Round the Herne

 Continuing with Longfellow's (1863) narrative poem, "Tales from a Wayside Inn". In this section we have the Spanish Jew's tale in which Rabbi ben Levi meets the Angel of Death, followed by an interlude and the Sicilian's Tale of King Robert, who also meets an angel.

 This is my reading of the next part of Longfellow's (1863) poem about travellers at a pub sharing stories. This recording cover's the Landlord's tale (about the ride of Paul Revere), the interlude, the Student's story (which is taken from the Decameron and will offend almost all animal lovers), and the interlude after that. If I look different from yesterday's recording, it's because I have been to the barber this morning.

 My reading of the prelude to Longfellow's narrative poem "Tales of a Wayside Inn" (1863). The format takes its inspiration from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, with a group of travellers sharing stories to pass the time. It's a model I have plans to use myself once I find the time to write it - though whether it will find a willing publisher is a whole other question! The tellers of tales in this poem are the inn landlord, a student, a Jewish merchant, a Sicilian, the Norwegian musician, a theologian (who is a student at Harvard, referred to as Cambridge on the Charles in the poem), and a poet. The town of Sudbury referred to is in Massachusetts and not the one a few miles up the road from me in Suffolk. Hopefully I will get the time to record the rest over the coming week. The copy of the book shown in the video is a 1921 reprint which once belonged to someone called R Fabian (from the handwritten inscription I would guess a teenager).

 This recording was made mainly for the Suffolk Jungian Circle preparatory to a discussion of Jung's Thinking Type, part of his analysis of personality. However, it might also be of interest to a wider audience with an interest in Jungian philosophy. It touches on concepts like enantiodromia, inferior functions, archetypes, and so forth. Te Circle is discussing a different issue each month, should anyone be interested in participating. 

  An Inspector Scrawls   The screeching of the demon still echoed round the cavern even though all infernal life had evaporated from the body. Slowly, like a shattering iceberg, chunks of the now-brittle flesh broke off and fell sizzling into the white hot hellfire in the pit beneath. The gathered throng of fiends watched. Normally the demons would relish the suffering of another like fine wine, but this time the spectacle was tinged with nervousness as each of the unholy creatures wondered if they would be next for the chop. If they would be dismissed as unworthy of another minute's worth of existence. Beelzebub cast his multifaceted eyes at the scroll before him and buzzed contentedly. His bulbous head occasionally jerked towards one of the nervous junior demons, causing them to stumble or slither back. Each of them clutched a scroll in a taloned hand or tentacle, their own reports on their various activities of spreading misery and mayhem in the world of mortals....