Richard The Lionheart and Blondel

Blondel, a minstrel nicknamed for his long blond hair, took part in the Third Crusade. During this time he and Richard the Lionheart composed a song together, a song known only to the two of them... some special moments they have shared, i guess :))

On his way back to England, Richard was captured at Vienna and imprisioned in Dürenstein castle. Even though Richard had been travelling in disguise, he was identified either because he was wearing an expensive ring, or because of his insistence on eating roast chicken! Hehehe, so better do not insist on eating roast chicken when disguised as low-ranking pilgrim!

There is a legend that the troubadour Blondel found the castle where Richard was imprisoned. It is said that Blondel traveled from castle to castle singing the song they had composed together (Blondel si Richardel - MELODIA MEA!). When he got near the right castle, Richard replied with the refrain and so Blondel discovered where the king was confined.

We do love medieval folklore, so let's enjoy the legend and forget for a while that in fact, there was no mystery about Richard's captivity place.

As I have said so many other times, this world is such a small place...

Richard I still stands next to the Parliament Buildings, near Westminster Abbey
one of Blondel's melodies is used in Carmina Burana
upholding justice in king's name during Richard's imprisonment is... Robin Hood

BUT

That's another legend!

Designs on the Loo

Today I saw Norwich Castle . I won't bore you with stories about Norman archways, about a 900 year old spiral staircase, about graffiti made by the prisoners, or about collections of Anglo-Saxon treasures.
I'll tell you something interesting about this castle:

In the Ladies' loos, decorated teapots refer to "thieves" and to Norfolk prisoners , deported to Australia, "down under" , for their crimes...

I haven't had the chance to see myself, but I've heard that the inventor of sailors' life-saving equipment, Captain Manby of Great Yarmouth, is commemorated in the Gents' loos. So too is Charles Dickens who was inspired by the town to write David Copperfield.

Great sense of place!

The Fortune Cookie - A bit of a disappointment really...

Chinese restaurants around the world give out a fortune cookie at the end of a meal. That's why I expected it to be a custom coming from the ancient China, from Yuan or Ming dynasty, which means no later than the 17th century...
Even I thought to be from China, the fortune cookie is an American invention :( hahahaha, like many others! Fortune cookies were not known in the Chinese food culture, but luckily in the 1990s the fortune cookies arrived in China.

Ok, Ok, I'll say the truth: it was A bit of a disappointment really... because

I got a fortune that read: "You can't have any successes unless you can accept failure"!

Camden Town

Last Sunday I went to Camden Town, the centre for alternative lifestyles. I've seen a whole lot of new people, most of whom were following alternative subcultures (goth, punk, emo, metalheads and some yet unknown...)
We had a picnic on the grass beside the Regent's Canal, our own Venice for the day.

Before 2005 customers could legally buy magic mushrooms from dozens of stalls and shops in Camden. There was an unusual loophole in the British law that prohibited the active ingredients but not the mushrooms themselves :)) Not anymore.
But there are still lots of interesting things you can buy :))

Beneath the streets of Camden there is a labyrinth of tunnels and vaults. This underground maze is called the Camden Catacombs. Sadly, no access is allowed... maybe that's why I quite fancy a quick peep.

The Nutshell - the smallest pub in Britain

On Saturday I had a beer at Britain's smallest pub, The Nutshell in Bury St Edmunds.
It is a timber framed Grade II listed building dating from 1670 and it measures 4.5m x 3.7m. Paper money is stuck to the ceiling. There are a mummified cat and a mummified mouse (I guess) hanging from the ceiling. I can see see an explanation of why the cat is there, as in East Anglia they used to mummify cats and place them in the walls to ward off evil spirits... What about the mouse? Is it just for "Tom and Jerry"'s sake? :))

I think there should have been placed a note to say:
"Do not go to the loo unless you are sober enough!" as the staircase seemed very steep and narrow.

In Love with Shakespeare in Love

I saw Shakespeare in Love. Again. I loved it. Again!

I laughed when I saw the mug on Will's writing desk... just a souvenir from Stratford-upon-Avon:))

I bit my nails when I saw a Shakespeare play burning in the fire, but I laughed later when I heard the movie's director commentary. He said he imagined the Shakespeare scholars biting their nails thinking of an unknown play while watching the manuscript going up in smoke. I wonder if he did this on purpose...

I loved the way the sonnet that Will had written for Viola began:
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?", I hoped for a few more lines and I hoped for the ending couplet:
"So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

Even though the film is fictional, even if Viola wasn't Will's muse for Romeo and Juliet (as the play is a dramatisation of an Arthur Brooke's poem, which is a translation of an adaptation .... and so on...) I really really enjoyed it!

The Viking deception

The Vikings gained their reputation by doing bad things.Bad things like plundering, killing women and children, raping, attacking monasteries, taking baths every Saturday and changing their underclothing too frequently! :))
And there's one more thing. They didn't learned how to write. So they left history to be written by British and French clergy- the very people who fell victim to their raids and who had interest to exaggerate their atrocities.
But there was a churchmen who wrote the truth about the Vikings crimes. His name is John of Wallingford, and he said in his chronicle that the Vikings "combed their hair every day, took baths every Saturday and changed their underclothing frequently, so that they were held in high favour by the ladies". They were even able to "undermine the virtue of married women and seduce the daughters of nobles to be their mistresses". Of course they had a bad reputation, of course they were hated!

Offended by Shakespeare

Today I was offended by Shakespeare. Referring to a page disguised as a lady, he said:
"And if the boy have not a woman's gift
To rain a shower of commanded tears,
An onion will do well for such a shift,
Which in a napkin being close convey'd
Shall in despite enforce a watery eye."

"To rain a shower of commanded tears"? It cannot be a woman's gift. It would have been too good to be true! :)) Or maybe it is just "too true to be good" and I don't like to admit it.

Tears make us human. And guess what? Emotional tears contain natural substances for pain relief; this substances were not found in tears shed in response to sliced onions. So, yes, an onion will do well, but it is not the same thing, Mr. Shakespeare!

As I said, tears make us human. And so does laughter, so let's not forget that the man who offended me today is the one who wrote "long boring plays in which every single major character, by the end of the play, had either gone nuts, died or gone nuts and then died".