History Commons^™

Mars And Venus: Symbols Of The Chaotic And Conflicted Human Passions And The Reestablishment Of Order In “The Knight’S Tale.”, Olivia Blessing

Olivia L Blessing

During the Middle Ages, Europe experienced a period when philosophers attempted to separate and analyze the passionate and rational elements of the soul. Some supported strict reason as the sole moral basis for living, while others looked to the tempestuous passionate emotions. Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale” portrays this conflict between reason and the passions through the depicted relationship between Mars and Venus and the uncontrolled passions of Arcite and Palamon.

Determining that a world controlled by passions results in chaos, Chaucer offers three different solutions—negating the passions, subjugating the passions to reason, and a balance between passion and reason. …

The Morrígan: A Trinity United, Olivia L. Blessing

Olivia L Blessing

The eeriness of Poe’s words has echoed down throughout the years to enthrall generation after generation with the verses’ sense of dismay, desperation, and fatality. Yet many have forgotten that, centuries earlier, the Celts were telling their own tales of shadowy ravens and tragic futures foretold. Many remain in the form of legends about their goddess of war—Morrígan. This goddess was a complex, triune character; comprehending the entirety of her power and importance in the Celtic myths requires an in-depth examination of her appearances in the old legends and the impact those tales had on the Celts.