#Serpentyne

[tarjaturunenfansource]

#Repost Serpentyne via Facebook

.

.

Our band with amazing Tarja Turunen Such great times! 😍 Have a great weekend everyone!

#femalefrontedmetal #ukband #serpentyne #serpentyneband #tarjaturunen #metalmusic #weekend @tarjaofficial

[une-sanz-pluis]

A Complaint for My Lady of Gloucester and Holland

Although the “Complaint” is focused on Jacqueline and includes a potentially subversive chorus of grieving women in support of her, Eleanor makes an oblique and threatening appearance about halfway through […] This characterization of Eleanor persists for several more stanzas, referring to “fals Circes,” and “cirens,” whose “fals incantacyouns” and “fals medecynes … / þe prynces hert agaynst al lawe / Frome his promesse his hande to drawe.” Although Eleanor was only publicly accused of witchcraft in 1441, these references in a poem generally dated to 1428 suggest that her reputation preceded that. Eleanor’s position at the heart of an adulterous (and possibly bigamous) love triangle also linked her—as it linked legendary adulteresses like Guenevere and Iseult—to witchcraft, in sharp contrast to Jacqueline, the “goodely fayre pryncesse” for whom “yong and olde [cry] in oone.” A transgression in one realm, one might say, opens a door to transgressions elsewhere. Striking too is the nature of the enchantment, that of the “chaunteresse” or “Ciren.” Although the references to mermaids and “courage serpentyne” may also recall the half-snake figure of Mélusine, the fairy ancestress of the counts of Lusignan, the repetition of “songe” and constant emphasis on voice locate Eleanor’s power elsewhere, a theme to which later depictions of her will return. —Kavita Mudan Finn, “Tragedy, Transgression, and Women’s Voices: The cases of Margaret of Anjou and Eleanor Cobham,” Viator 47.2 (2016).

John William Waterhouse (1900), A Mermaid | John Collier (1886), Lilith With A Snake | John William Waterhouse (1892), Circe Invidiosa | Herbert James Draper (1909), Ulysses and the Sirens | Luis Ricardo Falero (1880), The Witches Sabbith

[hasbr0mniverse]

The ROM Gallery - When Serpentyne Strikes!

[libraryofcirclaria]

Monassa

Library of Circlaria

Earlier Blog Posts

Geography:

Existing as the world's largest island and the world's largest island-nation, Monassa boasts unique geography consisting of a low-lying coastline around its base and a large plateau accompanied by mountain ranges in its interior. In its Southern region lies a desert lacking of plants but crawling with a variety of native snakes, serpents, and scorpions. The Northern region is slightly more temperate, with an alternating wet and dry season. Here, there are sparse trees and grasslands as well as Monassan Antelopes, Monassan Falcons, and Monassan Paragriffins. The Eastern region consists of the Trasterran Mountains, where the climate differs with its higher elevation yielding colder and rainier weather. The landscape here is dominated by evergreens, and consists mostly of rolling hills and small mountains. The Trasterran peaks are home to the same animal species as the North region, except that there are also brown bears. East of the Trasterran Mountains lies the Highlands, where the high, snowy mountains are inhabited by eagles, bears, wolves, and the world's most dangerous wild animal species: warghols.

Most notably, every region in Monassa is home to its own native species of wysps (semi-spiritlike creatures with mysterious properties and behaviors). Serpentyne wysps evoke fear in first-time witnesses, but are harmless. Point-wysps, however, look like innocent stars but are harmful to humans.

Early Settlement, Culture, and Politics:

Remains of essential yew tree fields and lothar domestication farms indicate that the island of Monassa was, at one point, settled by the Great Ancondrian Empire. Also present are the ruins of ancient villages and cities, and most notably, the Great Beacon, which was a mystery to scholars until the discovery of Ancondria in 1268, when it was determined that the Beacon was pointing with great precision toward the ruins of the Ancondrian city of Edom.

It is believed that by 17000 BCE, following the end of the Great Ancondrian Empire, the population had broken down into individual factions, with some becoming allies with one another and others becoming rivals. Over the passing millennia, diplomacy between these factions was very dynamic and fluid. Farms emerged in the North and Trasterran Mountains, while traveling nomadic tribes crossed the desert in the South to deliver goods between the villages of the North and coastal sea ports trading with Magnumarian sea guilds. Meanwhile, in the Highlands, monks learned how to communicate and make peace with the dangerous warghols and wild animals, while the warlords began constructing fortresses atop various mountain peaks. The monks, meanwhile built temples and shrines on other mountaintops. Early on, an unnamed religion dominated the culture of the Monassan people and the monks with a culture of mutual trust in differing beliefs. Despite the varying individual faiths, they shared the common belief that the wysps were spirits of the dead, and that spiritual intuition was gained by communicating with them.

Early Monassan society had no prisons to punish criminals. However, those who were found guilty of high offenses were given a choice: permanent exile off of the Island or a pilgrimage to one of the monks in the Highlands to request redemption. The latter choice was the most common one made but carried high risks, including encounters with warghols.

Between the 700s and 500s BCE, a political movement took place within each of the existing factions for unity and the establishment of democratic city-states. The first two city-states, Sancto Rosco and Atolleruc, were established in the 790s BCE. Hellece would emerge much later in the 510s BCE. Between the 400s and 300s BCE, Hellece, Atolleruc, and Sancto Rosco expanded their territories and evolved into territorial republics. Diplomatic disputes between the republics resulted in a series of armed conflicts before the signing of a peace treaty in 380 BCE.

Political balances in power within the structure of each republic and between republics, along with steady flow of trade and commerce, led the three republics to enter into a period of prosperity. However, that ended abruptly in 64 CE, when a major earthquake struck the Island. The catastrophe left thousands dead, cities destroyed, and trade routes disrupted. Economic hardship ensued over the two decades that followed, leading to a bolster in political corruption, which had been growing steadily over the previous several centuries. In 85 CE, the people of Sancto Rosco elected Porpytus, a political figure who unapologetically voiced authoritarian philosophies, to one of two Offices of Consul. Porpytus held the Office longer than permitted under the Sancto Rosco constitutional statute (which dictated a one-year term limit), by having himself re-elected in 86 CE. In 87 CE, Porpytus created the Office of Head Consul, to which he appointed himself. And in 88 CE, he abolished the other two Consul offices before launching a war on the Republic of Atolleruc in the South and the Republic of Hellece in the North. With such a maneuver being a surprise attack, Porpytus won and successfully absorbed both territories under his sovereignty.

The following year, Porpytus attempted a military offense on the Highlands, but this proved a dismal failure, owing to the warghols and the harsh environment. Instead of continuing the hopeless agenda, Porpytus signed the Highlands Peace Treaty of 89 CE with the monks and warlords. Under the agreement, the monks and warlords were, in civil terms, under Porpytus' sovereignty, although two existing checks on such a dominion were for Porpytus to never impose taxes or actually enforce laws upon them. Furthermore, Porpytus was obligated to protect them from the coast with naval forces. This Peace Treaty, though now heavily amended, still exists to this day as one of the oldest peace treaties in history.

Afterward, Porpytus renamed himself General Consul, a position he would hold until his death in 99 CE. He would be followed by his appointed successor, Armon, who would continue an unbroken line of General Consuls. In 112 CE, Armon attacked and defeated the Five Kingdoms, which covered the present-day Mid-Westerlies Islands to the West. Armon placed each of the Five Islands under a Regional Consul, establishing a hold that Monassa would have over the Islands until the 800s.

Great Northern Claims and the 1245-49 Transition of Power:

Under the succession of General Consuls, Monassa would follow centuries of peace and prosperity. Between the 600s and 700s CE, the strengthening nation began establishing settlements in Northwestern Remikra. After a series of conflicts with the local Remikran forces, Monassa would eventually gain official sovereignty over a small piece of the territory, naming it Asoratans. Peak Monassan prosperity arguably came to an end in 810 CE when the people of the Mid-Westerlies rebelled and successfully overthrew Monassan rule, establishing the Five Islands as a single Republic. In 826 CE, after a year-long civil war, this Republic broke into the Five Republics. Over the same time period, Monassa entered a steady decline in economic and political power. In the late 940s and early 950s, political boundaries in Northwest Remikra dissolved, leading to the establishment of the Linbraean Kingdom, which would be ruled by families of both Monassan and North Remikran descent. In 954, the Linbraean Kingdom attacked and defeated the sovereign territory of Monassa, itself, making it a Linbraean territory, while the Linbraeans attacked, defeated, and colonized the Five Republics in a similar fashion. In 998, the Linbraean Kingdom merged with the Edoran Kingdom to become the Kingdom of the Great North, of which Monassa and the Mid-Westerlies Islands became territories.

Monassa, at this point, existed as a Duchy of the Linbraean Kingdom as its land was divided into a territorial hierarchy similar to that of the Great North: counties consisting of boroughs consisting of estates. With Dukes and Duchesses serving as figures of royalty, the regional government was headed by a succession line of Governor-Generals issuing commands from Sancto Rosco. State-funded Alconist Churches were established, although freedom of religion was respected. The greatest change, however, occurred in its economy, which saw the development of industrial infrastructure such as railroads, factories, classical airships, industrial cash crops (especially vineyards) in the North and Trasterran regions, mineral extraction sites in the desert South, tourism and trade along the Coast, and hiking and wildlife observation tours in the Highlands. Also in the Highlands, later on, would emerge rock-climbing and snow sporting tourism. As technology advanced in Remikra throughout the 1000s, 1100s, and 1200s, such advancements would be introduced in Monassa.

And such would remain the status quo until the year 1245, when the last remaining eligible ruling figure of the Linbraean-Monassan Duchy passed on with no descendants. Such an occurrence, in accordance with Great Northern statute, warranted for the territory of Monassa to be handed to an independent party and exist as an independent nation. The Great Northern Crown smoothed over such a transition of power, as they mobilized to help Monassa set up a government similar to that of early Combria: an incumbent-appointed presidential council (or an IAPC).

In March 1249, political unrest ensued in the Mid-Westerlies, when a terrorist group known as the Golden Alliance backed a successful coup against the regional Great Northern government over the Mid-Westerlies and instilled an authoritarian regime in its place. The Great North responded with a military strike but struggled against the insurgency. The Federal Estates of Retun, however, came to the aid of the Great North and had the regime defeated in a short time. As an exchange of peace and diplomacy, the Great North sold the Mid-Westerlies to the Federal Estates. That May, news of the events cast influence on the population of Monassa, where the Golden Alliance was organizing a similar coup. Anticipating this, the Monassan, Federal Estates, and Great Northern governments joined efforts and were barely able to keep the Golden Alliance in check. However, the Federal Estates organized and supported a counter-movement and, once again, overcame the Golden Alliance. Afterward, the Federal Estates and Great North helped to establish a democratically-elected legislative branch to keep a check on the IAPC administration, a promising compromise for the Monassan people. Furthermore, the Federal Estates motioned for the Monassan government to have only a limited amount of intervention in the Monassan economy to allow for the growth of a free market. And in November 1249, a special conjoined Council met between the three nations, which agreed to recognize the newly-formed legislative branch, the IAPC administration as the executive branch, and representatives sent by the monks and spiritual interpreters from the Highlands to serve as the judicial branch of the new Monassan government. And thus, Monassa was established as a partially-democratic IAPC with its government seat remaining in Sancto Rosco.

Present-Day:

The partially-democratic IAPC government structure is still in place for Monassa, which enjoys the prospects of the free market. However, pressing issues include that of growing economic disparity between the rich and poor, and the growing intensity of seasonal wildfires.

[nasze-zd]

Droga do pracy (rowerem)

W dół jadę przez dzielnicę Khandallah - tam zjazd nie jest taki stromy, jak wzdłuż SH1, liczne serpentyny ułatwiają wytracanie prędkości, no i ruch uliczny jedzie z tą samą prędkością, co ja. Dodatkowo z tych serpentyn są piękne widoki na zatokę, chociaż przy tej prędkości można jedynie je zauważyć kątem oka.

Jak widać, zjazd jest łagodny na początku:

W górę większość tak samo, z tym że ostatni odcinek podjeżdżam poboczem autostrady. Sam ten podjazd od poziomu morza pod drzwi domu na 193 m n.p.m. zajmuje mi 15-18 minut.

Profil wyraźnie ostrzejszy w tą stronę.

Raz zjeżdżałem autostradą, ale słabe doświadczenie. Poboczem idzie legalna ścieżka rowerowa (tutaj niestety są drogi rowerowe puszczone pasem awaryjnym dróg szybkiego ruchu, szok na tle cywilizowanych krajów), ale jest niebezpieczna, bo pełna kamyczków, betonowa, nierówna i bardzo wąska, co przy prędkoścach rzędu 50 km/h, które wpadają na licznik momentalnie, może łatwo wyprawić mnie na cmentarz.

[gbhbl]

AoniaFest IV Featuring: Luke Appleton, Serpentyne, Cadence Noir, Final Coil, Ashes of Ire, Izengard, Walk in Coma and Aonia!

Need reasons to spend your hard-earned cash? Well, AoniaFest have provided 8 damn-good ones and we’re going to give you the rundown.

Taking place on June 25th, 2022 and long overdue (as so much has been because of COVID), AoniaFest returns to the Corporation in Sheffield. An all-day rock and metal festival, tickets cost the absurdly low amount of £12 (advance) and can be bought here. Need reasons to spend your hard-earned cash? Well, AoniaFest have provided 8 damn-good ones and we’re going to give you the rundown. So, in no…

[urulai]

I'm promoting a new feature of my patreon, patrons of the $2 tiers and above can vote each week on a poll of previously, patron suggested characters to receive an Urulai buff! The suggestions for the poll come from $5 patrons and up on a first-by-post system and gains weight if seconded (the more people who support a suggestion the stronger it weight for the later poll. My patreon is rather small so we started with only 3 suggestions by the end of the suggestion period. I'm hopping to encourage more people to become patrons for and give extra value for the low tier reward tiers. So please, if you like my work and can spare the money consider supporting me directly with a small monthly donation of $1 or more!

https://www.patreon.com/Urulai

[alltherom]

From my collection: myROM01261

Beware Serpentyne! A sketch card commission from Scott McFarland ( Cafe Plastic on Etsy )

[ofovertime]

serpentyn asked:  “NO ONE TELLS ME WHAT TO DO UNLESS WE’RE IN BED.”

angry sexual tension starters || accepting | @serpentyn

“Oh, is that so?”

The blonde titled his head for a moment before reaching for his tie. Loosening it up for a moment, he took a step closer to the other. Frowning a bit, maybe this would get him to listen to begin with, or --- the threat would say otherwise. Taking another step to look at the other for a moment, he titled his head for a moment.

“ Last chance -- We don’t have to make this harder then it is.” 

[tarjaturunenfansource]

#Repost @Serpentynemusic via Instagram

.

.

Our singer Maggie with @tarjaofficial Great times!

#ukband #tarjaturunen #Metalhead #serpentyneband #serpentyne #femalefrontedmetal #metalmusic

[cryokill]

Here's a quick little sketch of a Hexmas Serpentyne. Merry Hexmas, my friends.

[moofah-chan]

Bubble boy, bubble boy!

[libraryofcirclaria]

Monassa [Rewritten]

Library of Circlaria

Blog Posts

The content of this entry remains largely unaltered from the previous version; although some minor changes have been made.

Geography:

Existing as the world's largest island and the world's largest island-nation, Monassa boasts unique geography consisting of a low-lying coastline around its edges and a large plateau, accompanied by mountain ranges, in its interior. In the Southern region of the interior plateau lies a desert lacking of plants but crawling with a variety of native snakes, serpents, and scorpions. The Northern region is slightly more temperate, with an alternating wet and dry season. Here exist sparse trees and grasslands as well unique animal species like Monassan Antelopes, Monassan Falcons, and Monassan Paragriffins. The Eastern region consists of the Trasterran Mountains, where the climate differs with its higher elevation yielding colder and rainier weather. The landscape here is dominated by evergreens, and consists of towering mountains. The Trasterran peaks are home to the same animal species as the North region, except that there are also brown bears. East of the Trasterran Mountains lies the Highlands, where even higher, snowy mountains are inhabited by eagles, bears, wolves, and the world's most dangerous wild animal species: warghols.

Every region in Monassa is home to its own native species of wysps, which are semi-spirit-like creatures with mysterious properties and behaviors. Serpentyne wysps evoke fear in first-time witnesses, but are harmless. Point-wysps, however, look like innocent stars but can be aggressive to humans.

Early Settlement, Culture, and Politics:

Remains of essential yew tree fields and lothar domestication farms indicate that the island of Monassa was, at one point, settled by the Great Ancondrian Empire. Also present are the ruins of ancient villages and cities, and most notably, the Great Beacon, which was a mystery to scholars until the discovery of Ancondria in 1268, when it was determined that the Beacon was pointing with great precision toward the ruins of the Ancondrian city of Edom.

It is believed that by 17000 BCE, following the end of the Great Ancondrian Empire, the population had broken down into individual factions, with some forming alliances and others becoming rivals. Over the passing millennia, diplomacy between these factions was very dynamic and fluid. Farms emerged in the Northern regions and Trasterran Mountains, while traveling nomadic tribes crossed the desert in the South to deliver goods between the villages of the North and coastal ports trading with the Magnumarian sea guilds. Meanwhile, in the Highlands, monks learned how to communicate and make peace with the dangerous warghols and wild animals, while warlords began constructing fortresses atop various mountain peaks. The monks, meanwhile built temples and shrines on other mountaintops. Early on, an unnamed religion dominated the culture of the Monassan people and the monks with a culture of mutual trust in differing beliefs. Despite the varying individual faiths, they shared the common belief that the wysps were spirits of the dead, and that spiritual intuition was gained by communicating with them.

Early Monassan society had no prisons to punish criminals. However, those found guilty of high offenses were given a choice: permanent exile off of the Island or a pilgrimage to one of the monks in the Highlands to request redemption. The latter choice was the most common one made but carried high risks, including encounters with warghols.

Between the 700s and 500s BCE, a political movement took place within each of the existing factions for unity and the establishment of democratic city-states. The first two city-states, Sancto Rosco and Atolleruc, were established in the 790s BCE. Hellece would emerge much later in the 510s BCE. Between the 400s and 300s BCE, Hellece, Atolleruc, and Sancto Rosco expanded their territories and evolved into territorial republics. Diplomatic disputes between the republics resulted in a series of armed conflicts before the signing of a peace treaty in 380 BCE.

Political balances in power within the structure of each republic and between republics, along with steady flow of trade and commerce, led the three republics to enter into a period of prosperity. However, that ended abruptly in 64 CE, when a major earthquake struck the Island. The catastrophe left thousands dead, cities destroyed, and trade routes disrupted. Economic hardship ensued over the two decades that followed. And this made worse the consequences of political corruption, which had been growing steadily over the previous several centuries. In 85 CE, the people of Sancto Rosco elected Porpytus, a political figure who unapologetically voiced authoritarian philosophies, to one of two Offices of Consul. Porpytus held the Office longer than permitted under the Sancto Rosco constitutional statute (which dictated a one-year term limit), by having himself re-elected in 86 CE. In 87 CE, Porpytus created the Office of Head Consul, to which he appointed himself. And in 88 CE, he abolished the other two Consul offices before launching a war on the Republic of Atolleruc in the South and the Republic of Hellece in the North. With such a maneuver being a surprise attack, Porpytus won and successfully absorbed both territories under his sovereignty.

The following year, Porpytus attempted a military offense on the Highlands, but this proved a dismal failure, owing to the warghols and the harsh environment. Instead of continuing the hopeless agenda, Porpytus signed the Highlands Peace Treaty of 89 CE with the monks and warlords. Under the agreement, the monks and warlords were, in civil terms, under Porpytus' sovereignty, although two existing checks on such a dominion were for Porpytus to never impose taxes or actually enforce laws upon them. Furthermore, Porpytus obliged to protect them from the coast with naval forces. This Peace Treaty, though now heavily amended, still exists to this day as one of the oldest peace treaties in history.

Afterward, Porpytus renamed himself General Consul, a position he would hold until his death in 99 CE. He would be followed by his appointed successor, Armon, who would continue an unbroken line of General Consuls. In 112 CE, Armon attacked and defeated the Five Kingdoms, which covered the present-day Mid-Westerlies Islands to the West. Armon placed each of the Five Islands under a Regional Consul, establishing a hold that Monassa would have over the Islands until the 800s.

Great Northern Claims and the 1245-49 Transition of Power:

Under the succession of General Consuls, Monassa would follow centuries of peace and prosperity. Between the 600s and 700s CE, the strengthening nation began establishing settlements in Northwestern Remikra. After a series of conflicts with the local Remikran forces, Monassa would eventually gain official sovereignty over a small piece of the territory, naming it Asoratans. Peak Monassan prosperity arguably came to an end in 810 CE when the people of the Mid-Westerlies rebelled and successfully overthrew Monassan rule, establishing the Five Islands as a single Republic. In 826 CE, after a year-long civil war, this Republic broke into the Five Republics. Over the same time period, Monassa entered a steady decline in economic and political power. In the late 940s and early 950s, political boundaries in Northwest Remikra dissolved, leading to the establishment of the Linbraean Kingdom, which would be ruled by families of both Monassan and North Remikran descent. In 954, the Linbraean Kingdom attacked and defeated the sovereign territory of Monassa, itself, making it a Linbraean territory, while the Linbraeans attacked, defeated, and colonized the Five Republics in a similar fashion. In 998, the Linbraean Kingdom merged with the Edoran Kingdom to become the Kingdom of the Great North, of which Monassa and the Mid-Westerlies Islands became territories.

Monassa, at this point, existed as a Duchy of the Linbraean Regiondom as its land was divided into a territorial hierarchy similar to that of the Great North: counties consisting of boroughs, which consisted of estates. With Dukes and Duchesses serving as figures of royalty, the regional government was headed by a succession line of Governor-Generals issuing commands from Sancto Rosco. State-funded Alconist Churches were established, although freedom of religion was respected. The greatest change, however, occurred in its economy, which saw the development of industrial infrastructure such as railroads, factories, classical airships, industrial cash crops (especially vineyards) in the North and Trasterran regions, mineral extraction sites in the desert South, tourism and trade along the Coast, and hiking and wildlife observation tours in the Highlands. Also in the Highlands, later on, would emerge rock-climbing and snow-sporting tourism. As technology advanced in Remikra throughout the 1000s, 1100s, and 1200s, such advancements would be introduced in Monassa.

And such would remain the status quo until the year 1245, when the last remaining eligible ruling figure of the Linbraean-Monassan Duchy passed on with no descendants. Such an occurrence, in accordance with Great Northern statute, warranted for the territory of Monassa to be handed to an independent party and exist as an independent nation. The Great Northern Crown smoothed over such a transition of power, as they mobilized to help Monassa set up a government similar to that of the former nation of the Chartered State of Combria: an incumbent-appointed presidential council (or an IAPC).

In March 1249, political unrest ensued in the Mid-Westerlies, when a terrorist group known as the Golden Alliance backed a successful coup against the regional Great Northern government over the Mid-Westerlies and instilled an authoritarian regime in its place. The Great North responded with a military strike but struggled against the insurgency. The Federal Estates of Retun, however, came to the aid of the Great North and had the regime defeated in a short time. As an exchange of peace and diplomacy, the Great North sold the Mid-Westerlies to the Federal Estates.

That May, news of the events cast influence on the population of Monassa, where the Golden Alliance was organizing a similar coup. Anticipating this, the Monassan, Retunian, and Great Northern governments joined efforts and kept the Golden Alliance in check, albeit with a great deal of struggle. However, the Federal Estates organized and supported a counter-movement and, once again, overcame the Golden Alliance. Afterward, the Federal Estates and Great North helped to establish a democratically-elected legislative branch to keep a check on the IAPC administration, a promising compromise for the Monassan people. Furthermore, the Federal Estates motioned for the Monassan government to have only a limited amount of intervention in the Monassan economy to allow for the growth of a free market. And in November 1249, a special conjoined Council met between the three nations, which agreed to recognize the newly-formed legislative branch, the IAPC administration as the executive branch, and representatives sent by the monks and spiritual interpreters from the Highlands to serve as the judicial branch of the new Monassan government. And thus, Monassa was established as a partially-democratic IAPC with its government seat remaining in Sancto Rosco.

Present-Day:

The partially-democratic IAPC government structure is still in place for Monassa, which enjoys the prospects of the free market. However, pressing issues include that of growing economic disparity between the rich and poor, and the growing intensity of seasonal wildfires.

[thatprettylittlething]

❝  You’re dripping blood on the carpet . . . ❞

@serpentynes      summoned     ⟶      lyric / poetry based starter.

[heartofstanding]

feuillesmortes replied to your post:  Eleanor’s trial and penance were part of this...

this is so interesting! i’ve been meaning to ask you if you could talk a bit about the eve motif i’ve seen you assign to your eleanor novel

@feuillesmortes, here we go - some of this will probably be stuff you already know but it helped me to put it into writing in the first place.

So, okay, I'll start by saying this isn't based on any in-depth reading about the depiction of Eve in the Middle Ages (it's on my to-do list!) but rather how (European, Christian) medieval culture viewed women as being made in Eve's image. It's worth noting that medieval culture was not a monolith and that there were different views of Eve (e.g. Ruth Mazo Karras mentions that some theologians thought Adam bore more responsibility in the fall of man as he, as the man, was meant to stronger than the naturally weak-willed woman). But what appears to be the "default" view of Eve was that she was the one who committed the original sin, becoming the original sinner. In practice that meant she was the original transgressive woman who tempted men into sin and ruin, and she was the one to blame for mankind's fall and all their sorrows. Her nature as a transgressive, sinful woman who could bring men into ruin was passed onto womankind, who, as Eve's daughters, were all potential "Eves".

Of course, medieval culture also had that icon of redemptive womanhood, the proof that women could overcome their inherently sinful nature: Mary. But Mary was a virgin who was also a mother, both things to aspire to but an impossibility for medieval women (and most women today) who could either be a mother or a virgin.

I don't think it'd be fair to describe medieval womanhood as judged on a strict Mary/Eve dichotomy but more along the scale, where the "good women", most notably the female saints (almost all virginal) and mystics were viewed as closer to Mary and the "bad women" closer to Eve.

So for me, that's an incredibly useful if simple metric for understanding how a medieval woman could be perceived and how she could perceive herself - particularly for a woman like Eleanor who was seen as a "bad woman" within her own lifetime.

I'm not aware of any text that explicitly links Eleanor with Eve but she was written about as a transgressive woman who brought men to their ruin, specifically her lover and later husband, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, though the quote in the original post specifically talks about her bringing Roger Bolingbroke, a good and learned man, into disgrace and death.

The contemporary poem "The Complaint for My Lady of Gloucester and Hainault" calls for the return of Humphrey's first wife, Jacqueline of Hainault,  to England and to her husband. In it, an unnamed figure who is almost certainly Eleanor is blamed for bending the Duke's heart "ageynst al right" and described in supernatural terms as resembling a "myrmayde", "chaunteresse" [enchantress], and sorecercesse" who with "courage serpentyne" led other "wychches" with their siren song to bend the "prynces hert / ageynst al right" and "to make him strange / and beo forsworne  / Vn to þat goodely fayre pryncesse", Jacqueline.

In short: Eleanor is cast in the role of an Eve-figure who is ultimately responsible for Humphrey's villainy in his abandonment of Jacqueline. C. Marie Harker has a pretty good article about the poem where she talks about Eleanor's reputation being formed here in opposition to Jacqueline's, saying that the Jacqueline/Eleanor conflict re-enacts:

the ancient tropes of feminine virtue and vice - of passive victims and active whores - a relational narrative in which masculine agency vanishes as the unmarked category, and male transgression is occluded in the discursive containment of the threat of feminine agency.

Harker does not mention Eve in connection to Eleanor but does describe Eleanor as being "that convenient excuse for male infidelity: the seductress, a type of Jezebel [...] the sexual villain of the story, a chaunteresse responsible for the ruin of the Good Duke." And again, it goes back Eve both in terms of the being villain responsible for the ruin of the good man and in terms of sexual sin ("Lust (and the disobedience that went along with it) was for Christians the original sin, and Eve the original sinner," writes Karras).

(Harker seems to posit that the poem was commissioned by Humphrey to absolve himself of Jacqueline's abandonment but I don't agree. As Harker herself notes, the poem doesn't redeem him but instead reconfigures him "as a sexual weakling, subject to the feminine machinations of the Bad Woman" - it's not exactly a flattering image of Humphrey. Additionally, the poem was written in 1428, when it's generally believed Humphrey and Eleanor married so it'd be pretty bizarre that he'd commission a poem throwing his new wife under the bus. It does seem to have been written by a member of his household, sometimes identified as Lydgate, but we don't know anything more about it.

The truth is that Eleanor - who was a minor gentlewoman, the daughter of a baron - probably had very little to do with Jacqueline's abandonment but made for a convenient excuse to absolve not only Humphrey but the English court of their role in Jacqueline's abandonment. Humphrey and Jacqueline's campaign to reclaim her lands risked alienating Philip, Duke of Burgundy from England when the English were so dependent on his co-operation for their conquest of France and pushed John, Duke of Bedford as Regent of France into an uncomfortable position. When Humphrey returned from Hainault, he was soon in conflict with Henry Beaufort and struggling to retain his position as the chief authority in England - a situation that plunged England into a brief crisis that was only resolved when Bedford returned from France to sort it. It was probably these matters - the risk of alienating their necessary ally, the power struggle at home - that led to Jacqueline's abandonment, not his affair with Eleanor.

We don't know when Eleanor and Humphrey began their affair - the first time it appears to have been known was 1425. It's also important to note that while Jacqueline's relationship with Humphrey tends to be discussed in very domestic terms as if it was a passionate love match. It wasn't. It was, first and foremost, a political match made with political benefits in mind - there is some thought that Henry V had given Jacqueline refuge with the intention that she would marry one of his brothers and, with her lands in English control,England's reliance on Burgundy would be weakened.

Additionally, marriages among the medieval elite were rarely about love but were performed for political, financial and/or diplomatic benefits. Infidelity was fairly common amongst the elite, especially given the time spent apart or possible issues around incompatibility. Generally, we know very little about the mistresses of medieval elite men. They seem to have been quietly accepted so long as they remained in obscurity and it is only the "notorious" mistresses like Katherine Swynford, Alice Perrers, Elizabeth 'Jane' Shore and Eleanor, who stepped outside the traditional role of a mistress who received fame and censure. It's possible that Humphrey's affair with Eleanor began well before the 1424/5 Hainault campaign and possibly with Jacqueline's knowledge and approval, though it is equally possible that it only began after Humphrey left Jacqueline in Hainault. Certainly, Eleanor wasn't his only mistress - we don't know who the mother(s) of his illegitimate children were and he seems to have been attracted to Jeanne de Warigny, one of Jaqueline's equerries - but she is the only woman we can definitively say was his mistress.

And, of course, there comes the accusations of witchcraft and Eleanor's downfall. Humphrey is not mentioned in connection with the accusations at all, save for the reference to Eleanor having used magic to make him love and marry her - again, Eleanor absorbs the blame for his actions. She bewitched him, he wasn't in his right mind, he couldn't control her because she controlled him, he is not to blame! Another contemporary poem, "The Lament of the Duchess of Gloucester",  has Eleanor narrate her downfall ("as Lucyfer felle down for pryde / I felle ffrom alle felycyté / I hade no grace my self to gyde") and abjure her wrongs, while still maintaining Humphrey as an innocent figure who has graced Eleanor by making her his wife but who she ultimately and ungratefully betrays with her "gret offence". Towards the end of the poem, Eleanor begins to farewell her old life, from her home in Greenwich, her fine clothing, her minstrels, her husband and sovereign lord before ending:

Ffarewelle, alle joy and lustynesse; Alle worldly myrth I may forsake. I am so fulle of hevynesse, I wotte not to whom my mone to make. Unto hym I wille me take That for me dyed upon a tre. In prayer I wille both walke and wake; Alle women may be ware by me.

I think you could argue that it positions Eleanor as a second Eve - like Eve, she has sinned and fallen from grace, like Eve she now leaves behind a paradise and heads into exile, and the continual refrain of "all women may be ware by me" positions Eleanor as a warning for women as Eve was. Sally Fisher has noted that the accounts of Eleanor's downfall and imprisonment are all narratives of exile and banishment, which again, does fit in with the banishment from Eden.

So, basically, we see that Eleanor is memorialised and remembered by her world as another Eve, if not explicitly then implicitly. She was a "Bad Woman" who led a good man (the good duke himself) into sin and who was duly punished for this trangression via banishment from grace.

In writing Eleanor, I'm constantly aware of her status as a Bad Woman (please note: I don't mean Bad Woman as in badass, I mean as in typically regarded as little more than an overambitious, hypersexual, nasty and evil woman who got what she deserved - Eleanor is not viewed as one of history's "bad girls", she's largely viewed as a villainess) and the ways in which I can challenge it. I don't mean a story in which Eleanor Cobham is sweeter than spice and all things nice and everything bad that she does is actually a conspiracy against her and everyone's just so mean to her, they all hate her - you guys do know I'm joking when I say "Eleanor Cobham did nothing wrong", don't you? What I basically mean is Eleanor's story is complicated, she was not solely to blame for the things she has been blamed for and when she did bad things, it's not inherently because she is a Bad Woman but because she was human, because she was dealing with some shit - Eleanor in 1441, in my mind, is a woman in distress, who has been in distress for some time, and whose actions are driven by that distress.

And the Eve motif goes back to that. It's a pressure that's been with her since birth, this idea that she has an ungovernable power to tempt men into sin, that there is something inherently sinful about her because she is a woman (seriously, when I was writing about the Mary and Eve as models for womankind, I felt like saying "seems like a recipe for a breakdown, doesn't it?"). One of the first scenes I have for the novel occurs in 1415, when Eleanor would be 14 or 15, and her family's chaplain catches her sort-of fooling around with a boy, and he castigates her for it, telling her, "you must remember the example of Eve, for all women are made in her image and in being so, have inherited her weaknesses", going on to basically blame her for men being sexually attracted to her, including himself.

(I'm not sure if the scene will stay, I have no proper outline and I think it could be laying it on a bit too thick.)

Later, she enters the court as one of Jacqueline of Hainault's damsels and finds a world very different to the one her chaplain told her about, where there are more relaxed views about sex. And it's freeing but it doesn't rid her of those doubts that she is just like Eve, that she is governed by lust and a sinner - though they grow quieter. She does fall in love with Humphrey and he with her fairly early on, but it's probably going to be a lot of pining and courtly love because what is romance without pining?

When they do consummate their relationship, Eleanor has taken on the attitude that it's done as an act of love and therefore "pure" and sinless but because of her social conditioning, she still has doubts. She is unable to get rid of the voice in the back of her head telling her that sex is a sin, that lust is the greatest of all sins, that she should resist it and by failing to resist it, she is impure, unclean, bad. I have a scene drafted where that comes to the surface after she loses her virginity, which includes this line:

She raised her head, saw him through a veil of tears and then hid her face. She was suddenly aware of their nakedness. Was this, she wondered, what Eve felt when she first bit into the apple and tasted shame at last?

And if you've read some of my other writing about Eleanor, you'll see that she constantly has these doubts in the back of her head. She's happy with Humphrey, she's a woman who loves sex and is happy having lots of it but she's constantly struggling to vanquish the doubts she has about whether she's just "bad". It does a huge number on her psyche.

I do want to do something with these Eve motif, of course - I don't want to leave Eleanor as a wreck, carrying around this idea that everything she did was a sin. There's a quote from the Ancrene Wisse, which was a guide for anchoresses but also read by laity (we know Eleanor had a copy that is still extent) which is particularly striking and may end up serving as the epigraph for the novel:

Eve your mother leapt after her eyes, from the eye to the apple, from the apple in paradise down to the earth, from the earth to hell, where she lay in prison for four thousand years and more, she and her husband both, and condemned all her offspring to leap after her to death without end - the beginning and the root of all this sorrow was one light look.

It is oddly fitting for Eleanor's story, even ignoring how Eleanor's reputation was modelled after Eve's. That Eleanor's "one light look" at the happiness she could have as Humphrey's lover and wife could end with her fallen from grace and imprisoned, with Humphrey's ruin, with her left alone with "all this sorrow" until she dies herself...

But I do want to challenge it. Because it wasn't that Eleanor seeking happiness that led to her ruin but the ways in which her society confined her to that role of Eve and punished her for failing to live up to the impossible ideal of Mary.  It was the way in which she lived in a brutal time that used her to discredit and ultimately ruin her husband.

I drafted the final lines of the novel last night (literally - please forgive the roughness) to end on this Eve motif in a way that (hopefully!) challenges the idea of Eve as as an transgressive, sinful woman:

She thought of Eve in Eden and the apple. She wondered if, after everything, the banishment, the pain and the sorrow, if Eve remembered the sweetness of the first bite and the last, and thought it was worth it. If, given her life over again, she would still pluck the apple from the tree and take the first bite. Eleanor would.

Sources mentioned:

Rev. C. Hardwick, 'Lament of Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, When Convicted of Sorcery', Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Communications 1 (1851-59) C. Marie Harker, “The Two Duchesses of Gloucester and the Rhetoric of the Feminine”, Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques, vol. 30 no. 1 (2004) Eleanor P. Hammond, 'Lydgate and the Duchess of Gloucester', Anglia, vol 27 (1878) (accessed here) Sally Fisher, 'Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester: Chronicles and Ideas of Imprisonment in Fifteenth-Century England', Parergon, vol. 34, no. 2 (2017) Ruth Mazo Karras, Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Under Others - Third Edition (Routledge, 2017)

[allurante]

what kind of pining are you ?

whispers

the things you tell them in your sleep mean more than the stiff conversation that is all you can have while conscious. you dream of being able to lean in and tell them the truth in a voice no one else can hear. some things are just for you. some things deserve to be said. but not yet. not yet.

tagged by: @vigilans - thank you !! : > tagging: @swordrisen​, @serpentyn​, @ethaer​, @destructivour​ & whoever else wants to !