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The Golden Legend
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105 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2002
24 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
2,900 books736 followersExtremely popular works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet, in the United States in his lifetime, include
The Song of Hiawatha
in 1855 and a translation from 1865 to 1867 of
Divine Comedy
of Dante Alighieri.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow educated. His originally wrote the "Paul Revere's Ride" and "Evangeline." From New England, he first completed work of the fireside.
Bowdoin College graduated Longefellow, who served as a professor, afterward studied in Europe, and later moved at Harvard. After a miscarriage, Mary Potter Longfellow, his first wife, died in 1835. He first collected Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841).
From teaching, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow retired in 1854 to focus on his writing in the headquarters of of George Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the Revolutionary War for the remainder.
Dress of Frances Appleton Longfellow, his second wife, caught fire; she then sustained burns and afterward died in 1861. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing and focused on from foreign languages.
Longfellow wrote musicality of many known lyrics and often presented stories of mythology and legend. He succeeded most overseas of his day. He imitated European styles and wrote too sentimentally for critics.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow educated. His originally wrote the "Paul Revere's Ride" and "Evangeline." From New England, he first completed work of the fireside.
Bowdoin College graduated Longefellow, who served as a professor, afterward studied in Europe, and later moved at Harvard. After a miscarriage, Mary Potter Longfellow, his first wife, died in 1835. He first collected Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841).
From teaching, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow retired in 1854 to focus on his writing in the headquarters of of George Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the Revolutionary War for the remainder.
Dress of Frances Appleton Longfellow, his second wife, caught fire; she then sustained burns and afterward died in 1861. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing and focused on from foreign languages.
Longfellow wrote musicality of many known lyrics and often presented stories of mythology and legend. He succeeded most overseas of his day. He imitated European styles and wrote too sentimentally for critics.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 22, 2022
Prologue ✔
Ch. 1: The Castle of Vautsberg on the Rhine ✔
Ch. 2: A Farm in the Odenwald ✔
Ch. 3: A Street in Strasburg ✔
Ch. 4: The Road Hirschau ✔
Ch. 5: A Covered Bridge at Lucerne ✔
Ch. 6: The School of Salerno ✔
Epilogue ✔
Ch. 1: The Castle of Vautsberg on the Rhine ✔
Ch. 2: A Farm in the Odenwald ✔
Ch. 3: A Street in Strasburg ✔
Ch. 4: The Road Hirschau ✔
Ch. 5: A Covered Bridge at Lucerne ✔
Ch. 6: The School of Salerno ✔
Epilogue ✔
September 21, 2018
The devil gets all the best lines:
“It is the greatest folly
Not to be jolly.”
“It is the greatest folly
Not to be jolly.”
April 4, 2020
I've been reading a fair amount of Longfellow recently, mostly because I'm working my way through the poetry volumes of the Riverside Literature Series. I was surprised to find that I enjoyed the storytelling of his poems more than I'd expected, but with this one he falls flat. For me, anyway.
Why? First, because I have just about zero interest in the very phony story. It's some medieval legend about a German prince (or king, depending on version) who has gotten a fatal disease that can only be cured if a young maiden agrees to die for him, and he finds a young peasant lady willing to do it, and they travel to the appropriate killing location (it seems it can't just happen anywhere, only Salerno will do). She turns herself in, the prince repents and grabs her back, he is miraculously cured and then marries her.
Yeah, un-hunh. They make special shovels for this substance.
Longfellow, who had quite a reputation as a travel writer, used the opportunity to throw in his German and Italian travel experiences. I see where that might have been interesting in his day.
But, the whole thing -- phony to begin with -- is dragged out and dragged out and it's very, very, very thin stuff. Even Lucifer isn't particularly interesting.
Bah, I say. Stuff and nonsense.
My edition is a bit interesting, however, due to the advertisements in the back, partly for the Riverside Literature Series as a whole, but mainly for Houghton Mifflin's extensive Longfellow output. This volume is the double-bound edition of numbers 25 and 26 of the Series, and came out in it's third year (they were scheduled by the academic school year, coming out monthly). The third and fourth pages of advertising have to do with that.
But the first two pages are all about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and broken into subheadings:
COMPLETE WORKS
POEMS
SEPARATE WORKS AND COMPILATIONS
FOR SCHOOL USE
MISCELLANEOUS
and there are twelve main titles scattered through this, and 22 minor titles -- some in more than one edition -- under the Separate Works and Compilations. Take just the collection entitled Poems: there's a Cabinet Edition, a Household Edition (with Portrait, Index, and Notes), a Family Edition (Illustrated), a Red-Line Edition with 12 Illustrations and Portrait, an Illustrated Library Edition, a New Illustrated Octavo Edition.
Then some very small print informs us that most of these editions "do not include Mr. Longfellow's Dramatic Works, "The Divine Tragedy," "The Golden Legend," and "The New England Tragedies," which are grouped in Christus." Of which there are Cabinet, Household and Red-Line editions.
Under Miscellaneous, Houghton Mifflin offers a Longfellow Calendar (50 cents); a colored lithograph of Longfellow's Residence (50 cents); The Atlantic Life-size Portrait of Longfellow, 24 by 30 inches, $1.00; and Steel Portraits: Longfellow (1879), including Longfellow as a young man, Longfellow (when at Bowdoin), Longfellow (after Lawrence), Longfellow (profile), Longfellow (Westminster Bust), all 9x12 and available for a quarter apiece. If you want India paper impressions, however, that'll be 75 cents per.
Why? First, because I have just about zero interest in the very phony story. It's some medieval legend about a German prince (or king, depending on version) who has gotten a fatal disease that can only be cured if a young maiden agrees to die for him, and he finds a young peasant lady willing to do it, and they travel to the appropriate killing location (it seems it can't just happen anywhere, only Salerno will do). She turns herself in, the prince repents and grabs her back, he is miraculously cured and then marries her.
Yeah, un-hunh. They make special shovels for this substance.
Longfellow, who had quite a reputation as a travel writer, used the opportunity to throw in his German and Italian travel experiences. I see where that might have been interesting in his day.
But, the whole thing -- phony to begin with -- is dragged out and dragged out and it's very, very, very thin stuff. Even Lucifer isn't particularly interesting.
Bah, I say. Stuff and nonsense.
My edition is a bit interesting, however, due to the advertisements in the back, partly for the Riverside Literature Series as a whole, but mainly for Houghton Mifflin's extensive Longfellow output. This volume is the double-bound edition of numbers 25 and 26 of the Series, and came out in it's third year (they were scheduled by the academic school year, coming out monthly). The third and fourth pages of advertising have to do with that.
But the first two pages are all about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and broken into subheadings:
COMPLETE WORKS
POEMS
SEPARATE WORKS AND COMPILATIONS
FOR SCHOOL USE
MISCELLANEOUS
and there are twelve main titles scattered through this, and 22 minor titles -- some in more than one edition -- under the Separate Works and Compilations. Take just the collection entitled Poems: there's a Cabinet Edition, a Household Edition (with Portrait, Index, and Notes), a Family Edition (Illustrated), a Red-Line Edition with 12 Illustrations and Portrait, an Illustrated Library Edition, a New Illustrated Octavo Edition.
Then some very small print informs us that most of these editions "do not include Mr. Longfellow's Dramatic Works, "The Divine Tragedy," "The Golden Legend," and "The New England Tragedies," which are grouped in Christus." Of which there are Cabinet, Household and Red-Line editions.
Under Miscellaneous, Houghton Mifflin offers a Longfellow Calendar (50 cents); a colored lithograph of Longfellow's Residence (50 cents); The Atlantic Life-size Portrait of Longfellow, 24 by 30 inches, $1.00; and Steel Portraits: Longfellow (1879), including Longfellow as a young man, Longfellow (when at Bowdoin), Longfellow (after Lawrence), Longfellow (profile), Longfellow (Westminster Bust), all 9x12 and available for a quarter apiece. If you want India paper impressions, however, that'll be 75 cents per.
October 20, 2024
Treasure of a lost era
Just as in Moby Dick or Cloud Atlas you will want a noepad to jot down all the amazing gems of rare vocabulary. The poetry is entracingly smooth making this classic epic an easy read. Longfellow draws you into the story and then walks through the era bringing nearly every aspect to life. Reading The Golden Legend is like watching a Cohen brothers film. The plot is an unbelievable Screwtape Letters account made somehow very believabe and I dare not spoil the ending. A must read.
Just as in Moby Dick or Cloud Atlas you will want a noepad to jot down all the amazing gems of rare vocabulary. The poetry is entracingly smooth making this classic epic an easy read. Longfellow draws you into the story and then walks through the era bringing nearly every aspect to life. Reading The Golden Legend is like watching a Cohen brothers film. The plot is an unbelievable Screwtape Letters account made somehow very believabe and I dare not spoil the ending. A must read.
August 6, 2024
Published for the first time in 1851, this long narrative poem is based on Hartmann von der Aue's treatment of a psycho-sexual German medieval romance Poor Henry, the hero renamed Prince Henry of Hoheneck.
He has a fatal disease that can only be cured if a virgin agrees to die for him. He speaks to Lucifer and then finds a young peasant lady willing to do it. She turns herself in, the prince repents and grabs her back, he is miraculously cured and then marries her. Happy ending, after a very, very long reading...
"Lucifer._ It is! It assuages every pain,
Cures all disease, and gives again
To age the swift delights of youth.
Inhale its fragrance."
He has a fatal disease that can only be cured if a virgin agrees to die for him. He speaks to Lucifer and then finds a young peasant lady willing to do it. She turns herself in, the prince repents and grabs her back, he is miraculously cured and then marries her. Happy ending, after a very, very long reading...
"Lucifer._ It is! It assuages every pain,
Cures all disease, and gives again
To age the swift delights of youth.
Inhale its fragrance."
March 29, 2017
Excellent execution, but content seems wanting. There are moments of brilliance, they keep the reader going.
Read
May 29, 2017The story begins with angels and demons fighting over an iron cross structure at a cathedral. Lucifer visits an ailing Prince Henry and tells him the only cure for his illness is the willing blood of a young maiden. Then the false physician offers the Prince alcohol. His friends Hubert and Walter lament the Prince’s condition. Conversation with a monk and a young girl, Elise, who recounts the story of God seeking his earthly bride. Elise learns of the sacrifice that could be made and decides she want to make it for the Prince, as Christ sacrificed for her. Lucifer goes into a church dressed as a priest and marvels that constant streams of confessions do not make a real priest loose all faith in humanity. Lucifer awaits Prince Henry and convinces him he should let the girl make the sacrifice. When Elsie talks to Prince Henry, she makes him promise not to try to dissuade her from her purpose. An Easter sermon is given in the town square, followed by a miracle play, the nativity of Jesus and His prophetic childhood. I did not much understand Part IV, except that Prince Henry and Elise traveled together, and he ended up with monks and she with nuns? I did not much understand Part V either, except the walked though the gallery of Death. Elise still is unafraid, but Prince Henry thinks it “hateful.” They are sailing on a ship (to Salerno)? In Part VI they are at a school, and begin by debating the existence and qualities of God. Next they discover that even in a medical school, the first courses taught are logic (it is a classical education). Elise gives herself up to Lucifer, who they believe to be the friar, but Prince Henry barges in to save her and then he marries her.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews