Song of Roland

For the last two weeks ninth grade has been reading the Song of Roland, Dorothy Sayers translation available through Penguin. It is a marvelous "Song of Deeds," a Chanson de Geste (French is always italicized, right?) of Medieval chivalry and Christendom, a swashbuckling tale of mixed verse and metaphor, of Christian and pagan, of right and wrong, of heroism and defeat, of manliness and cowardice and treachery.

And they don't like it. Which normally I wouldn't care about, but this is my best class. And they are bored. Whuuuut? What fools these mortals be! Today, during recitations, one student recited the following:

Then Berenger drives at Estramarin,
He cleaves the shield, and the good hauberk splits,
On his stout spear the trunk of him he spits
And flings him dead ' mid thousand Sarrasins.
Of the Twelve Peers ten are already killed,
Two and no more are left of them who live;
These are Chernubles and the Count Margaris.

(Laisse 102) 

The only real emotion was a pause to snicker at "Chernubles." Which is worth snickering at, but really, nothing else going on? the GOOD HAUBERK SPLIT? He was tossed dead among THOUSAND Sarrasins? ONLY TWO ARE LEFT? We can do better. Thankfully, for their sake, we are done and will be moving on to...less exciting things, unless I start talking about battles with Muslims again (always a fun topic!). Their loss...I hope.

It is finally cold, and I experienced the same rain that delayed the Orioles-Yankees game last night. What a chill.

P.S. Opening up Blogger revealed for the first time a very faint band of lightness down the center of my monitor. Perhaps time to start a Morris Replacement Fund -- he has served me quite faithfully for 7+ years and deserves a rest. Bother.

P.S.S. That moment of relief and "what the fried Twinkie?!" when you discover a bad quiz has been marked as double-weight in the computer...thus making everyones' grade even worse than it really is. I'm not that mean—I think.