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Radegund: Captive, Queen and Saint - the serial: CAPTIVE (Erfurt)

© 2021, Jim Chevallier Erfurt No Roman would have called this a palace. The long rectangular building, covered with thatch, would at best have been a barn on a Roman estate. But the dark German forests provided more wood than stone, and the home of Hermanfred, king of the Thuringii, was built of wood and roofed with straw. Still, the polished planks that lined the walls, the gold hung about them, the silver plate set on shelves, gave some hint of his magnificence. No windows opened in the deeply sloping roof, but light entered at one end where the wall above the door stopped short of its peak. The half-light barely lit a stone altar, set along the wall, which held two crude wooden paddles, each painted with a face: Odin and Thor, the household gods. A girl of nine spooned millet gruel into a bowl before them. Her horse, one of the beautiful silver Thuringii horses, had hurt its leg, and so the child began to chant: The Fair and the Father traveled to the forest. Then was for Bald...

Radegund: Captive, Queen and Saint - the serial: CAPTIVE

© 2021, Jim Chevallier CAPTIVE How sad the state of war, the evil fate of things! How suddenly a great kingdom falls! The carved peaks which long stood happily Lie in ashes, laid low by catastrophe. The palace hall where culture flourished Covered sadly, instead of a roof, with ashes. Heights once adorned with shining metal Crushed beneath pale glowing embers, Put in the power of an enemy lord, Fallen from glory to the lowest depths. Servants who stood in a shining crowd All are now funereal ashes. The bright crown of powerful ministers Receives no burial honors. Flame triumphs in glowing golden streams. The milk-white aunt lies alone in the dirt. Ah, the bodies of the dead, shamefully unburied on the plain, Thus a whole people lies in a common grave. Not only the ruins of Troy are mourned; The land of Thuringia too suffered and saw slaughter. Torn away by her hair, the matron, her clothes rent, Cannot say a sad farewell to the household gods. The capt...

Radegund: Captive, Queen and Saint - the serial (intro and TOC)

This blog will present the novel Radegund: Captive, Queen and Saint in serial form. The novel presents the life of St. Radegund of Poitiers, based on far more contemporary documentation than we have for most saints. It is divided into four sections: "Captive"; "Queen"; "Deaconess"; "Holy Mother" with an "Epilogue". The same serial will be available at Chez Jim . The following Table of Contents will be updated as installments are published: CAPTIVE Erfurt