Joan of Arc

I became interested in Joan of Arc last year. Of course she's very famous and most everyone is aware of her to some extent. But I came across a rather fascinating section about her in Jim Leavesley's Mere Mortals. This is the second junior nonfiction book that I've read about her now. Both were very interesting.

Her basic story is fascinating of course. As a teenage girl Joan began hearing voices from Heaven. 

These voices told her that God had chosen her to save Orleans- a French city under siege by the English during the latter years of the Hundred Year War, and then to take the Dauphin to be crowned as King of France in Rheims (also held by the English). She sets off to see the Dauphin.

The Dauphin is aware that Joan is coming, and decides to test her, by dressing as one of his courtiers. Joan immediately walks straight up to the Dauphin. Joan arrives in Orleans by the back gate (surely it can't have been that easy?? Is it really a siege if you can just ride in the back gate?). But Joan did save Orleans. She was later captured by the English, stood trial, and famously burned at the stake in Rouen. 

So, what did I learn from this book specifically?

Joan was injured by an arrow during the battle for Orleans. The surgeon is said to have dressed her wound with olive oil and lard. 

That Joan was captured at Compiegne after the French Captain of Compiegne raised the drawbridge behind her forces, locking her out of the town. She was outnumbered, overpowered and taken prisoner.

I knew that after her capture and imprisonment Joan had jumped out of a tower window. Here, we are told that Joan was so injured after her jump that she wasn't able to eat or drink for two days. 

The judge at her trial in Rouen, which was the English capital in France at the time, Cauchon, the "wicked Bishop of Beauvais" was paid by the English to rig the trial, and find her guilty of heresy. 

Her life becomes more fascinating with each book. I was initially put off a bit by this book, just because the cover illustration seemed a bit grim and drab. Although I guess her life was grim and drab really. The other pictures within the book are brighter, and more appealing to me. I'm not sure that I would have put that particular one on the cover.

An Illustrated Year is hosted by An Abundance of Books.

Wondrous Words Wednesday 14/3/12

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.  

Recently I read The Wind in the Willows for the first time. It was a treasure trove of new words. I've already made one Wondrous Words post from it.  This is the second. 

1. Corsair (Noun)

They gave us a capital one last year, about a field-mouse who was captured at sea by a Barbary corsair, and made to row in a galley; and when he escaped and got home again, his lady-love had gone into a convent.

i) A pirate, especially along the Barbary Coast

ii) A swift pirate ship, often operating with official sanction. The Free Dictionary. 

2. Wonted (adjective)

It was a bright morning in the early part of summer; the river had resumed its wonted banks and its accustomed pace, and a hot sun seemed to be pulling everything green and bushy and spiky up out of the earth towards him, as if by strings. 

Accustomed, usual. The Free Dictionary. 

3. Panoply (Noun)

A good deal of his blustering spirit seemed to have evaporated with the removal of his fine panoply. 

i) A splendid or striking array: a panoply of colourful flags.

ii) Ceremonial attire with all accesories: a portrait of the general in full panoply.

iii) Something that covers and protects: a porcupine's panoply of quills. 

iv) The complete arms and armor of a warrior. The Free Dictionary. 

The meaning here is a bit of all 4 I think. They have just removed Toad from his motor-clothes. 

4. Casquet (Noun)

...up time-worn stairs, past men-at-arms in casquet and corselet of steel, darting threatening looks through their vizards;

A light open casque (15-16th century term for any armour for the head; usually ornate without a visor), without a visor or beaver. 

Oh dear it just gets more confusing, beaver here refers to a piece of armour attached to a helmet or breastplate to protect the mouth and chin. Or indeed the visor. It's all rather circuitous. And seriously, how much would these kids have known about 16th century armour?

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5. Corselet (Noun)

Body armour for the trunk, usually consists of a breastplate and back piece. 

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6. Halberds (Noun)

past ancient warders, their halberds leant against the wall, dozing over a pasty and a flagon of brown ale:

A two-handed pole weapon that came to prominent use during the 14th and 15th centuries. Wiki. 

You can still buy these

Patterns of the National Library

On our recent trip to Canberra, we visited the National Library of Australia, to see a wonderful exhibition, Handwritten, on loan from Germany.

Even though it's an amazing place to visit, I don't find our National Library the most photogenic building. It's a bit too 60s and blocky.

This seems to be the tourist brochure view.

But it has some wonderful 1960s stained glass windows in the foyer. The windows were designed by Leonard French and designed to represent Gustav Holst's The Planets.

These stained glass windows are actually very difficult to photograph. Mr Strong Belief (who is a photographer) says it's because my camera struggles with white balance, because of so much intense colour. I fiddled with the colours of the photos to try and get it to represent the glorious reds in particular, they came out too orangey in my snaps- I'm not sure the colours are exact still, but still you get the idea.

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Saint Roch

A few weeks ago we travelled to Canberra for a lovely overnight stay. We went to see the wonderful Handwritten exhibition at the National Library. And we went to the National Gallery of Australia to see the blockbuster Renaissance exhibition. This is a big thing for Australians. Usually we have to travel in a plane for 24 hours to Europe to see paintings like this. A big undertaking. So it's especially pleasant to be able to hop in the car for a couple of hours to see Renaissance masterpieces. You can listen to an interesting interview with the Director of the National Gallery about the exhibition, and how it was made possible during by the renovations of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Italy.

I hadn't thought much about it before we went, but had seen the many ads in the weekend newspapers every week. I of course got the audio tour, and settled in to enjoy a vicarious European experience for an hour or so. I wandered in, and then realised, a little to my dismay, that many of the paintings are the ones that I skim over in the Italian section of the Louvre! Madonna and child. Crucifixion. Madonna and child. Oh dear. I was amused during that Radio National interview to hear Michael Cathcart express similar difficulty with looking at multiple depictions of Madonna and child over and over again.

Still, it was an interesting exhibition. And fabulous to see. I can't help it that I'm a heathen. The audio tour was very good, and very helpful for me, not being overly au fait with Renaissance art. I was actually quite taken with a number of the pictures. Generally the non-Madonna and non-Crucifixion paintings it must be said. It is astonishing that images made with egg yolk and pigment still look so magnificent after 500-600 years. The golds in particular are often so radiant.

At one stage I was drawn across the room to look at this particular painting.

It seemed most unusual. Why was this man flaunting his thigh? Why did it have a lump so prominently displayed? Yes an interesting lump will always attract my attention across a crowded room. Turns out that the owner of the lump is Saint Roch, in a painting by Marco d'Oggiono, a follower of Leonardo da Vinci. As I was reading the all too brief material next to the painting I had a lightbulb moment.

Saint Roch. Eglise Saint Roch! One of my favourite Parisian churches.

And I had never thought about who St Roch might have been.

From the fourteenth century the cult of Saint Roch (1295–1327) was widespread. He is said to have distributed his inheritance among the poor to become a mendicant pilgrim. He left his home in Montpellier, France, to walk into plague-stricken Italy where he cured the sick with the sign of the Cross. He succumbed to the pestilence himself, but recovered and returned to France where he died in prison, having been mistaken for a spy in his pilgrim’s clothes. 

No wonder he looks downcast and miserable. Saint Roch, Saint Rocco to the Italians, is still very popular it seems. His feast day is Aug 16. He is the patron saint of dogs (because he survived on bread brought to him by a dog, and is often pictured with a dog), plague and diseased cattle, and apparently surgeons and tile makers amongst other things.

You can read much more about this particular painting, and indeed see most if not all the paintings in the Renaissance exhibtion, really take a virtual tour, at the NGA site. It's impossible to link to specific pages, that link takes you to the introduction. Saint Roch is featured in the Late Renaissance tab.

Gorgeous Georgians

Nothing like a sick morning in bed to get a bit of reading done. My son and I have been watching the totally fabulous tv series based on these books recently, so of course I was curious about the books. This was perfect fare for a morning of dozing and feeling not quite right.

It's always quite astonishing what seems completely sensible when you actually think about it for the first time. I don't think that I've ever pondered what the Georgian moniker actually meant, turns out that it is the period of time ruled over by the Four Georges in England, 1714-1837. D'Oh. 

It's hard to keep away from the tv show!

Gorgeous Georgians doesn't pretend to be an all inclusive history of the Georgian era. Rather it is a mixture of the gross, funny and scatological maximally designed to appeal to primary school aged children. And there is nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all. And so here is a random collection of interesting facts. 

Cricket was legalised in 1748. Why was it illegal, and needing legalisation? That isn't explained. But I could have been saved from many summers of torture if it had remained illegal. 

The fans so fashionable with ladies could be used to hide rotting teeth or bad breath, as well as for signalling messages. 

Poaching fish was punishable by death. 

Silk beauty spots helped to hide smallpox scars. 

Mallow flowers and mashed up snails is a great cure for ague (fevers and rigors). Squashed fish eyes is a great cure for toothache. If you have cancer you should drink a libation of sugar, nutmeg, woodlice powder mixed with your own urine.

Godfrey's Cordial ( a mixture of opium, treacle, water and spices) was used to quieten many crying orphans at night, (and used commonly by working class families), many of these poor children never woke up. Of course, child mortality was dreadful, one in three didn't live to 15

False teeth were fashioned out of tusks or pottery. Or if you were rich, dentists could take a tooth out of a poor child to replace your rotten tooth. 

The Georgians used hot houses to grow fruits such as grapes, peaches and pineapples. There was a new fashion to eat fruit raw!  More astonishing to realise that until the Georgian era noone in the world enjoyed toast or sandwiches!

There were a number of intriguing mentions of Daniel Defoe. Besides famously writing Robinson Crusoe (which I'm excited to be reading in the next few months), he formulated a seven class hierarchy of British society. 

These were certainly fascinating times. Times that make you glad to live now, no matter what our more modern problems. I guess I'm still slightly surprised that these books are so wildly popular with kids. But they are. I'm very glad that they are- I think the whole Horrible Histories phenomenon is fantastic. And it's about to get bigger. I remember how history was taught at school. Awful. They finally have made history fun for all of us.

Wondrous Words Wednesday 7/3/12

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.  

New words can come from anywhere. Today I've found my words in books, on the tele, and online.

Today's first word came from Maurice Gee's Under the Mountain. It did have a number of words that weren't exactly new, but that I did look up- like kapok and manuka, just to see what the tree looks like really, I'm familiar with, but not overly fond of the honey.


1. Scow (Noun)

They saw other boats in it- yachts and motor boats cruising back from the gulf, a scow hauled by a launch, a coastal freighter waiting for its pilot- and far behind, but closer than they had expected, the small white foam patch made by the Wilberforces.

A large flatbottom boat with square ends, used chiefly for transporting freight.

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This word came as I was reading the final credits of an episode of Outnumbered. An amazing BBC comedy series if you haven't seen it.

2. Chugger (Noun)

Seems to be a contracture of charity mugger. I like this longer definition from Urban Dictionary too.

Paid "charity" street worker (read: student) who has been trained to believe that they are carrying out a worthy task, improving peoples' lives by conning Joe Public out of their money for this week's Good Cause. Usually an agency worker where the agency takes a hefty cut of the hourly rate that the charity in question has paid for, whilst at the same time increasing profits by selling on details of those foolish enough to actually stop and sign up to said Good Cause.

I had encountered chuggers before, recognised them for what they are, but never knew what that they had a name. And then there it was the very next week on Gordon Street Tonight!

One of my favourite Outnumbered scenes:

And this one from reading a Huffington Post article. Probably a waste of time article, but I still learnt a new word.

3. Doo rag

A piece of cloth used to cover the head. Wiki. 

Ah, I knew what these are, but not what they are called, or even that they had a name beyond bandana. 

I recently read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Which, whilst it was a great book, it wasn't a great source of new words. But I did find one. Which much like dandled is now popping up everywhere I look. 

4. Boodle

More than twenty four dollars. That would be quite a nice boodle to put in their knapsacks if they were using knapsacks instead of instrument cases. 

i) Money, especially counterfeit money

ii) Money accepted as a bribe

iii) Stolen goods; swag

iv) A crowd of people, caboodle. 

v) All of one's possessions; a disorderly mass; a crowd; a lot; stock in trade; capital. The Free Dictionary

Then they give an example

Example: whole kit and boodle, 1625.

Which is interesting as in Australia we would say the whole kit and caboodle. A term I haven't really thought about until today. 

The Hunger Games

I'm not sure that the blogosphere, the internet, or the world really needs another gushing review of The Hunger Games. But here it is anyway. I put off reading this book. Too popular. Too much hype. Then the movie was coming out soon (released in Australia late March 2012). I knew that I'd have to read it. And I'm glad that I finally did.

You must know the basic premise by now. Set in the remnants of what was America, Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her younger sisters place at the annual Hunger Games. The Hunger Games are a bizarre reality tv style battle, compulsory viewing for all residents of Panem, where 24 young contestants battle to the death. There is a rich capital, and 12 Districts of variable fortune. Katniss lives a marginal existence in one of the poorer districts, District 12- a coal mining area in the old Appalachian Mountains. Katniss's father has died in a coal mining accident, and she has learnt to hunt and gather outside the perimeter to provide meals for her mother and sister Primrose. These hunting and survival skills will come in very handy in the vast outdoor arena set up for The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins has said that she found her original inspiration for these stories whilst channel surfing and flicked between reality tv and the war in Iraq.

Katniss is an odd name for our heroine. We find out that Katniss is named after an aquatic plant with edible tubers. There are many articles out there about people possibly naming their children Katniss, but I couldn't find one that actually did. Someone will. I'm sure.

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The plot is compelling. Chapters end at tantalising cliff-hangers, that make you want to read "just one more chapter". I charged through it in just a couple of days. I was hooked right from the first paragraph.

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course she did. This is the day of the reaping. 

Occasionally we all need to read a book like this. You do need to suspend some belief, but most books need that at some level. Yes, some of it is predictable, and you can feel yourself being manipulated much the same way as the tributes are within the arena, but it's still a great pageturner of a tale and so I will be seeing the movie, and reading the next book Catching Fire.