Literature
Literature according to the AHD is:
1. The body of written works of a language, period, or culture.2. Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value
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I Syng of A Mayden
“I Syng of a Mayden,” sometimes titled “As Dewe in Aprille” is a Middle English Marian lyric (or perhaps more accurately, a carol) about the virgin Mary, with reference to the Annunciation story in Luke 1:26-38. The Middle English is 15th century, with enough oddities that I hesitate to speculate about the dialect. “I Syng of A Mayden” is preserved in a single British Library manuscript MS Sloane 2593 f.10v, a collection of 71 carols and songs or lyrics on paper, with the exception of a strip of parchment used to mend a folio. The MS. has been damaged; a number of folios are missing from the beginning. The first poem…
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The Renaissance Writing Tablet
The first reference to a Renaissance writing tablet I remember reading is in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, just after Hamlet’s first meeting with the ghost wherein the ghost tells Hamlet that Hamlet’s father the king was murdered by the king’s brother Claudius, Hamlet echoes the ghost’s last injunction to “remember me” in one of his soliloquies: Remember thee? Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat In this distracted globe. Remember thee? Yea, from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial, fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, That youth and observation copied there, And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book…
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Lady Charlotte Guest
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’s “Life of the Week” post this week is a biography of Lady Charlotte Guest, the translator of the Mabinogion, including the four mabinogi proper, as well as the three Welsh tales, and the four Arthurian romances, as well as several other tales, including the prose Taliesin fragment from the sixteenth century, edited by Patrick Ford as the Ystoria Taliesin in 1991. Lady Guest’s translation, with the accompanying notes, is actually quite wonderful; it was the first translation I ever read, and it still remains well-worth reading. It has become fashionable to sneer at her—and imply that she wasn’t responsible for the work. She was;…
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Smart Essay about Tolkien’s Monster and the Critics
Michael Drout, he of the almost completed second edition of Beowulf and the Critics, has a short piece on a LOTR forum on “”Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics”: The Brilliant Essay that Broke Beowulf Studies.” The essay is, not surprisingly, smart, and well-worth reading. It’s a good background and introduction to Tolkien’s essay, and I suspect even those who haven’t read Tolkien’s essay will read Drout’s piece. I like very much that Drout nods at some more recent Beowulf scholarship in providing a better context for the reactions and reception of Tolkien’s essay. The comments (you can find them here) are worth reading as well, as Drout notes. It…
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Happy Burns Night
Robert Burns was born 251 years ago today in Ayrshire, Scotland in 1759. Much to my delight, the BBC has begun a site about Burns, featuring his poetry in partially uncensored form. You can read the true lyrics of “John Anderson My Joe, John,” though “Comin’ through the Rye” is still much expurgated. One of the best things about the site is that you can hear 386 poems read by native Scots.
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Luke from Wycliffe
26 But in the sixte moneth the aungel Gabriel was sent fro God in to a citee of Galilee, whos name was Nazareth, 27 to a maidyn, weddid to a man, whos name was Joseph, of the hous of Dauid; and the name of the maidun was Marie. 28 And the aungel entride to hir, and seide, Heil, ful of grace; the Lord be with thee; blessid be thou among wymmen. 29 And whanne sche hadde herd, sche was troublid in his word, and thouyte what maner salutacioun this was. 30 And the aungel seide to hir, Ne drede thou not, Marie, for thou hast foundun grace anentis God. 31…
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Halloween, Samhain, and such
It’s the time of year when I start seeing incredibly daft posts about the antecedents of Halloween, particularly Samain (Samhain, for you moderns). This year, I’ve created an FAQ about Samain, and what it means. For those of you already in the know, here’s a link to a translation by Kuno Meyer of the very odd Echtra Nera, mostly based on Eg. 1782. Echtra Nera is a tale tied closely to Samain, and features a sojourn in a síd, as well as the observation that “the fairy-mounds of Erinn are always opened about Halloween.” In the beginning of the tale, a dead man directs Nera to take him to a…
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Quondam et Futurus: An Arthurian Wiki
Carl S. Pyrdum of Got Medieval has created Quondam et Futurus, a new Arthurian Wiki. His invitation in part reads: My goal for the site is to create an encyclopedia of Arthurian knowledge accessible enough for the lay, non-academic audience (fanboyspeople included) and detailed enough to be useful for academics, too, a place where you can read about Malory’s changes to the story of Pelleas and Ettard, as well as about that episode of the Transformers where they pull a Conneticut Yankee. So, if you know anything about the Arthurian legends, please drop by the King Arthur Wiki. Trade me a few footnotes worth of your cognitive surplus. And if…
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Happy birthday Richard Scott Nokes!
In honor of Professor Nokes‘ birthday, and given his interest in weasel blogging, I present the following: According to medieval bestiaries, with help from Pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville, “the weasel conceives through the mouth and gives birth through the ear”—Isidore, after describing this genetic miracle, says it is false, but that didn’t stop John Davies from using it in a sonnet. John Davies of Hereford, Wittes Pilgrimage, Sonnet 29 Some say the Weezel-masculine doth gender With the Shee-Weezel only at the Eare And she her Burden at hir Mouth doth render; The like (sweet Love) doth in our love appear: For I (as Masculine) beget in Thee…
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Coyote Wild Vol. I issue 1
I’m very very pleased to announce that the inaugural issue of a new speculative fiction, poetry and essays Web zine, Coyote Wild is available. Some lovely pieces; do take a look. Technorati Tags:Coyotewild
