The Strength of Women

"Julian never hesitate to speak of Jesus Christ as "our mother." [...] In speaking of Christ as "our mother" Julian was merely likening the work of Christ to that of a mother. He gives birth to those who are "born again." Like a mother, he suffers for them before, during and after "delivery." He must patiently nourish, safeguard and instruct those who are born of him" (Julian of Norwich pg 3).

I find it interesting that both Julian of Norwich and Saint Hildegard of Bingen both regard important figures as women. Love is portrayed as a woman in Hildegard's song and Julian likens Jesus Chirst to a mother figure.

Frogs, ducks, and black cats, oh my!

"...when any novice is to be received among them and enters the sect of the damned for the first time, the shape of a certain frog appears to him, which some are accustomed to call a toad. Some kiss this creature on the hind-quarters and some on the mouth; they receive the tongue and saliva of the beast inside their mouths. Sometimes it appears unduly large, and sometimes equivalent to a goose or a duck, and sometimes it even assumes the size of an oven" (pg 115).

What interesting things await us once we have decided to go to the depths of Dante's Inferno! Not fiery gates or evil laughter, oh no! But frogs! Toads! A black cat will coil its tail in the corner! 

Depravity will happen with men amongst men, women amongst women! The assumptions presented in Chapter 4 and the exert "Pope Gregory IX: Vox in Rama" proved to be hilarious--what was assumed of what happens when you choose to leave your faith seems to be more realistically some crazy fantasy than real life.

It's okay to eat infants so long as you put them back the way you found them

"[Infants] appear to be cut up into pieces, eaten, and gluttonously stuffed into the witches' stomachs. Then, through the mercy of the witch ruler, they are returned [in one piece] to their cradles" (Kors/Peters 78). 

 This quote demonstrates the complexity of the magic belief system and the absolute horror of what it would be like to actually believe these things were happening. I found myself pausing a lot while I was reading just to appreciate how much detail went into freaking out about witchcraft. It's all very well though out. And, yeah, it would be completely terrifying to think a bunch of women in the neighborhood sneak out at night, frolic around, eat a bunch of infants, and then everything's fine in the morning. You'd want to burn people too if you thought they reached for a bite of your baby whenever they wanted something to munch on at midnight.

But Why?

"Morgan the goddess/ Therefore is her name;/ No one, however haughty/ Or proud she cannot tame." (2452-2455)

From the beginning of the book, the motive of the Green Knight had been a mystery, but these four lines give it away. It is not his plan to get his head cut off. Instead, it is Morgan le Fay's as a way to bring down the court of King Arthur, her half-brother. Through this quest she had put Gawain through she successfully took the king and his court down a few pegs and showed them they were not entirely what they had believed themselves to be.