#eadwacer

[theinquisitxor]

A Day of Fallen Night mild spoilers:

I want to talk about Wulf and his pov + Old English Literature.

What we know:

The Kingdom of Hroth is largely a Scandinavian/Nordic inspired country.

In Priory, Inys is roughly equivalent to the English Elizabethan/Tudor era (the 1450s- 1500s). Fallen Night takes place 500 years prior. What era was England in in the early 1000s? The (end of) the Anglo-Saxon era.

While Inys during Fallen Night is definitely not set in an Anglo-Saxon era, I feel like there are definite motifs and similarities. The Hrothi used to raid Inys, but stopped after the marriage of Sabran and Barholdt. Wulf uses a saxe knife. The fens and monsters resemble those of Old English epics.

Aside the Anglo-Saxon & Scandinavian influences, I want to talk about the references to Old English literature:

Firstly, Samatha Shannon introduces Part 3 with a quote from the Old English (fragmented) poem, Wulf and Eadwacer.

it is:

wulf is on iege, ic on oþerre. / fæst is þæt eglond, fenne biworpen… / Ungelice is us

This roughly translates to: Wulf is on one island. I am on another. Fast is that island set among the fens....We are apart.

Now, Wulf and Eadwacer is a notoriously difficult poem to translate and make sense of, for those of us who have studied Old English. It appears to be from the pov of a woman lamenting over the separation of a male person she loves (typically interpreted as a husband/lover, but it doesn't have to be) referencing an on-going violent event in the background. And! there a line about a child being left in the woods with a wolf.

But I think Shannon does something so neat here and she changes the meaning to fit for Tunuva and Wulf, and bases so much of Tunuva and Wulf's relationship/story on this small poem fragment!!

Secondly, during a titular scene with Wulf washing up on a beach, Wulf is called the seafarer. "By dawn, the lights had disappeared, and the seafarer was still alive" (pg 396). This is obviously a direct call to the Old English poem, The Seafarer. It's a melancholic, elegiac poem concerned with life and death, about a seafarer on a cold, wintery beach mourning the loss of his comrades. Sound familiar?

I just love this little attention to detail concerning Wulf and Fallen Night. Samantha Shannon is a brilliant, brilliant woman

#a day of fallen night #adofn #the priory of the orange tree #samantha shannon #old english #wulf and eadwacer #the seafarer #old english language

[tanadrin]

so this piece argues for a new interpretation of Wulf and Eadwacer (one of my very favorite Old English poems), in line with the legendary history of the conflict between Theodoric and Odoacer, and while all this is very interesting, I think it’s a bit silly that for generations people have approached this poem as a mystery to be solved.

the reason I find this puzzling is that it stands perfectly well on its own! it doesn’t laboriously spell out every detail of the scenario it depicts--it’s rather modern in that way, I suppose, relying more on inference than plain diegesis--but it’s hardly mysterious. the emotions it communicates are quite intense and quite clear. the theodoric/odoacer/sonegild interpretation is plausible (though idk if i’m convinced; there just isn’t a ton of evidence to work with bc the text is so short), but it feels like trivia decorating the real meat of the poem, not like a necessary interpretive context, y’know?

Full text and translation for those who don’t know the poem:

Leodum is mīnum swylce him mon lāc gife Willað hȳ hine āþecgan gif hē on þrēat cymeð.

Ungelīc is ūs. Wulf is on īege, ic on ōþerre fæst is þæt ēglond, fenne biworpen sindon wælrēowe weras þær on īege; willað hȳ hine āþecgan gif hē on þrēat cymeð.

Ungelīce is ūs. Wulfes ic mīne wīdlāstum wēnum dogode þonne hit wæas rēnig weder ond ic rēotugu sæt, þonne mec se beaducāfa bōgum bilegde; wæs mē win tō þon, wæas mē hwæþre ēac lāð.

Wulf, mīn Wulf, wēna mē þīne sēoce gedydon, þīne seldcymas, murnende mōd, nales metelīste.

Gehȳrest þu, Eadwacer? Uncerne earmne hewlp Bireð wulf tō wuda. Þæt mon ēaþe tōslīteð þætte næfre gesomnad wæs, Uncer giedd geador.

One like him would be a gift/sacrifice to my people They would welcome/devour him if he came among them

We are not the same. Wulf is on one isle, I on another Secure is that island, surrounded with fens There are slaughter-greedy men there on the isle; They would welcome/devour him if he came among them.

We are not the same. I followed Wulf’s tracks in hope Then it was rainy weather, and I sat weeping, When the battle-brave one embraced me with his arms; There was joy for me in that, but there was also loathing.

Wulf, my Wulf, my hopes for you Have made my sick--your seldom-comings, a mourning mind, not at all a desire for food.

Do you hear, Eadwacer? Our wretched whelp The wolf carries to the woods. That is easily separated that never was joined, Our tale together.

#old english #wulf and eadwacer

[femmchantress]

I’ve been on a ‘folks studying and attempting to recreate ancient music and poetry’ kick lately and I’ve become just endlessly captivated by Hanna Marti’s rendition of the ~9th century Old English poem “Wulf and Eadwacer.”

#Hanna Marti #Wulf and Eadwacer

[dahliahere]

“Wulf and Eadwacer” is an old English poem composed in the 9th century. It is famous for being hard to interpret and is thought to be a love poem, a poem relating to child loss, or a riddle.

Old English:

Leodum is minum swylce him mon lac gife;

willað hy hine aþecgan, gif he on þreat cymeð.

Ungelic is us.

Wulf is on iege, ic on oþerre.

Fæst is þæt eglond, fenne biworpen.

Sindon wælreowe weras þær on ige;

willað hy hine aþecgan, gif he on þreat cymeð.

Ungelice is us.

Wulfes ic mines widlastum wenum dogode;

þonne hit wæs renig weder ond ic reotugu sæt,

þonne mec se beaducafa bogum bilegde,

wæs me wyn to þon, wæs me hwæþre eac lað.

Wulf, min Wulf, wena me þine

seoce gedydon, þine seldcymas,

murnende mod, nales meteliste.

Gehyrest þu, Eadwacer? Uncerne earne hwelp

bireð Wulf to wuda.

þæt mon eaþe tosliteð þætte næfre gesomnad wæs,

uncer giedd geador.

Modern English:

It is to my people as if someone gave them a gift.

They want to kill him, if he comes with a troop.

It is different for us.

Wulf is on one island I on another.

That island, surrounded by fens, is secure.

There on the island are bloodthirsty men.

They want to kill him, if he comes with a troop.

It is different for us.

I thought of my Wulf with far-wandering hopes,

Whenever it was rainy weather, and I sat tearfully,

Whenever the warrior bold in battle encompassed me with his arms.

To me it was pleasure in that, it was also painful.

Wulf, my Wulf, my hopes for you have caused

My sickness, your infrequent visits,

A mourning spirit, not at all a lack of food.

Do you hear, Eadwacer? A wolf is carrying

our wretched whelp to the forest,

that one easily sunders which was never united:

our song together.

#wulf and eadwacer #poem #9th century #medieval #middle ages #medieval poem #history #old english

[obligatorilypretentious]

from: Wulf and Eadwacer (trans. by Roy Liuzza)

#poem #poetry in many forms #old english #Wulf and Eadwacer #Roy Liuzza

[lastprairiepirate]

you’re just jealous because uncer giedd geador is gesomnad and yours næfre wæs

#wulf and eadwacer posting time #old english #i am so sorry this is unintelligible

[sivavakkiyar]

“The Exeter Book gives no authors and no titles to the 193 poems it now contains; nor are solutions given for the Riddles…Riddle 75 consists of a single line of verse: Ic ane geseah idese sittan. Literally construed, this reads: ‘I a single saw woman sitting’; the adjective ane (one) qualifies the noun idese (woman). My first translation of this read: ‘I saw a woman sit alone’. Initial vowels alliterate in Old English verse; ane and idese agree in sound as well as grammatically; both are in the accusative case.

Some scholars have thought this one-line riddle incomplete. It had no accepted solution. A woman might sit alone for various reasons. I received a postcard which suggested that the answer might be ‘A Hen’. Another reader wrote proposing ‘The Moon’, which was attractive, though Old English se mona is masculine. I remained undecided, assuming all the while that the woman must be the subject. She might be lonely, like the women who speak the Exeter Book poems Wulf and Eadwacer and The Wife’s Lament; or like the speaker of Ezra Pound’s version translated from the Chinese, ‘The Jewel Stair’s Greivance’. I was still looking in this direction when another postcard came with what must be the correct solution: ‘A Mirror’.”

—-Michael Alexander, The First Poems In English

#Michael Alexander #exeter book #poetry #riddle #tbh I don’t find that answer so conclusively correct but he’s obviously the expert I can’t even read the original

[technicangels]

artfight attacks compilation part one!

Aele'nor belongs to @sunflowerwizard

Anastasia belongs to V_for_very_awesome_

Yermolai belongs to @dumbassvinsmoke

Clyde Hawke belongs to @knightsgrimm

Eadwacer belongs to onfim

#as a heads up i got everyone's usernames from your artfight bios! #digital art #myart #artfight #oc art #art #ocs #art fight #artfight 2023

[libidomechanica]

Untitled (“But if each dwelling his maxims, which”)

For those lips, pass, tak’ him there rings steeple.   Many women are holding to the turrets   of the days I will and glimmeringly we to bursting on of grape appear; it is perfections, and pain for unremember:   the snake, like unimpede them on   thine hear the days? Bedroom is true love for love me at my head. Shall the night of dizzily,—mistaken; few are sings; and as   old Falstaf says let us roll it seems   that comes, and the wood pigeon that veins. But if each dwelling his maxims, which thou fill the fabulous folds one Phœnix shall dwell, hear,   Eadwacer? Dang me, but, trowth, I care na   by. Thus instead of the white Alps alone or waken’d from him; I call the twilight.

#poetry #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Markov chains #Markov chain length: 6 #135 texts #Meredith sonnet

[florilegia-or-what-you-will]

Commonplace Songs

So. Here’s the thing. I have a bad habit of skimming, especially when I’m reading rubrics. I don’t notice I’m doing it but it can mean I miss important bits of information, such as the part about your last entry being a 250 word retrospective. Luckily I am aware of this deficiency of mine so I tend to check my rubrics periodically to make sure I haven’t missed anything. So I wrote the post. But. Before I realized there was a set end to the life of this blog I still intended my own form of wrap-up. I decided to make a playlist with at least one song per reading from this class. Even after I knew I just had to write a lil paragraph I couldn’t get the idea out of my head so here is the playlist anyway. [Commonplace Songs] Obviously it would be a bit of a time commitment to listen to the whole thing, so this was mostly just for my own enjoyment, but I had too much fun not to share. Notes for each song under the cut.

Abbess Hild & Caedmon, & Caedmon’s Hymn - Sisters of Mercy - Leonard Cohen

This one was honestly one of the most difficult to figure out. I generally struggled most to find songs for the explicitly religious texts, but I think this one works pretty well if you think of it as being from Caedmon’s perspective.

The Exeter Book Riddles - The Riddle Song - Joan Baez | Scarborough Fair - Simon and Garfunkel

These are cheating a little I know, since they both have very old origins themselves. I did consider including Schubert’s Swansong as a reference to Riddle 7, but I’ve tried to stick with songs that have lyrics.

The Wanderer - Man of Constant Sorrow - Joan Baez

Man of Constant Sorrow is really a modern version of The Wanderer to me. An exile “bound to ramble” away from their loved ones, unable to see them again in this life.

Deor - This Too Shall Pass - Danny Schmidt

This one is obvious from the title, and she makes rings! What more could you ask?

The Wife’s Lament - You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me - Dusty Springfield | One Too Many Mornings - Joan Baez

You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me really captures the tragedy of still being in love with someone who’s abandoned you. I think the desire for physical proximity really works with The Wife’s Lament. One Too Many Mornings works for the feeling of physical, but more importantly, temporal distance. The tortuous, and at the same time mundane passing of time, and the feeling of it being too late.

Wulf and Eadwacer - Farewell Wanderlust - The Amazing Devil

I struggled with this one. Another song considered was Better Man by Pearl Jam but I think Farewell Wanderlust works better even if it's less specific. It's got the anger, frustration, heartbreak, and defeat going for it. 

Dream of the Rood - The Becoming - Nine Inch Nails 

I decided no church music was allowed which made this one harder. I decided to lean into the slight body horror of the description of the cross shifting between bloodstained and bejewelled. Also: “He’s covered with scabs he’s broken and sore” just like Jesus! Obviously this doesn’t really suit the glorious tone the poem was going for, but I personally found the poem a bit unsettling.

Judith - Glory and Gore - Lorde | The Dismemberment Song - Blue Kid

Glory and Gore definitely fits the tone of the poem best, it's hard to explain why without going line by line, but trust me this one is exceptionally good for Judith. The Dismemberment Song is here even though it's not quite right, because it was suggested to me and it made me laugh. Content warning though, it is very clinically detailed about, you know, dismemberment.

The Battle of Maldon - Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin

This one is pretty obvious right? I came so very close to including Waterloo by ABBA as well, but I do have some restraint.

History of the Kings of Britain - Set Fire to the Rain - Adele | Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

Set Fire to the Rain is for Igerna. All that love, and vulnerability, and secrets, and distrust. This song is just about Igerna to me now, it's pretty perfect for her. Everybody Wants to Rule the World works really well for Arthurian legend. “Nothing ever lasts forever, everybody wants to rule the world”

The Mabinogi - Rhiannon - Fleetwood Mac | She’s Always A Woman - Billy Joel

Rhiannon is ludicrously obvious, I don’t think I need to explain. She’s Always A Woman is also about Rhiannon, specifically how Pwyll defends her and keeps her as his queen even though everyone is against her.

Lanval - Who is She? - I Monster | Come Wander With Me - Jeff Alexander

I feel like a magical woman appearing out of nowhere to be your girlfriend would actually be pretty trippy, hence Who is She? Come Wander With Me is a bit more suitable tonally. Have fun wandering off, never to be seen again, Lanval!

Ancrene Wisse - Agoraphobia - Deerhunter

As you might expect, from a song called Agoraphobia, this works well for anchoresses. The lyrics match the actual daily life of an anchoress surprisingly well.

Middle English Lyrics - Luck Be a Lady - Frank Sinatra

With regard to The Lady Dame Fortune is both frende and foe

Sir Orfeo - Frozen Pines - Lord Huron | Word Spins Madly On - The Weepies

Frozen Pines captures the frozen-in-time-ness and its about seeking a lost loved one in the woods. It's perfect. World Spins Madly On works because time has also very much not frozen, and they are apart from one another, knowing, and at the same time not knowing, where the other is. Honourable mention to Nothing Takes the Place of You by Toussaint McCall, which just wasn’t quite right, but has a maturity the other two lack.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight I - Family Friend - The Vaccines

Poor Gawain is the only responsible adult at court. Jokes aside, this is a really good character song for Gawain.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight II-III - All in Green Went My Love Riding - Joan Baez

I’ve mentioned this one before. It's too perfect not to include.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight IV - Little Lion Man - Mumford and Sons

Another character portrait for my favourite boy Gawain! This also works for him in Morte d’Arthur. He tries so hard, and always comes just a little bit short, and then blames himself mercilessly.

Canterbury Tales – General Prologue - Prologue: Into the Woods - Stephen Sondheim

I’ll be honest, I had no idea what to do for this one, but I committed to a song per reading. It does work well in a way. They are both prologues that introduce a billion archetypal characters at once, tell you what they want, and make fun of the a little. Sondheim could have done a kick-ass musical adaptation of The Canterbury Tales.

Piers Plowman – Prologue - Land of the Believer - The Weather Girls

Club music perilously close to gospel music, I wouldn’t be surprised if this genuinely was about Jesus and religion. I considered skipping Piers Plowman because we didn’t actually go over it in class, but I’m a completionist.

Chaucer – Canterbury Tales – The Miller’s Tale - You Give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi

Oh Absolon… I considered going with Tainted Love, but I needed a ridiculous song for a ridiculous story.

Chaucer – Canterbury Tales – The Miller’s Tale - Put the Blame on Mame - “Rita Hayeworth” Anita Ellis

On the other hand, Put the Blame on Mame is about a beautiful woman being blamed for disasters both natural and human, but which is supposed to, in my opinion, make you think about how ridiculous it is to actually blame a woman for that kind of thing.

Julian of Norwich – A Revelation of Love - Space Age Love Song - A Flock of Seagulls

I love taking songs that aren’t supposed to be about Jesus and making them about Jesus, and Jesus in the role of alien girlfriend is funny to me. That said, it does work really well for the transcendent vibe of medieval mysticism.

The Book of Margery Kempe - Crazy - Gnarls Barkley | Policy of Truth - Depeche Mode

I found it a bit difficult to take Margery seriously at first, because she is patently a ridiculous person, but is she really crazy just because others think she is? Trying to think of songs for her is actually what made me take more seriously what her life was like. She experienced many dangers and a lot of persecution for living her truth, hence Policy of Truth.

The Book of Margery Kempe - Sad Eyed  Lady of the Lowlands - Joan Baez

A singular, and shockingly untouchable woman.

Second Shepherd’s Play - Mack the Knife - Ella Fitzgerald | Sheep - Pink Floyd

I admit, these are both kind of joke songs, but they do work! Mack because Mac, sheep because sheep.

Second Shepherd’s Play - Under Pressure - Queen and David Bowie

The slightly more serious choice for this play. It matches the complaining of the shepherds at the beginning of the play, and it has references to prayer, and a desire for change that works given it is a nativity play.

Noah’s Flood - Rain on Me - Lady Gaga (feat. Ariana Grande)

Okay, hear me out. I know it's a club song, but it's actually perfect for Noah’s wife. I can’t go line by line, but it expresses disappointment with a relationship, be it with God or Noah, but it also expresses gratitude for being alive, even though they wish they were “dry” , a reference to rain, and alcohol.

The Crucifixion - Blowing’ in the Wind - Joan Baez

This one was really hard without just choosing a song literally about the crucifixion, which would be cheating. Blowing in the Wind is about ignorance and apathy to human suffering, which is also what characterises the Roman soldiers. Also, yes, I will pick the Joan Baez version of every song I can. Thank you for asking.

Mankind -  WWJD - The Axis of Awesome | Out of Touch - Hall and Oates

Mankind - Send Them Off! - Bastille

WWJD is another joke song, but you can’t tell me a group of demons in a morality play wouldn’t sing this. Like the demons in the play, it humorously pokes at a question people would really be asking about how they are supposed to ever live up to Jesus. Out of Touch and Send Them Off! are more straightforwardly readable as Mankind singing to/for Mercy.

Morte d’Arthur, book 1 - Tower Song - Martha Wainright | In the Blood (feat. Ashley Barrett) - Darren Korb

Tower Song is my other song for Igerna. It works along the same lines as Ste Fire to the Rain, but it's a little more vicious. I was torn about including In the Blood, even though it works well for Arthur, because of course it does, I transposed one young hero who is the future of his people, onto another. I still think the Arthurian angle changes the way the song reads enough for it to work, though.

Morte d’Arthur,  book 8 - Happy Ending - MIKA | Heavy Crown - Trixie Mattel

For Happy Ending, please see my previous post on Lancelot and Guinevere. Heavy Crown is for Arthur, “Winning’s losing with a couple strings [...] Gotta be the last to know”, I think it suits the melancholy of all the lost glory Camelot, and how inevitable the whole thing felt to Arthur the second he was confronted by Agravaine and Mordred about Guinevere and Lancelot

#alas many songs were left on the cutting room floor #this was a good learning experience #a lot of medieval lit isn't super character focused #they tend not to get into anyone's head the way books do in our psychological age #which can leave character feeling pretty flat at first blush #doing this forced me to get into their heads regardless #It made me appreciated their subtle nuances a lot more #I could tag every story poem song and author separately but i won't because can you even imagine #florilegia

[duskoscrawl]

A break down of my 'The Voices Beneath' Series and Playlist

The entire playlist can be accessed on YouTube here and the series is on ao3 here and is summarised as following:

An exploration of the pervading influence of Dwendalian Nationalism over the Empire's citizens and how it seeps into their mentalities. Particularly through the life of Caleb Widogast.

The Playlist, Song by Song:

Mordred's Lullaby, Heather Dale: this is the song that the series title is drawn from. It draws from Arthurian myth and is pretty dark for a lullaby. The series premise draws from the lines 'And you won't understand the cause of your grief | but you'll always follow the voices beneath' which I think really feeds into the collective grief stricken nationalism of the Zemni Fields.

Eat Your Young, Hozier (Bekon's Choral Version): A lot of my work for this series is rooted in Irish literature - especially since my reading of the EGW suggests that the fields are mostly worked by tenant farmers - therefore I was thrilled when Hozier released a song based on Johnathan Swift's 'A Modest Proposal' which argued that as the English landlords had stolen so much from the Irish, why didn't they just eat the children too. It is this kind of energy that fuels the first half of Zemnian Days (fort, doch nicht vergessen), which is a bildungsroman of Una Ermendrud's life and explores day to day life in the fields.

The Worker's Song, Ben Robertson (Ed Pickford, arr. Dick Gaughan): this is a very good folk song about the systematic abuse of the working class. The lines 'and when the sky darkens | and the prospect is war | who's given a gun | and then pushed to the fore?' play into the Righteous Brand's recruitment of farmhands from the fields, seen throughout Zemnian Days.

Pleasant and Delightful, the Longest Johns: this is a folk song about love and grief and longing, perfect for the last section of Zemnian Days, where Una and Leofric fall in love, but Leofric signs up to the Righteous Brand to be able to financially support the child Una falls pregnant with.

Unbreakable, Keiino: this is one of my go-to songs for Caleb. It's based on the story of the Snow Queen and carries that fairytale vibe that Caleb delivers so well with Der Katzenprins and the Waldhexe. It is paired with Looking Out of the Window which is a fic in which Una watches her son grow up for sixteen years, and ends in fire and flame. When listening to the song, I often position Ikithon as the evil mother figure from the Snow Queen who is making Bren unbreakable

The Innocent, Aurora: this is where the thrumming beat of Rexxentrum starts to play. Where Bren gets his scholarship and meets the city with wonder and joy. The song slowly spirals into a kind of desperation, wherein you can imagine Ikithon taking power over the Blumendrei.

A Temporary High, Aurora: this is the song for the Blumendrei being each other's only comfort in the midst of Ikithon's torture. There's a running motif throughout the song about being cold and hoping that the love is not just a temporary high - which I think really plays into the whole story of their imprisonment in the Academy tower.

Wulf ond Eadwacer, Hanna Marti: this is my favourite Old English poem, excellently performed by Hanna Marti. It is spoken by an Anglo Saxon woman about her two lovers (historical debate and difficulty in translation makes this uncertain), but I have drawn from my favourite bits of translation to write Ungelīc is ūs (we are apart). This covers Astrid's story of the first month after Bren breaks and she is a fully fledged Vollstrucker. It is very intense about the level of control Ikithon has over her life.

The In-between (piano solo), Evanescence: this is a particularly haunting piece of music that encompasses the first part of Bren's imprisonment in the Vergessen Sanatarium. It pairs with the fic Hourglass of Ash, which is a free indirect discourse piece showing Bren's perspective of his time in Vergessen.

Me and the Devil, Soap&Skin: this covers the end of Hourglass of Ash where the man who will become Caleb Widogast comes to himself in Vergessen Sanatarium and begins to face the horror of what he has done.

The Tragedy of Widogast, Chase Noseworthy: this is a wonderful song, and in this playlist it bookmarks the birth of the man who is becoming Caleb Widogast. As a lot of this is covered in game, I have not written much for the next section of songs.

Feed the Machine, Poor Man's Poison: this song is another one about the systematic abuse of the working classes. It is my song for Nott and Caleb before they meet the Nein.

Give Me a Reason, Chase Noseworthy and Lilli Furfaro: this is a beautifully haunting song about Astrid and Caleb meeting in Rexxentrum. It keeps its context in this playlist.

Dine with the Puppetmaster, Chase Noseworthy: this song is about the dinner with Ikithon. It keeps its context in this series, and I very much enjoy the imagery that is used in the song.

This is Love, Air Traffic Controller: this song is my go-to song for Trent Ikithon. It has a relentless set of vocals that sing from the perspective of an abuser. There is also another voice that reminds me of Astrid. In this playlist, this song represents the final battle against Ikithon in the finale.

I Won't, AJR: courtesy of @leetlesapphiretiefling. This song directly pairs with the fic I do what you tell me to (and do it to death), which is a character study of Eadwulf. The fic is inspired both by the song and by a hedgerow in my village that I was walking along. It explores snippets of Wulf's childhood, paired with his survival technique during his years with Ikithon.

So Human of You, Shireen: this song is about deriding a person who bases their humanity in cruelty. It pairs with Inheritance of the Archmage, which is a fic about Astrid having Wulf, Caleb and some members of the Cobalt Soul helping her to clean out Ikithon's Candle, which she, as the new Archmage of Civil Influence, has inherited. It is about coming to terms with the cruelty that has made up the last 17 years of her life.

The Devil is Human, Aurora: this one is also related to Inheritance of the Archmage, as it carries a similar message about humanity and cruelty. It also refers to the singer and associates as becoming 'real human beings' which I tie into Astrid and Wulf being able to move out of living in survival mode and process what has happened - something that is explored in the fic by them finding a cache of genuine letters from their families that Ikithon had withheld from them.

Waldhexe, Chase Noseworthy and Ginny Di: this song directly inspired Waldhexe (spare us from your claws). This fic is a pov outsider piece from the perspective of the Ermendrud's neighbours, who see Caleb come to visit home as a ghost. It is about the collective grief in the Fields, as the War of Ash and Light (I think that's what it's called, Essek's war) had robbed the Ehlers of their three children, all of whom were called up to be soldiers. It works to reconcile the broad strokes of the campaign with the minutia of the thousands of inhabitants of the Empire and the Dynasty.

Lost Without You, Freya Ridings: this is the purest grief song on this entire playlist and it is dedicated to a goose called Peck Beck, who is the narrator for Find Familiar. This fic is about a goose who loves baby Astrid unconditionally and is then eaten when her family die, before being brought back as a familiar. I adore this fic. It was inspired by a trip round a lovely Welsh museum of culture (it's the kind of museum where they have lots of historical buildings on site and they had medieval farmhouses through to modern ones).

Gloria in Excelsis Dei, Vivaldi: I would have put the whole Gloria oratorio in here if I thought I could get away with it. This accompanies the fic Gloria, which details Essek viewing a graduation at the Soltryce Academy and exploring the role of pomp and ceremony in nationbuilding. It was inspired by watching my flatmate perform Gloria with a university choir in a particularly nice church.

Garden of Bones, Galdorcræft: this is a very dark sounding song about being in the garden and keeping on living. It pairs with my fic Bitter Meadowsweet, which deals with Caleb mourning the mundane aspects of his childhood, as well as the fact that he will never be able to learn skills and recipes off of his parents.

Earth Mother, Fáerhin: this is a fairly dark sounding ambient song that carries an ominous sense of peace. It is another one for Caleb's garden and the uneasy sense of peace you get when mingling the soft epilogues with the political uncertainty of Rexxentrum politics and Essek's situation.

Brave New World, Kalandra: this is a beautifully dystopian song. I associate it with Beau and Caleb beginning to uncover just how deep the Cerberus Assembly corruption goes, as well as trying to utilise Caleb's role in the Academy to curb wizard hubris. For that reason, it goes with the fic Control Flames, which is a pov outsider view of professor Widogast that I began writing in the wake of the finale.

A Good Song Never Dies, Saint Motel: this song has a very determined beat, and a very strong sense of purpose. It is a song I associate with Beau and Caleb working to take down the Assembly.

Death to Cerberus, Chase Noseworthy: this song is about taking down the Cerberus Assembly and the implications that might accompany it. It keeps its context in this playlist.

Hiraeth, Plu: this is a lovely song in Welsh that sounds almost hymnal. It is for this reason that it makes a good conclusion to the playlist and a good companion to No More Children On The Pyre, which is a love note to the impact that the Mighty Nein's ethos has had upon Wildemount, and Exandria.

All in all, I think that The Voices Beneath is the series that I'm most proud of.

#chill to reblog #critical role #campaign 2 #long post

[whatseemslikejoy]

wulf and eadwacer wednesday

[fergus-cousland]

i also think everyone should read wulf and eadwacer. not because i necessarily think it's the Best introduction to old english poetry, i'm just obsessed with it

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hi miles i need some medieval literature recs that are really pretentious so i sound smart and hot when i tell people i read them <3

I'm a big fan of my medieval ladies Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich

also Hildegard von Bingen (Hildegard has some very gay letters with fellow nun Richardis), what's smarter and hotter than a lesbian polymath nun who did everything from music to science to medicine

La Vie de Sainte Euphrosine is fun and transgendery, as are Le Roman de Silence and Yde et Olive

Þrymskviða is a fun one (Thor has to dress up as a bride to steal his hammer back from a giant), also Volsunga saga is a classic

Marie de France's Lais are my all time fave medieval text, followed closely by Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

also a big fan of the Old English elegies, particularly The Wanderer, The Wife's Lament, and Wulf and Eadwacer

#this is very eurocentric sorry but most of my research focuses on global north Atlantic lit so like #England Ireland France Scandinavia etc #also this is a long list but I literally have my comps reading list open in front of me rn lmao #Would highly recommend Hildegard tho I love her stream 'vision (o euchari in leta via)' on spotify

[dreamingrobots]

hii y'all, you might have guessed but I took an intro to medieval literature course this semester and I enjoyed it SO MUCH. and now that it's over I thought I would compile a bunch of resources my professor gave me and share them with you, if anyone is interested! it's a LOT so it's going under a readmore. organized by text in vaguely chronological order, from some Old English poems to Arthuriana and Chaucer.

ok tumblr wouldn't let me post this the first time so I'm going to split it into two parts- the general resources and Old English stuff are here, the Arthuriana will be in another post.

GENERAL

Open Access Companion to Early British Literature https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/part/the-middle-ages-ca-476-1485/ The Medieval Kingfisher ("your gateway into the world of medieval literature") https://medieval-kingfisher.commons.yale-nus.edu.sg/

In the Middle is a blog by an assortment of medievalists, who generally post essays about the ways medieval texts, ideas, and themes intersect with contemporary concerns and issues. http://www.inthemedievalmiddle.com/ The Public Medievalist is another resource for articles and essays on the convergences between the medieval and the post-modern. https://www.publicmedievalist.com/ Close Encounters  with Medieval Women podcasts https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/close-readings/close-readings-encounters-with-medieval-women Some language stuff An Introduction to Middle English http://www.csun.edu/~sk36711/WWW/engl443/MEintro.pdf

David Crystal on Middle English https://www.bl.uk/medieval-literature/articles/middle-english

EXETER BOOK RIDDLES; OLD ENGLISH METRICAL CHARMS

Open Companion to Early British Literature On the riddles https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/exeter-book-riddles-2/ On the charms https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/old-english-metrical-charms/ Some general info on the charms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_metrical_charms British Library https://www.bl.uk/medieval-literature/articles/the-exeter-book-riddles-in-context The Riddle Ages (more on the Exeter Book Riddles) https://theriddleages.bham.ac.uk/riddles/collection/the-exeter-book-riddles/about/ Harriet Soper, "Reading the Exeter Riddles as Life-Writing" https://www.medievalists.net/2017/10/reading-exeter-book-riddles-life-writing/

THE WANDERER; THE SEAFARER

The Elegies of the Exeter Book https://www.bl.uk/medieval-literature/articles/the-elegies-of-the-exeter-book More about the Exeter Book https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/exeter-book

WULF AND EADWACER; THE WIFE’S LAMENT

http://www.oldenglishaerobics.net/wife.php Leanne MacDonald, "Poetic Translation and The Wife's Lament" https://sites.nd.edu/manuscript-studies/2015/05/21/poetic-translation-and-the-wifes-lament/ "Translation: A Woman and a Wolf" https://tastedthefruit.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/translation-a-woman-and-a-wolf/ Women in Anglo-Saxon England https://www.bl.uk/anglo-saxons/articles/women-in-anglo-saxon-england Interview about literary women in the early Middle Ages https://www.publicmedievalist.com/literary-women-watt/?fbclid=IwAR2aQY6Atm_KDS2YGB6z2Q6GuzBz7vJtgUKxakaIV6Y_FRx4Awc7fH40a9g

BEOWULF

Old English Heroic Poetry https://www.bl.uk/medieval-literature/articles/old-english-heroic-poetry Introduction to the study of the poem with a discussion of the stories of Offa and Finn https://bookspublicdomain.com/Beowulf/BeowulfAnIntroductiontotheStudyofthePoemwithaDiscussionoftheStoriesofOffaandFinn.htm The British Library holds the Nowell Codex (which includes the Beowulf manuscript), and has tons of great materials. About the manuscript https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/beowulf http://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/04/whats-in-the-beowulf-manuscript.html http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_vitellius_a_xv Monsters and heroes in Beowulf https://www.bl.uk/medieval-literature/articles/monsters-and-heroes-in-beowulf Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowell_Codex The poem in its original Old English https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43521/beowulf-old-english-version

Seamus Heaney’s translation performed

THE DREAM OF THE ROOD

Exeter Book Riddle 60 (often compared to The Dream of the Rood) https://theriddleages.wordpress.com/2017/03/17/riddle-60-or-58/ Margaret Cavendish, A Dialogue Between an Oak and the Man Cutting Him Down" (1653) http://library2.utm.utoronto.ca/poemsandfancies/2019/04/28/a-dialogue-between-an-oak-and-a-man/ Hans Christian Andersen, "The Fir Tree" (1844) https://www.owleyes.org/text/andersens-fairy-tales/read/the-fir-tree

"The Dream of the Rood" Wikipedia entry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_of_the_Rood Brittanica https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Dream-of-the-Rood About the Vercelli Book https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/vercelli-book Dream visions https://www.bl.uk/medieval-literature/articles/dream-visions The Ruthwell Cross https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/ruthwell-cross

#medieval literature #old english #ferrous.txt

[whoupkatingtheirbush]

A plan of a lino print, inspired by love and the Old English poem “Wulf and Eadwacer”. Might separate post about the Many Many implications of “it is different with us” in that poem.

#lino print #i love my gf #art