Ireland… 1000 years ago

I believe I’ve stated in my about page that I enjoy history and recently I have taken an interest in the late Bronze Age early Iron Age so my mom gave me a book to read called How The Irish Saved Civilization. Now there is chapter on the 1st Millennium monastery’s and it turns out that the monks that lived in them were prone to scribbling poems in the margins of manuscripts. We don’t now if these poems were their own or not but one in particular written by a monk (We don’t now who). He lived in Switzerland caught my attention.

I and Pangur Ban my Cat

‘Tis a like task we are at

Hunting Mice is his Delight

Hunting words I sit all night

‘Tis a merry thing to see

At our tasks how glad are we

When at home we sit and find

Entertainment to our mind

‘Gainst the wall he sets his eye

Full and fierce and sharp and sly

‘Gainst the wall of knowledge I

All my little wisdom try

So in peace our task we ply

Pangur Ban my cat and I

In our arts we find our bliss

I have mine and he has his

Aah Silliness

I’m constantly amazed at how stupid/ignorant/silly people can be. First of all there’s all that racism in Poland, the Ukraine and many many other countries full of stupid/ignorant/silly people but anyway they don’t seem to realize that the there are so many other reasons for the fact that Europeans have been at the front of the world stage for so long and to continue with that metaphor the Chinese didn’t show up for rehearsal. Then there’s the whole breastfeeding vs bottle feeding thing which is in my admittedly uninformed opinion is pointless. I’m done now (I was bottle fed and if you want more information from a better informed source click here or here or here or here).