Why I Sojourn Here

La Belle Dame sans Merci

John Keats

O what can ail thee, knight at arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.


O what can ail thee, knight at arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.


I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.


I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful - a fairy's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.


I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look'd at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.


I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A fairy's song.


She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said-
"I love thee true."


She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept, and sigh'd full sore,
And there I shut her wild eyes
With kisses four.


And there she lulled me asleep,
And there I dream'd - Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream'd
On the cold hill's side.


I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried - "La belle dame sans merci
Hath thee in thrall!"


I saw their starv'd lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And Iawoke and found me here,
On the cold hill's side.


And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

For this Monday morning:

• The Heptarchy Herald discusses Sherlock Holmes, medievalist.
• Dante blogging continues with Canto X.
• The medieval word of the day is oblate, not to be confused with the medieval history term of the week, which is apse.
• Gearwor presents Beowulf, fitts 28 & 29.
• Hammered Out Bits discusses accessorizing for Vikings.
• Continuing the discussion of gargoyles, Quid Plura presents "A Sonnet from the Boartuguese."
• In the Middle has a CfP on "The Other, the Outsider, and the Outlaw in Medieval Romance," and a report from a really cool screening of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
• Modern Medieval has a CfP on "The Medievalism of Nostalgia."
• Writing a paper on medieval devils? Here's a bibliography on medieval devils -- all the work is done for you!
• Medieval Material Culture Blog points us to an exhibition of gothic art in Magdeburg.
• Muhlberger discusses the big Viking hoard found in Northumbria.
• There'll be a medieval poetry workshop in Lowell, MA on October 17th.
• Beowulf = viral marketing.

That is all. Go forth!

Morning Medieval Miscellany

For this Friday:

• Medieval Research with Joyce has been diligent about the new Medieval Word of the Day feature. The most recent is lawn, which doesn't mean what you think.
• Medieval Cookery has a post on GenCon and Pennsic.
• Gearwor has Beowulf, fits 26 & 27.
• Michael Drout talks about the experience of being a History Channel talking head for the Clash of the Gods series. The one on Lord of the Rings airs Sept. 21st, and the one on Beowulf airs Oct. 5th.
• Steven Till reviews Betsy Tobin's Ice Land.
• Jeff Sypeck's neighborhood has been invaded by gargoyles.
• More casting news for Game of Thrones, h/t PoliScifi.
• News for Medievalists has three new articles: One on a late medieval expedition to Canada, a review of The Bayeux Tapestry: New Interpretations, and one on the search for Leonardo da Vinci's lost "Battle of Anghiari." The later has videos, the first of which calls Leonardo "the greatest mind of the Renaissance." Jerks, always stealing the good late-medieval stuff for the modern era, and dumping all the bad early-modern stuff on the Middle Ages.
• Papa's Secret Voodoo Boot needs help picking a Latin dictionary.
• Linda McCabe has some artist's renderings of what the Ozark medieval fortress will look like. If there's one story of modern medievalism I haven't properly kept up on, it's this one.
• Mony Wylsum Way translates the Earl of Kent's confession.
• Medieval Material Culture Blog has three new links pages: Quintains, sweet bags (which are technically modern), and caparisons, for the well-dressed equine in your life.
• Magistra et Mater has a really excellent post on medieval attitudes in historical novels. If you're writing any medieval (or medieval fantasy) fiction, you really need to read this. I found myself talking aloud back to the post while reading it.
• Speaking of which, Medieval Bookworm reviews Nicole Galland's Crossed.
• Heroic Dreams talks about Renaissance Faire news, and directs us to Renaissance Magazine.
• The Heroic Age has a dozen new CfPs and other announcments.
• The Cranky Professor continues Dante blogging.
• A Commonplace Book has an example of modern manuscript production.
• The Herald has an article on Robert Henryson's The Testament of Cresseid.

Here's a blog with medieval content I'd missed: Spinning Clio. Update your blogrolls & RSS feeds accordingly.

Prepping for Dragon*Con

This morning I am writing a presentation for Dragon*Con that will deal, in part, with bestiality in medieval literature, and the medieval roots of some contemporary anxieties about genetic engineering.

• Medieval Lit -- Check!
• Genetic Engineering -- Check!
• Bestiality -- Check!

Ah, the Dragon*Con triple threat...

The Heptarchy Herald

Here's a brand-new blog that's already in my RSS feed: The Heptarchy Herald. In his second post, Michael discusses cooperation among medieval scholars and disciplines.

Update your blogrolls accordingly.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

I've got some sort of weird problem with my RSS feed (wherein some things don't seem to ever delete, or will randomly pop up again later) leading me to be more aggressive in my deletion policies -- and also leading to this MMM being posted in the afternoon. If you've got an important post that's fallen through the cracks here, please feel free to e-mail me a link.

• Archaeology in Europe has over two dozen new articles.
• A Corner of Tenth Century Medieval Europe has a post on the preoccupations of Lothar I, and a review of historical archaeology. By the way, if you ever entitle a book in lower-case letters, know that I'll never read it, unless your name is e.e. cummings. And probably not then. This goes double for you, bell hooks.
• Dante blogging continues with Cantos III, IV, V, and VI.
• Early Medieval Art sends us to Sacred Destinations.
• Carl Pyrdum has been eaten by Reynard the Fox.
• Henchminion discusses the problems of cleaning gambesons.
• The Heroic Age has a links page and a CfP on "Technology, New Media, and Medieval Art History."
• This isn't strictly-speaking medieval, but much of the academic medieval blog-o-net-o-sphere-thingy has been debating use of jargon and clarity in writing. In the Middle gathers the links to the comment threads here.
• Medieval Bookworm reviews The White Queen and Flint.
• Publication of Tolkien's The Book of Jonah has been pushed back to next year.
• The Lost Fort has images from Scharzfels Castle.
• The Medieval Garden Enclosed features the cucubalas.
• In addition to some new linkspages, Medieval Material Culture Blog uses videos to distinguish between à plaisance and à outrance in tournaments.
• Muhlberger reviews Defenders of the Faith: Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Battle for Europe.
• Mony Wylsum Way has a post on how Froissart scapegoats Edward II.
• The Naked Philologist offers some morbid 13th-century poetry.
• News for Medievalists has over a dozen new articles.
• Per Omnia Saecula reviews King Arthur.
• Podictionary offers the origins of the word gun.

OK, that's not quite all of them, but I'll catch up in the next one.

For the Middle-Aged, not the Middle Ages

And now for something completely non-medieval:

The Beloit College Mindset List, class of 2013!

A few comments:

They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
This year a librarian retired, and the invitations to the party looked like card catalog cards. The workstudies in the office wondered why there was a hole punched in them.

The European Union has always existed.
Does it exist now?

Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Estonia have always been independent nations.
When I start a story with, "When I lived in the former Soviet Union ..." my students look at me like I'm saying, "When I lived in the Ottoman Empire..."

Vice presidents of the United States have always had real power.
Joe Biden has real power? When did this happen?

They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen. Yet not one ever has.

My Birthday Wish List

Today is my birthday. For those wishing to get me a gift, I'm registered at Medieval News. If you all pitch in together, you should be able to get me one (or all!) of those.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

Let's see how far I can get before the kids' alarm clocks go off:

• Archaeology in Europe has 19 new posts.
• BabelStone has 72 medieval images. h/t Cliopatria.
• Muhlberger's Early History has video of medieval explosives!
• The Cranky Professor is Dante blogging.
• The Heroic Age has over a dozen new posts, CfPs and the like.
• Getting Medieval has images from Guedelon.
• The Medieval Bookworm reviews The Doomsday Book. Back when we were putting together MediEvolution, one of the segments for our test run was a review of the same book.
• Lingwe discusses Tolkien's View: Windows into his World.
• Mearcstapa posted an abstract for a submission to K'zoo.
• The Medieval Garden Enclosed reminds us that it's time for threshing.
• Mony Wylsum Way plays a writers' game with Arthurian characters.
• Steven Till has seven essential fantasy reads, none of which I've read. As a general rule, I find fantasy novels by authors with the first name "Terry" unreadable.
• Popular Culture has posts on two new books: Cinematic Illuminations: The Middle Ages on Film, and Medieval Film.
• Cloregy has a post on hurricanes in the Medieval Warm Period.
• Prof. Rodney Stark defends the Crusaders.
• Think no one is passionate about medieval literature? Some guy stabbed two people to death in an argument over books on medieval lit.

Here's to hoping I don't get stabbed during my Anglo-Saxon poetry lecture today...

King Mindaugus Statuette

Since it's too hot to write anything substantive, I offer here an image of a wooden statuette of King Mindaugus given to me by a friend, crafted by a Lithuanian carver of some local repute (though for the life of me I can't remember his name at the moment).

Though it very obviously evokes Christ (looking depressed and wearing a crown of thorns), it's actually supposed to be Mindaugus in the attitude of Christ -- though I'm not certain what he's go glum about. Maybe it's because there would be no further kings, unless you count Mindaugus II ... which most Lithuanians don't (more on that in the video below). I'm guessing the crown is not supposed to be thorny in this case.

I've photographed him on top of a stack of 8x11 paper, for perspective.

Below is a video of a much larger statue, and a little about the position Mindaugus holds in the Lithuanian culture.

Too Hot to Blog

It's about 80 degrees outside, and a thermostat problem has caused the heat in my building to run. I was going to write a Miscellany and a post about the Lithuanian king Mindaugus, but it's so hot in here I can't recall what I was going to write.

I'm sure it was going to be something brilliant, though. Anyone who has something interesting to say about King Mindaugus, please help me out by contributing it below.

Moratorium on Monk Eadwine

I am hereby declaring a one-year moratorium on academic books using "Monk Eadwine at Work on the Manuscript" as their cover art.

I used to like it, but Monk Eadwine's agent should tell him he's over-exposed.

These two scribes are also in danger of being included in my moratorium.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

As you head into your weekend:

• About.com has a medieval terms quiz.*
• The theme for next year's annual Medieval Studies conference is New Directions in Medieval Scandinavian Studies.
• News for Medievalists has an update with four new articles.
• JJ Cohen discusses Karma Lochrie's "Provincializing Medieval Europe: Mandeville's Cosmopolitan Utopia."
• Hammered Out Bits has a post on various kinds of medieval pots.
• A Corner of Tenth Century Medieval Europe has a final report from Leeds, and discusses Cambridge University's 800th anniversary.
• Archaeology in Europe has 19(!) new articles. It'll take me all weekend to read them all.
• Mahdi Karroubi (an ally of Hossein Mousavi) called alleged torture and rapes of protestors in Iranian prisons "medieval torture and corruption."
• My Life After University has a post on the medieval section of Tallinn. I've been there; it's stunningly beautiful. h/t laNiche Music.

*I didn't do too well. Why am I still confused that a Hundred is a unit of land (a division used for taxation purposes, as I recall)? Am I confusing it with something else?

Manly Medieval Men with Beards

This may be the greatest links page ever: Larsdatter has the Medieval Beards page.

My (ironic) favorite is Dürer's Self-Portrait in a Fur-Collared Robe. In that image, Dürer depicts himself as a sort of Christ figure -- thereby being one of a small handful of people I'd punch in the face if I had a time machine. Maybe he was so interested in the Protestant Reformation because he thought Martin Luther might start worshipping him.

Just look at him -- the dude clearly thinks he's the shizznit.* What a douchebag.


*You have now read the first occurance of "shizznit" in my writings. Make a note of it.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

Today we start classes at Troy. Here are a few items to keep me from despairing:

• Archaeology in Europe has over a dozen new posts.
• Cinerati discusses Terry Goodkind and objectivist philosophy.
• The Heroic Age has seven new posts. Don't miss this set of links.
• In the Middle has a post on authenticity and Guedelon.
• Medieval Bookworm reviews Hugh and Bess.
• Magistra et Mater talks about problems with historical fiction.
• Medieval Material Culture Blog has two new links pages: medieval children & children's clothing, and embroiderers at work.
• Muhlberger's Early History has images and video from Pennsic. For those who don't know, Pennic is a huge annual SCA event.
• News for Medievalists has a post on Becket medieval art (with video), and one on an early medieval mill in Ireland.
• The Ruminate has a post on Bede and hybridity.
• Studies of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages announces Kevin Harty's new edited collection, Cinema Arthuriana.
• Gearwor gets in on the discussion of Remi Brague and medieval philosophy, and has an image of the 51 headless Vikings.

Dear World,

Please stop asking me details about the "real" King Arthur, then arguing with me when I say he's a mythical figure and that if there is any historical basis, we're better off talking about King Arthurs, plural.

If you want to insist there's some real bona fide King Arthur and that I'm wrong, fine, but don't insinuate that I'm part of some grand conspiracy to hide the truth from the world.

I mean, really, what purpose would there be in hiding that? And no channeling Geoffrey of Monmouth by saying it's to keep the Welsh down, because I frankly couldn't care less between the Welsh and the English.

XOXOXO
Scott

Morning Medieval Miscellany

After going two weeks without a Miscellany, I hit the reset button on the inter-net-o-web-o-sphere, and here's what's come up since then:

• A Commonplace Book has images from Pennsic.
• Gypsy Scholar has a post on Rémi Brague and medieval philosophy.
• The Lost Fort has a visit to Dunstaffnage Castle.
• Medieval News tells us of a 7th-century city discovered in Turkey.
• Podictionary tells us how the word tawdry comes from the 7th-century virgin St. Audrey. Fascinating.
• There was a ship graveyard found in the Baltic off the coast of Sweden, with ships going back to the Viking age.
• About.com tells us about Pope Innocent III.
• Firefly Studios has a "medieval fact of the week" series to promote their game "Stronghold Kingdoms." It looks like the game is going to be a historically-based MMO.

Looting Medieval Churches in Northern Cyprus

Medieval News has an excellent article on how medieval churches in northern Cyprus are being looted through a combination of organized crime and government cooperation. Don't miss it.

Prayer of the Woods

I got an e-mail from someone asking about "Prayer of the Woods." He's seen web sources that say that it is over 1000 years old, and that it was translated from Portuguese.

Surely there's someone in this community who can confirm the origins, and maybe even give us more detail.

Prayer of the Woods

I am the heat of your hearth on cold winter nights, The friendly shade from the summer sun, and my fruits are refreshing draughts quenching your thirst as you journey on.

I am the beam that holds your house, and the board of your table. The bed on which you lie, and the timber that builds your boat.

I am the handle of your hoe. The door of your homestead, the wood of your cradle and the shell of your coffin.

I am the bread of kindness and the flower of beauty. Ye who pass by, listen to my prayer: Harm me not.

The Norton Anthology is neither written by Ed Norton nor an anthology. Discuss.

I've been trying desperately not to blog over the last week, since that would only distract me from putting together my syllabi for the fall semester (as it is doing as I write this now).

Still, I can't help but comment, once again, about the truncated medieval offerings of the Norton Anthology of English Literature, which omits tons of extremely canonical Old and Middle English literature from its tiny, tiny medieval Volume A, but which includes so much dull, boring, stuff in the remaining five volumes of modern literature that I'm convinced the editors were paid by the pound.

For example, their Anglo-Saxon offerings:

• Caedmon's Hymn (and the bit of Bede introducing it)
• Dream of the Rood
• Beowulf
• Judith
• King Alfred's Preface to the Pastoral Care
• The Wanderer
• The Wife's Lament

That's it. Really. As a bit more insult, when they added Judith in the 8th edition, they removed Battle of Maldon, as if the extra few pages was going to over-inflate the Anglo-Saxon section.

OK, I can't deal with now ... if you could knock some sense into the editors, what would you insist they include?

Met "Pen and Parchment" Exhibit a Knockout

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosting an exhibit through August 23rd entitled "Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages." Here's a rave review from The New Republic, which calls it "the most original museum show in this country since 2002," and "a knockout, at once sumptuous and restrained."

h/t Merlin DeTardo