When our groups come to town, we arrange guest lecturers for them. One guy we use a lot is an internationally- known Luther expert, who does a really dynamic lecture on Martin Luther's wife, Katharina von Bora, the former nun who married Martin Luther in 1525 (at age 26!), had six kids, ran a boarding house, cultivated a huge garden, and was the sole heir of Luther's property after his death, even though that was illegal at the time. The German title of this lecture is "Katharina von Bora, Morgenstern der Reformation", and it is translated "Katharina von Bora, Morning Star of the Reformation." Awww... isn't that a nice, wholesome glowing little image?
I was explaining this to a German friend of mine this morning, and he said "Wow, that's really got an interesting double meaning, because this medieval torture device is also a Morgenstern." Yikes. I wonder if our reknowned scholar meant to do that.
And on an unrelated note, I think it's kind of fun to turn off the lights in the bathroom, arrange my face all scary in front of the mirror, and then reach over and turn the lights back on. Scares me every time.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright
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3 comments:
"And on an unrelated note, I think it's kind of fun to turn off the lights in the bathroom, arrange my face all scary in front of the mirror, and then reach over and turn the lights back on. Scares me every time."
No wonder you're a friend of Meckhead ... (grin)
It always amuses me that Katie was SO PISSED that she could only have one goat, when Kate Melanchthon could have three... or was it Barb Cranach? I forget. The crazy stuff one learns while on the city tours! :)
Heather, I like learnign random facts on city tours too. How many have you been on so far?
PPB, I can't tell at all what tone of voice you were using. Disgust? Slight amusement? Eternal awe? 'Call up the clinic right now, they've got a new inpatient'?
Yeah, Abba... Meckhead scares me every time too!
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