The Troubadour Podcast

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Thomas the Rhymer, or True Thomas, was a real person -- Thomas of Ercildoune, who lived probably between 1210 and 1297.

Thomas was supposed to have the power to see into the future. This power was given to him by the Fairy Queen, during his 7 year stay in the Fairy World. The story about his meeting with the Fairy Queen was believed by the Scottish peasants for many centuries. 

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This short story is what Poe called a 'Tale of Ratiocianation;" one where we look for reasons to solve a mystery. It is also an early science fiction thriller.

In previous podcasts I read and discussed Hawthorne and the birth of Sci-fi, now we turn to Edgar Allan Poe.

Hawthorne wrote science fiction in a romantic style, with elevated even poetic language; Poe, on the other hand, wrote science fiction in the precise literature of empirical science.

In this episode I give you a brief history of the first five years of the Royal Society of Science in the mid 17th century, and how that has shaped our minds through fiction to this day.

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How does a 17th century poet ask a woman for sex? Join in for episode 1 of Metaphysical Mondays where we explore Donne's most famous poem, The Flea, and we see him do just that.

In this new series I'll be exploring a poetic school that preceded the Romantic Movement: The Metaphysical school. 

This refers to what Samuel Johnson called a "race of writers that may be terrmed the metaphysical poets," they were writers who were "rather as beholders than partakers of human nature; as beings looking upon good and evil, impassive and at leisure, asEpicurean deities making remarks on the actions of men and the vicissitudes of life, without interest and without emotion."

Now a broader understand of this school is actually that it "expresses emotion within an intellectual context."

It is impossible to understand the world we live in without a grasp on the words, thoughts and actions of other societies and other eras. This allows us to transcend our own era and compare the way that we live, think, talk and act with the ways of others.

Moreover, these stories and poems add to our lives by giving us more examples of how we, today, can indeed choose to live our own lives.

In this poem, for instance, we will hear a man ask for sex. But it won't be the way that you or I may think about seducing a woman. But maybe it should be? Maybe making fun and even outrageous metaphors is not the worst way to enjoy the process of making love.

You decide.

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How do we treat athletes after they have grown old and infirm? What does it feel like to once have been powerful and then to lose all power and strength?

In Wordsworth's Ballad, published in the 1798 Lyrical Ballads, he explores an incident he had with an old, one-eyed man named Christopher Trickey.

In his youth Trickey had been a strong huntsman with a wealthy family. Now they are all dead and he is impoverished and weak. 

One day he is attempting to upturn a root with a farm tool, but he cannot do it. Wordsworth walks by and offers his help. In a single blow Wordsworth breaks the root and upturns it. Trickey, in tears, thanks Wordsworth. 

"Alas! the gratitude of men

Has oftner left me mourning"

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Today I explain why ballads are important for everyone to read. 

Our ballad today is a traditional one about an old peasant woman who sends her three sons all out to sea, and they all die. Then she curses the sea. The sons return for Martinmas (November 11th). Martinmas was a celebration of St Martin. On this day, the town would get together while they killed the animals needed to survive the winter. It was hard work and singing ballads made it more bearable. At this point of the year, the nights were lang and mirk (long and dark.) 

Which is perfect for a good ghost story.

You can hear a modern rendition of this very old ballad sung by the UK rock band Steeleye Span: https://open.spotify.com/track/4fPaMYuy5KfwXiaKcNrLOz

There lived a wife at Usher’s Well,
And a wealthy wife was she;
She had three stout and stalwart sons,
And sent them o’er the sea.

They hadna been a week from her,
A week but barely ane,
Whan word came to the carlin wife
That her three sons were gane.

They hadna been a week from her,
A week but barely three,
Whan word came to the carlin wife
That her sons she’d never see.

‘I wish the wind may never cease,
Nor fashes in the flood,
Till my three sons come hame to me,
In earthly flesh and blood.’

It fell about the Martinmass,
When nights are lang and mirk,
The carlin wife’s three sons came hame,
And their hats were o’ the birk.

It neither grew in skye nor ditch,
Nor yet in any sheugh;
But at the gates o’ Paradise,
That birk grew fair eneugh.

‘Blow up the fire, my maidens,
Bring water from the well;
For a’ my house shall feast this night,
Since my three sons are well.’

And she has made to them a bed,
She’s made it large and wide,
And she’s ta’en her mantle her about,
Sat down at the bed-side.

Up then crew the red, red cock,
And up and crew the gray;
The eldest to the youngest said,
‘Tis time we were away.’

The cock he hadna crawd but once,
And clapped his wings at a’,
When the youngest to the eldest said,
‘Brother, we must awa.’

‘The cock doth craw, the day doth daw,
The channerin’ worm doth chide;
Gin we be mist out o’ our place,
A sair pair we maun bide.’

‘Fare ye weel, my mother dear!
Fareweel to barn and byre!
And fare ye weel, the bonny lass
That kindles my mother’s fire!’

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In the spring of 1798 William Wordsworth was going through a reckoning. His work on his elusive life project, The Recluse, was draining him. He had set out to study ALL knowledge up to that point in human history, and use it in an epic poem greater than The Iliad, Aeneid, Paradise Lost and all epics before it.

But Wordsworth began to question the relevance of his project and his ability to accomplish it. 

In this poem, he challenges the idea of learning from books alone and advocates for putting down your books and leaving the joyless world of the mundane and entering an awe-filled, joyful world of nature and love.

Special thanks to Don Watkins for his article "The Reckoning: Why 'Serving a cause greater than yourself' cannot give life meaning." https://medium.com/@dwatkins3/the-reckoning-why-serving-a-cause-greater-than-yourself-cannot-give-life-meaning-d886bc56e116

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At the end of Game of Thrones, Tyrion Lannister tells the council that the stories we tell unite us.

Is he correct? In this episode I argue that he is, and I give examples as to how stories we tell unite us as a country and they can unite us in our conception of our deepest values.

In this traditional Scottish ballad, a knight comes to a wistful young woman in a castle. He is there to woo her. But she sees him as beneath her, due to the clothes he wears. After asking him three riddles, she discovers that he is more than her match, so she agrees to be his. But then he reveals that he is actually her brother, who has been "beyond the sea." She wants to join him, but he tells her that she cannot, for he is dead. The knight is a ghost in disguise.

Lastly, he tells her that the reason for his journey from the land of the dead to her own land is to stop her from being so prideful.

We'll talk about pride, stories, ballads and more. Join in!

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Why do we cease to teach through the medium of verse? In children we happily sing songs and tell stories to convey moral tales and even astronomy, math, and economics.

We know how effective this is in teaching young children ("My Very Evil Mother Just Swatted Uncle's Nose" -- for the planets) and yet why not teach the theory of evolution in metre and rhyme?

Great poets, in fact, do teach in this manner.  In this very simple ballad, Wordsworth conveys a complex theoretical proposition from Erasmus Darwin's Zoonomia: The Laws of Organic Life."

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With special Guest Joe Tabor of www.advancethenarrative.com.

There are of course spoilers!

In this wide-ranging discussion of GoT Joe Tabor and Kirk Barbera discuss the 8 season arc of the show, the arcs of the major characters, and the themes in the show.

We also discussed the backlash against the show and why the producers did the right thing in the end.

Overall, our discuss was about the show as a total work of art, rather than a piecemeal discussion, which is how everyone treats this work.

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A ballad is a song that tells a story. The oldest ballads, some say, are older than the alphabet even, having been composed and sung far, far back in man's history at old tribal dances for which they were the only music.

In this series I will be reading a variety of traditional, modern and intellectual ballads. Some of these will be well known such as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and some, like today's ballad are lesser known.

Ballads are especially great for middle schoolers. It is a great introduction to advanced English and they are also fun stories to contemplate. 

Enjoys today's tale of a jealous King who believes his Abbott is cheating him. The only way he can leave without losing his head is if the abbott can answer three questions posed by the king.