Picture of author.

Helen Waddell (1889–1965)

Autor(a) de The Desert Fathers

15+ Works 1,859 Membros 25 Críticas 3 Favorited

About the Author

Obras por Helen Waddell

The Desert Fathers (1936) — Tradutor; Introdução — 559 exemplares
The Wandering Scholars (1927) 394 exemplares
Mediaeval Latin Lyrics (1929) — Tradutor — 328 exemplares
Peter Abelard (1933) 289 exemplares
Beasts and Saints (1934) 114 exemplares
More Latin Lyrics: From Virgil to Milton (1976) — Tradutor — 38 exemplares
Lyrics from the Chinese (1938) 34 exemplares
Stories from Holy Writ (1949) 13 exemplares
The story of Saul the king (1966) 11 exemplares
Poetry in the Dark Ages (1948) 7 exemplares

Associated Works

Manon Lescaut (1731) — Tradutor, algumas edições2,014 exemplares
The New Junior Classics Volume 03: Myths and Legends (1938) — Contribuidor — 235 exemplares
The Everyman Anthology of Poetry for Children (1994) — Tradutor — 72 exemplares
The Easter Book of Legends and Stories (1947) — Contribuidor — 34 exemplares
Tales of Magic and Enchantment (1966) — Contribuidor — 8 exemplares
The Undying Past (1961) — Contribuidor — 2 exemplares
Stories for girls — Contribuidor — 1 exemplar
Glastonbury Times Summer Special 1991 (1991) — Tradutor — 1 exemplar

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Membros

Críticas

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-wandering-scholars-by-helen-waddell/

This was the book that made the reputation of Helen Waddell, the medievalist from my own corner of County Down. It's a study of the lyrical tradition of poetry in the Middle Ages in Europe, tracing influences across geographies and cultures. I found the writing very dense; written very chattily as if these were all people whose reputations we already knew, with minimal context and footnotes mostly to works available only in well-equipped university libraries. I'm really surprised that it did so well on publication in 1927; perhaps the readers of the 1920s were more au fait with early medieval literature than I am.

Still there are some fascinating details in there. It's always interesting to be reminded of the career of Gerbert of Aurillac, which is crying out for an accessible biographical treatment, either factual or fictional. The same goes for the murky story of the Viking Siegfried (or Sifrid, as Waddell calls him). There's the mysterious figure of the Archpoet. And more locally it's interesting to see Liège popping up as an important centre of culture.

She supplies a lot of translations of the lyrics, to which she brings her own good ear for a phrase; here's the Archpoet's Estuans Interius, as set to music by Carl Orff in the Carmina Burana a few years later, with the original text (which fairly bounces along) and Helen's translation.

Estuans interius
ira vehementi
in amaritudine
loquor mee menti:
factus de materia,
cinis elementi
similis sum folio,
de quo ludunt venti.
Cum sit enim proprium
viro sapienti
supra petram ponere
sedem fundamenti,
stultus ego comparor
fluvio labenti,
sub eodem tramite
nunquam permanenti.

Feror ego veluti
sine nauta navis,
ut per vias aeris
vaga fertur avis;
non me tenent vincula,
non me tenet clavis,
quero mihi similes
et adiungor pravis.

Mihi cordis gravitas
res videtur gravis;
iocis est amabilis
dulciorque favis;
quicquid Venus imperat,
labor est suavis,
que nunquam in cordibus
habitat ignavis.

Via lata gradior
more iuventutis
inplicor et vitiis
immemor virtutis,
voluptatis avidus
magis quam salutis,
mortuus in anima
curam gero cutis.

Seething over inwardly
With fierce indignation,
In my bitterness of soul,
Hear my declaration.
I am of one element,
Levity my matter,
Like enough a withered leaf
For the winds to scatter.
Since it is the property
Of the sapient
To sit firm upon a rock,
It is evident
That I am a fool, since I
Am a flowing river,
Never under the same sky,
Transient for ever.

Hither, thither, masterless
Ship upon the sea,
Wandering through the ways of air,
Go the birds like me.
Bound am I by ne'er a bond,
Prisoner to no key,
Questing go I for my kind,
Find depravity.

Never yet could I endure
Soberness and sadness,
Jests I love and sweeter than
Honey find I gladness.
Whatsoever Venus bids
Is a joy excelling,
Never in an evil heart
Did she make her dwelling.

Down the broad way do I go,
Young and unregretting,
Wrap me in my vices up,
Virtue all forgetting,
Greedier for all delight
Than heaven to enter in:
Since the soul is in me dead,
Better save the skin.

I'm glad I have read this at last, and I'll put some of Helen Waddell's other works on my reading list now.
… (mais)
1 vote
Assinalado
nwhyte | 5 outras críticas | May 10, 2022 |
This is a well researched and erudite historical novel about the famous love story of the Medieval religious and intellectual figures Abelard and Heloise (despite the latter not getting her due billing in the title). While their story is fascinating and colourful, I found this novel somewhat disappointing in that I thought it sometimes got bogged down in its erudition at the expense of telling the story, and I found the narrative sometimes confusing as the order of events in their life story, with which I have some familiarity, was confused.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
john257hopper | 3 outras críticas | Aug 23, 2021 |
Wonderful small collection.
Made me discover people 2500+ years ago from a different culture were concern about the same big questions we are right now. Quite amazing.
 
Assinalado
trusmis | 1 outra crítica | Nov 28, 2020 |
Widely acclaimed study of the makers and singers of medieval Latin poetry considers the works of such poet-scholars as Fortunatus, Abelard, and the colony of Irish scholars around Liège and Cologne. Other topics include humanism during the first half of the 12th century, the archpoet, the scholars' lyric, and the Carmina Burana.
 
Assinalado
ExeterQuakers | 5 outras críticas | Aug 11, 2019 |

Listas

Prémios

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Estatísticas

Obras
15
Also by
8
Membros
1,859
Popularidade
#13,847
Avaliação
½ 3.5
Críticas
25
ISBN
69
Línguas
1
Marcado como favorito
3

Tabelas & Gráficos