Quarter One, Week Nine: Note Change

You are a quarter of the way there, seniors. Hang in there. The next few weeks are going to be challenging--writing essays to colleges, getting letters of recommendation, etc. It will all be over in January, though, so you are at least half-way through this.

Tuesday:

Quick review of texts. I am also working on another hand-out that might give you greater insight into Yeats and his works. It should be ready on Tuesday and it may help you understand Oisin better. It may also help you understand yourselves better. The whole idea of this assignment is to teach you how to see yourself in a work of literature. When you do that, it becomes accessible.

Thursday: In-class prompt. I expect you to write the entire period. If you finish a complete draft in half-an-hour, then revise it. Make it as good as you possibly can.

No homework for Thursday night.

Friday: We will begin the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales but I am not going to give you any homework. You worked hard enough on your in-class essay. Enjoy the weekend and your Tuesday off!

Quarter One, Week Eight--Updated 10.23.08

Tuesday:

Present group findings from "The Wanderings of Oisin" hand-out. You will then receive the remainder of the poem. Look for symbols within that one too. Look for differences. Go over other Yeats' poems. Finish Book II.

Thursday:

"Sister Wendy" and the classical, Celtic, and medieval artists and art. Hand-out on J. B. Yeats and W. B. Yeats. Make sure you finish it for Friday.

4th-Period: Slide show on symbolism and the Pre-Raphaelite painters.

6th-Period: Internet Safety slide-show.

Everyone: Finish Book III for Friday.

Next Thursday, there will be an in-class essay. The prompt (or prompts) will be designed to fit one or the other. It will be important that you know the story very well because you will have to show that. I will allow you to use the text, OUR text, not another translation. Sparknotes and similar things will only impair your performance. You need to find a way to connect with these characters. That is what will help you. In some ways, both stories are about a loss of innocence. We have all been through that to one degree or another. In other ways, they are about dealing with the larger world around us and deciding how we fit into that world. Think about aspects of these characters that you can identify with. I like Gawain's courage, for his willingness to stand up when everyone else is scared. He is a patriot too. He acts so that his king doesn't have to act. He also does not, like Wiglaf, demean those who do not stand up--even though they should. And he doesn't resent others after the fact. In fact, they show penitence too--when they wear the belts.

Of course, I love Oisin. He loves his family (the Fianna), and his country. He loves life--hunting and fishing. He loves to fight. He wants to do everything as well as it can be done. He is devoted to one woman and he loves his children. He sacrifices his family ties for this one woman. He is open-minded enough to listen to Saint Patrick and to consider what Patrick says before coming to his own conclusions about what he wants.

If I were writing about either one of these, I would also provide concrete examples (from the text) to prove what I am saying. I would paraphrase particular scenes and use direct quotes.

Do not be deceived--just because the in-class essay is open booked (the texts only--no criticisms or commentary from any other source, including those I have given you), does not mean that you come into class unprepared. You need to be able to find what you are looking for quickly. If you do not prepare, you will be lost. It's not just about putting in a bunch of examples; everything has to fit together and, ultimately, to say something. You will need a clear thesis, concrete examples, transitions between paragraphs, and a logical development of the paper as a whole. You will need a clear conclusion that goes beyond simple restatement of your thesis.

Friday:

6th-Period: Slide show on "The Pre-Raphaelites."

4th & 6th--discussion of "Oisin" and Ellman's excerpted biography of the Yeats men.

Quarter One, Week Seven

Tuesday

Review/discussion of Sir Gawain and the literary criticism assigned. Review of Courtly Love. Review of story of Finn.

I will make a hand-out of the story of Finn and the story of Oisin. You are to read this quietly and then we will discuss it too.

We will look at a couple of shorter poems by William Butler Yeats--poems with Irish mythological references.

Thursday

Reading quiz that will include all of Sir Gawain (Parts 2-4), Finn's story, Oisin's story, and Courtly Love.

If everyone has taken the last quiz (the one on book one of Gawain and information on Irish mythological terms), I will give those back and we will go over them.

Students will begin reading "The Wanderings of Oisin." You will finish it for next Tuesday.

Story for the Week of October 14th--Oisin

The Call of Oisin[1]
It was a misty morning and the remaining men of the Fianna decided to go hunting. They were “hunting near the borders of Loch Leinh, where the brushes were in blossom and the birds were singing; and they were waking up the deer that were as joyful as the leaves of a tree in summer-time” (399-400).

A beautiful young woman on “a very fast slender white horse” approached (400). Her red-gold hair was crowned and bejeweled. She wore a dark silk cloak, the color of indigo, that reached all the way to the ground. It was embossed with red gold stars. Her skin was as white as the snow, her cheeks like foxglove, her eyes like sapphires. Her lips were “as sweet as honey that is mixed through red wine” (400).

She held “a bridle having a golden bit, and there was a saddle worked with red gold under her” (400). A “wide smooth cloak” covered the horse “and a silver crown on the back of his head, and he was shod with shining gold” (400).

“I am Niamh of the Golden Head,” she said to Finn, “the daughter of the king of Tir na n’Og, the Country of the Eternally Young.”

“What has brought you here?” asked Finn.

“I have come to meet my beloved,” she said.

“And who is your beloved,” asked Finn. “Your son, Oisin of the strong hands,” she said. “I have come to marry him, to take him away to Tir na n’Og, where we will live in love forever.”
Oisin had been reunited with his father for only a few years and it would be painful to lose him, even to a vision such as this. But Oisin was taken; “there was not a limb of his body that was not in love with beautiful Niamh” (400).

“’I live in the most beautiful country; the trees are heavy with fruit and the flowers are always in bloom. ’Honey and wine are plentiful there, and everything the eye has ever seen; no wasting will come on you with the wasting away of time.’ You will never grow old or ill and you will never die. You will eat sumptuous feasts, drink the best wine and mead; you will be surrounded by the music of the spheres, by golden harps that sing on the soft breeze. Your body will be adorned in the finest armor, impervious to all that strike it; you will wear the finest gold, encrusted with gems from around the world and beyond.

“’A hundred glad young girls shining like the sun, their voices sweeter than the music of birds; a hundred armed men strong in battle, apt at feats, waiting on you, if you will come with me’ to Tir na n’Og.

“’You will get everything…and delights beyond, that I have no leave to tell; you will get beauty, strength and power,’ and me for your wife” (401).

“With you I will go anywhere,” said Oisin. He bade his father and the men of Fianna farewell and joined Niamh on her horse. And the horse took off and headed for the sea. When they reached the sea, Finn and the Fianna “gave three great sorrowful shouts” (402).

“I do not think I shall ever behold my son again,” said Finn.

Oisin’s Story

Facing west, Niamh and Oisin turned their backs to the land and flew out over the sea. Oisin saw many a wondrous thing on his way to Tir na n’Og. “The sea moved away from us, and waves filled up after us. We then saw ‘cities and courts and duns and lime-white houses, and shining sunny-houses and palaces. And one time we saw beside us a hornless deer running hard, and an eager white red-eared hound following after it. And another time we saw a young girl on a horse’ (405). She held a golden apple and she flew over the waves. A young man on a white horse followed her. He wore a “crimson cloak’ and held ‘a gold-hilted sword in his right hand’” (405).

“And when we arrived in Tir na n’Og,I beheld a land in full blossom, covered by smooth plains, ‘and a king’s dun that was very grand, and that had ever colour in it, and sunny-houses beside it, and palaces of shining stones, made by skilled men. And we saw coming out to meet us three fifties of armed men, very lively and handsome….And there came out after that a hundred beautiful young girls, having cloaks of silk worked with gold,’ and they welcomed me (406). Then came ‘a great shining army, and with it a strong beautiful king, having a shirt of yellow silk and a golden cloak over it, and a very bright crown on his head.’ Behind him was ‘a young queen, and fifty young girls along with her’” (406).

“You are welcome here, my son,” said the comely king. “Your life here will be eternal and you will be young and strong forever. We will begin with a wedding celebration that will last for ten days and ten nights.”

Oisin was in Tir na n’Og for hundreds or perhaps even thousands of years. Many accounts suggest 900 years, a parallel to the nine months a human child spends in the womb. However long it was, it did not seem so. Oisin lived in bliss and fathered three children with Niamh. He named one Finn, after his father. He named another boy Osgar, after a famous warrior and family friend. He named his daughter the Flower.

“’And I did not feel time passing, and it was a long time I stopped there,’ he said, ‘till the desire came on me to see Finn and my comrades again. And I asked leave of the king and of Niamh to go back to Ireland.

“If you go, I fear that you will never return,” Niamh said.

“Of course I will,” he said. “Just give me the horse that brought me here. I will go and return with him.”

Niamh agreed, but she warned him: “’If you once get down from the horse, you will be an old man, blind and withered, without liveliness, without mirth, without running, without leaping. And it is a grief to me, Oisin,’ she said, ‘you ever to go back to green Ireland’ (408). For it is not the same. You will not find your father and his people. A new army has come, a new ‘Father of Orders and armies of saints’” (408). With that she kissed him goodbye for the last time.
Oisin arrived in a new Ireland, a new world. Gone were the great men of the Fianna. Oisin looked all over, searched the four corners of Ireland, and did not see familiar family, friend, or even foe. Instead, he saw a smaller, slighter race, with bent back, stooped and frail, sickly and tired. He also heard the sound of bells. After a while, he encountered some soldiers. Oisin asked them about Finn and the Fiana. “He lived a long time ago,” they said. “They are legend. ‘And we heard Finn had a son…that was beautiful and shining, and that there came a young girl looking for him, and he went away with her to the Country of the Young’” (408).

Oisin headed back to the Almuin of Leinster, once the land of his father. “’And there was great wonder on me when I came there to see no sign at all of Finn’s great dun, and his great hall, and nothing in the place where it was but weeds and nettles’”(408-409).

Oisin was about to return to Niamh, to Tir na n’Og, when he saw some of these small men trying to move a stone from the opening of a cave. He reached down to help them, and, in doing so, fell from the magical horse. “’And in the minute all the years came on me, and I was lying on the ground, and the horse took fright and went away and left me there, an old man, weak and spent, without sight, without shape, without comeliness, without strength or understanding, without respect’” (409).

And the Christians that beheld Oisin called him a wizard and threatened to stone the blind old man. One of them decided to take him to their leader, St. Patrick, instead. Patrick wanted to hear his story. He wanted to write it down for posterity. He had some respect for their pagan culture.

It was not a very friendly meeting. Patrick fed Oisin, but the food was overcooked and not very meaty. Oisin was a big meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. He went on and on about how good the Fianna fare had been. Patrick reminded him that all his pagan Fianna buddies were now roasting forever in Hell. Oisin took offence to this and talked about how the Fianna could defeat both God and the devil. In the end, and probably because the victors—in this case, the Christians—are telling the story, Oisin converted to Christianity, whereupon which, his hundreds-of-years-old body died and went to Heaven.

William Butler Yeats, however, imagined a better end for the Irish hero, in his poem, “The Wanderings of Oisin.”

[1] All quotes come from Gregory, Lady Augusta, Irish Myths and Legends. Philadelphia: Running Press, 1998. Much of this story is an amalgam of several stories; anything that is directly quoted (and I don’t mean dialog, unless there are the triple-quotes [“’]), however, comes from Gregory’s text.

Quarter 1, Week 6

Tuesday

We will finish "The Seventh Seal."

You are responsible for everything Irish--anything that has been on the blog so far. We will be going deeper into this as an upcoming unit. It will go nicely with the upcoming Celtic Festival!

I will be giving you some background on Irish Mythology and more Irish myths. We will pair the mythology with the work of a modern poet, William Butler Yeats. He gives a great modern interpretation of the story of Oisin, Finn's son.

Oisin (prounounced Oo-shin): his name means "little deer." Remember, that he was born to his mother while she was under enchantment.

The Irish Hero: (in general) is a multi-tasker with multiple talents. He is strong, handsome, tall, and great looking. He is a historian, a bard, a musician. He is an accomplished hunter and angler. He is also a great chef. Though he may sleep with other-worldly women, he is loyal in his heart to only one human woman. He is mentored by a male or males(usually Druid priests or wizards) and a female or females (usually young warrior-goddesses [Scathach] or old crones [Story of Finn]). He has some super-human skill, usually the great salmon leap.

Land: very important, sacred even. You belong to a place and it belongs to you. Not only is it a part of your identity, it is a part of your very being, your soul, even. In Irish mythology, there are four corners of Ireland.

Geis/ Geiss: pronounced "gaish." This is an obligation, usually resulting in serious shame if you do as directed. If I put a geiss on you that you have to celebrate my birthday with me every year, you had better do that, even if something else comes up. Usually a geiss results in the old "stuck-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place" kind of deal. In other words, there are no happy endings.

Hazel Trees/ Hazel Wands: Trees and branches with magical qualities that seem to be everywhere. Fragrant but dangerous.

Sidh or Sidhe: (pronounced "she"); where the faery people live. The Other World. Once it existed in and of itself; since the coming of Christianity, however, it exists alongside us. Every now and then a faery person will make trouble for humans. Every now and then a human gets to experience all that is good about the faery world. Most of us, however, have no experience with this world.

Tuatha de Danaan or the Danaan or the Danann: A race of giants. Original peoples of Ireland. They are immortals; they possess supernatural powers. They are tall and beautiful and stay young forever. "Children of Lir."

Tir na n'Og or Tir-nan-Oge or Tier-nan-oge: Land of Everlasting Youth. Oisin's wife, Niamh is from there. It is a kind of Garden of Eden. Everything is full of life; forever young and beautiful people live in bliss. There is beautiful music, often the harp, sometimes accompanied by a beautiful voice. No one gets ill and no one suffers. There is no war. There is plenty of good hunting, fishing, and love.

Fili or Filid (plural): keepers of history and culture; highly revered. Accomplished harpists. They possessed the power to topple kings.

Satirists: kind of like court jesters, only with more powers. There are many accounts of powerful women satirists. They also tend to have magic powers. A satirized king is a deposed king.

By the way, you could also depose a king by blinding him. Blind men could not rule. This became more common during Christian times; after all, blinding someone isn't as bad as killing someone. (Alluded to in King Lear, only with the character, Gloucester).

Saint Patrick: Often called "the Roman" because he was the son of a Roman magistrate. As a young man, Patrick was abducted by Irish pirates who sold him into slavery. He learned the language and their ways. He escaped. Later, after he had become a priest, he went back to Ireland and supposedly impressed everyone by chasing all the snakes away. In Yeats' "The Wanderings of Oisin," he's a real kill-joy. With Christianity, after all, came mortality, often symbolized in the Irish stories by the sounds of bells.

We will start reading "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (p. 169). I should also have a hand-out on Courtly Love on Thursday.

Book I will be due on Thursday and there may be a reading quiz.

On which liturgical holiday does this story begin?

On what other holiday does Gawain's adventure begin?

Where does Gawain sit?

Note the clothing: it indicates rank. Note how particular people are dressed.

Be able to describe the Green Knight.

What does the Green Knight hold in his hands?

How does Arthur greet the knight?

How does the knight respond?

Pay attention to the wonderful insults: "If he astounded them at first, yet stiller were then/ all the household in the hall, both high men and low./ The man on his mount moved in his saddle,/ / and rudely his red eyes he rolled them about,/ bent his bristling brows all brilliantly green,/ and swept round his beard to see who would rise./ When none in converse would accost him, he coughed then loudly,/ stretched himself haughtily and straightway exclaimed:/ 'What! Is this Arthur's house,' said he thereupon,/ 'the rumour of which runs through realms unnumbered?/ Where is your haughtiness, and your high conquests,/ your fierceness and fell mood, and your fine boasting?/ Now are the revels and the royalty of the Round Table/ overwhelmed by a word by one man spoken,/ for all blench now abashed ere a blow is offered!'/ With that he laughed so loud that their lord was angered,/ the blood shot for shame into his shining cheeks and face;/ as worth as wind he grew,/ so all did in that place./ Then near to the stout man drew/ the kind of fearless race,/ And said: 'Marry! Good man, 'tis madness thou askest,/ and since folly thou hast sought, thou deservest to find it. / I know no lord that is alarmed by thy loud words here" (301-325).

What "madness" or "folly" does the knight ask of the Knights of the Round Table?

What will they get in return?

Who first responds to the Knight's insults?

How is this situation similar to "Beowulf"?

Why does Gawain accept the challenge? What does he say about his reasons?

What happens in the encounter between Gawain and the Green Knight?

Thursday

Expect a reading quiz encompassing the Irish terms and characters already mentioned and Book I of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."

Turn in quizzes and begin reading about Courtly Love.

Then we will read aloud part of Part II of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."

What is Michaelmas? What is to happen during this time?

What is All Hallows?

How do the other knights react to Gawain's imminent departure? Why?

Who is Gringolet?

How is Gawain attired?

How does Gawain find the castle?

Describe the man who greets him.

How does his host treat Sir Gawain?

What is significant about the following: "When blissful men at board for His birth sing blithe at heart,/ what manners high may mean/ this knight will now impart./ Who hears him will, I ween,/ of love-speech learn some art" (922-927).

Now, there will be trouble: "Then the lady longed to look at this knight;/ and from her closet she came with many comely maidens./ She was fairer in face, in her flesh and her skin,/ her proportions, her complexion, and her port than all others,/ and more lovely than Guinevere to Gawain she looked./ He came through the chancel to pay court to her grace;/ leading her by the left hand another lady was there/ who was older than she, indeed ancient she seemed,/ and held in high honour by all men about her./ But unlike in their looks those ladies appeared,/ for if the younger was youthful, yellow was the elder;/ with rose-hue the one face was richly mantled,/ rough wrinkled cheeks rolled on the other;/ on the kerchiefs of the one many clear pearls were,/ her breast and bright throat were bare displayed,/ fairer than white snow that falls on the hills;/the other was clad with a cloth that enclosed all her neck,/ enveloped was her black chin with chalk-white veils,/ her forehead folded in silk, and so fumbled all up so topped and trinketed and with trifles bedecked/ that naught was bare of that beldame but her brows all black, her two eyes and her nose and her naked lips,/ and those were hideous to behold and horribly bleared;/ that a worthy dame she was may well, fore God, be said!" (941-965).

More Later....

Friday: For Period 6: Quiz on "Sir Gawain" and the Irish terms hand-out.

For 4th and 6th: you will get a hand-out with three literary criticisms on it. You may read all three but the only one for which you are responsible is the last one, Robert J. Blanch's "Religion and Law in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." By the way, if you lose the hand-out, you can find Blanch's article through accessing Gale Resources. You should have read this and finished Sir Gawain both by next Thursday. There will be a reading quiz on the criticism and on the entirety of Gawain on Thursday.

Some changes to week 5

I haven't had a chance to do the story of Oisin yet, so I'm making a change. At some point in the year, you will be watching "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." In order to "get" more of the jokes, you should be familiar with a couple of films--one of which I will show in part, another of which I will show in its entirety--starting today. I'm doing this in part this week because so many students are going to be out on Friday.

The film we are about to see today (after presentations) takes place in the Middle Ages, the period we are currently studying. The costumes, the traveling players, and some of the themes are quite authentic to that age. They also reveal truths about the post-modern world.

The film was made by Ingmar Bergman and first shown in 1957. Bergman, who grew up with a tyrannical minister step-father, struggled with issues of faith. This film straddles the line between faith and a lack thereof. It is existentialist in nature.

The Basics of Existentialism:

Essence and Existence (Theist): humans, made in the image of God, are at their essence good. The problem is that, because of free will and their existence as human beings, they are often turning away from their Godly nature. The objective is to move back toward that Godly nature.

or

Existence and Essence (Atheist): Humans are born into this world; therefore, they exist. There is no God, so a person's essence (whether he/she is essentially good or evil) is created by the choices he/she makes in life. Making the right (moral) choices generally leads to ultimate happiness and a fulfilled life. Making the wrong choices causes anxiety and unhappiness.

Soren Kierkegaard: 19th Century. One of my favorite theist existentialists. As such, he believed that essence preceded existence.
Man is either a spectator or an actor.
Truth is subjectivity.

Man's existential nature makes him alienated from God. His essential nature is his relationship with God. The goal is to go back toward one's essential nature in order to achieve true happiness.

There are three stages in life. Not all achieve all three.

Aesthetic Man: acts on impulses and emotions. Does not worry about the consequences. The Pleasure Principal (as Freud would explain it, or the Id).

Ethical Man: recognizes and accepts the rules. The rules make sense. If living in a narcissistic way ultimately makes one unhappy, selfless acts, and considering the consequences of any choice, lead to a kind of happiness.

Religious Man: the highest stage, according to Kierkegaard, and the most difficult to achieve because it is irrational. It requires a leap of faith.

Jean-Paul Sartre: 20th century. There is no God and therefore we exist. During our existence, we choose our own essence by the choices we make. If we are essentially good, it is because we have made good moral choices. Our actions create our essence. We have a certain amount of control through free will. We are also subject to the repercussions of the bad choices we make.

The protagonist of "The Seventh Seal" is a knight who has just returned from the Crusades. Meanwhile, the black plague has arrived in Sweden. Because of what he saw on his Crusade, and because of what he will begin to see when he returns home, he is suffering a crisis of faith. His quest has now become about the existence of God.

The knight is accompanied by an ethical man, Squire Jons. The Squire provides comic relief. The Squire was probably once just an aesthetic man, but has since become the ethical man. For him, there is no God, but that's all right.

Other characters will meet up with the Knight and the Squire. They are a troupe of traveling players. They go from town to town and perform bawdy tales that are supposed to inspire people to do the right thing so that they can get in to Heaven.

The main players are Jof (Joseph) and Mia (Mary). They have a toddler named Michael. Skat, another player, accompanies them and provides comic relief.

The movie starts with the Knight encountering the figure of Death. He challenges Death to a game of chess and the game is played throughout the movie. The Knight longs to do one significant, meaningful thing in his life. I won't tell you whether he finds God or not, but he does achieve a kind of redemption.

There are two scenes (also the music) that resonate in "Monty Python." One is the scene with the witch. Another is with the flagellates, men and women who beat themselves and each other to atone for their sins and to stave off the Black Plague.