As we discussed in class, that fact that the story can be read as an allegory, does not mean that is should be read as such. Others see Griselda as the perfect Christian, who does whatever is asked of her by her lord and master. The fact that is not at all what most people would tolerate in real life has no bearing on the story and it’s characters.

These three panels show the story of Patient Griselda.

The story details the humilation of peasant girl Griselda by a rich Marquis, Gualteiri, who is seeking to mould the perfect wife.

Here Griselda (right) is forced to strip in front of the male courtiers.

In the second panel, Griselda has married Gualteiri, but he is keen to test her further.

He orders one of his servants to take Griselda’s baby daughter and tell her it is to be killed.

The panel shows Griselda’s acceptance as she tells the servant; “do exactly what your lord and mine has ordered you to do.”

The story climaxes with the return of Griselda’s daughter, now twelve, who was secretly raised in Bologna.

Griselda is told it is not her daughter but Gualteiri’s new bride-to-be, and she is ordered to sweep her quarters – which she does.

Eventually, Gualteiri confesses his trick, and says he has now taught Griselda “to be a wife.”

All images are copyright of the National Gallery.

Just thought I would add this image of Eleanor that was painted by one of my favorite artists, Kinuko Y. Craft.

Eleanor was, from all accounts, one of the most successful woman in the history of world politics. She married twice and both times she managed to out maneuver, or at least try, her royal husbands. This was a woman who knew what she wanted and did not hesitate to go after it. She controlled vast estates and armies as well she her son’s (Richard the Lion Hearted) lands when he was out on Crusade. She also arranged two of her sons’ marriages to women that she choose for them.

Eleanor was the consummate politician. She was perfectly willing to do what it took to get the job done. The fact that this infuriated the men in her life was just the icing on the cake for her. For a woman who gained control of her own lands and life at the age of 15 and who lived to be 82, this was quite an accomplishment. She outlived all but 2 of her 10 children.

Here is a web page on Eleanor from Wikipedi

The stories themselves deal with magic and things that would be outside the experiance of the average Muslim of the time period.  Now they most likely believed in things like magic and jinnis.  This was so that they would have something or someone to blame when the unexpected happened.

One of my favorite stories so far is “The Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince.”  Which is told to the king from “The Fisherman and the Jinni.”  In this story, the prince marries his cousin (lots of intermarrying going on amoung cousins and siblings it seems) and he is as happy as a lark with his wife and he thinks that she feels the same way about him.  When he overhears two servants talking about how his wife drugs him every night so that she can be with her lover, he gets angry and decides to kill him.  (Also the lovers are almost always black slaves, wonder why that is.)  Instead he only managed in maiming the slave and cause the slave to loose his voice.  Now the wife goes into mourning and has her lover put inside a shire of some kind so she can take care of him.  After three years of this, the prince gets pissed about all her moaning and wailing and tells her to shut up already and get over it. 

When the wife realizes that her husband is the one who hurt her lover she casts a spell on him that turns the bottom part of his body to stone and all the people within his kingdom to fish.

Enter the king from the Fisherman’s story. The king finds the prince and listens to the entire sorid affair and then decides to help this prince.  He goes and kills the wife’s black slave lover and takes his place within the shire.  When the wife comes back she does not seem to notice that her lover is now a white man and is able to speak now.  The king tricks the wife into freeing the prince and his people and is then killed by the king.

As in a lot of Shahrazad’s stories, the women are all beautiful (and only 5′ tall) and the men, and the majority of the men are either royal or in positions of power. (Which only make sense, as Shahrazad is telling the stories to a king and he would want to here about other kings and princes.)   She uses magic to explain the unexplainable and to further the idea that such things do happen and that there is a reason for most magic and that magic has a logic all its own.

Shahrazad manages to keep King Shahryar enthralled by her stories for three years and in that time she gives birth to two sons, thus continuing both her bloodline as well as the kings.  And she gets to keep her head at the end of it.

Another reason these stories may be linked is the simple fact that when people travel together, they will talk and exchange ideas as well as stories to ease the bordom of the trip.  This is true even in our own culture, only now we use DVD players instead of storytellers.

On to “History of 12-century Philosophy.”  I agree with badspeller about all the name dropping, like he said in class today. (Sorry, can’t think of your name at the moment.)  Anyway, Dronke, seems to like the sound of his own voice, and he says a great deal, using elaborate language, so that he can seem above those of us who must suffer through his writing. 

Dronke has a few interesting points about how the Arab culture has influnced the western way of thinking.  He also has a great deal to say about how the works were translated and how the lingusit at the time did not do a very good job of it.  Of course this is true even today if you have a piece of literature translated from its original language to another, you are always going to loose some meaning simply because the person translating the text will do so in his/her own fashion.