Dear Supporter,

With just five days to go before the supporter list closes on my translation of the Alliterative Morte Arthure, I thought I would spend some down time making a recording of one my favourite passages in Middle English and to share it with you. 

The Parlement of the Thre Ages is nothing to do with King Arthur but it comes from the same revival of alliterative poetry which blossomed in the fourteenth century. The poem tells the story of a debate between the three ages of man (youth, middle and old age) with each age debating that his is the best of times. Of course, old age knows the folly of the others and reveals that even the greatest of people go the way of all. 

But what makes this poem magical is the way it is framed by a hunting scene in which a lone bowman goes into the forest to shoot a deer and then falls asleep to dream of the debate. At the end, he wakes and returns home.

It struck me that in these dark times that nature helps to sooth the soul and I find the opening lines of the "Parlement" to be truly magical in the way the poet understands nature and the natural world - his descriptions are of an astonishing and intimate beauty. It is a restful and beautiful passage whose beauty somehow has survived for more than six centuries to light our soul today.

I hope you enjoy the film and accept it as a "thank you" for your support for my work. Don't worry, it's not a long film and a translation to the reading is visible in the subtitles!

Thank you once again for all your support,

 

Michael