Here upon this pillow, made of reed and willow...

Does anyone else here happen to listen to the Decemberists? For those who don’t, they’re known for making a lot of music with historical and folklore references. So of course, naturally they have a 5 part, 20+ minute long song entitled....The Tain! The music video is a simple stop motion recreation of the major events that unfolded throughout the epic. I’ll include the link here for anyone who is interested: https://youtu.be/UOYZuaLg0J0

I found the imagery to be quite helpful in understanding the overall story, and I noticed in the comments that some students even had to watch this for assignments in their own classes that were studying The Tain. (This is good because now I can be sure it’s valid and relevant to share..)

Anyway, this brings me to the topics of discussion that I want to set up: First, use of imagery is an important way to better understand literature. This is probably part of why we must include it as an aid to our posts. I thought about this as we’ve read this story, because on its pages we can see a number of very basic brush stroke illustrations of figures that accompany the text. They appear ancient, although they are not, but were purposefully done this way as a less is more approach. Did you find them effective or ineffective aids which contributed to your ability to picture the events? Would you have preferred more detailed illustrations or do you agree with the translator and illustrator that it would have taken away from it and not allowed enough room for imagination?

Second: Like the Inanna Cycle, The Ulster Cycle is another case of several fragments of ancient text that a translator had to work incredibly hard to make into a cohesive and coherent piece of literature. So my final question is, although of course it’s wonderful that we have these translations, we must also accept that there is a great deal lost with each one. Do you ever think about how many of the pieces of the puzzle we’re missing when reading works like this? Whether in regard to certain language itself and it’s inability to be directly translated, fragments of the events that weren’t found or had to be filled in with each translator’s personal discretion, or even what changes when an epic goes from oral to written: is what we gain worth what must be given up when something is modernized? At what point does it just become a new story? In what ways do you think The Tain in particular differed when it first came about compared to now?

To Trust or Not To Trust

After completing my latest discussion paper, I was left with an interesting question. I had spent the past hour and a half typing a paper that discussed the theme of loyalty in the Odyssey, but was that the only theme to discuss? After some reflection, I realized that it wasn't. The subject I would like to present to you deals with the concept of trust that finds its way into almost all of the stories we have read.

Trust is represented in many different lights throughout The Odyssey, The Illiad, and The Oresteia. The Odyssey offers two situations where trust plays an important role. The first being when King Agamemnon tells Odysseus not to trust his wife upon his return home. This then leads to Odysseus not immediately telling Penelope of his return as well as the tense situation when they finally do come face to face. The second occurs when Odysseus and his men spend time at Circe's abode. Although Odysseus made Circe take an oath that she would not harm him or his men, it still took a certain level of trust to remain there for such a long period of time. In the Illiad, The seer trusts that Apollo will avenge the great injustice pushed upon him by King Agamemnon and Achilles trusts his friend Patroclus to take his armor/sword into battle (something that was not taken lightly in that time period). In a sense, Achilles trusted Patroclus to represent him on the battlefield. Lastly, The Oresteia shows us how trust can be betrayed. Although you could argue that Clytemnestra's motives were justified, King Agamemnon still trusts her completely; until she wraps him up in a sheet and stabs him to death.

So, my question to you is this.  Do you think that the writers put these situations of trust in the story to teach a lesson ( almost like Aesop's Fables) or do you think they were put there simply to create plot points?