NOTKER BALBULUS- A Hymn to Holy Women

Ok so tonight I have also read A Hymn to Holy Women. Right off the back I have to give a little insight into my mindset while reading this piece. I've seen a lot of movement of the atheist view growing in our society, via media as well as personal friends. I myself do not consider myself to be religious, but I just can not stand the way the leading minds of atheism feel they have to treat the "theistic" people. The only problem is that, even though I feel it wrong to tell a religious person they are wrong, the atheist does present a good amount of evidence. I feel this piece of literature gives a bit of a voice to the religious though, through art, even if found ultimately unneeded, is still joy that is somewhere needed. Alright so that aside here starts the review, the piece starts with Balbulus, a monk, talking about this grand ladder that connects the heavens to Earth. But the ladder is guarded by a dragon so that no one may climb up this coveted ladder. He tells us that the dragon represents the devil, and the ladder is the love of Christ, that helps us get to heaven. He then recalls the incident of the dragon, which is close in anatomy to a snake, that deceived a woman, and asks what good did it do? He is taking about Eve, the first woman, who introduced sin into the world. He then talks of women who are courtesans, "your" vessels which I believe he means tools for the dragon/devil, but are purified by God, and how they are captains in the holy war, and are loyal widows to their dead husbands. I believe he may be talking about nuns since they are married to God, but that could be a stretch. He then talks of a young man, radiant and born with a golden bough in his head, who is born incarnate of a virgin. This is obviously Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary. And then talks of how women, although responsible of bringing sin into the world, are now bearing sons who please God, which in the long run is worse for the devil. I really enjoyed this piece, I felt it must have been "before its time" because it kind of praises woman, and I've always felt a stigma of scapegoating women when it came to religions of Christ. I give this lyric four stars.

Boethius from The Consolation of Philosophy

Ok so tonight I read BOETHIUS from THE CONSOLATION of PHILOSPHY, and to be honest it is pretty confusing. The book braces you that the original text is from Middle English, but that it should still be comprehensible to the modern reader. If comprehensible is used loosely than this is correct. OK, so I even tried to look up some stuff on this medieval lyric, but the explanations proved to be even more confusing, and would definitely sound plagiarized coming from me. So I am going to try and dissect this lyric little by little. The lyric starts out about being happy and references another poet by the name of Orpheus. Boethius states that the wife of Orpheus has had a sad death. The author goes on to maybe describe Orpheus before the death, saying things such as how he would run in the woods, lay beside lions, and basically was carefree, even if he was a "hare" he wouldn't be afraid of the "hound" because he had the gift to make him peaceful with words. But now Orpheus is complaining of unyielding gods, and is withdrawing from his writing, he is can only ask for pardons from Hades', the ruler of the underworld. This is where it becomes muddled for me, the author starts to reference Greek mythology, such as the three headed dog Cerberus, Zeus' famous eternal punishment, and the furies. My two visions of how the lyric ends are this, first that Orpheus makes peace with the loss of his love, and everything keeps moving in the world, "whatever excellence he takes with him". Or, Orpheus kills himself because he wasn't to be with his deceased love, "we grant that the man his wife to go with him", the author also says Orpheus "saw, lost, killed." which could mean killed something else or himself. All together I did enjoy the lyric if what I interpreted is correct, and since this is my first lyric I'm going to give it three stars for fun, all others shall be in reference to this one.