)- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

ممتاز محل

2009-10-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

Should the guilty come here for asylum, like a pardon he is set free from sin,
Should a sinner come here all the past is washed out from him,
In the eyes of all this mansion brings soft sighs,
it brings tears to the heavenly bodies.
In the world therefore this mausoleum was created
For to display 's glory.

و الضُّحَى
وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَى
مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَى
وَلَلْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَّكَ مِنَ الْأُولَى
وَلَسَوْفَ يُعْطِيكَ رَبُّكَ فَتَرْضَى
أَلَمْ يَجِدْكَ يَتِيماً فَآوَى
وَوَجَدَكَ ضَالّاً فَهَدَى
وَوَجَدَكَ عَائِلاً فَأَغْنَى
فَأَمَّا الْيَتِيمَ فَلَا تَقْهَرْ
وَأَمَّا السَّائِلَ فَلَا تَنْهَرْ
وَأَمَّا بِنِعْمَةِ رَبِّكَ فَحَدِّث
يقسم الله سبحانه – بهذين الموحيين . فيربط بين ظواهر الكون

By the morning's glorious light, and by the still night,
Your guardian and lord has not forsaken you, nor is he displeased.
Did He not find you an orphan and shelter you?
Did He not find you lost and guide you?
And did He not find you in need and enrich you?
Therefore, as with an orphan protect him,
As with a beggar, oppress him not,
And as with your Lord's favor, declare it.

The Effect of Speech

2009-10-14T03:25:00.000-07:00

Look at Mari Yaguchi at about 30 or 40 seconds in. Her response to the words Okamura Sensei explains.

Ami Sioux sings Boot Cut Blue Jeans

2009-10-13T21:39:00.000-07:00

Jenny Lewis sings Rise Up with Fists!

2009-10-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor

2009-10-13T14:28:00.000-07:00

This is my version of the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor. I used 5 or 6 texts, especially John Foster's in World Materpieces (which I copied word for word in some places I couldn't replace better) and the Invisible Books "Isle of Fire". Here is a site that provides educational information around this tale and other things.

The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor

Middle Kingdom Egypt

"Be hale of heart, my good leader! Look, we've made it here!
We've pounded the mooring peg home and the tether's secure;
We've praised and thanked the gods, everyone has embraced!
The whole crew has made it home clear, not a one lost,
Though we went down as down as far as Wawat's marshes, the isle of Es-n-Mewet.
Hey! Our home! Our home land! We've arrived!

Now, hear me out, captain; I am a man who never stretches the truth:
Go purify yourself, wash up,
Then thereafter you'll be able to answer what is put to you,
And you can address the King staunch-hearted, responding without hesitation.
A man's words can save him; speech can soften an angry face..."

"Ah, whatever. Go ahead, then, and say whatever in the world you're going to say. It wears me out, talking to you."

"But let me tell you a story. It's a bit like this,
It happened to me once upon a time.
I shipped out for the royal mines, Sinai,
And had entered into the basin of the great green sea.
The vessel grand: 60 meters long, 20 meters broad,
the crew 120 of the best of Egypt!
Show them sea! Show them land! Their hearts
were braver than lions; sailing-acumen to read the signs of wind
before a storm's coming, smell in the air foul weather's approach.
Yet all were certain, as certain as could be, the wind would
not be harsh, and likely there would be no wind at all.

Well, up came a storm! It roared up, we were
still far from any harbor in that dark. The wind made terrible moans and
the waves raged hungry against the hull, 5 meters high.
I was socked in the stomach by some big piece of wood
I was washed out into sea from the rolling vessel,
the vessel sank, not one man survived.

I was carried, by a great green swell, to
a desert island.
The first three days my heart
was my sole companion. I nested in the shadows of a covering tree.
Finally, that third day, I stretched my legs
in order to discover what there was to eat. What I found:
Figs, grapes, every sort of green:
Sycamore figs, knotched figs, and cucumbers that looked as good as on any farm.
Also there were fish, and birds. There was nothing this island did not have.
I filled myself past satisfaction, spilling and dropping what I'd
gathered in my arms--
I fashioned myself a firedrill, and built myself a fire,
and here I made an offering to the gods.

Then I heard a rumbling. Another storm approaching, the roar
I made out to be the roar of oncoming waves. Trees
were breaking. The ground was vibrating.
I looked through two of the fingers over my face and saw
a huge giant serpent coming my way.
Over 20 meters long, width huge,
It's beard hung down a meter.
It's leather was scales of gold, and lapis lazuli were it's eyes.

Before me it's great mouth opened, and in fear
I trembled down to my belly before him.
He breathed: "What brings you? brings you? little man? what brings you?
Hesitate to respond to me for an instant, and you will find yourself
ashes which will answer no questions again."

"Though you might ask, I am not all quite here to answer.
I am here before you, but I hardly know what's going on."
Then into his mouth he took me and
away he spirited me to the place of his residence,
and again set me down without malignance.
Still whole--no bites were out of me.
He bared his mouth before me again.
I got down on my belly again.
"What brings you? brings you? little man? what brings you? to
this island, in the great green sea, where shores are as shifty as the
changing waves?"
This time I told him all about it. Raising my arms as the gesture addressing the gods,
I started to say, "I was sailing to the region of the royal mines on the kings ship, in a vessel grand, 60 meters long, 20 meters broad, manned my 120 of Egypts best men. Show them sea! Show them land! Braver than lions were they. Each was stronger and braver than the next. Not a slouch in the lot! They could tell a storm coming a mile away, and smell foul weather on the air before any sight.

Then a storm came up! We were still far out in open sea. No chance of reaching harbor.
The wind howled foully, moaning, biting sharp, and there were hungry waves 5 meters high!
Some piece of wood hit me, and then the ship she went down.
Of all those men, best of the men in Egypt, not a one survived.
Only myself here, before you. After that I was carried
by a great green swell to be cast up on this desert island."

Then the snake said to me: "Fear not! fear not! My little man! A pale trembling face you must not show! You have found your way to this island. Look, It is God has let you live that you may be brought to this desert isle. There is nothing this island does not have! It is a land which engenders vitality in all that grows, and it is full of every fine and lovely thing.

Now, you will stay here and you'll spend a month,
then another, then another, until
four months on this island you have passed.
And then a ship will come from Egypt. With sailors in it
whom you know.
And you will go on home with them to die in your own city.
What joy it is for one to tell of the things he has gone through and suffered
when his suffering is over!

But let me tell you a story. It's a bit like this.
It happened once upon on this very isle.
I was here, living with all my family and companions in one big group.
75 persons we totaled. My offspring, relatives, and friends.
There was also a young girl who was washed up here by chance.
A star fell, and they were all gone, burnt up in flame.
It happened while I happened to be away. All burned... and
not even with them.
I wanted to be dead instead of them. After finding them a heap of tangled cinders.

If you have courage, steel your heart
that you may fill your arms with children and kiss
your wife, and see your home.
Believe me, it is better than all else
when you are back again
and dwell within the bosom of your friends."

Here I was flat stretched out forehead to the dirt, bowing
in respect, and I answered, "Let me return to tell
report of your magnificence to my king, all tell about all your
greatness, and arrange to have brought to you
precious ointments, balsam, spices, perfumes, and the sacred oils
and finest incense for the temple, that the gods enjoy.
And tell them all that has happened to me, and
of what I have seen of your power,
and the gods will be praised for your existence in the
Capitol. In the courts and counsils of the land! I will
slaughter cattle and offer them to you on altars. I will wring the necks
of birds for you!
Let me have them bring a fleet to you
laden with the wealth of Egypt, as is done for a foreign god much loved
by men, hitherto unknown, who has shown favor to us in a distant land.

He laughed at this, at what I'd told him. My solemn declaration, the contents
of my heart.
"Your's is no great supply of myrrh. Though it happens
you have incence. While I myself am a king of Punt. The myrrh from there is mine.
And that poor sacred oil you talk of bringing here is the chief product on this island.
And anyway, after you leave here you will never again
see this island, which will shift away with the waves of the sea.

At last, after 4 months, the ship arrived.
I climbed to a height in order to see, and I recognized the crew.
I ran down to report it to the snake
but found he already knew.
Then he opened his huge mouth to me: "Fare well, fare well, my little man. Off to your home to see your little children.
Make a good report of me when you get there. That's one demand I ask of you.
I placed myself on the ground before him and raised my arms gratefully.

Then he gave me a load of cargo. Myrrh, sacred oils, perfumes, spices, kohl, giraffe tails,
incense, elephant tusks, hounds, monkeys and baboons, every good imaginable. I loaded it all
onto the ship.
I prostrated myself again before him, thanking and praising God for him.
Then he said to me: "In two months you shall see your home land. You will hold your children in your arms and grow young again until you die there.
Then I went down to the shore and hailed the crew. Beside the sea I offered thanks to the Lord
of the Isle, and the crew aboard did likewise.

From there we made our way northwards
to the city of the King
In two months we arrived there, just as he had said.
Then I was granted audience with my King
and presented him with my gifts there,
which I had brougt from that island.
He offered thanks to God for my return,
and before the courts and counsils of the Land
I was made a royal Follower and
given 200 servants. Imagine! Me there, returned home,
after seeing all that I had seen!

Now, let what I said to you sink in a little, Captain,
sometimes what people say can help you, you know."

Then he replied, "Don't try to play the expert, friend.
Does one give water to a sacrificial bird
the morning of it's execution day?"

The Frame Narrative of Sinbad from 1001 Nights and the Egyptian Middle Kingdom Poem "The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor"

2009-10-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

First about the tale of Sinbad...
Sinbad the sailor was a rich man who had everything, but no one knew how he got such. He had quite a story to tell, but he never told anyone. That is until he met Sinbad the Landsman. Sinbad the Landsman accounted to him tales of the varying lots of men, and Sinbad the Sailor was pleased by this. He decided to tell his tale. He would hold one session a day for a week and there tell the story of his life.
This all, remember, is told within the tale of royal consort Shazirazad, who's life has involved her in telling the Sultan nightly tales for the sake of the land and her own life. Here she is telling the tale of the world that Sinbad appears in. Sinbad tells his tales.
The Arabian Nights, Canturbury Tales, the Decameron and Heptameron have been remarked for their layering of frames. Does anyone have any other sources for embedded frames in a poem or tale? Relevant to these two stories discussed or not; I dig frames in general, especailly older ones.

Well, on to the Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor...
A poem survives in St. Petersburg in an hermitage. This poem from 2040-1651BC The poem begins when a seaman is speaking to his captain who is going to meet the King to address some fault The sailor tells his captain a story to accompany the advice that "the speech of man can soften an angry heart and save a vulnerable man", which the captain is in no mood to hear. The Serpent the sailor met tells a tale of the loss of all the serpent had of meaning; he lost it without leaving to be castaway on some foreign island. All his family was taken from him in his own land.

The Sinbad story is a part of the Egyptian branch of the 1001 Nights. There are two distinct branches. The more conservative is from 13th century Syria. The Egyptian branch has seen much reworking. Stories added from many sources and some original stories deleted. Among the stories added is Sinbad's.

Here is a copy of something from the site "Invisible Books". It's the beginning of this Shipwreck story in

To translate English into hierogliphics, use http://www.quizland.com/hiero.mv

language poverty

2008-01-30T15:02:00.000-08:00

"Refuseniks" are people whom the USSR refused to allow to emigrate. Perhaps a figurative usage here? I'd need more context.
Gwarlingo (Welsh) The rushing sound of a grandfather clock as it limbers up to strike the hour
Chaponner (Gallo dialect of French) To investigate digitally a chicken’s rear end to see if an egg is about to be laid
Oka-shete (Ndonga language, Namibia) Waterworks difficulties engendered by eating frogs out of season
Pisan zapra (Malay) The time needed to eat a banana
Baku-chan Nice-from-the-back(-only)-girl "Truly the Japanese have a talent for coming up with words to describe common social situations so succinctly. Like they did with "bukkake."
Portuguese: raimunda! that means a ugly woman but with beautiful ass, or camarão" (shrimp), you cut the head and eat the rest ("eat" in Brazilian Portuguese can mean "f**k").
Espirit d'escalier Staircase inspiration, or a good witty saying come too late, as you're already retiring up the stairs. There is an american version of Esprit d'escalier. It is "albuquerque", or "left turn at albuquerque", or "I should have made that left turn at albuquerque". It refers to the thing you should have said or done, but didn't and now regret.
Mamihlapinatapai. It's a "look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start."
backpfeifengesicht, a face that cries out for a fist in it, or for "face that needs a crowbar", it would be "Brecheisengesicht.
Koreans would say they lack nunchi, the innate ability that lets you sense what would be the wrong thing to say in a situation (and presumably the ability to then not say it).
When you'r glad, you feel joy, when you'r depressed you feel sadness, despair, loneliness. When you miss someone, you feel "SAUDADE", or another similar term, "natsukashii" in Japanese, "dor" in Romanian, translating into English as "missing someone or something that's gone and/or not available at the time".
"Falasha" a nice thing to say to just about any mid-eastern person you hate. Means your mother squated in the gutter to recieve someones ejaculate and concieve you
Another good Korean word that the English language needs is Jusa: when you do something when you're drunk that you normally wouldn't do otherwise. This was explained to me by a Korean coworker before she suggested that we take a trip alone to another room while we were drunk off our asses on a work retreat.
In Portugal a "gambiarra" is a source of light used in construction work (looks loke a light-bulb in an extension-cord with a hook in the bulb end)
This is more of a profanity, but "stronzo" from Italian means "big long piece of s**t" and is one of the best curse words available in any language
There's also a schlumiel, a guy who's extremely clumsy. The schlumiel is the one that spills soup on the schlimazl :) There is a word for shlimazl in bosnian language it is Baksuz
Anteayer (Spanish),the day before yesterday. In Japanese: ototsui, ototoi, or issakujitsu.
"Qrrbrbirlbel" and "Zeekyboogydoog". these words, of course, coming from the land of the demented cartoon movie. Translations, please, folks.
Swedish word "lagom", which means 'about just right' or 'not too much nor too little'. As a measurement it kicks ass, since it's rather vague but still explains exactly what it is, ergo just right for you.
Desenrascano (literally "to disentangle" yourself out of a bad situation), the Portuguese word for these last-minute solutions, is what is says about their culture. "gambiarra" (something like a "patch"), that means exactly the same, the solution for a situation applied without the proper knowledge or tools, mostly in a shabby but effective way. This is probably one of the most distinct characteristics the Portuguese inflicted upon us.
Denuement, French for the untying after the climax of a plot
Ilunga, a word doubtedly from a language in the DRoC. 'a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time'."
Gezellig, which does not have an English equivalent. Literally, it means cozy, quaint, or nice, but can also connote time spent with loved ones, seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness. Gazelling, Gazelled.
пошлость /posh-lost'/. This noun roughly means a mixture of banality, commonality and vulgarity.
φθάνω (phthánō), generally accompanied by a complementary verb, approximately translates "I do [something] before someone else realises that I'm doing it" or "I get away with [doing something]." In a similar vein, the syntactically equivalent verb λανθάνω (lanthanō, etymon of the chemical element lanthanum), conveys the meaning of escaping the notice of others while doing something, and is often unsatisfactorily rendered by the adverb "secretly".

And a link to Wikis "untranslatability": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untranslatability
and a related page: http://www.cracked.com/article_17251_10-coolest-foreign-words-english-language-needs.html
"compoundwords" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_words
uglier, "pornmanteaus" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau