The Saga Begins

Yesterday morning I got up bright and early in order to fly to NYC, where I spent the day with my very gracious cousins Chip and Sally and their kids Andrew and Emma. After a delicious lunch at Emma’s Ale House in White Plains (brimming with yellow Labrador retriever decorations, Emma being the owner’s pet), we headed to The Cloisters! This is the arm of the Met that houses a significant chunk of their medieval European collection. The institution was architecturally formed around the four reconstructed Cloisters and other architectural elements from medieval Europe. Highlights for me included the almost entirely intact chapter house from Notre-Dame-de-Pontaut, Les Heures de Jeanne d’Evreux (it’s a really tiny book of hours), the Unicorn tapestries, and the cloisters themselves. I was halfway to France already at the Cloisters ☺
We enjoyed a lovely dinner at the Red Hat on the Hudson, and then upon returning home I began perusal of the very exciting library segment in the Hall’s guest room. It features titles such as Folktales of the British Isles, the three-book set Marvels and Magic, Heroes and Saints, and History and Romance, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Irish Fairy and Folk Tales, Classical Mythology, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, The Blue Fairy Book, Legends of the Ring, The Bhagavadgita, Icelandic Sagas, and The Norse Myths. There were various other books of folklore, fables and mythology from around the world. In addition, there was a collection of Parabola magazine dating from 1992, one issue including a very interesting interview with religion scholar Huston Smith, author of Why Religion Matters.
I will leave you with a quote I found on the shelf from the incredibly intriguing Joseph Campbell, a scholar of mythology whose work I will be reading as soon as I have the chance. “The secret cause of all suffering is mortality itself, which is the prime condition of life. It cannot be denied if life is to be affirmed.”

About to embark on one more phase in my personal incarnation of the mythic archetype!