medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Friends,
Here is the name Lucifer used poetically in the second decade of the 12th C.
Letter no 20 in the "Epistolae duorum amantium", identified and translated
in 1999 by Constant Mews and Neville Chiavaroli as "The Lost Love Letters of
Heloise and Abelard" (Macmillan) is mainly a poem which uses the name
"Lucifer" in a very positive and startling context:
The text of the poem is as follows:
Stella polum variat, et noctem luna colorat
Sed michi sydus hebet quod me conducere debet.
Nunc mea si tenebris oriatur stella fugatis,
Mens mea iam tenebras merioris nesciet ullas.
Tu michi Lucifer es, que noctem pellere debes.
Te sine lux michi nox, tecum nox splendida lux est.
The English translation by CM & N C is as follows:
The star rotates around the pole; the moon gives colour to the night.
But the star which should be my guide is fading.
Now if my own star should appear through the retreating shadows
My mind will no longer know the darkness of grief.
You are the Light-bringer to me, the one who must banish the night.
Day is night to me without you; with you night is a splendid day.
Contributors have already noted that "Lucifer" can also mean the planet
Venus, so the resonances of this name in this context are considerable and
many-layered.
However, if one is hypothesising that Abelard wrote this poem and that the
"Lucifer" to whom he writes is Heloise, then it is very interesting to
observe that
The poem was probably witten in c. 1114.
In c.1112 Abelard's dearly loved mother, LUCIE du Pallet, following her
husband's becoming a monk, had herself left the family home and become a
nun. Abelard may have first encountered (the adult) Heloise while he was
still raw from this loss.
So what seems to be being said here is IMHO
The previous light of my life, my mother, has been veiled as a nun but now I
have found a new love, a woman of my own, a potential sexual partner, who is
restoring light to my life.
Brenda
Please note, from now on I shall not normally read my e-mails until after
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From: "Dr Jim Bugslag" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 1:43 AM
Subject: Re: [M-R] saints of the day 20. May
> Please allow me to introduce a bit of a problem here. Is it just me, or
> is this a particularly weird name for a saint of wealth and taste? Isn't
> the devil called Lucifer in the Bible itself? How would a Christian of
> that time end up with a name like that? It's sort of like an American
> family naming their child Osama, or something, isn't it?
> Cheers,
> Jim
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