oloriel | A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having.

So, today was my first Medieval English Literature class (it's a block seminar, which means it is held in a relatively short time in condensed double sessions. In this case, "a relatively short time" means May.) It was lovely, despite the noises of the revolution going on outside. Quite an experience, talking about Chaucer with some hundred students trying to get into the Senatssaal, which is fairly close to the lecture hall the seminar is in. We ignored the whistles and chants outside as well as we could.

Professor Wilcockson is the very epitome of a Medieval Literature scholar: A honourable white-haired gentleman, charming, soft-spoken, with the wry sort of humour that comes from reading too much Chaucer, always spicing his lecture with some random Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, French or Latin quotes. To top it off, he comes from Cambridge, but we won't hold that against him.
I'm already sad that the seminar will only last through May.

After the lecture was over, the revolution was gone. I don't know whether anything came out of it, and if so, what. But the whole corridor was littered with tricolore paper flags. Yes, the blue-white-and-red kind of tricolore. (What would the French say if they saw their flags on the ground? - I totally snatched one. It's crumpled, but hey.)

The attendants of Medieval English Literature were not the only ones not taking part in the revolt, by the way. Since it is all summerly again, the meadows behind the university main building were full of reading, picknicking and talking student groups who were happy to watch - what an event to tell your children of, some day! - but didn't join in. I don't know whether the jugglers belonged to the protesters or not; they were busy juggling.

QotD:
Prof. Wilcockson: "Chaucer was a nice man, for he died in a year that's easy to remember. Then again, maybe he wasn't that nice... I'm currently doing a Penguin face-to-face edition of the Canterbury Tales, which means you have one page of Middle English and the Modern English translation on the next page. As I do not wish to deviate far from the original, I was forced to use some English words I've never used before..."