Rescheduled Final Session

Moscow, Idaho

I hope at least a few class members are going to be able to attend the final session on Thursday 21 May at the usual time. We have covered a great deal of material over the past seven weeks, and I would like to try to tie a little of it together and also to discuss some of the problems related to pilgrimages in the 21st century.  I do not return to Northern Virginia until late Tuesday evening, so I am pulling together the materials for the final session away from my desk at home, but I do hope to post an outline and some additional suggested readings and websites before the class meets.

Meanwhile, go to 

http://classicpoetryaloud.podomatic.com/entry/2008-04-07T22_17_51-07_00

to hear the poem on pilgrimage by Sir Walter Raleigh, yes that Sir Walter Raleigh, printed below:

Sir Walter Ralegh (ca. 1552-1618)

The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage

[Supposed to be written by one at the point of death]

1 Give me my scallop shell of quiet,

2 My staff of faith to walk upon,

3 My scrip of joy, immortal diet,

4 My bottle of salvation,

5 My gown of glory, hope's true gage,

6 And thus I'll take my pilgrimage.

7 Blood must be my body's balmer,

8 No other balm will there be given,

9 Whilst my soul, like a white palmer,

10 Travels to the land of heaven;

11 Over the silver mountains,

12 Where spring the nectar fountains;

13 And there I'll kiss

14 The bowl of bliss,

15 And drink my eternal fill

16 On every milken hill.

17 My soul will be a-dry before,

18 But after it will ne'er thirst more;

19 And by the happy blissful way

20 More peaceful pilgrims I shall see,

21 That have shook off their gowns of clay,

22 And go apparelled fresh like me.

23 I'll bring them first

24 To slake their thirst,

25 And then to taste those nectar suckets,

26 At the clear wells

27 Where sweetness dwells,

28 Drawn up by saints in crystal buckets.

29 And when our bottles and all we

30 Are fill'd with immortality,

31 Then the holy paths we'll travel,

32 Strew'd with rubies thick as gravel,

33 Ceilings of diamonds, sapphire floors,

34 High walls of coral, and pearl bowers.

35 From thence to heaven's bribeless hall

36 Where no corrupted voices brawl,

37 No conscience molten into gold,

38 Nor forg'd accusers bought and sold,

39 No cause deferr'd, nor vain-spent journey,

40 For there Christ is the king's attorney,

41 Who pleads for all without degrees,

42 And he hath angels, but no fees.

43 When the grand twelve million jury

44 Of our sins and sinful fury,

45 'Gainst our souls black verdicts give,

46 Christ pleads his death, and then we live.

47 Be thou my speaker, taintless pleader,

48 Unblotted lawyer, true proceeder,

49 Thou movest salvation even for alms,

50 Not with a bribed lawyer's palms.

51 And this is my eternal plea

52 To him that made heaven, earth, and sea,

53 Seeing my flesh must die so soon,

54 And want a head to dine next noon,

55 Just at the stroke when my veins start and spread,

56 Set on my soul an everlasting head.

57 Then am I ready, like a palmer fit,

58 To tread those blest paths which before I writ.

Notes

1] In Ashmole M S 38 this poem is entitled "Verses made by Sir Walter Raleigh the night before he was

beheaded." Presumably the proper reference is to 1603, when he was imprisoned and sentenced to

death, to be reprieved three weeks later.

scallop-shell: the badge of the returning pilgrim.

3] scrip: wallet.

7] balmer: embalmer.

25] sucket: sweetmeats.

RPO -- Sir Walter Ralegh : The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1689.html

2 of 3 2/8/2009 7:59 PM

35-50] Ralegh refers to his own unjust trial.

42] angels: an old English gold coin; as here often used punningly.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of

Toronto.

Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

O riginal text: Anthony Scoloker, Diaphantus, or the Passions of Love (London: T . C[reede]. for W. Cotton, 1604). STC 21853

First publication date: 1604

RPO poem editor: N. J. Endicott

RP edition: 2RP.1.181; RPO 1996-2000.

Recent editing: 2:2002/4/10

Composition date: 1603

Rhyme: ababcc

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1689.html

Some Websites and Websearches Linking to Santiago de Compostela Topics

Someone in class asked me to post the link I could not get to work showing the reconquista.

That link is http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/alhambra/flash/map.html

When talking about icons related to Santiago, I showed a slide of Pope Benedict's coat of arms. A  description of that Coat of Arms and the meanings of the symbols on is at http://www.ewtn.com/pope/life/arms.asp

As with most subjects anymore, there are vast numbers of interesting websites. I once compiled a list of websites on Santiago topics, but it soon became too long and cumbersome to maintain, and with Google searches mostly it was unnecessary. A websearch strategy is easy to develop, but always remember to use the whole place name Santiago de Compostela. Otherwise the Google list will favor Santiago, Chile. It is named for the same saint and has a beautiful location but Chilean city is otherwise not very interesting for a study of pilgrimage.

Session VII The Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

One of the three great Roman Catholic Pilgrimages, Santiago de Compostela in far northwest Spain, not far from Fisterra (Finisterre) or the end of the earth and the westernmost point in Continental Europe, has been attracting pilgrims for more than 1000 years. Those pilgrims are attracted to the purported tomb of the Apostle James the Greater, Santiago, in the crypt of the Cathedral. The cathedral itself is a masterpiece of the Romanesque now inside a Baroque facade. 

Session VII looks at the story of St. James the major, the legend of the translocation of his corpse from Palestine to Galicia, a very little of the history of the period between that event and the beginning of pilgrimage, the evolution of that pilgrimage and a few of the legends and other bits of folklore related to the pilgrimage through the ages. The session concludes with a present day walk along the main route, the Camino Frances, from the French-Spanish border to Santiago and beyond to Fisterra.

 

Outline

The Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

I. The story of St. James the Greater (also called St. James the Major), Santiago in Castellano.

A. Disciple of Christ

B.    Evangelist in Iberia?

C. Martyrdom

D.  Translocation and burial 

II. The evolution of the pilgrimage

A. "Rediscovery" of the tomb

B. Reconquista

C.  Resettlement of the wastes

D. The Benedictines and the route

III. The folklore of the pilgrimage

A. Origins of "Compostela"

B. The legends of Santo Domingo de la Calzada

IV. The Camino today

A. Marking the route

B. Fr. Elias Valina Sampedro

V. Walking the Camino - slide show with commentary

Some Camino de Santiago Readings

There are many, many worthwhile books, not to mention articles, on the Camino de Santiago in English and a vastly larger number when other western European languages are added.  I am only including works in English, and this is a tiny sample of the works I have found interesting or useful. At some point I may post a more comprehensive bibliography and "webography'," but this is a start.

I. Books on the History and folklore of the Camino.

Melczer, William. 1993. The Pilgrim's Guide to Santiago de Compostela. New York. Itaklica Press. ISBN 0-934977-25-9. This is a translation of Book 5 of the Codex Calixtinus "The Pilgrims Guide to The Road to Santiago" by Amery Picaud along with extensive notes and comments. Melczer's book is essential reading for anyone with an serious interest in the Camino.

II. Guidebooks for Walking or Bicycling the Camino de Santiago.

There are numerous guides in all major Western European languages, and even some in minor tongues like Swedish and Norwegian, with practical information on walking or bicycling the Camino. The best of them are frequently updated. As is often the case with travel guides, the most thorough and informative are the ones in German. The most useful ones in English are updated annually and published by the Confraternity of St. James. I am not listing guidebooks here, but if you are interested in actually walking or bicycling the route or a part of it please contact me for suggestions. I am not presently aware of any books for someone who wants to traverse the distance by mule, donkey or on a horse.

III. Sightseeing Guides

Gitlitz, David M. and Davidsohn, Linda Kay. 2000. The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago: The Complete Cultural Handbook. New York: St. Martins. ISBN 0-312-25416-4. Compiled by a University of Rhode Island professor of Jewish studies and his wife, this guide is now out of print, a little outdated, and of dubious reliability in places, but it is the most comprehensive guide to sights along the route available in English. If you are able to read Spanish, French, German, or Dutch there are are much better cultural guides available in those languages.

Jacobs. Michael. 2002 (2nd edition). The Road to Santiago de Compostela. London: Palas Athene. ISBN 1-873429-42-8. An essential, and transportable, book for anyone interested in the marvelous architecture on the road to Santiago.

IV. Pilgrim Experiences.

Many pilgrims, beginning with Amery Picaud in the Middle Ages, have written fine books on the experience of walking the Camino. Here is a small sample of ones I find worthwhile (there are many others).

Starkie. Walter. 1957. The Road to Santiago. London. John Murray.  Long out of print, this is my sentimental favorite book in this category for Starkie, a well-known writer in the 1950s and 60s, made the trek long before the modern infrastructure became available. A little hard to find but well worth reading!

Bentley, James. 1988. The Way of St. James: A Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. London. Pavilion. ISBN 1-85793-002-9. Another work by a pilgrim who wrote prior to the recent popularity of the Camino, Bentley offers some sense of walking when it was still difficult.

Hitt, Jack. 1994, 2005. Off the Road: A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Route Into Spain. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-6111-9. Reading this book along with Ellen Feinberg's listed next convinced me that a walk to Santiago was possible and quite possibly enjoyable too. A former New York Times reporter, Hitt makes his account both informative and humorous.

Feinberg, Ellen O. 1989. Following the Milky Way: A Pilgrimage Across Spain. Ames: Iowa State University Press. ISBN 0-8138-0146-X. See note for Hitt. Feinberg (now Ellen Aviva) received a Ph.D. in Anthropology at Princeton for work done on the pilgrimage and has subsequently written several interesting works, including at least one novel, with Camino themes.

Moore, Tim. 2005. Travels With My Donkey: One Man and His Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago. New York: St. Martin's. ISBN 0-312-32082-5. As the subtitle might suggest, Moore tries very hard to be funny and does not often succeed, but he does have some interesting observations about travelling the Camino with an animal. In the Middle Ages it was common, but today it is rare and difficult.

Rudolph, Conrad. 2004. Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-73127-8. This brief book with some lovely photographs written by a Professor of Art History at the University of California, Riverside received less than glowing reviews, but I find it readable and interesting.

V. Two Toxic Books--Fantasy Fiction on Camino Topics--and a Strange Book.

Two figures of popular culture have written works on the Camino that have served to attract countless "pilgrims" as the books report on experiences that informed commentators suggestwere unlikely to have happened and should cause both books, not just Coehelo's, to be categorized as fantasy fiction in libraries and bookstores.

Coelho, Paulo. 1992. The Pilgrimage. London: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-7225-3487-6. The Brasilian writer famous for several fantasy novels claims to have walked part of the Camino and this is his report. Informed sources suggest that the book is a novel with few, if any ties to actual experience, and most bookstores sell it as a novel. It has served to attract huge numbers of Brasilian pilgrims to the Camino

MacLaine, Shirley. 2000. The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit. New York: Pocket Books. 

The dancer and actress claims to have walked the Camino with, it is reported, a camera crew complete to costumers and make-up artists as well as an advance publicity team, a crew so large it was nearly impossible for others to walk at the same time (in contrast to a pilgrimage by the actor Martin Sheen who walked alone and nearly incognito around the same time). Upon completion of the route, she returned to produce a film and this fantasy novel about the Camino. This vile book has, in its turn, attracted hordes of "new age pilgrims" to the Camino.

Nooteboom, Cees. 1992. Roads to Santiago. New York: Harbourt Brace. ISBN 0-15-100197-9. Often mentioned as a potential Nobel laureate in literature, the Dutch writer (whose family name translates as "Nut Tree") has produced what is for me a profoundly unsatisfying book on his personal journey to Santiago, one made by car and covering most of Spain. The book has been well-received and has been influential in the recent surge of interest on the Camino, though it is a decidedly unusal take on the topic of the pilgrimage to Santiago.

If I can find time sometime soon, I plan to post a list of websites on Camino topics. Meanwhile the Confraternity of St. James website noted above is an excellent place to start if you want to engage in a web seach on the subject.