Keep Your Enemies Closer

My wife is reading Gone with the Wind. Here is a fun and insightful quote she shared with me about the three leading ladies in Atlanta

Mrs. Meriweather was a tall, stout woman and so tightly corseted that her bust jutted forward like the prow of a ship. Her iron gray hair was eked out by a curled false fringe that was proudly brown and disdained to match the rest of her hair. She had a round, highly colored face in which was combined good-natured shrewdness and the habit of command. Mrs. Elsing was younger, a thin frail woman, who had been a beauty, and about her there still clung a faded freshness, a dainty imperious air. 

These two ladies with a third, Mrs. Whiting, were the pillars of Atlanta. They ran the three churches to which they belonged, the clergy, the choirs, and the parishioners. They organized bazaars and presided over sewing circles, they chaperoned balls and picnics, they knew who made good matches and who did not, who drank secretly, who were to have babies and when. They were authorities on the genealogies of everyone who was anyone in Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia and did not bother their heads about other states, because they believed that no one who was anybody ever came from states other than these three. They knew what was decorous behavior and what was not and they never failed to make their opinions known-Mrs. Meriweather at the top of her voice, Mrs. Elsing in an elegant die-away drawl and Mrs. Whiting in a distressed whisper which showed how much she hated to speak of such things. These three ladies disliked and distrusted one another as heartily as the First Triumvirate of Rome, and their close alliance was probably for the same reason. 

Beowulf Quoted: Part I

This is a repost of some of my favorite quotes from Beowulf. 

I have read Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf every winter for the past four years. Each time I read it I enjoy it more.  Beowulf belongs to the season when the wind is pounding, the temperatures hover around 25 degrees, and the snow whips into your face like ice spears.  I know some Beowulf readers swear by Chickering's translation. I have his on my shelf and will read him next year. However, this year is was Heaney's translation again.   Here are some of my favorite quotes from the poem.

"....Behavior that is admired
is the path to power among people everywhere."
 
"...Oh, cursed is he
who in time of trouble has to thrust his soul
in the fire's embrace, forfeiting help;
He has nowhere to turn. But blessed is he
who after death can approach the Lord
and find friendship in the Father's embrace."

"When Hrothgar arrived at the hall, he spoke,
standing on the steps, under the steep eaves,
gazing at the roofwork and Grendel's talon:
'First and foremost, let the Almighty Father
be thanked for this sight. I suffered a long
harrowing by Grendel. But the Heavenly Shepherd
can work His wonders always and everywhere.'"

Beowulf speaks to Hrothgar after Grendel's mother has attacked and killed one Hrothgar's men.
"Wise sir, do not grieve. It is always better
to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning.
For every one of us, living in this world
means waiting for our end. Let whoever can
win glory before death. When a warrior is gone
that will be his best and only bulwark.
So arise, my lord, and let us immediately
set forth on the trail of this troll-dam.
I guarantee you: she will not get away,
not to dens under ground nor upland groves
nor the ocean floor. She'll have nowhere to flee to
Endure your troubles today. Bear up
and be the man I expect you to be."