- These are not history majors. Most of them are taking this class as a General Education requirement, so they're only here because they have to be.
- A medieval epic may be exciting to a medieval historian, but it's not everybody's cup of tea.
- It's the last class before spring break.
"Yes, Susie? Did you have a question?"
"Well, it's kind of off-topic..."
"I love off-topic questions. Shoot."
"Well... I really liked this book! I read it all in one night. Like, I had to do laundry, and I was really mad because I had to put the book down! And so... I was wondering... Are there other books like this that you can recommend?"
That's right: My undergraduate, non-major, taking-this-required-course student just asked me for more medieval literature. Because it was so awesome.
7 comments:
Fantastic!
What did you recommend?
Woot!
That is awesome! I echo Heu Mihi's question.
I'm assuming, by the way, that you had them read El Cid in English translation. I had a butt-kicking semester of college in which we read Cantar del mio Cid in the original, and there was no effing way I could have hacked my way through that stuff in a single night. I don't think I even finished the reading in a week, actually. But I'm getting off-topic myself, now. :)
W00t, indeed! Dr. K, yes, it was in English. And Heu, I sent her a short list (each with a brief description, so she could pick the ones most likely to *keep* her enthusiastic): Decameron, Song of Roland, Lais of Marie de France, Arthurian tales of Chrétien de Troyes, and Beowulf (with a note that it was "sort of a Lord of the Rings vibe" and a recommendation that she might try a prose translation if the verse was too hard to get through, though I loved the verse myself).
And maybe she will change majors!
Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney is fabulous!
Neat! And great suggestions, too! Maybe add Gawain?
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