#holyman

[petorahs]

wait this is so cool :O op also says: "is the chess movement intentional? does the tiled floor mean anything? probably not but its cool to think about"

to supplement, a quick google search about the roles of knights/bishops and rooks mean this:

......"crow with black plumage", or "to trick" sounds very akechi!

joker's could be anything really, but the second definition of bishop being weaver bird of either red or black plumage is noteworthily complementary to akechi's rook.

birds of a feather / two sides of the same coin...

[faithdeans]

this is so stupid but i never even THOUGHT about telling myself i'm not sinful/wrong etc to comfort myself it literally never even crossed my mind that it's something i could say to myself. maybe it's bc they teach you that you can't absolve yourself but??? hello idk what my point is

[seriouscrumpet]

"Miss Hobart" was the second De Havilland DH-86 Express to be built, and one of only four to have a single-crew cockpit layout. Transported by sea to Australia, it arrived in August 1934 and was assembled at RAAF Laverton. Holyman’s Airways at Launceston (LST / YMLT), Tasmania, Australia took delivery on October 1st, and the aircraft entered service on the Tasmania-Melbourne route on October 3rd. Miss Hobart disappeared over the Bass Straight on 19 October 1934 with no trace found of aircraft or the 12 persons on board. https://www.airliners.net/photo/Holyman-s-Airways/De-Havilland-DH-86-Express/2013714 https://tasmaniantimes.com/2018/10/the-mystery-disappearance-of-the-airliner-miss-hobart/ https://airlinehistory.co.uk/airline/holymans-airways-i/

D.H. 86 "Miss Hobart" photographed in 1934

[mndvx]

So why does it take now years to make 8 or even only 6 episodes while in the past they did like 26 in a year? Each year for years?!

it's because HD quality has demons in it, it takes longer to come out because they gotta get a holyman to exorcise the demons out of every frame, many such cases, this didn't happen back when they shot everything on film or under 720p because the demons were only in the producers

[holymanegang]

Circle Pattern Design. "Car la vie humaine est une triste boutique, décidément. – Une chose laide, lourde & compliquée. L'art n'a point d'autre but, pr les gens d'esprit, que d'en escamotter le fardeau & l'amertume" Gustave Flaubert. Holy Mane is an illustrator. She creates pattern design. Holy Mane gang is a colllection who celebrate the pink and dark feminine energy.

[vixensdungeon]

Deadvent Calendar: Day 20

St. Holyman

Lawful Vicar

Player: Katharina Holmwood Strength—11 Intelligence—9 Wisdom—13 Constitution—16 Dexterity—11 Charisma—9

Notable possessions: Deck of cards

Cause of death: Drew the queen of spades

[killva-creates]

bob bryar rest in peace, literally sobbing on the toilet right now

@i-am-but-a-holyman cmere let’s vigil

[white-cishet-snail]

Had a self professed "wandering holyman" Come into the lobby today looking for a place to stay. Couldn't rent to him because he didn't have a credit card.

He told me that I was betraying my divinely ordained path and the wisdom evident in my beard by not renting to him.

[sparingiscaring]

A Devil?

He tips his hat to you as you approach, and shakes your hand as you introduce yourself. He reciprocates in a high, hollow-toned voice - “against all odds,” he is the Fair Deacon, though he more resembles a Devil in fashion and in face. You are brought into the fold with just a few words, a matter of money between a Promising Socialite and a Soft-Voiced Painter, and the disagreement is dismantled in even less, though the resolution is more parting than repairing. For a moment, you too intend to turn, content that your artistic individuality is more important than the vision of some creativity-devoid host, and content that your novice hand could do a thousand paintings better than that passionless bohemian, until a gloved hand stops you.  “Not your lessons.” The Fair Deacon insists with wide eyes and a low tone, as the impulse fades from your system. “Unless you want it, of course, but it simply wasn’t intended for you. That’s all.” A smile dances at the corner of your mouth, as he withdraws his hand, only to offer the other one for a shake. “Care to speak for a moment more?”

Leigh Corbyn, The Fair Deacon - A Summary

Return to Beginning

It’s hard to find a Londoner who knows nothing of the Fair Deacon. Leigh Corbyn - he’s at every function worth attending, with fingers dipped into the custard of every pie worth tasting - and, of course, ladies and men and all others tell tale of his romantic escapades in the city, marking him to those in the know as surely-a-favorite of the Bazaar. He’s a hard man to forget, when one dares to pry deeper into those who claim to know the real Deacon. 

Those in the Honey Dens claim to know him best - he was one of their own, after all, once he arrived from the surface, still going by Emery and jumping every time anyone addressed him by name. Criminals laugh when he’s mentioned, one of their number who got out of the game with a spotless record, claiming his silver tongue and boyish charm saved plenty of skin when robberies went wrong, playing the part of some lovesick admirer who simply had to take a chance on his heart, and break in to see his adoration up close. Reports from the Church are less uniform; half of the lot call him a devil in disguise, and half call him by the title of ‘Bishop’ instead of Deacon. Deacon or Bishop, Bohemian or Criminal, one thing stands true above all else - the Fair Deacon is a man of many masks, and none have a full picture of the face beneath.

Born to wealthy surface parents and running away with a lover in young adulthood, the Deacon has always been a conman. He’s never even been a Deacon - it was just a title that stuck after years of using it, even if he’d had enough heat on him to retire the wayward holyman schtick. On the surface, it was live fast and die young, and not much changed when he found himself in the Neath. Soulless, with a nasty absinthe habit, and too busy indulging in every vice to remember a name or face - that’s the place the one Deacon Leigh Corbyn found himself in, when a woman who could have been anyone to him let slip a tale of a diamond the size of a cow.

A lot has changed since those early days. Leigh’s a married man thrice over now, though he’s still unsure if his loving marriage to Poor Edward was ever legal, and if that impacts his other current marriage to Baxter Berkeley, and a businessman who successfully funded and ran the GHR to completion. He’s saved the city from a slow and forceful drugging into lovelorn stupor, traveled deep below London to eat from a living moss that glows beneath his skin, and sits comfortably as friend to the old Royalists of Hell by playing their modern fellows and the Church like fiddles, and if one knows to ask, he’ll happily regale the tales of how he and Sugarplum (his lovely dog, why would you imply he belongs to another?) made it through each of their capers with only a scar or two to show for it.

Just don’t ask him about the origin of the faint sculpt-lines on his left arm or along his chest, or the small gills visible at the base of his neck. On a good day, he’ll laugh it off, and excuse himself from the room, only to never speak to you again. On a bad, you’ll get an earful of reprimands about the social contract and a scathing letter to your employers. On the worst, though, you’ll be handed a shot of absinthe, and the truth from the man himself.

“I can’t do anything more than guess at it, these days." The Fair Deacon taps the edge of his glass against the side of his head, using the rim as if to mimic a scalpel slicing through. "Cut those memories out a long time ago, trying to forget the feeling of whatever did this to me. At least it wasn’t half as bad as the first try." And then, the Deacon grins the sort of smile that only can come after one is too tired to cry anymore, and too inebriated to simply stop. "Say, have you of a man called Emery Hyde?”

Light Finger's, Your Own False Star

Crooked-Cross, Schismatic

Hedonistic > Austere, Heartless = Magnanimous, Subtle > Steadfast

Important/Canon ES's : The Bloody Wallpaper, My Kingdom for a Pig, Codename: Sugarplum, For All The Saints Who From Their Labours Rest, Paisley, Homecoming, The Ceremony, Caveat Emptor

Closest To : Hell, but especially closest to those still serving the Devil Princes.

Fallen London Profile | Artfight Page

[sekkyousha]

Need to introduce you to a character I want to add to my unholy lore. I'm still working on his design, but he'll keep his cross-head for now.

This is Holyman. He doesn't have a real name yet. I know it is basic, but idgf

This is a pose I was working on, but it was taking too long, and God knows I'm a freaking sloth 🦥

I'll show the final gif once I'm done :)

[mourningmaybells]

there's so many old biblical movies that invent a female character just to tempt a holyman, or portray an already existing biblical character as her most femme fatale self, that salome 1953 stands as such a stark contrast. even if she does strip in the movie and weaponizes the impulses of lecherous men. and is kind of bland. still, a weird outlier

[texas-gothic]

I know the idea of civic religion isn't a material way of analyzing the USAmerican situation, but I'm honestly starting to think it's not inexistent. Like, you are no more likely to convince a liberal that voting is not the magic political fix-all they think it is than you would have been to convince a pre-historic holyman that butchering that goat was not going to bring the rain back.

[oceanic-recollection]

For Oceanic as a whole, what was it like before the mass ascension?

Did you have brands? What was the relationship between you are your citizens, or the ancients in general? How did you feel about the ones that did maintenance on your puppets and cans? What do you think of the decision for them to make you to be able to disconnect from your cans?

<FDM> didn't need repairs all that much. mostly just help with upgrades. the people who helped me with those were really nice...

<BVQT> Similarly to Dew, I rarely required repairs, becoming fully independent in such after preliminary exams showed I was competent enough to not destroy my own body.

<BVQT> Those who repaired us, our teachers and our administrators were mainly one in the same. We were fairly low-maintenance after all.

<TSF> and you took over repairs, basically the second you got your diploma.

<BVQT> I did, yes.

<TSF> there were a couple of guys who came over to help with repairs a lot, before dew came, if quiet was busy with something. they were pretty nice, and, probably knew my can better than i did at the time~

<TSF> i stayed in contact with them for a while, although we weren't exactly "friends" or anything. honestly, i'm pretty sure the main reason we stayed in contact was because of that whole "head incident"...

<GRP> man you were SOOO scared of him after that

<GRP> you didnt look him in the face for like twelve moon cycles@!!

<TSF> ...yeah.

--

<WM> Quiette, Gamma und Myselffe all had Brandes based off of our various Hobbyes. I bellief that the Later Multitooles were in factte based on a desiggne by Quiette emselffe, whilste the cloths that were manifactured for myne own brande were based of the things I frequentley woree.

<UPSILON> I wanted a brand, I really did! But the design my dear administrator, may he rest peacefully and with no worries, gave to me was simply not acceptable by the standards of those ad holder... people. It was a dark time, truly.

--

<APIS> Being able to walk around is pretty useful! I guess our creators wouldn't have given it to us if they knew we'd mostly just use it to stare at common-er creatures, so I'm glad we all decided to do that after they... left...

<GRP> they must've thought we were SUPER boring...

<APIS> Yeah, us outskirters didn't really do much before they left lmao

<APIS> We did our job, they did theirs, and that's preddymuch all there was to it.

<GRP> and it was boring!

<GRP> i used to sneak out ALL the time whenever my admin was asleep and go to feathers's cause his city was the only one that wasn't totally boring sorry quiet

<APIS> And I went with you.

<GRP> and youuuu went with m!e!!!

--

<TSF> none of our citizens really saw us as gods, if that's what you're asking. personally, i was a holyman, unable to be a god.

<FDM> and the rest of us were little kids who didn't deserve the title.

<TSF> or equals, who shouldn't have had the title forced on them.

<FDM> ...right.

<FDM> i didn't ever really interact with the people who lived in my city. most of them stopped eating not too long after i was finally built, and the rest grew their own food in fear of... prosecution, i think?

<BVQT> However sad that is it does remind me of something to do with my own ancients.

<BVQT> I recall that some of them believed my voice was soothing. Specifically, a good voice to sing nursery rhymes to children. In the promotion of a campaign meant to instate a law that would forbid parents from starving their children before they were truly affected by the cycle, I was commissioned to sing a small tune made specifically for the event. I still find myself humming it sometimes as it was quite catchy!

<BVQT> Gamma assisted me in that campaign, if I recall correctly. She cared very deeply for her citizens, and they cared for her in kind - I recall her administrator actively sought her out in every reincarnation of themself that was able to, specifically to request to care for her once more.

[chemicaljacketslut]

sorry to be a nuisance but you’re like the resident IT expert that I follow and Google is not giving me a straight answer. I gotta fucking ask, in the book did the losers just fucking bully pennywise to death like in the movie? Huge let down if so ngl

okay first of all this is NOT a nuisance to me every time someone asks me an It question i vibrate at an audible speed. thank you

the short answer is no but also yes kind of a little bit. don’t worry i WILL elucidate.

the way the Losers defeat pennywise in the book is, granted, really convoluted and difficult to adapt to screen. it’s basically an altered version of something called the ritual of chüd. in the universe of It, the ritual comes from a forgotten himalayan tradition where a holyman and their equivalent of pennywise, called the taelus, bite each other’s tongues and tell each other riddles/jokes until one of them laughs. if the taelus laughs first, it’s banished for 100 years, and if the holyman laughs, the taelus steals his soul. but all of this is like a super psychic crazy metaphysical battle, not a literal biting of tongues and joke-off. funnily enough, in the actual ritual the losers execute, the first one to laugh is the one who wins, both times.

so as kids, bill does this ritual of chüd with pennywise, but they just have this whole dramatic psychic conversation instead of telling jokes. essentially, bill calls upon the power of positive childhood belief to kill It, since negative belief and fear is what feeds It. so after some help from maturin the cosmic turtle who vomited up the universe, bill chants his tongue twister (“he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts”) and thinks this whole thing:

(Chüd, this Chüd, stand, be brave, be true, stand for your brother, your friends; believe, believe in all the things you have ever believed in […] that there is a Tooth Fairy who lives in a huge enamel castle, and Santa Claus below the North Pole, making toys with his trove of elves […] believe in yourself, believe in the heat of that desire)

He suddenly began to laugh in the darkness, not in hysteria but in utter delighted amazement.

“OH SHIT, I BELIEVE IN ALL OF THOSE THINGS!” he shouted, and it was true. […] He turned his face up, and suddenly he felt power rush through him.

and thus he psychically defeats pennywise. but it was like they’d won the battle but not the war, because as we know, It returned ~26 years later.

as adults, the Losers—minus stan (dead) and mike (hospitalized)—confront It again, and again bill begins the ritual. except when he tries to spiritually bite Its tongue, he misses. but richie comes in clutch and swoops in and bites It, and then he starts kind of joking to himself and laughing and doing his Voices (impressions) at It, which hurts It a lot. he manages to find bill in this psychic realm and he saves him. but that means It is shaking them loose. so as bill and richie are returning to reality, eddie jumps in and, while he doesn’t really engage in chüd, he does hurt It.

[Eddie] leaped at It, triggering the aspirator at the same time, and for an instant all his childhood belief in the medicine came back to him […] It was good medicine, strong medicine, and […] he triggered the aspirator into one of Its ruby eyes.

He felt-heard Its scream—no rage this time, only pain, a horrid screaming agony.

and then, well. It fatally tears his arm off. eddie’s death gives bill and richie the motivation to push through and kill It. bill has georgie to fight for, richie has eddie. actually though richie ends up having more focus/motivation, because It distracts bill with his wife, who is being held captive.

“That’s Audra!” Bill shouted desperately. “Thuh-That’s AUDRA!”

“I don’t give a shit if it’s the Pope,” Richie said grimly. “Eddie’s dead and we’re going to kill It, if It’s still alive. We’re going to finish the job this time, Big Bill. Either she’s alive or she’s not. Now come on!”

ben destroys the eggs It laid (pennywise’s truest form that humans can see is a female spider that was pregnant, it’s a whole other thing) by just. physically stomping on them. and bill and richie go up and simultaneously psychically punch it and then they just. start beating the shit out of it and tearing it apart (psychically? physically? both i think) until bill rips Its heart out and crushes it. and finally It is dead.

so like, i didn’t include the quotes here but all of the Losers who speak to It during these battles do scream some form of “fuck you” at It and richie especially bullies It a little bit, and this does definitely hurt it at some points (especially with richie’s whole battle), but that’s not really what defeats It.

tl;dr, the power of love and friendship is basically what killed pennywise in the book, which is kind of what the whole book is all about.

[itsalwayswellattheworldsend]

Chapter 6 - Ralph Goeth His Ways From the Abbey of St Mary at Higham

Text Audio

Synopsis:

Ralph sings a song, has a bit of an argument with his monk friend, and leaves Higham-on-the-Way.

Summary:

"Yea," said Ralph, "so it is; and will the Lord be content with the service of him whom the devil hath cast out because he hath found him a dastard?"

It was the same monk from the day before who woke Ralph, and he stood by the bedside holding a great bowl of milk in his hand, and as Ralph sat up and rubbed his eyes, the monk laughed and said:

“This is good, this is good, my lord! I love to see young men sleepy in the morning; it is a sign of good health, and I see you are in great health for the time when you will return and join my lord’s men.”

“Where are the bonfires?” said Ralph, not yet fully awake.

“Where are they?” said the monk, “They are burned down to coals long ago, like many desires and hopes of men who have not yet found respite with the Holy Church. Come, my lord, arise, and drink the monk’s morning wine, and then if you must go, you may go, and ride hard; for the Wood Perilous begins soon as you continue on, and it would be good for you to reach the Burg of the Four Friths before nightfall. For, son, there are evil things in the wood; and although some of those evil things are people for whom Christ died, they have forgotten hell and do not hope for heaven, and their motto in life is ‘You shall go hungry before I go hungry’. Furthermore, there are worse things in the wood than those—God save us!—but against them I have good armor, a neck-guard which I will give you, son, as a token that I hope to see you again here at the lovely house of Mary our Mother.”

Ralph had taken the bowl of milk and was drinking, but he looked over the brim and saw the monk take a pair of beads out from a pocket, just like the ones Dame Katherine had given him, except that the little box was shaped like a cross. Ralph emptied most of the bowl quickly and got out from the covers, and he sat on the bed naked except that he wore Dame Katherine’s gift. He reached out his hand and took the beads, and he reddened a little then as he did before he had to begin speaking against someone. But he said:

“I thank you, father, yet I do not know if these beads will sit well beside those which I wear now, which is a gift from a dear friend.”

The monk put on a solemn face and said: “You speak the truth, my son; it is most likely that my necklace—which has been blessed by holy Richard—is too good companion for the gift of some fleeting love of yours, or even,” he said, noting how Ralph’s expression darkened, “or even if it were a gift of a well-willer, yet it is still a worldly gift. Therefore, since your journey is a dangerous one, it would be best for you to leave it with me until you return.”

Now, as he spoke, he looked anxiously—it could even be said greedily—at the young man. But Ralph said nothing, for in his heart he was determined not to trade away his gossip’s gift for any holyman’s trinket. But he did not know how to put his youthful words against the father’s wisdom; so he stood up and grabbed his shirt, and as he put it on he began to sing to himself an evening song of the High House of Upmeads, the words of which were like these:

[Original]

Art thou man, art thou maid, through the long grass a-going?      For short shirt thou bearest, and no beard I see, And the last wind ere moonrise about thee is blowing.      Would'st thou meet with thy maiden or look'st thou for me?

Bright shineth the moon now, I see thy gown longer;      And down by the hazels Joan meeteth her lad: But hard is thy palm, lass, and scarcely were stronger      Wat's grip than thine hand-kiss that maketh me glad.

And now as the candles shine on us and over,      Full shapely thy feet are, but brown on the floor, As the bare-footed mowers amidst of the clover      When the gowk's note is broken and mid-June is o'er.

O hard are mine hand-palms because on the ridges      I carried the reap-hook and smote for thy sake; And in the hot noon-tide I beat off the midges      As thou slep'st 'neath the linden o'er-loathe to awake.

And brown are my feet now because the sun burneth      High up on the down-side amidst of the sheep, And there in the hollow wherefrom the wind turneth,      Thou lay'st in my lap while I sung thee to sleep.

O friend of the earth, O come nigher and nigher,      Thou art sweet with the sun's kiss as meads of the May, O'er the rocks of the waste, o'er the water and fire,      Will I follow thee, love, till earth waneth away.

[Translated]

Are you a man or are you a woman, going through the long grass? For you shirt is short and I see no beard And the last wind before the moonrise is blowing around you. Are you hoping to meet with your maiden, or are you looking for me?

Now the moon shines brightly and I see your clothes are long, And down by the hazels Joan meets with her lad: But your hand is hard, lass, and few could be stronger But what other than the touch of your hand could make me happy?

And now as the candles shine down on us Your feet are well-shaped and brown on the floor, Like the barefooted harvesters among the clover When the cuckoo’s cry has stopped and midsummer is over.

Oh my palms are hard because out on the ridges I carried the scythe and worked for your sake And in the hot noontime I swatted at midges As you slept beneath the linden tree, unwilling to wake.

And now my feet are brown because the sun shines, High up on the hill side among the sheep And there in the hollow where the wind blows You lay in my lap while I sing you to sleep.

Oh friend of the earth, oh come closer and closer You are as sweet with the sun’s kiss as the mead in May, Over the rocks of the wilderness, over water and fire, I will follow you, love, until the earth passes away.

The monk heard him and furrowed his brow, as though he did not like what he was saying, though he did not question it.  He went out of the room, leaving the beads by the window. But Ralph got dressed quickly and when he was fully ready, he went to the window and looked at the beads, turning them over but leaving them there. THen he went out and came to the courtyard, where he found a squire with his weapons and horse who helped him with his gear.

So then, as he was about to climb into the saddle, the monk came again, with his face once more smiling happily, and in his left hand he held the necklace, but did not offer them to Ralph again, only nodded his head kindly and said: “Now, lord, I can see by your face that you are keeping to the fashion of this world, and most likely you will regret it.”

Then words came to Ralph’s mind and he said: “Will you tell me, father, who fashioned the world?”

The monk reddened, but did not answer, and Ralph continued:

“And tell me, did the craftsman fumble over his work?”

The monk scowled, but forced himself to speak in a friendly tone and said: “Such matters are beyond either of our educations, but I will tell you that there are men in this House who have tried the world and found it lacking.”

Ralph smiled, and said stammering:

“Father, did the world maybe try them and find them lacking?” Ralph continued: “And is that how all of you in this House are? If so, then who has made such a good lord and kind governor to all these people? You know nothing about the world!”

“Fair sir,” the monk said sternly, “those who work for the Lord and his servants do this.”

“Yes,” said Ralph, “so it is; and will the Lord be happy with the service of those whom the devil tossed back because he found them cowardly?”

The monk frowned, but then smiled regardless and said “Sir, you are young but your wits are too wise for me; there are some in this House who can give you a proper answer, men who have read the books of the wise men of the pagans and the leaders of the Holy Church, and they are at this moment making books for the scribes to copy.” Then his voice softened and he said: “Dear lord, we would be quite happy to have you here, but since you must go, go with my blessing, and you shall be twice blessed when you come back to us.”

Then Ralph remembered his promise to the shepherds and he took a gold coin from his pouch and said: “Father, I ask that you say a prayer for the shepherds of the hill country, and this is for the offering.”

The monk praised the gift and the thing he had been asked to do, and he kissed Ralph, who climbed into his saddle. Another monk in charge of such services brought him his bag with good meat and drink for the journey ahead. Then Ralph shook his rein and rode out of the Abbey, smiling at the people and the armed men who were around him.

But he sighed happily when he found himself in the street again, and he looked on the shops of the merchants and the booths of the craftsmen, the shoe-smiths and glovers, and tinsmiths and coppersmiths, and hornsmiths and their fellows; and the people that he saw as he rode toward the southern gate seemed happy and in good health, and good to look at. And he found it nice to look at the maidens in the street who were pretty and well-dressed, and there were many of them around him now, especially as he drew near the gate before the streets branched off: for people were coming in from the countryside with food and other wares for the town and the Abbey, and as he looked at some of the maidens he thought of the Hall-song of Upmeads and considered it a good one.

Notes:

I find it funny that we don’t learn this monk’s name. He’s pretty important for two chapters, which is more than can be said for Wat the Shepherd. Morris seems to give names to characters at random, and not even at reasonable times. Off the top of my head, the full list of named characters so far are Ralph, his brothers, their squires, his father, Clement, Dame Katherine, and Wat the Shepherd. The monk never receives a name, I don’t believe, but the Knight of the Leafless Tree will at some point. Keep this weird trend in mind over the next few chapters, where we meet some very important characters who go unnamed, and some very unimportant ones who don’t.

When speaking of the Wood Perilous, the monk describes bandits living there and then says “Furthermore there are worse wights in the wood than they be”, which is a little hard to parse. “Wight” is an old word for any living thing, but especially humans, and later came to be a term for wraiths and spirits (see Tolkien’s Barrow Wight). My first instinct was to translate “wight” as people because of this, but I decided to say “things” instead, since it covers a broader category and does not cause confusion with the fact that he just described the evil people of the forest a moment before. He may be referring to monsters, but I think it’s more likely he believes there are witches there, as we have already seen the cultural fear of magic and will see it more in the future.

The necklace the monk tries to give Ralph is once again called a “chaplet” and so may also be a rosary. Also, “Holy Richard” may be St Richard, who was a bishop in medieval England. I may have made the monk seem a little too harsh on Dame Katherine’s beads, but I’m not an expert with the language used. To me he seemed neutral-to-dismissive, though he does seem to at first guess them to be from some girl Ralph knew. Still, Ralph responds strongly and so I interpreted his words strongly.

There are a few songs throughout the story, and I’ll show both their original text and my translated form. I like poetry a lot, but it’s one of those things that I don’t know how much experience other people have with it? I have no idea what the average person’s comfort level with poetry is, and so I’ll keep to the style of the rest of my task and restate things very plainly.  Apparently, “Joan” is an older catch-all name (like “Jane Doe”) for women, especially peasant women. Without a good modern equivalent, I left it as-is and gave an explanation here. 

Oh, also the poem mentions a woman’s bare feet. I don’t remember if I included the detail, but before when Ralph was riding the farmlands north of Wulstead, the milkmaids were said to be barefoot. I don’t know how much is Morris leaning into medieval things and how much is his own person tastes, but I’ll be sure to include any future references (I’m pretty sure there’s at least one more). Note that he does also mention his own feet, so I’ll count that a little in his favor.

I really like Ralph’s argument with the monk here. The monk clearly has good intentions for Ralph, but he’s so caught-up in his own world view that he thinks he knows what’s best and tries to force these things on Ralph. Yet he’s not a villain. He and Ralph part ways on good terms, accepting each other’s different opinions while holding their own. It’s just another one of those little complexities that I think make this story stand out.

Oh, the Burg of the Four Friths was mentioned. A “frith” is an old term for a peace or security, or a law or other thing which protects. It can also refer to woods, which may be the meaning here, since it is located in the Wood Perilous. It may have multiple meanings, though, and I think I remember it having four towers around it, which may be the friths in question.

Map:

[holymanegang]

If someone wants to see you disappear, because they hate women, artists, sensitive people, introverts, non-conformists, they're an enemy. . Defend yourself and people you love !