Erec and Enide Extra Credit

1. Compare the relationship between the damsel and the knight to the marriage of Erec and Enide.

The knight is so smitten with the damsel that he makes an oath to her before he knows what it entails, purely to make her happy. He says "He is no lover who does not unhesitatingly do whatever pleases his lady, unstintingly and neglecting nothing, if ever he can in any way." This is similar to Erec neglecting all duties when he is with Enide. He gives up absolutely everything to spend time with her. He also does a lot to keep her safe, including fighting many during their adventures in the central part of the story.

2. Explain what a "boon" is (p. 111): who asks for it, why, what are the conditions, and are there any drawbacks?

A boon is a favor or deal that someone makes with another person. The damsel asks the knight for it because she wanted to keep him there. The conditions of this boon are that the knight would never leave this garden where he was dubbed knight until another knight came and defeated him in combat. The drawbacks are that he is constantly fighting, could get hurt, and may never get out. He did it anyway though, because he did not want to be "false and faithless and disloyal."

3. Does Erec fight in the Joy of the Court just for the fun of it? To enhance his reputation? What is the larger purpose that is served?

According to the king, the purpose is for "honour and renown" (106). Erec seems to be doing this for the glory of it, but he says "anyone who is overconfident and threatens too much is clearly a fool" (109). If he wins, his reputation would definitely be improved and he was well aware of this. The larger purpose that is served is to free the knight.

Final Blog - Question 5

Dear Diary,

Today is a bittersweet day. I finally worked up the nerve to perform “Don’t Be Afraid” for a small crowd right here in Fanjeaux. I don’t remember exactly who was there, but I do remember Philippe and Pierre being there. Part of me really wished that Philippe had some noble emergency that he had to attend to, because it was very awkward to have my husband listening while I was singing a song about Pierre. I can’t be with him, because he is of lower class than I am, and I am already married to a nobleman.

Philippe seemed to not be listening to me at first. Although it’s viewed highly that a woman knows music, he thinks that the kind of songs I write are just silly. They’re not sophisticated enough for him, but little does he know, they’re full of feeling. Anyway, I could tell when I started that he wasn’t really listening and it made me less nervous. However, as the song went on, I could see his ears perking up out of the corner of my eye. My heart started to pump a little faster, but I tried to ignore the fact he was there. That’s horrible to say; he’s my husband. I should be in love with him and grateful he’s listening, but I know he’s not listening because he likes it – he’s listening because he’s curious. Let’s face it – I’m not in love. With him at least.

Pierre however, oh Pierre. HIM I’m in love with. He was standing right in the middle of the crowd staring at me with those dark brown eyes. Why do I love him so much? He’s “only” a knight. I say “only” because that’s what everyone else thinks. I think it’s such a brave job, and I don’t understand why I can’t love him, other than the fact I’m married. (I’d prefer to ignore that tiny detail…) When I was singing, he knew, I could tell, that it was for him. Deep in those eyes I could see that he felt the same way I did. I could see both the love and the sadness that we could never be together.

I’m really hoping that no one else could tell what was going on – that I’m in love with someone other than Philippe. It scares me, because I did see a few people giving each other questionable looks and I heard some whispers. My only hope is that because it’s generally frowned upon to perform your own music that they all think someone else wrote this song and I am merely the jongleur. I made sure to not announce that I wrote my song.

I’m going to bed with mixed emotions tonight. I’m so proud of myself for performing for the first time. I’m nervous what Philippe will think and if he knows it was based on truth. I’m happy that Pierre heard my song and knows my true feelings, even if they cannot be acted upon. I’m hopeful that the rest of the community doesn’t realize I was actually singing from the heart. It’s sad that I can never be myself, but at least I have my music to pull me through the long days.

Good night.

“Don’t Be Afraid”

Don’t be afraid to look my way

Your eyes are the only ones I see

Don’t be afraid to say hello

Yours is the only voice I hear

You weren’t supposed to come into my life

Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth all the strife

But then I look at you and I know

I’d walk a million miles for you to be my beau

Don’t be afraid of what they might say

Our hearts are the only ones to agree

Don’t be afraid of being below

To me that’s not how you appear

If only we could be together, my life would be complete

Sometimes I wonder why we had to meet

There are nights this suffering is too much to bear

Long nights of sadness and despair

Then I remember you eyes and I remember your smile

And I know it’s all worth it for a glimpse of you every once in a while

Because this would have been performed with music, I wrote music to these lyrics. Due to unexpected compatibility issues with my computer I couldn't record the music, but I think it's important to try and best explain it.

The first and third strophs have the same melody. They go back and forth between the tonic and dominant chord. The first and third lines both end on the dominant chord to show the "unfinishedness" of the phrase. The second and fourth lines end on the tonic to show the completeness of the thought.

The second and fourth strophs have the same melody. They go back and forth between the subdominant and supertonic chords. It never goes back to the tonic, so it sounds a little "off," but still in the key. It reflects that it's a new idea, but not completely out there. The fourth stroph ends on a minor submediant chord, the only minor chord in the song. The lyric here is "despair." This word painting emphasizes the sadness of this verse.

The coda goes back and forth between the tonic and dominant. It goes back and forth often, to show how often she changes her mind, but ends of course on tonic, representing that she eventually feels resolved.

Final Blog - Question 11

“Erec and Enide” was written by Chretien de Troys in the twelfth century. Although it was written so long ago, there are parts of the story that are surprisingly relevant to today.

The middle section of the story begins with the wedding of Erec and Enide, and then they go off and have adventures along the way. Erec’s reputation fluctuates with this. His reputation is very high when he is in love with Enide, but this quickly changes when they get married. Before they were married, everyone was jealous of Erec. All the knights wanted a maiden as beautiful as Enide for themselves, and were in awe of Erec for it. This is shown in the extravagant wedding. It lasted two weeks, many people of importance were in attendance, and they received a myriad of gifts. However, things quickly changed. Erec stopped his jousting and many of his knightly duties to spend time with Enide. He wanted nothing more than to just be with her, and he was intent on spending every last minute of his time with her. Other people in the court started noticing and getting annoyed at him for this. They were also beginning to feel resentful towards Enide, for “stealing” him away from what he was supposed to be doing. Enide knew that people were talking about them like this. She began to feel guilty and did not know what to do.

Enide has an immense amount of love for her husband, yet Erec sometimes doubts it. Her love is evident in many different occurrences. For example, Erec tells her not to warn him about any impending trouble and tells her that if she does, he may get so annoyed at her that he will then stop talking to her. Although of course she does not want this, she loves him so much that she feels she needs to warn him of a few events in order to keep him safe. If he gets mad at her, so be it; at least he will be alive and safe. Another example of her love is when the count wants to kill Erec. She knows Erec is in danger again, and stays up all night to make sure nothing happens to her love.

Despite this, he sometimes doubts her love. Erec demanded that Enide not tell him when he’s in danger, and she disobeys him. He gets mad at her for this. This happens a few times. One time in particular is with the incident involving the count. As they are leaving, Erec says “You have little esteem for me, since you despise my instructions. Nothing I say to you can correct your behaviour. But if God has mercy on me and I can escape, this will cost you very dearly – unless I have a change of heart” (81). These occuranes can be interpreted a few ways. On one hand, it seems that Erec doubts her love, because she keeps disobeying him. He obviously gets frustrated with this and it seems to hurt his ego that a woman could tell him better when he is in trouble than he can himself. On the other hand, he could be very confident of their love. Despite how many times he yells at her, she keeps coming back and he knows this. This seems to be the prevailing notion because of another thing that was said during the incident with the count. "Now Erec could see clear proof of his wife's loyalty to him. 'My lady,' he said, 'have our host get up and tell him to com here Treason began a long while ago!'" Because Enide did not choose to go with the count and chose to keep Erec safe, he knew definitively that his wife was loyal to him.

In the Middle Ages, husbands were to have complete control over their wives. The whole issue involving Enide warning Erec is evident of this; he does not like to be told what to do by his wife. Erec is the one in this relationship making every single decision – when they depart, what they decide to eat, and what needs to be said to one another. He wants complete control over his wife. Although Enide does battle this at times, he generally has control.

Final Blog - Question 7

“Hello everyone. Welcome to the ‘Frolicking Fanjeauxians’ tour. I am your tour guide, St. Dominic de Guzman. I’ll give you all a minute to enjoy the beautiful view and take a few pictures before I continue on.

Can you all hear me? Good. I have a lot of information to share with you all today, and I wouldn’t want you to miss any of it. Let me start by introducing myself further. I was born in Caleruega, Spain to Felix Guzman and Jane of Aza around 1170. Before I was born, my mom had a dream of a dog with a torch in his mouth lighting up the world, and she knew that her son would make a difference in this world. I bet she had no idea, however, that eventually the Catholic Church would name me a saint.

Today, this town seems so quiet doesn’t it? Well, when I first arrived here in 1206, it wasn’t. It was a bustling little town. We had farmers, we had soldiers, we had families living here. It really was a nice place to be. Not that it isn’t now; I just want to stress that it was very different. We also had jongleurs. Can anyone tell me what they are? Yes, sir in the back? Correct! Jongleurs are performers who performed the poetry and music of the troubadours.

This town was quite the interesting place to be. It was also not a wealthy town. The law in this area was that wealth was to be distributed throughout the family, not just given to the oldest son. This is of course a more fair way of doing things, but it made any wealth in the family quickly go away. Towns were usually ruled jointly by noblemen.

You’re probably all wondering what brought me here. It was all because of the Crusades against the Cathars. Pope Innocent III had the King of France call a crusade against them in 1209. The crusaders took over Fanjeaux, forcing the Cathars to flee. A word about the Cathars, they were Christian, but believed in many heretical ideas. Most notably, they believed in duality. They thought there was a divide between the spirit and the body. The believed the spirit was divine and the body was evil. As Catholics, we don’t believe that. I personally believe quite the opposite. In my life I developed the nine ways of prayer. After I finish the tour, I’ll give you the opportunity to come with me to the couvant where we can pray this way together, and you may get a better idea of what I mean.

Anyway, where we are now is an area called the Seinadou. It’s one of my favorite places in Fanjeaux, not just because the people have been so kind as to put up a statue and a mosaic of me, but for the beauty you can see from this spot. It is from here that I saw a ball of fire falling, which I believe was an act of God. I was inspired to talk to people, especially the Cathars, after the crusade was over about converting to Catholicism. I was able to help some of the women convert, but sadly, their families would not take them back. It is because of this that I set up a convent for them in Prouilhe. Imagine your family not wanting you to come home because of your religion? They needed a place to go, and I was only doing what I could to help. I spent 8

years here before leaving for Toulouse in 1215. I am sad to say what has happened here since then. During the French Revolution, there was a huge fire, and the monastery was abandoned for almost 100 years. Even today they are going through legal troubles with the people doing construction on it. Despite all the hardships, I know this place will recover and continue to embody the spirit it has always had. I’ll give you a few minutes to take some pictures before we continue on.

Okay, be careful walking. They’re doing some construction and I don’t want anyone to get hurt. However, I haven’t actually seen anyone working all week. Either way, be careful. Okay now on your left you can see ‘The House of St. Dominic.” I may or may not have actually lived here, but I’m not going to give away the secret. My favorite part of this building is the stained glass windows. They depict me during the time I was here and I’m honored that someone would take the time to decorate this place so beautifully.

Now everyone stop! Don’t walk into each other, just stop. Do you all see the beautiful sunset? I just wanted to make sure you all noticed it. In 2010, I notice that so many people are so busy in

their lives that they don’t take the time to notice all the beauty around us. We’re going to now keep walking to the right, towards the Belvedere. I talked to the owner, Monsiur Gaiye, and he’s being kind enough to let us conclude our tour on the patio, so just follow me up the stairs and through the hallway.

Okay, from here we can see where I talked about before. Prouilhe is down that hill. It’s a very nice walk down to the monastery, and I encourage you all to take the trip. On the way you’ll see many different fields, including some with peas and even some with the fastest growing sunflowers in the world. But yes, we’re sitting on the patio of the Belvedere. Many different groups come and stay here throughout the year, including a group of students and faculty/staff from Dominican colleges all over the United States. They come to learn about me and the time period in which I lived.

Fanjeaux is now a very different place than I knew, but I’m glad that people still make pilgrimages (that’s one of my favorite words) here and that the history of this town is being kept alive and not forgotten.

Thank you for coming on the ‘Frolicking Fanjeauxians’ tour. I hope that I’ve been a decent tour guide. I don’t ask for tips; I simply ask that you go out and preach by way of study, community, prayer, and mission. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, and don’t forget that we will be praying the nine ways of prayer at the couvant later tonight.”

"I'm going to get metallic skin surgery" (Day 16)

Today we started off our day in the Cluny Museum. I didn't really know what to expect, because I had never heard of it. I really enjoyed this museum though. My favorite part was the stained glass windows. Over the span of this trip I've really enjoyed looking at them. I also was interested in the room with the statues with no heads. From my understanding, these statues were on the Notre Dame. However, during the French Revolution (?), the enemy thought these were the kings of France and they took off the heads. However, they were saints. The Unicorn Tapestries were probably the most notable display in the museum. If I can be completely honest, I didn't understand the big thrill when I saw them. However, then I was talking to someone and I got much more interested. They were explaining to me how so many elements of the tapestries are based on symbolism. There is something about symbolism that I love. I'm definitely going to go home and find out more about these tapestries.

After the museum, we went and got lunch and brought it to Dr. Mary and Francois' apartment. I'm very impressed that anyone could get furniture up those steps!

From here, Katie and I went to meet Magda at the Lafayette Galleries. We didn't realize it was so huge! It was cool to just walk around and see a different kind of store. We picked out what we would wear if we were to win an Academy Award, because of course that could happen any day now if someone sells the video to one of our plays in Fanjeaux.

Then we left and went to the Church os San Chapelle. The stained glass windows were amazing. Some construction was being done, so we couldn't see the whole thing, but I'm so glad we went here. I just love that people would choose to decorate their churches this way. I'm a very visual person, so I think it's a great idea to be able to see the stories in the Bible in order to learn them. I don't know the right way to say this, but it makes them so much more real if you can visualize it.

Then we went back to the Notre Dame. When we went Monday, we were being quickly ushered out and we wanted to spend more time there. We went and walked around the whole church just taking it all in.

We went back to the convent and walked to a close-by place for dinner. We had an early night but then we played palace for a while!

"Look! STOVES!" (Day 15)

We began today by going to the Musee D'Orsay. The art in this museum is from 1850-1914. We saw a good mix of sculptures and paintings. The ones that stood out to me the most were he ones by Claude Monet, who is one of myfavorite artists. I especially liked the two largest that were in a room with only one other painting. I was smart to sit next to Sister Patty - she was pointing things out to me that I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. For example, she pointed out how the subjects were not looking at us at all, as opposed to the paintings the tour guide had talked about right before these, from a slightly earlier time period. She also pointed out the different plants and the patterns on the dresses. My favorite was the one next to the Japanese bridge of a church, pained in warm colors. Our tour guide explained how impressionism was not widely accepted at first. People didn't like that it wasn't realistic. Many people felt that if this were to be considered art, the concept of art would no longer exist. It's interesting to think about this, because I'm such the opposite; I believe anything creative is art.

We also got to see some pieces that were influenced in the medi

eval era. For example, we saw a vanity that very obviously was influenced by this time period. It was very ornately decorated. The most striking part was the jewelry box on ither side of the mirror. At first glance it looked like a reliquy, and on the sides were pictures of famous people from the time period, including Marie de France, who wrote "Le Laustic" that we read in class.

After the museum, we went to a small place a few blocks away and got pizza. Then we headed off for our long day of exploring Paris. Our first stop: the Eiffel Tower! We've constantly been saying, "I don't feel like I'm in France," but when we saw tha

t, it finally hit us. After the Eiffel Tower, we headed to the Arc de Triumph. Unfortuantely we couldn't climb it though. Our next stop was Montmartre. We got off the metro right by the Moulin Rouge, so the walk to where we were actually trying to get to was interesting to say

the least. We kept walking and climbed about a million stairs, but it felt like nothing thanks to

those mountains! We saw the view of all of Paris before going up tot he Basillique du Sacre-Ceure. After the view from Fanjeaux, this view was the complete opposite but still worth seeing. Then we went in the church. This basillica was built in the spot where St. Denis, the first bishop of Paris, was decapitated for his faith. The thing that struck me the most about this church was the statues. I think it was in the way

they were placed. Some were where you wouldn't expect them, like in the aisles, and some were near surroundings you wouldn't expect, like near paintings.

We walked around that area for a while. We got coffee and crepes and looked at a bunch of stores. Then we got back on the metro to head to dinner. We had di

nner with everyone in the program right next to the Notre Dame. It was beautiful. It was goot to see everyone together for one last time. I couldn't have imagined coming to France with a better group of people.

After dinner, we decided to go back to the Eiffel Tower so we could climb it. We took the elevator to the second tier, as high as they'd let us go. We were on it as it started blinking. We stayed there for a while, just enjoying the moment as a group before coming down. To come

down, we figured it'd be easier to take the stairs than wait in line for the elevator. Wrong choice!! I got pretty dizzy coming down, and it seemed never-ending. I did it though, thanks to my friends.