Page 4 - INTRODUCTION

 

• Yes, music is very important in my life. I like to listen to music at least two or three times a day on my own and the radio is always switched on in my house and in the car.
• Yes, I have listened to medieval music. It is very rhythmical and repetitive. Sometimes the rhythm increases of speed or music becomes higher or richer of sound in the middle of the song. The music is also very repetitive and you can easily remember the song. They usually are full of energy and remind me of banquets.

 

 

Page 7 - LADY DIAMOND

 

Summary

Once upon a time, there was a very famous king who had a daughter. She was his treasure and her name was Lady Diamond. She was in love with a servant, a kitchen boy, and they had spent some time together during the Spring until the beginning of the Summer. Five months after, her belly began to grow: she was pregnant. Her father was worried and suspected something. During a winter night, he entered his daughter's room and approached her. He gained the courage to ask her what had happened and why she looked so pale. She confessed her "crime" and asked him not to reproach her and to let her live in peace with her love and their child. Her father suddenly ordered to 33 of his men to go and kill the kitchen boy in secret. They did, and he did not even have to time to scream. They cut his heart out of his breast, put into a golden bowl and consigned it to the lady. She was desperate. She cried a lot and wept so much that she  washed all the blood down from the heart. Then, she died of despair. And the king was desperate too. He regret what he had done but he blamed his men, who had not tried to stop him from his cruelty.

 

Comprehension

• The ballad is made up of 13 four-line stanzas.
• All the stanza have a rhyme (2nd and 4th line).
• Most of the story is told thorough narration. When the narration stops and the writer wants to focus the reader's attention on the events, he uses dialogues. There are 5 full dialogue stanzas. There are no long descriptive passages: time, settings and characters are only sketched.
• The language is very concrete and simple.

 

Interpretation

• The beginning reminds me of a fairy old story of princes and princesses. There are some similarities with the first stanza. For example the characters involved come from the same social class: there are a king and his daughter. Both princesses have an extraordinary beauty ("the prettiest princess in the world" and "Lady Diamond", that reminds of a very beautiful and precious thing).
• The season is Summer (grass overgrew the corn).
• The season is Winter (it fell out on a winter's night).
• Lady Diamond's hand and the kitchen boy's breast are white. This is the colour of the pureness: they really loved each other, although their love was not allowed. But this is also the colour of fear and suffering. They knew they had done something wrong and they were afraid.
• Lady Diamond confesses her "crime" and hopes for her father's good heart. She asks him not to reproach her, she explains her situation referring at herself and the kitchen boy as if they were already married. She hopes her father will let her love his man and keep their child.
• I think the singer is on Diamond's side. Indeed he underlines the silly way of acting of her father (the king), his cruelty and his opportunism.

 

Creative Writing Workshop

My beloved father,

I don't want to blame you for what you have done. I love you. But I loved him more.

My heart belonged to the poor man you have murdered. I am holding his heart in my hands: you have given it to me so that I could look at him. Now his heart belongs to me, but he is not with me anymore. I can not live without my love, and I think I am going to die for despair. I this way, at least, we will meet. I will go to Hell, I'm sure. But at least I will be forever with my love.

Father, I have to thank you. Our love would not have lasted on Earth. Now it will last in eternity.

Good bye, my beloved father. You were so jealous of my love that you have lost me and damned you to Hell.

See you soon.

                                                                                       Your beloved daughter

 

 

Page 11 - THE HOUSE CARPENTER

 

Comprehension

• The two characters speaking are a man and a woman. The woman is marries with a carpenter and the man is her lover.
• The man said he has given up to marry the king's daughter and to be rich for love.
• The man wants the woman to give up to her husband for him.
• All she wants to know is if he is rich enough and how he would keep her from poverty.
• After two weeks she was very sad and started to cry because she missed her baby.
• The ship suddenly sank after less than three weeks and the two lovers died and went to Hell together.

 

Interpretation

• I think the sea captain is the devil. The woman's behavior reminds me of Eva.
• Both Heaven and Hell are described as hills. Heaven's hills are high and fair. On the contrary Hell's hills are low and dark.
• Heaven is a forbidden place for them because she has betrayed the bond of marriage and he has led her to sin.
• I would give the ballad the title "The Daemon Lover". In my opinion it fits the story better than "The House Carpenter", who doesn't even appear as a playing character and doesn't influence the story at all (beside for being the woman's husband).

 

Creative Writing Workshop

Once upon a time, there was a woman, whose name was Eva. When she was younger, she had met a young man, James, and had fallen in love with him. But James had become a seamen and had sailed far away. She had found a men, who was a carpenter and had married him. They had had a good life together and had also had a child.

One day, James returned to his home village. He met Eva. He had never forget her, he said, and he still loved her. At first Eva tried to send him away, but then she realized she still loved him. They spent a lot of time together and, at the end, he invited her to forsake his husband and flee with him. She decided to do so, said goodbye to her little child and flee away with James.

The little child went back home. His father had sent him to call her mother back home because it was dinner time.

“Where is Mom, Luka?” asked the carpenter.

“Mom told me she went away with James. She told me to stay with you and to take care of you and to be good and... Dad, when will Mom come back home? I miss her.”

The poor carpenter listened to Luka's words and couldn't believe what he heard. Her wife had left him. She had left them alone. He didn't answer.

He decided to be patient and wait for her. He believed she would come back. He waited for her to come back for two weeks.

Meanwhile, Eva and James were sealing away on the sea. Eva began to weep.

“Why are you crying? - James asked her - Do you miss your money? Do you miss your carpenter? You know you will never see him again...”

“I don't miss my husband and I don't miss my money. I miss my little child. I miss my Luka, and I will never see him again!”

At the end, the carpenter lost his hope. He knew she would have never come back. He couldn't understand why she had done that. He damned James, the lover, and prayed God to punish him.

The following week the ship sank. James and Eva tried to save their lives, but they couldn't do anything. They died.

Eve opened her eyes.

“What are those high fair hills, my love?” she asked James.

“Those are the hills of Heaven, but they are not the place for us... - they went on going under and falling down - ... Those dark low hills... Do you see them, my love? They are the hills of Hell. That is the place we are going to.”