St Landelin

Saint of the Day: There were so many interesting saints to choose from today. But I settled on St. Landelin. He was a Belgian who before his conversion was the leader of a band of "brigands." After his conversion, he founded several abbeys. One of them is Crespin Abbey which began brewing "St Landelin Beer" in about 1023. They still make it - although not at the abbey anymore - and the label is very pretty!

Since Landelin was once a brigand, I chose my pirate T-shirt to remember him today. The best part about it is the awesome gold tooth.

Reading:

Old English: Aelfric's metrical Life of St George. This is the super-famous St. George who slew the dragon and is one of the patron saints of England. The English flag is known as St. George's flag:

Middle English: CT - The Merchant's Tale, The Squire's Tale, The Franklin's Tale, and The Physician's Tale.

The Merchant's Tale is about a 60-year-old man who marries a 20-year-old lady. He goes blind and she has an affair with his squire. As she is having sex with the squire right in front of her blind husband, his sight is restored, and she says that she cooked up the whole scheme so that his sight would return, saying, "It worked!" He believes her, and they go back to his palace in peace.

The Squire's Tale is short because the other pilgrims don't let the poor boy finish his story. He tells about a knight who comes to court with all these different magic items - a flying brass horse and a ring that allows people to talk to birds being the two most important ones in the story. The king's daughter wears the ring and meets a little falcon who is crying and plucking at herself with her beak because her bird boyfriend left her for another lady bird. The daughter bandages up the falcon and takes her home to nurse her.

The Franklin's Tale is about a knight named Arviragus and his wife Dorigen. Arviragus goes away on business across the sea, and Dorigen has daily panic attacks that he will be shipwrecked on the rocks when he comes home. She meets Aurelius, a handsome squire who is in love with her, and tells him that if he can make the rocks disappear, she will love him back. Aurelius hires a magician who works up an illusion to make it look like the rocks have disappeared. In the meantime, Arviragus has come home safely. However, when the illusion takes place, Dorigen confesses to him that she promised to love Aurelius, and Arviragus makes her hold to her promise. As she is crying and weeping on her way to meet Aurelius, the squire sees her and realizes he has done the wrong thing by making her cheat on her husband. He releases her of her promise and goes to pay the magician. The magician, when he hears the whole story, forgives Aurelius's debt and leaves.

The Physician's Tale is about a man named Virginius who had a lovely virgin daughter named Virginia. In their town was a judge named Appius who decided he wanted to take advantage of Virginia, so he gets his friend Claudius to hatch a plan. Claudius brings up a fake lawsuit against Virginius claiming that Virginia is not really Virginius's daughter, but actually Claudius's slave girl that Virginius stole from him. The judge rules in Claudius's favor and commands that Virginia be brought to him. The father then goes home, cuts off Virginia's head, and delivers it to the judge. The townsfolk, when they heard about this, understand that the lawsuit was fake and have Claudius hanged. The judge kills himself and Virginius is exiled from the town.

Contemporary American: Maus, Part 2, Chs. 1-4.

Workout: We'll see. I'm on double work again today.

Food:

Breakfast - oatmeal, juice, coffee

Lunch - open-faced turkey sandwich

Dinner - Indian Chicken with asparagus

Snacks - yogurt, milk