Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Morning Medieval Miscellany

If it seems that I don't have much original posting here lately, that's because I'm working on my tenure & promotion package, a process designed to systematically lower the IQ of applicants. Hopefully I'll get less dumbified* as I finish the package.







*"Dumbified" is like "stupified," only dumber.
** The article reads, "Having failed to find any parallels so far, Jacqui has decided the pits might be connected with the Cornish St Bridget or St Bride, the patron saint of brides, who has the swan as her symbol. “My own theory (and it is only a theory),” she says, “is that maybe if you got married and did not get pregnant in the first year, you might make an offering to St Bride of a feather pit. If you finally got pregnant, you had to go back to the pit and take out the contents and burn them and set the spirit of the swan free. If you never got pregnant then the pit remained untouched.” I can think of a few medieval English fertility rituals from the Lacnunga and Bald's Leechbook manuscripts, but none involving fertility and birds.

1 comment:

  1. the site has been playing up on me today too- not quite sure what's going on, but hopefully it'll go away soon enough :)

    Thanks for the linkings!

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