Epileptic and Anorexic

Julius Cesar was an epileptic. There are many evidences about it and there is not any author I know who actually denies it. Of course the Romans did not say that he was epileptic, but said he had a sacred illness that put him in contact with the gods. Julius Cesar probably believed this himself, and it is very probably that epilepsy was one of the reasons to actually increase his self esteem. Nowadays, however, there is not any author who argues that he was actually touched by the gods and that epilepsy is just a modern interpretation of the phenomenon. Of course none of us actually believes in the Roman gods, they are just poetic figures used time to time as metaphors…

In the case of Margerie Kempe, however, her evident anorexia is read as some spiritual other thing. Of course she and her contemporaries read it as some religious fast and put much of spiritual content in it, but, even with its spiritual content, that was anorexia. Nowadays, anorexia is socially encouraged with the name of “diet” and actual diets really become alimentary disorders with enough similarities with Margerie’s disorders. Fasts were also socially encouraged during the Middle Ages, and the line that separated the pious fast from the alimentary disorder was equally thin.

Why we cannot say that Margerie had anorexia in a pious version, just as we say that Cesar had epilepsy in his own Roman version, but epilepsy on the bottom line?

The Uncle Pagan...

Poor old Danish and poor old Geats! They never knew about the holly revelation and that is why they were idolatrous. If they knew the true God they probably never had to hire Beowulf, because God would not permit Grendel killing thanes…

The poet shows more mercy to the ancient Danish and Geats than Roland’s author shows for the Saracens. Is it just a difference of style? Well, first of all, with women exchanged as presents and to seal alliances, it is of high probability that our unknown author had a Danish grandmother or a Geat aunt. Secondly, at the time when this poem was written, most of the Danish and Nordics tribes were already Christians, just like the English of the time. English ancestors were also Pagans until three or four generations before the poem was written and they shared many aspects with ancient People of the North… so let’s be indulgent to the ancient pagans. They did not know about Christ and if they knew, they would embrace the true faith, because they were Christian in their character and they had the favor of the Lord…

The poem presents the ancient pagans as Christians in their ways and tries to present them as the prototype of chivalry and knighthood, even when, at that time, those things were not invented yet. The poem reinterprets an old story and presents it as compendium of “Christian” –as Christianity was understood in Middle Ages –and noble virtues present in the very origin of the People of the North, who shared some codes with the contemporary English. Was this poem composed in occasion of some alliance?

Lanval feminsit?

Is the fairy world in "Lanval" a world of feminine supremacy? The fairy world appear as a world with not masculine presence at all. The fairies travel alone and that is very uncommon for the medieval human women:they are enormously rich and they are in control. On the opposite there is Arthur's world. He is in the middle o finishing a war against Picts and other tribes and spreading presents among his knights. Women has no name and we do not even know if his queen is Guinevere or another previous wife.

Lanval gets rich after his erotic  encounter with the fairy, but he is questioned about his masculinity. Have he lost his male virtues because of the encounter with the fairy?

The fairy finally came in his help. The man is rescued by the girl and taken to the other world... this world is also the world of the death. Arthur himself will be transported there at the end of his life...

At least in this story, fairy world looks as women dominated world, maybe with no man in it. The doubt is if we can take Lanval story separated and assume this view as general view of this other world or if it is just a fantasy of the author... who happens to be a woman, a literate woman and probably an ambitious one. 

Pious knights

What religion meant for these knights? Religion was their way for salvation, the perfect excuse to kill and to sack Saracens, of course... but did they actually know something about Christ, God or anything? The Bible was in Latin, but even in vernacular languages, most of the people were illiterate, even among nobility. They probably knew about Trinity and they probably knew something about Jesus v.e. his miracles. However, it is improbable the knew about deep theological questions or the about the meaning of their own believes.

It is actually amazing that those kind of people, with their very undetermined faith, were absolutely certain to be in the right side. They did not need to actually know the meaning of their believes, but only they needed to know that they were right.

Priest were also part of this status quo. They did not want to enlighten the knights, but to put them to fight to some other people, like the Saracens, and to avoid them to fight between themselves. In that way they turned Christianity in to an hieratic religion, and knowledge was reserved only for God himself and his clergy.

The only possible result of that way of thinking is the creation of blind certainty of being right only because somebody else said so, and beginning to get used to stop thinking by oneself. Rightness or wrongness is not any more an issue that requires analysis and thinking, but the result of certain interpretation of of a book written in mysterious language by a god ans told by a privileged class of priests.

Is it possible to see that kind of faith nowadays? 

Roland's Resident Evil

Going back to “The Song of Roland” had for me something shocking. The description of the fight against this enemy, the whole picture presented by the author has some grotesque quality, even for the standards of some contemporary Hollywood films.

All that blood makes us think in movies like “Resident Evil”, in where this very beautiful girl –actually the only reason to watch the movie –kills lots of people in a feast of violence. I saw half of the first of those productions. The girl is beautiful indeed, but she is not beautiful enough to make me see the entire movie. In the film, all that violence has a perfectly moral justification: the people whom the girl kills are not actually humans, not anymore. They were infected by a virus and now they are just vicious animals or demons, and also if they bite somebody, he or she becomes one of them!

“Roland” and his friends are in a position very similar to Milla Jovovich’s in her own plot. They are fighting a resident evil. Saracens are not just conquerors; Christian knights and kings were involved in conquest wars between themselves, but that was totally different. It was just a change of administration of some land. However, Saracens were idolaters who worship Apollo and idols inhabited by demons; so ultimately, they were worshiper of the Devil himself.

There was no point in saying that Muslims actually are forbidden to create a realistic sculpture even for decorative purposes only. The authors of those times only understood two alternatives: Christian or Pagan. If you were not a Christian you were a Pagan, and Pagans are idolaters who are condemned to hell and they also can condemn your own soul if you become one of them – Jews were a complex third alternative, but Jews didn’t want to spread Judaism and maybe that was something in their favor. Muslims wanted to spread the Islam, so they wanted to convert Christians into Muslims.

For the medieval zeitgeist, that was as bad as or even worse than the zombies of Milla Jovovich’s film. A Christian converted to Islam did not only changed his o her status or loyalties, but also condemned him or herself for the eternity! And condemned people could also bring God’s anger to a land under the shape of bad crops, plagues and in unimaginable ways.

The war against Pagans-Saracens was a holy war. It did not matter if they were the followers of Mohamed and the worshipers of Allah, or the followers of Apollo, or the disciples of the Devil. For medieval Europeans, those were just one and exactly the same thing, and details were irrelevant.

The salvation of the soul was in jeopardy, and that was more important than actual life itself.

Roland killing Saracens was more beautiful for them than Milla Jovovich killing zombies for some of us. The difference was that Saracens were a clear and present danger for Christians and not just a weird fantasy. His violence was saint and a true Christian virtue. Luckily, those Christian virtues remain in the middle ages… do they?