The Beauty in Emare
In the excerpt Emare from The Middle English Breton Lays three words summarize the beauty and splendor of a cloak in almost sinful terms during a time where religion was very powerful. The cloak over powers the aspect of religion by being described as beautiful beyond religion. The words gylsterying, ryche, and asowr were used to describe how beautiful the stones on the cloak were and how the gold and the stones on the fabric looked and asowr was used to show how beautiful the blue and the gold were as if it were royal and divine in a sense.
The first word to be defined is glysterying, which is to shine by reflection with a sparkling luster. This word was used to show the beauty and the splendor of such a fabric that a fairy had to have made it because nothing this beautiful has ever existed before. The quote that supports this argument is from line 107 to 108, “So ryche a jwell is there non/ In all Christianity.” The author was trying to say that in a sense the fabric is magical so it must be a sin because God didn’t make it and nothing is as beautiful as God. When we read further into the passage the fabric of the cloak is said to be made without any lies and with pride. The colors of blue and gold it seems to me that it is poking fun as some religious aspects because the Virgin Mary is always portrayed with blue and gold so it seems divine in a sense and that the colors should only be worn but a religious figure and not a woman because nothing should be more beautiful than God and its figures.
The next word that describes the beautiful cloak is ryche which means valuable or of great wealth but there is another definition that could fit this word as well because we are reading a religious text and that definition is of things: Powerful and strong. The idea of the cloak and fabric being rich is that it is very expensive and very desirable. In a religious sense the cloak has power similar to God sense of awe because the...