When Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales at the end of the 14th century, pilgrimages to shrines like St. Peter´s at Rome, St. James the Greater´s at Compostela or St. Thomas Becket´s at Canterbury were very popular. Pilgrims, who used to go in company for protection, had a wide variety of purposes: to venerate a saint, to do penance for sin or to be healed of some sickness.
In Chaucer´s masterpiece, a group of them meet at an inn as the starting point and, on their way to the cathedral of Canterbury, they engage in a tale telling contest. The landlord has offered a free dinner for the best story. The tales, mere entertainment for a hard journey, turn out to be a remarkable anthology in Middle English of medieval literature: courtly romance, saints´ legends, sermons, fabliaux, beast fables...
On my recent "Camino", Way of Saint James, there have also been moments for stories and literature. Since every single item in my rucksack had to be weighed (travel light was a must!), I could only afford to take one paperback with me. After hours and hours of often silent walking every day, there was always some time for sitting and reading in the youth hostels or engaging in enriching talk with other pilgrims. Camaraderie and fellowship made it possible to exchange anecdotes and personal stories, other books or anything you might need.
More than purposes or goals set before starting the "Camino", I can write about the rewards gained during this life-affirming, physically challenging and fulfilling experience. Each completed day built on everybody´s self-confidence. For me, it has also turned out to be a journey of inner peace and faith in myself.
On my first camino I didn´t carry any book due to the already heavy weight of my backback, but there was always some battered book or magazine on hand to go halfway through in the youth hostels, usually left behind by other pilgrims.
ReplyDeleteIn a few weeks I´m starting it again and definetely I´ll bring my Kindle along. Great invention, the e-book!
Xuan
I walked the camino some years ago. Wonderful and worthwhile. But no room in my backpack for a book. I could only carry some photocopies with the detailed route I had to follow and interesting places to visit. What I also used to read every day were the newspapers while having a necessary coffee o cold beer in one of those cosy bars along the way. The rest of the time, I tried to disconnect: no television, no e-mails, mobile phone switched off most of the day.
ReplyDeleteGalician landscape is poetry itself. No need of books when you are walking there. Just get immersed in all that beauty and enjoy it with the five senses.
ReplyDelete... and poetry in Galicia is Rosalía de Castro too.
Delete150th anniversary of the first edition of Cantares Gallegos, Galician Songs (1863)
http://theinkbrain.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/rosalia-de-castro-selected-poems/
Good-bye Rivers, Good-bye Fountains.
Good-bye rivers, good-bye fountains;
Good-bye, little rills;
Good-bye, sight of my eyes:
Don’t know when we’ll see each other again.
Sod of mine, sod of mine,
Sod where I was raised,
Small orchard I love so,
Dear fig trees that I planted,
Meadows, streams, groves,
Stands of pine waved by the wind,
Little chirping birds,
Darling cottage of my joy...
Wise and right reflections, I couldn´t express them better.
ReplyDeleteA time will come when the story of the pijilgrimas will be told. Three beauties coming from the North, known as the "never-fixed backpack", "always riding high under the influence of Ibuprofeno" and "spa forever, hostel never"...I was lucky to share part of their Camino.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot, Pedro, for your nice words, for having encouraged us so much and, all in all, for the good company! "Buen camino!" wherever you go.
DeleteFunny version of The Mamas & The Papas´s California Dreaming to make The Canterbury Tales known.
ReplyDelete