Friday, April 5, 2013

A-Z: "E" is for Emelye from The Knight's Tale


Day 5 of A-Z here  "E" is for Emelye from The Knight's Tale in the Canterbury Tales.  
When Theseus married Hippolyta her young sister, Emelye, moved with her to her new home. Over time her beauty bloomed in full force and there were two brother/cousin prisoners (Palamon and Arcite) locked in a tower that spied and fell in love with her from afar.  They argued over who had the right love this incredible beauty, but then realized their arguments were futile since they were in jail. They agreed finally to both be in love with her. One day Theseus grants Alcrite his freedom but was exiled to areas not ruled by Theseus. After leaving, he became depressed because he didn't see his lovely vision Emelye. He cursed the world and longed for his old prison cell. Years go by with plotting on both sides to win the fair maiden as a wife. Neither have spoken and do not know each other's plans for Emelye. The long and the short of it is, the brothers/cousins meet and fight until Theseus appears with his wife and Emelye in tow. He empathizes with both their plights and decrees they each take 50 men and battle for her in judicial knight tournament. The winner would marry Emelye. Both Palamon and Arcite fought valiantly until the ultimate victor revealed.  The back and forth between the two was neverending.  Guess who won Emelye's hand? It seems like all these tales center around a fair maiden huh?  Whew...thank the gods that's over.




Healthy Writers Club by Shallee McArthur
I returned to my normal workout which felt great.  It really is a stress reliever for me. I try to rest on the weekend and do mostly lunges.  Oh those hurt like the dickens.  Anyway, I thought I'd share with you an iPhone app (Workout Mix) that I use for working out.  I like it because the music is upbeat and during the music sessions the DJ's voice chants some encouragement .."You can do it."  or "Go harder."  Here's a thought.  Wouldn't it be great if he cheered me on when I'm writing.  *sigh*

Friday with Fred

This is Fred's intimidating pose.  He tends to wear this expression more frequently since Spike.  I keep telling him he'll always be number one and then I give him a carrot. :)


How was your first week of A-Z?  I'm so happy for the weekend.  Have a good one.

Mina B.

10 comments:

Dani said...

Those Fair Maidens! always stirring the pot with their beauty.
Dani @ Entertaining Interests
#warriorminion

S. L. Hennessy said...

I remember studying this particular one in my Chaucer class in college. It's the whole damsel/"courtly love" concept. It can be a bit tired, but Chaucer does it well!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I'm always amazed how many dogs like carrots. Almost better than a dog treat.

Nicki Elson said...

Can you believe I've never read the Canterbury tales? That shall be corrected in 2013. Thanks for the peek at one of the characters.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

I've always loved the name Hippolyta.

Gwen Gardner said...

I don't actually remember who won Emelye. Neither of them has even spoken to her, lol. Poor Emelye doesn't even have a choice.

Fred's so cute!

Mark Means said...

I'll have to check and see if they have that app for Android. Sounds pretty useful, actually.

Best of luck with the workouts!

Angela Brown said...

Imprisoned and in love with a fair damsel neither of them can have access to. Sounds like double the imprisonment to me.

Michelle said...

Dogs eat carrots? That's news for me! Are thy vegetarian dogs? LOL.

Michelle said...

Sorry about typo error - it should spell "they"