Chaucer goes to the movies? + Vampires are the flavor of the week

The way things are going, it will probably be the end of the semester—or at least Thanksgiving—before I see a movie in a theater, but Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog has seen Men Who Glare at Stoats. Also, he claims to be negotiating with Caxton to print his books. Hey! Caxton wasn’t even born until a decade or so after Chaucer’s death, much less setting up a printing press. I like a humorous anachronism as well as the next medievalist, but they’re funnier when they seem intentional rather than just mistaken.

Medieval psychic spies, however, came off pretty well, by adding a nice mix-in of Harry Potter:

–Wyth the mocioun of the mynde and the eyes aloon, these knightes kan stoppe the beatinge herte of an adult stoat at a range of XX feet….

–These knightes of the Privy Order of the Garter have divyded themselves yn to IV “houses” in which they trayne and recruit squires. The houses aren ycleped Hippogryiffin d’Argent, Serpentyne, Hurlyburle, and Rooktalon.

I’m so grateful that I learned to read Middle English.

In other news, at least two other scholars I know who have written/published on Buffy the Vampire Slayer were interviewed in the past week or so on the mysterious allure of vampires, as was I (by my university newspaper).

From David Lavery’s interview with Portuguese journalist:

[Q] And what does that mean in this first decade of the 21st century that the most successful of those narratives is not one with a feisty heroine, but about an abstinent teenage couple?
As a Buffy scholar I have again and again heard from those fans (and scholars) empowered by Buffy (like the little girl at bat or the young woman standing up against her abuser) in Chosen. … Twilight cannot be making anybody stronger—or more adult.

K. Dale Koontz, author of Faith and Choice in the Works of Joss Whedon, interviewed in her local paper:

Vampires also give us safe scares, [Koontz] said.

“It’s a catharsis,” she said. “We get to be all scared and release all of those feelings and then go home and have meatloaf and go back to an ordinary life and be okay with it being an ordinary life.”

…

“The heroine of the ‘Twilight’ saga is a throwback to the girl as a victim,” she said, citing “Buffy the Vampire [Slayer]” as an example of how Whedon took a blonde girl with a goofy-sounding name and, instead of making her a victim, made her a strong lead character that terrorized demons.

“This is kind of feeding into that fantasy of, ‘I might not fit in with the rest of the world, but there’s this powerful, charismatic, strong man that only I can understand whose entire life is devoted to protecting me.’ It’s very safe and I think (Myers) taps into that really well.”

I’d link to the Campbell Times article, but it’s not online, which is another story.

Try doing that with a modern book

Medievalists.net is one of my favorite sites. They collate all kinds of fascinating (to medievalists, anyway!) articles and news stories, like this one on their blog, about an NC State research project to trace the source and dates of medieval manuscripts using DNA testing on the parchments:

North Carolina State Assistant Professor of English Timothy Stinson . . . says genetic testing could resolve [problems in determining manuscript origins] by creating a baseline using the DNA of parchment found in the relatively small number of manuscripts that can be reliably dated and localized. Each manuscript can provide a wealth of genetic data, Stinson explains, because a typical medieval parchment book includes the skins of more than 100 animals.

It’s exciting to see science, history, and literature working together!

They also provide a trove of images of the recently discovered Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon-era gold & gems, and an interview with Ian Mortimer, author of A Time Traveller’s Guide to the 14th Century. Although the title initially makes me think of one of the best books about time-travelling to the 14th century, Connie Willis’s The Doomsday Book, it seems as if Mortimer may have found a way to make history come alive:

The idea that became Time Traveller’s came to me in 1993. It was to write a history book that not only appealed to the reader but also directly prioritised their interests. Being a fan of the Douglas Adams books, my first idea was a ‘hitchhiker’s guide to history’. I planned to include all the extraordinary facts I knew about the English past, from Henry VIII passing legislation requiring those guilty of mass poisoning to be boiled alive (it was enacted twice), to nineteenth-century wife sales, reactions to public executions, great escapes, secret treaties, etc.

Sounds a bit silly on the surface of it, but he seems to have done the serious research and I suspect you’d know a lot more about life in the 14th century after reading Mortimer’s Guide than after reading Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror–which medievalists have probably read anyway.

Happy Hallowe’en, or How did I miss this?

Let this be a lesson to us all (especially me)—this is what happens when you don’t blog for a month or more & people stop checking. I missed “Chaucer”’s enthusiastic post on the Middle English version of Twilight, or rather Vespers:

Sure, the prose kynd of maketh Dives et Pauper look lyk George Orwelle, but the storie pulleth me yn….

In this fyne book of sparklie vampyres, Bella Cygne moveth from Essex to Yorkshyre to lyve with her fathir, who ys a sheriff and escheator. At a scole ful of recentlie coyned stereotypes, she witnesseth the fayre skyn and fashion-sprede slow-mocioun hotenesse of the Cu Chulainn clan, the which have all eaten long ago of the magical Irisshe Salmon of Really Good Hair (oon byte of this magical salmon and ye shal have good hair for evir). Aftir Bella doth see the hottest of the clan, Edward, stop a wagon wyth hys bare handes, fight off twentie churles, and brood so much he did make Angel look lyk Mister Rogeres, she doth realise that the Cu Chulainns are vampyres. But they are good vampyres, who drinke wyne. Ther is considerablie moore sexual tensioun than in Piers Plowman.

We are amused. Also amusing: Castle’s many Whedon-allusions in the Hallowe’en episode. (For some reason WP is not allowing me to embed video today.)

My resolution for November: to post more frequently. Much more frequently. You’ll see.

Books you can actually read

…if you haven’t already: 12 favorite 20th century fantasy novels/series from Allan Yeh, along with some musings on the origins of fantasy literature. Some of these books are also on my list, such as the Narnia Chronicles, The Lord of the Rings, and George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series—at least the first two books. I had to wait so long for the next two that I literally “lost the plot” and haven’t had time to re-read, but I’m sure they’ll all be worthwhile when I do!

Yeh includes Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series as his “favorite,” and that’s his prerogative, of course. In my opinion, any series that “bogs down” for five—five—books (vols. 7-11) is out of control. Many friends recommended WoT to me, but I got bored after book two. Nevertheless, these books have their appeal, obviously, or there would not be so many.

As a medievalist, I’m required to note that in his comments on Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Yeh says:

Tolkien wanted to write the first British mythology. Some may object that King Arthur should rightfully fill that spot, but actually the Camelot legend began with Sir Thomas Malory, a Frenchman, who wrote Le Morte d’Arthur.

A couple of errors here: The Camelot legend did not begin with Malory (late 15th c.), but long before him in Britain (before the Anglo-Saxons), Wales (5th-10th c.), and France (12th c.). Also, though we don’t know much about Sir Thomas Malory, most scholars are pretty sure he was English, born in Warwickshire (Le Morte Darthur, Norton Critical ed., Stephen H.A. Shepherd). Like many an upper-class person of his day, he seems to have been able to read/speak French well enough to use several French versions of Arthurian legends as sources for his compilation.

If you can, read Malory before reading T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. If not, White will probably influence the your reading of Malory, which may not be a bad thing.

Obligatory Shakespeare’s birthday post

Thanks to my excellent sister, the Cordelia of younger sisters, for sending me the link to CNN’s story on Talk Like Shakespeare Day. As they point out:

It isn’t as difficult as it sounds. After all, Shakespeare single-handedly contributed more than 1,700 words and phrases to the English language — everything from “foul play” to “monumental” to, of course, “all’s well that ends well.”

If you want to really get revenge while sounding learned rather than crude, the Shakespeare insult generator is lots of fun, too.

Some scholars (Mersand, Cannon) have argued that Chaucer contributed over 1100 words to English. And he had to bring them in from French and Italian. Just saying.

My English teachers–George Kane (continuing series)

Recently I learned that one of my grad. school professors, George Kane, died on December 27; his funeral was held today in England. He was probably  best-known as editor/co-editor (with E. Talbot Donaldson and George Russell) of William Langland’s monumental 14th c. allegorical poem of social and spiritual commentary, The Vision of Piers Plowman, as well as a great scholar of Middle English literature in general, including Chaucer. I had the privilege and challenge of taking three courses with him while I was working on my PhD—Middle English, Chaucer, and a seminar on Piers.  He not only led us into deeper understanding and appreciation of  the authors and literary texts we studied, but also insisted that we all learn to pronounce Middle English and read it aloud, as well as comprehend and analyze the material intelligently. Those who were in his classes during his last years of teaching still joke with a mix of pride and fear that we bear “the mark of Kane.” He did not suffer fools. “Look at the shape of the words!” was one of his admonitions.

The introduction to Medieval English Studies Presented to George Kane (the festschrift in honor of his retirement) notes:

George Kane fostered … enthusiasm [for medieval studies] both in and out of the classroom. Both as a teacher and as a senior colleague to junior faculty, he balanced frank advice and insistence on hard work with needed encouragement and support. Although busy with teaching, scholarship, and other departmental and university duties, he generously devoted a great deal of time to helping his students and colleagues. (xii-xiii)

He and his wife Bridget graciously held an annual “sherry” for the medieval studies graduate students, where we’d be sure a good meal, not just frou-frou finger food.

In a recent post on the transition from one year to the next, Tony Esolen, (who also studied under Professor Kane) points out that reflecting on our past and present is a constant of human nature:

It is natural even for pagan man not only to remember those whom he has loved, who have passed — like old King Scyld in his funeral boat at the beginning of Beowulf — into the great beyond, “no man knows where,” but to expect to be remembered in turn.  We rebel against the notion that we should live our few years on earth and then be forgotten; it is an expectation founded in our own gratitude for those who came before us….

I’m sure that other students and former colleagues of Dr. Kane will have their own tributes, people who knew him better and who have achieved more than I. I know that I will be teaching Chaucer this coming semester with extra snap in grateful memory of Dr. Kane.

Anglo-Saxon saint of the day

Well, of yesterday: Aelred of Rievaulx, thanks to Fred Sanders of Scriptorium Daily, who seems to be attempting 365 posts in 2009 by memorializing various Christian saints and martyrs of all stripes. Go, Fred! I picked Aelred because of the appropriate timing—at the beginning of the semester we’re in Anglo-Saxon to Anglo-Norman (Aelred’s era) with the British Lit. survey course, and the Chaucer class is reviewing the history of the language, leading up to Middle English.

Happy new year…and merry Christmas

For a variety of reasons, I’m looking forward to the fresh beginnings of 2009, and hope it brings good things to all. In the world, this is the end of the “holiday” season which began with Thanksgiving (or before Hallowe’en, in some stores), but it’s still Christmas until January 6, Epiphany, as Christian History reminds us:

The “real” twelve days of Christmas are important not just as a way of thumbing our noses at secular ideas of the “Christmas season.” They are important because they give us a way of reflecting on what the Incarnation means in our lives. Christmas commemorates the most momentous event in human history—the entry of God into the world He made, in the form of a baby. . . . In Christ, our human nature was united to God, and when Christ enters our hearts, he brings us into that union.

. . . Epiphany commemorates the beginning of the proclamation of the gospel—Christ’s manifestation to the nations, as shown in three different events: the visit of the Magi, the baptism of Jesus, and the turning of water into wine.

My Christmas decorations remain lit until the 6th, reminding me that Christ’s incarnational gift of hope is part of this new year’s changes as well. “Twelve Days of Christmas” gifts in 2008-09? $21,080.10. A truly joyful Christmas and a happy new year? Priceless.

Must…have…poll…?

WordPress now has a poll feature, and just in case we haven’t had enough polls, I feel compelled to use this new ouidget:

If you don’t like any of the answers, add your own in comments.

Still in business

In fact, “busy”-ness is the word for the way things have been going around here since the last post, with teaching overloads all around and more. But enough about me! The exuberant “extreme” Chaucerian bloggers have a new post. Spot the Middle English allusion to a work by Joss Whedon and win…extra credit, if you’re one of my students. Otherwise, just consider yourself amazingly culturally literate.