The Theologian's Tale: Elizabeth

THE THEOLOGIAN'S TALE: ELIZABETH

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I
"Ah, how short are the days! How soon the night overtakes us!

In the old country the twilight is longer; but here in the forest

Suddenly comes the dark, with hardly a pause in its coming,

Hardly a moment between the two lights, the day and the lamplight;

Yet how grand is the winter! How spotless the snow is, and perfect!"

( Thus spake Elizabeth Haddon at nightfall to Hannah the housemaid )

---

( Of course I have an opinion )

[3weeks4DW] The Lone Power & evil beauty

My fan essays on Young Wizards wonthe poll handily; this post, while brief, is a necessary prelude to the more extended effort (for which I will have to learn the html for footnotes, woe is me). I wrote the following for a course in philosophical theology in 2005; it's an extract from a response paper to assigned readings that rapidly devolved into talking about the Lone Power, by way of Dante.

Also, check out these Young Wizards icons by stripped, for three_weeks_for_dw!

---

Moving on to the far more interesting topic of beauty, all I could think about in the beginning of the piece was the ending of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose: stat rosa pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus ("The rose stands pristine in name; we hold the names alone.") This led me to thinking of the celestial rose at the end of Dante’s Paradiso (trans. Mark Musa): ( Up the snakes & down the ladders )