Tuesday, February 26 2019

08:00 Lois and I go in the shower and after breakfast I start preparing for my weekly "Hungarian hour" with my friend, "Magyar" Mike. I devise a Hungarian vocabulary test, based on Lesson 8 in our current textbook, which I will “invite” him to take. He will do the same for me.

10:00 Mike rings at the door and we study Hungarian for an hour. We exchange vocabulary tests and read lesson 9 in our textbook. Mike has been ageing fast day by day over the past 12 months, no doubt about that, and he has forgotten some basic Hungarian words, for example, the numbers, the number "5" for example (yikes!) – my god, what madness! But I think he is determined to get back to his previous level, if at all possible, which is encouraging.

Flashback to June 2014: "Magyar" Mike (left) in happier times -

seen here with Lois, and with his wife, "Magyar" Mary (right).

He has become a bit of a nervous driver, to put it mildly, and he hasn’t yet got used to the new used car he bought last December. I don't want to be tactless, but I offer to occasionally visit him every Tuesday morning, instead of him visiting me, or else we could meet up at some café for example, say, midway between Nailsworth and Cheltenham.

He rejects my offer (politely), but I'm glad I have made it clear that I would be willing to compromise if he wanted that. Perhaps Mike thinks he'll be on a slippery slope as soon as he begins to cut down on driving, a viewpoint I can sympathise with.

11:00 Mike has to leave, and Lois and I go for a short walk on the local football field. It is quite warm again today, although the weather girl is saying that temperatures will start to drop gradually after tomorrow.

We go for a short walk on the local football field

12:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 2:30 pm.

I start reading lines 4114-4239 of Chaucer's "Reeve’s Tale", one of his well-known Canterbury tales. Lynda's U3A Middle English group is holding its monthly meeting on Friday in the town’s Everyman Theatre, and this tale is the group's current project. Tomorrow I will have to read another 85 lines of the story, and after that I will be fully prepared for Friday's group meeting.

The story's bad guy, "Symkyn" (= Little Simon), is a miller who lives in Trumpington near Cambridge, a village that Lois and I know well - it's only 9 minutes away by car from my sister's house in Cherry Hinton.

Symkyn routinely steals from wheat and corn that his customers bring for grinding. He is also a bully, boasting that he is an expert with swords, daggers and knives. Scary!

He and his wife are extremely proud of the fact that she is the daughter of the local vicar, which is a little strange because it means she was born out of wedlock: priests in later medieval England were not allowed to marry. The couple have a 20 year old daughter Malyne and a six month old son.

The tale starts with Symkyn demanding too much money for his latest order, grinding grain for Soler Hall, a Cambridge University college.

Two college students, John and Aleyn, are furious about this latest rip-off by Symkin, and decide to take revenge on the miller. They gather together an even larger amount of wheat than usual, and say that they want to watch Symkyn while he grinds it into flour: they pretend that they are interested in the process because they only have "limited knowledge of grain grinding" - ”metoo”  ha ha.

Symkyn sees through the students' story and decides to steal even more of their grain than he had planned, to prove that college students are not always the cleverest of people. He secretly unharnesses their horse, and the two students go chasing after it but are away all day, not managing to catch it until evening. Meanwhile, Symkyn steals some of their wheat and gives it to his wife, so she can bake him a free loaf of bread.

My goodness, what a crazy world they lived in !!! You couldn't trust anyone in those days!

But the most important thing to notice is that Symkyn has a wife and a 20-year-old daughter, Malyne. And when the two students return to Symkyn and it's too late for them to go home, I suppose Chaucer's readers would have already guessed that the two students, John and Aleyn, would end up in bed with the two women : that kind of incident is quite normal in Chaucer's stories, no doubt about that. Also, the two students have a grudge against Symkyn, because he has cheated them again - and what better way to take revenge on the miller than to have sex with his wife and daughter.

Symkyn plus his wife plus the two students, have a little too much to drink during the evening, to put it mildly. When the miller and his wife are asleep (and snoring) in their bed, Aleyne hops into bed with Symkyn's sleeping daughter, the 20-year-old Malyne.

John feels a bit out of things and lonely in his own bed, so later, when the miller's wife pops to the toilet, John decides to trick her into getting back into bed with him instead of with her husband.  John moves the baby's cradle from the foot of the couple's double bed to the foot of his own bed, to confuse the wife when she comes back from the toilet.

16:00 Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the couch and we discuss Chaucer's story.

All in all, the wife seems to have sex with John by mistake - she thinks she's having sex with her husband. While the daughter seems to have sex with Aleyne willingly  and to be enjoying it all - even though Chaucer writes that before she could see the Aleyne in the dark, it was already "too late to cry out" - Aleyne was already doing it, according to the poet. Lois says that for that reason there are grounds to characterise the act as a rape, and I agree with her. But we suppose that this is a modern point of view.

We also think the wife should have noticed that the man in bed with her was not her husband, especially considering that John was maybe about. 20 years younger than old Symkyn, but we’re going to let that one slide. We suppose that the wife was very drunk, according to Chaucer’s story.

It is interesting that the so-called "cradle-trick" was a bit of a cliché in the Middle Ages, that is to say, fooling a woman by moving a cradle from the foot of one bed to the foot of another bed, so that she hops  into the wrong bed, an idea which seems a little strange to modern eyes. But Chaucer's readers would have suspected exactly what was going to happen as soon as the cradle was moved, no doubt about that.

the “moving the cradle trick”, with the idea of getting the woman 

to hop into the wrong bed was a bit of a cliché in the Middle Ages, 

which seems a little strange to modern eyes

16:30 I recall a recent report I saw on my go-to news site, Onion News. The article emphasised that Chaucer can be problematic for modern readers, especially when it comes to teachers or lecturers who become too enthusiastic and immerse themselves too much in it all. A warning for all of us here not to get too "into it"!

Students at a local high-school recently hit the headlines when they told local journalists how pleased they were that a standardised curriculum had been introduced, which would mean that they could in future escape role-playing practice, or specially invited guest speakers, or other "surprises" that their free-spirited English teacher might have planned for them.

"I'm just relieved that Mr. [Aaron] Honey just has to prepare us for the test and can't do anything like reciting an original poem out loud and afterwards calling on us to express ourselves through poetry too," said 16-year-old Peter Macpherson, adding that if it were not for nationally established performance standards, his teacher would probably feel free to engage in all kinds of creative activities, such as arranging a class trip to a colonial farmhouse during their reading of The Scarlet Letter, or coming into class dressed as Mark Twain.

"Thank goodness we all have to take a single, nationwide exam at the end of the year, so there is no way he will be able to waste class time with inspirational speeches that encourage us to excel as unique individuals."

The students confirmed that they were happy to rote-learn as many facts as necessary rather than listen to Mr Honing speaking in Middle English for their entire Chaucer unit.

How sensible! And something to recall when we hear people criticising today's youth, no doubt about that! The kids are all right!

17:00 Lois and I have dinner a little earlier than usual and after that, we have to go out. Lois wants to  attend her sect’s weekly Bible seminar, taking place tonight in Brockworth library. She hasn't gotten used to her new glasses yet, so she asks me to drive her to Mari-Ann's house, where Fran will pick her up and drive her over to Brockworth. Fran will also attend the seminar. This semester's seminars are all about "The gospel in Isaiah".

a recent session of the sect's weekly Bible seminars: 

Fran is No. 3 from the left

18:00  I drive home. I have some alone time, but I have to be ready to drive over to Mari-Ann's house at about 9:30 pm to pick up Lois and bring her home again.

I see a little television, the 5th episode of the Danish drama series, "Ride upon the Storm", starring the famous Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen, as Johannes, a provost with problems - to put it mildly. First and foremost, an extreme alcohol dependency.

Johannes is a leading provost in the Danish Lutheran folk church. He is married to Elisabeth, but he also has a mistress, Ursula, who is one of the parish sextons. In the first episode of the series we saw Johannes and Ursula having sex in Ursula's shed in the churchyard, where she keeps her shovels and other equipment. We simultaneously hear spooky background music while the couple are going to it as if John has been possessed by the devil - yikes!

Johannes, the provost, having sex with one of his parish sextons

inside the churchyard shed where she keeps her spades and other equipment

In the fourth episode, Elisabeth discovers that Johannes and Ursula are having regular sex - Ursula has given John a small gift, with the word "kisses" on the packaging and a small note inside, "Looking forward to Thursday". Elisabeth discovers the package in one of Johannes’s jacket pockets. She confronts Johannes with the package and insists that Johannes gets Ursula moved to another parish, insisting also  that Johannes is going to have to sleep in his study room in the future - she will never sleep with him again, she says.

Meanwhile, Elisabeth has invited her Norwegian friend, Liv, a young violinist, to stay with the family over Christmas and New Year. The violinist believes in a lot of "alternative" medicines and ancient, naturalistic drugs - and the two women come into the habit of crouching down in the backyard to pee together and fertilize the soil.

In this fifth episode, Elisabeth discovers that Ursula, Johannes’s mistress, is still working in the parish, and she threatens to leave Johannes if he does not fire Ursula within the next 7 days.

Johannes’s wife, Elisabeth, discovers that the young Ursula, Johannes’s mistress,

is still working in the parish, which she is not very happy about to put it mildly!

Elisabeth threatens to leave Johannes

if he does not fire Ursula within the next 7 days

Unfortunately, the parish’s financial adviser has doubts about whether John can fire Ursula just because Johannes’s wife wants him to.

Meanwhile, Elisabeth herself becomes more and more friendly towards her Norwegian friend, Liv, the violinist. They both get drunk after an orchestral exercise, and they end up kissing.

All in all, an exciting episode. My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

21:30 Lois calls me. I drive over to Mari-Ann's house and pick her up. We come home - I go to bed, but Lois needs to relax and wind down before going to bed - the evening's seminar was very stimulating, she says. She stays up and sees a little television. She doesn't wake me when she jumps into bed at 11 o'clock. Zzzzzzzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation

08:00 Lois og jeg går i bad og efter morgenmad går jeg I gang med at forberede mig på min ugentlige “ungarsktime” med min ven, ”Magyar” Mike. Jeg udtænker en ungarsk ordforrådtest, baseret på Lektion 8 i vores nuværende lærebog, som jeg vil invitere ham til at tage. Han vil gøre det samme for  mig.

10:00 Mike ringer på døren og vi studerer ungarsk i en time. Vi udveksler ordforrådtest og læser lektion 9 i vores lærebog. Mike har ældes hurtigt dag for dag i de seneste 12 måneder, ingen tvivl om det, og han har glemt nogle grundlæggende ungarske ord, for eksempel, tallene, tallet ”5” for eksempel (yikes!) - du godeste, sikke et vanvid! Men jeg synes, han er fast besluttet på at vende tilbage til sit foregående niveau, hvis muligt, hvilket er opmuntrende.

Tilbageblik til juni 2014: ”Magyar” Mike (til venstre) i lykkeligere tider –

sammen med Lois, og sin kone, ”Magyar” Mary.

Han er blevet til lidt af en nervøs chauffør, for at sige mildt, og han er ikke vænnet sig endnu til den nye brugte bil, han købte sidste december. Jeg har ikke lyst til at være taktløs, så derfor tilbyder jeg , at jeg nu og da kunne besøge ham hver tirsdag formiddag, i stedet for, at han besøger mig, ellers vi kunne mødes på en eller anden café for eksempel midtvejs mellem Nailsworth og Cheltenham.

Han afslår mit tilbud (høfligt), men jeg er glad for, at jeg gjorde det klart, at jeg ville være villig til at kompromittere, hvis han gerne ville det. Måske tror Mike, at han vil være ude på en skråplan, så snart han begynder at skære ned på at køre bil, hvilket jeg kan sympatisere med.

11:00 Mike skal af sted, og Lois og jeg går en kort tur på den lokale fodboldbane. Det er ganske varmt igen i dag, selvom vejrpigen siger, temperaturer begynder at synke gradvist efter i morgen.

Vi går en kort tur på den lokale fodboldbane

12:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 14:30.

Jeg går i gang med at læse linjer 4114-4239 af Chaucers ”Riderfogedens Fortælling”, en af hans kendte Canterbury-fortællinger. Lyndas U3A middelengelske gruppe holder sit månedlige møde på fredag i byens Everyman-teater, og denne fortælling er gruppens nuværende projekt. I morgen er jeg nødt til at læse endnu 85 linjer af fortælingen, og så vil jeg være fuldt forberedt på fredags gruppemøde.

Fortællingens skurk, ”Symkyn” (= lille Simon), er en møller, der bor i Trumpington nær Cambridge, en landsby, som Lois og jeg kender godt – den er kun 9 minutter væk med bil fra min søster Gills hus i Cherry Hinton.

Symkym stjæler rutinemæssigt hvede og mad, som kunder bringer ham til slibning. Symkyn er også en bølle, og praler af, at han er ekspert med et sværd, en dolk og knive. Skræmmende!

Symkyn og hans kone er yderst stolte af, at hun er datter af bypræsten, hvilket er lidt ejendommeligt fordi det betyder, at hun er født uden for ægteskab:  præster i senere middelalderlige England ikke måtte gifte sig). Parret har en 20 årig datter Malyne og en seks måneder gammel søn.

Symkyn forlanger for meget penge for sit seneste bestilling, det at slibe korn til Soler Hall, en Cambridge University college.

To studerende på colleget, John og Aleyn, er rasende over denne seneste tyveri og beslutter sig for at tage hævn på mølleren. De samler en endnu større mængde hvede end normalt, og siger, at de vil se på Symkyn, mens han sliber det i mel:  de foregiver, at de er interesserede i processen, fordi de kun har ”begrænset viden om kornslibning” – ”metoo” ha ha .

Symkyn gennemskuer de studerendes historie og beslutter om at stjæle endnu mere af deres korn end han havde planlagt, for at bevise, at collegets studerende ikke altid er de klogeste af mennesker. Han spænder deres hest fra, og det lykkes de to studerende ikke at fange den indtil aftenen. I mellemtiden stjæler Symkyn noget af melet, mens de to drenge er ude på jagt efter deres hest, og han giver det til sin kone, så hun kan bage et brød.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!! Man kan ikke stole på nogen nu til dags!

Men det vigtigste er, at jeg bemærker, Symkyn har en kone og en 20-årig datter, Malyne. Og da de to studerende kommer tilbage hos Symkyn, og det er for sent for dem til at rejse hjem, formoder jeg at Chaucers læsere allerede ville have gættet, at de to studerende, John og Aleyn, ville ende ud i sengen med det to kvinder: den slags hændelse er normal i Chaucers fortællinger, ingen tvivl om det. Også de to studerende bærer nag til Symkin på grund af, at han har snydet dem – og hvilken bedre måde kunne der være at tage hævn på mølleren, end at have sex med hans kone og hans datter.

Symkyn, hans kone, og de to studerende får lidt for meget at drikke i løbet af aftenen, for at sige mildt. Da mølleren og hans kone ligger og sover (og snorker) i deres seng, hopper Aleyne op i sengen til datteren. Senere, da møllerens kone smutter på toilettet, beslutter John at narre hende til at hoppe op i sengen til ham, i stedet for hendes mand. John rykker babyens vugge fra foden af parrets dobbeltseng til foden af sin egen seng, for at forvirre konen, når hun kommer tilbage fra toilettet.

16:00 Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen, og vi diskuterer Chaucers fortælling.

Alt i alt, lader det til at konen har sex med John ved en fejltagelse – hun tror, at hun har i færd med at have sex med sin mand. Mens datteren virker at have sex med Aleyne med god vilje og nyde det hele – selvom Chaucer skriver, at før hun kunne se Aleyne, var det allerede ”for sent til at råbe” – Aleyne var allerede i gang med at gøre det, ifølge digteren. Lois siger, at derfor er der grund til at karaktisere akten som voldtægt, og det er jeg enig med hende i. Men vi formoder, dette er en moderne synspunkt.

Vi synes også, at konen skulle have bemærket, at manden i sengen ikke var hendes mand, især i betragtning af, at John var måske ca. 20 år yngre end ham, men det springer vi over! Vi formoder, at konen var meget beruset.

Det er interessant, at det såkaldte ”vugge-fup” var lidt af en kliché i middelalderen, dvs dét, at fuppe en kvinde med at rykker en vugge fra foden af den ene seng til foden af en anden seng, så kvinden hopper op i den forkerte seng, hvilket synes lidt mærkeligt i moderne øjne. Men Chaucers læsere ville have mistænkt nøjagtigt, hvad der ville ske så snart vuggen blev rykket, ingen tvivl om det.

vugge-fuppet, med det formål af at få kvinden til at hoppe op i den forkerte seng

var lidt af en kliché i middelalderen, hvilket synes lidt mærkeligt i moderne øjne

16:30 Jeg mindes om en nylige artikel, jeg læste på min go-to nyhedswebsted, Onion News. Artiklen understreger, at Chaucer kan være problematisk for moderne læsere, især når det kommer til lærere eller lektore, der bliver for entusiastiske og fordyber sig for meget i det hele.

Studenter på en lokale højskole ramte overskrifterne for nylig, da de fortalte lokale journalister, hvor glade de var for, at en standardiseret læseplan var blevet indført, hvilket ville betyde, at de fremover kunne undvige muligheder for rollespiløvelser eller for specielt inviterede gæsttalere: og for andre ”overraskelser”, som deres ekcentriske engelsklærer kunne have planlagt for dem.

"Jeg er bare lettet over, at Mr. [Aaron] Honing bare er nødt til at forberede os på testen og ikke kan gøre noget som at recitere et originalt digt højt og bagefter opfordre os til at udtrykke os selv gennem poesi også", sagde den 16-årige Peter Macpherson og tilføjede, at hvis det ikke var nationalt etablerede præstationsnormer, ville hans lærer sandsynligvis føle sig fri til at engagere sig i alle former for kreative aktiviteter, såsom at arrangere en klassetur til et kolonialt stuehus under deres læsning af The Scarlet Letter eller komme ind i klasse klædt som Mark Twain.

"Gudskelov, vi skal alle tager en enkelt, landdækkende eksamen i slutningen af året, så der er ingen måde, han vil spilde klassetiden med inspirerende taler, der opfordrer os til at udmærke os som unikke individer."

Eleverne bekræftede at de var glade for at lære udenad på remse så mange fakta som nødvendigt snarere end at lytte til hr. Honing tale i middelengelsk for hele deres chaucer-læseplan.

Hvor fornuftigt! Og noget man kan mindes om, når vi hører mennesker kritisere nutidens ungdom, ingen tvivl om det! The kids are all right!

17:00 Vi spiser frokost, lidt tidligere, end normalt, og derefter skal vi ud. Lois vil deltage i sin sekts ugentlige bibelseminar, der finder sted i aften i byen Brockworths bibliotek. Hun har ikke vænnet sig endnu til sine ny briller, så hun beder mig om at køre hende over til Mari-Anns hus, hvor Fran vil afhente hende og køre hende over til Brockworth. Fran vil også deltage i seminaret.  Denne semesters seminarer handler om ”Evangelium i Esajas’ bog”.

en nylig session af sektens ugentlige bibelseminarer: Fran er nr.2 fra venstre

18:00 Jeg kører hjem. Jeg har lidt alenetid, men jeg må holde mig klar til at køre over til Mari-Anns hus kl 21:30 for at afhente Lois og køre hende hjem igen.

Jeg ser lidt fjernsyn, den 5. afsnit af af den danske dramaserie, ”Ride upon the Storm”, stjernespækket den berømte danske skuespiller Lars Mikkelsen, som Johannes, en provst med problemer – for at sige mildt. Først og fremmest en alkoholafhængighed.

Johannes er en førende provst i Danmarks  lutheranske folkekirke. Han er giftet med Elisabeth, men han har også en elskerinde, Ursula, der er en af provstiets gravere. I seriens første afsnit så vi Johannes og Ursula have sex i Ursulas skur i kirkegården, hvor hun opbevarer sine spader og andet udstyr. Vi hører samtidigt uhyggelig baggrundmusik, mens parret går til den, som om Johannes er blevet besat af dvævelen – yikes!

Provsten Johannes har sex med en af provstiets gravere

inde i skuret i kirkegården, hvor hun opbevarer sine spader og andet udstyr

I det 4. afsnit opdager Elisabeth, at Johannes og Ursula har regelmæssig sex – Ursula har foræret Johannes en lille gave, med ordet ”kys” på emballagen og en lille seddel derinde, ”glæder mig til torsdag”.  Elisabeth opdager pakken i en af Johannes jakkelommer.  Hun konfrontere Johannes med pakken og insisterer på, at Johannes får Ursula flyttet til et andet provsti, og at Johannes fremover sover i sin studerekammer – hun vil aldrig sove med ham igen, siger hun.

I mellemtiden har Elisabeth inviteret sin norske veninde, Liv, en ung violinist, til at bo hos familien julen og nytåret over. Violinisten tror på en masse ”alternative” mediciner og ældgamle, naturalistiske lægemidler – og de to kvinder kommer i vane med at sidde på hug i baghaven for at tisse sammen og gøde jorden.

I dette 5. afsnit opdager Elisabeth, at Ursula, Johannes’ elskerinde, arbejder stadig i provstiet, og hun truer Johannes med at forlade ham, hvis han ikke fyrer hende indenfor de næste 7 dage.

Johannes’ kone, Elisabeth, opdager at den unge Ursula, Johannes’ elskerinde,

stadig arbejde for provstiet, og det er hun ikke ret glad for, for at sige mildt!

Elisabeth truer Johannes med at forlade ham

hvis han ikke fyrer Ursula indenfor de næste 7 dage

Desværre har provstiets financielle rådgiver tvivler om, om Johannes kan fyre Ursula bare på grund af, Johannes’ kone vil det.

I mellemtiden bliver selve Elisabeth mere og mere venlig overfor sin norske veninde, Liv, violisten. De bliver begge to fulde efter en orkesterøvelse, og de ender med at kysse med hinanden.

Alt i alt et spændende afsnit. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

21:30 Lois ringer til mig. Jeg kører over til Mari-Anns hus og afhenter hende. Vi kommer hjem – jeg går i seng, men Lois trænger til at slappe af og geare ned før hun går i seng – aftenens seminar var meget stimulerende, lader det til. Hun bliver oppe og ser lidt fjernsyn. Hun vækker mig ikke, da hun kl 23 hopper op i sengen til mig. Zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!