Wow, what a great reading to start
off the blog. Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight is one of my favorite readings that I have had in any of my courses
so far in college. The description of the Green Knight is always fun to read. The
fact that this Knight is not only wearing green on his entire body, but his hair
and beard are green as well makes this an interesting story right off the bat. The
description of the Knight, however, is not the most interesting part of the
reading to me. The most interesting part is the fact that he is not only able
to live after he is decapitated, but talk and ride off on a horse afterwards. This
to me is an excellent example of what magic and mysticism is. This is my fifth
time reading this part of Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight, but it still amazes me that this knight is able to ride
off into the sunset with his head in his hands.
King Arthur wishes to have a special event/moment to occur
before every meal and that is exactly what he got from this most peculiar knight.
The Canon’s Assistant’s Tale was also a
good reading to start off with in the class. In many classes, we have to read
textbooks for exams and papers and other work, so to have readings like these
two are a nice break from it all. The Canon’s
Assistant’s Tale was an interesting reading; it had trickery, pseudo-magic,
and excitement all in few number of pages. The tale is also from a perspective
other than the person who had the misfortune themselves. This gave a more appealing
look, in my opinion, into the situation.
Near the
end of the reading, I put myself into the position of the priest. I caught
myself thinking that if that happened to me I might not have realized that I had
been played; I would probably think that I had made an error in the process of
making the silver, it would not occur to me (at least not initially) that I had
been made a fool of. Please tell me someone else would think this way.
This
reading helped to reinforce my idea of alchemy during this time period. I think
of people in this time period as very obsessed with the idea of making gold (or
in this case silver) out of other elements. This story shows just that, a
priest being so amazed in the “making “of silver that he is willing to hand
over his money to obtain the powder to do it himself.
I loved
these readings and I hope everyone else did as well. Please let me know how you
feel about them.
I thought the exact same thing about how the priest must have felt after failing his experiment. After all, the alchemist had already "corrected" him about making the coal bed, so it should already be set in his mind that if something goes wrong it's because of an amateur mistake. Although I thought the Canon's Apprentice was from the perspective of someone who was taken advantage of? His entire purpose is to ward people away from falling victim to the allure of alchemy, lest they lose their livelihoods, after all.
ReplyDeletethank you for sharing my thought.i thought it was written in the point of view of someone who heard or saw this instance happening. No? i could be wrong. i should definitely ask in class.
DeleteThe way alchemy is described in The Canon's Assistant's Tale helped me to think of it more as a science than as a type of magic. To outsiders it would seem like magic, but it could just be chemistry or whatnot. This story shows that ignorant people can get taken advantage of.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, from the perspective of an uneducated person it would most definitely look as some sort of magic. we, however, would see it as a trick with science incorporated into it.
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