Category Archives: medieval

Dante 2009: Paradiso

Posted on 2009/06/20 by ngilmour

Now summer can proceed.? After brief delays on account of VBS and travel, I’ve finished this summer’s reading of Dante.? Once again, although Mark Musa is a professor and John Ciardi a poet, the latter still offers far better reading … Continue reading →

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Dante 2009: Purgatorio

Posted on 2009/06/05 by ngilmour

I’m gladder than I was before that I picked up the John Ciardi translation of the Comedy. ?For the first time I have some idea why Cato of Utica, who was a pre-Christian pagan (so he should at least have … Continue reading →

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Dante 2009: The Inferno

Posted on 2009/05/29 by ngilmour

I took the plunge this summer and decided to leave Mark Musa’s translation of Dante on the shelf. I looked at five different candidates, and I decided to use a 40% off coupon at Borders to get John Ciardi’s translation.? … Continue reading →

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Dante: The Video Game

Posted on 2009/05/27 by ngilmour

Endpaper – Fiction reaches a new level I’m not sure whether to laugh or to cry. Better yet, I’ll just wait until I can get it cheap on eBay.

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More Good Stuff from Scriptorium

Posted on 2009/05/16 by ngilmour

Why Protestants Should Read Thomas Aquinas part 1 Why Protestants Should Read Thomas Aquinas part 2 Why Protestants Should Read Thomas Aquinas part 3 Why Protestants Should Read Thomas Aquinas part 4 These posts come from a speech that Fred … Continue reading →

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Sinc ea?e m?g, gold on grunde, gumcynnes gehwone oferhigian, hyde se ?e wylle.

Posted on 2009/04/21 by ngilmour

Beowulf is over, and so my semester of experimental literature survey wraps up with it. ?I was dog-tired when I taught today, impending events having robbed me of some sleep, and I felt like the lesson suffered somewhat, but Beowulf?is … Continue reading →

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Selre bi? ?ghw?m, ??t he his freond wrece, ?onne he fela murne

Posted on 2009/04/16 by ngilmour

Day two of Beowulf is in the can.? Once again I had too much in my notes to squeeze into a seventy-minute class, but that’s an alright embarrassment of riches, as far as I’m concerned. We started out where today’s … Continue reading →

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Wyrd oft nere? unf?gne eorl, ?onne his ellen deah

Posted on 2009/04/14 by ngilmour

Strangely enough, even though I had just as much amateur linguistics lore, Tolkien tidbits, and other distractions in my notes today, our class on Beowulf turned out more focused than did our class on Anglo-Saxon elegies just before spring break.? … Continue reading →

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Medieval Times Pictures

Posted on 2009/04/10 by ngilmour

I’ve also got video clips that I might upload at some point, but I figured people might like to see the basic stills of our outing, so here they are! Medieval Times There’s not a whole lot to talk about … Continue reading →

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The Medieval Mix at its Best

Posted on 2009/04/08 by ngilmour

Yesterday’s class was a blast, though once again I proved that I’m not quite educated enough to teach Middle English texts. Our opening exercise, my favorite part of today’s class, had my students split up into groups of three or … Continue reading →

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??t Wyf…

Posted on 2009/04/02 by ngilmour

I really do enjoy Chaucer, I’ve found.? We did the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale today in class, and I discovered that the Wyf (a holdover from the Old English neuter noun for woman–a lesson in the difference between … Continue reading →

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Greek Tragedy Meets Boethian Providence

Posted on 2009/03/31 by ngilmour

I gave my students a big old Middle English assignment over the weekend, all 2200 lines or so of Chaucer’s “Knight’s Tale.”? I was surprised, frankly, at how little objection I got when I came to class this morning.? Some … Continue reading →

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Guinevere, Get Thee to a Nunnery!

Posted on 2009/03/26 by ngilmour

Once again, I don’t feel like I taught an extraordinary lesson today, partially because of my selection of texts.? Malory’s Morte d’Arthur is a fun text, heavy on the storytelling and light on the allegory.? Although the moral philosophy is … Continue reading →

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Geeking out on Old English

Posted on 2009/03/03 by ngilmour

I think I had too much fun in class today, and that fun came forth in a lesson that, in seventy-five minutes, covered about ten lines of poetry but diverged into textual histories, translation theory, multiple commercial breaks to pitch … Continue reading →

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Falling into a Mystical Ditch

Posted on 2009/02/26 by ngilmour

First of all, my sophomore lit survey class proved again today just how bright they are–taking on a text that could not but be alien to them, they imagined their ways inside of it, and they made me look really … Continue reading →

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Big Thoughts and Sheep Stealing

Posted on 2009/02/05 by ngilmour

I’m always glad when my students bring up what I’m afraid to.? After comparing A Country Wife to Wedding Crashers and the comic relief scenes in Doctor Faustus to Beavis and Butthead, I was somewhat apprehensive about comparing the Second … Continue reading →

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God’s Intervention and Buried Coins

Posted on 2009/02/03 by ngilmour

Revision meetings are this week, so there won’t be any news from the Enlightenment until next week. In lit survey we finished up Doctor Faustus (though the discussion spilled into the hallway after class) and started our discussion of Everyman, … Continue reading →

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Dante 2008: Paradise

Posted on 2008/08/06 by ngilmour

I wrapped it up yesterday afternoon, reading the last cantos of Paradiso and closing the book until 2009.? The realities of fallen mortals and our attention spans struck me as ironic this time: although the Pilgrim continued to rise into … Continue reading →

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The 700th Anniversary of Left Behind’s Forebear

Posted on 2008/08/04 by ngilmour

It was set to be a hit from the time letters hit paper. (No movable type yet, so it wouldn’t hit the presses for a couple centuries.) It had glimpses into Hell and Heaven, the doom of the Pope, and … Continue reading →

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Dante 2008: Purgatory

Posted on 2008/07/30 by ngilmour

I’ve got just a few days left, but I think I’m going to make it through Dante before I go back to campus next week.? This morning I finished Purgatory. I’ve not started Paradise yet, but unless that section just … Continue reading →

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