TIW: [Letter in response to Entmoot #3, offering comment on appropriateness of a medieval moral poem and riddle]

[page 20] _NAN RAUDE_, 6721 E, McDowell Rd. Apt. 309-A, Scottsdale, Arizona 85257 A few comments on Entmoot 3: l) On the subject of earth, I am reminded of a riddle fit, I think, to puzzle Gollum. It is the first poem in the so-called "Harley lyrics", the finest collection of Miiddle English lyric poetry, which dates from the first quarter of the 14th century. This poem,"Earth upon Earth." is the earliest recorded version of one of the most popular medieval moralizing poems: Erþe toc -/took/- of erþe erþe wyþ woh; -/wrong, harm/- erþe oþer erþe to þe erþe droh; -/added/- erþe leyde erþe in erþene þroh.-/grave/- þo -/then/- heuede -/had/- erþe ynoh. Solutions? 2) If Banks Mebane reads Middle High German, or has a friend who does, he might look at the _Alexanderlied_, a MHG version of the life of Alexander the Great -- one of the most popular stories of the Middle Ages. It contains an episode of flowers which turn into maidens, or maidens who grow on trees, I'm not sure which. (I don't read Middle High, but a friend of mine once wrote a paper on the _Alexanderlied_.) 3) On music: If you are familiar with a bawdy Elizabethan song called "My Mistress Is a Hive of Bees" (it's on one of the Ed McCurdy _Dalliance_ records), you will find the tune a lovely setting for "I sit beside the fire and think." -/Another tune Which fits well is "Autumn to May by Peter, Paul and Mary./- 4) the theory of the world incorporating both Tolkien's geography and C.S. Lewis's won't work: Caspian's speech in _The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader"_, page 185, makes it clear that Narnia does _not_ lie in a round world.