Hnaef: I mean, really, do we have to?
Archdruid: Shut up, Cambridge Boy. We celebrated your lot didn't we?
Hnaef: Yes. Well, you remembered Cranmer...
Archdruid: There you are then.
Hnaef: You lit a bonfire...
Archdruid: Of course. That's what we do.
Hnaef: You don't think that was... a bit tactless?
Archdruid: OK- it's St Frideswide's Day. Bit of respect?
Hnaef: So what did she do?
Archdruid: Search me. Something out Godstow way, weren't it?
Hnaef: You don't know what she did?
Archdruid: Not a Scooby. This is Oxford. We are the right-brained, cuddly university. Honey-coloured stone, dreaming spires, punting through the Parks on a hazy June evening, running the country.... we don't do logic and nerdism.
Hnaef: WHAT DID FRIDESWIDE DO? SHE'S YOUR PATRON SAINT.
Archdruid: Don't know. Don't care. Have a tea light? And stop being so Cambridge...
Cor, she's actually real Saint! and a Princess, who knew?
ReplyDeleteOxford people knew.
Delete... and even as far south as Wantage. She's always included in the Litany of the saints.
DeleteI love Frideswide (known to her pals as 'Fritha' She was educated at home by a governess, a lady chosen for her piety rather than her learning, who had one rule,
ReplyDelete"If it's not God it's worth nothing." This inadequate education bore fruit when a prince who had heard of her beauty came seeking her hand in marriage. Fritha and her friends fled and when they reached the Thames a young man dressed all in white offered them a lift in his boat. They'd led a sheltered life and concluded that his kindness was because he was an angel. I suppose, given the possibilities, that their setting up a convent in a pigsty was a happy ending of sorts.
(My son's been using my computer again, I'm 'Pidge' not Anon 21 grrr)
I know the feeling. I have to keep my wits about me to avoid accidentally commenting as JudyATStLukes.
DeleteGrief. All this pseudonymity. I don't know whom I can trust any more.
Deletedoes that mean Frideswide is actually pronounced Frithaswitha (sorry, I'm a Cambridge person and don't know these things)
Delete