The Copybook

Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.

691

From the Utrecht Psalter, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Gifts of the Spirit Cynewulf

Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf reminds us that God’s gifts to men are many and varied, and nobody ever gets them all.

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692

From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Stale and Hearty Peter of Blois

Archdeacon and diplomat Peter of Blois was a frequent guest at the laden tables of King Henry II, but he had little appetite for the fare on offer.

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693

By Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Voyage of Sigurd The Saga of Edward the Confessor

Back in the eleventh century English refugees founded New York, but it wasn’t in North America.

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694

© Niels Elgaard Larsen, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.

Home from Home Goscelin of Canterbury

In Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire, a man from Kent founded a glittering church for English refugees.

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695

© Harrie Gielen, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

England’s Lost Civilisation Orderic Vitalis

Orderic Vitalis regrets the passing of a society far more refined and advanced than that which supplanted it.

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696

By Tony Grist, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Forgotten Melodies Orderic Vitalis

When the Normans came in 1066 they deliberately destroyed English chant, the last survivor in Western Europe of a tradition five centuries old.

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