Young Heretics Spencer Klavan

The prologue of The Canterbury Tales used to be part of a standard-issue training set in English courses. Today I'm RETVRNing to tradition and rebooting the old practice of memorizing--or at least reciting--the first few lines of this defining English poem in Middle English. Plus: should whisky be spelled with an -ey, or a -y? The answer will show you just what a carnival the English language is.
Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/
Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM
Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com
Harvard's interlinear translation of The Canterbury Tales: https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/general-prologue-0
 

Can Europe survive without its Christian spirit? Can the West? It's a question that's weighing on more and more intelligent people's minds, and Novalis helps us to grapple with it in a unique way. In this episode I look at three key areas--science, religion, and politics--where the secular spirit of Enlightenment humanism has exhausted itself and needs a new source of inspiration. Perhaps those sources are to be found in the middle ages, and perhaps Novalis can help us find them.
Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/
I maked this: "How Woke Hierarchy Created an Upper-Class Underclass," at The Spectator World: https://thespectator.com/topic/how-woke-hierarchy-created-upper-class-underclass/
Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com
Christendom or Europe? in a new edition, edited by Michael Martin: https://angelicopress.com/products/christendom-or-europe
My review of Tom Holland and further thoughts on cultural Christianity: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-anxiety-of-influence/
 

Are we on the brink of a return to Medieval wonder? A collapse into total warfare? Both? Bear with me while I present my Unified Field Theory of Human History in thirty minutes or less, by way of introduction to the mind-blowing essay "Christendom or Europe," by Novalis. He's the most important figure you've never heard of in Western literature, and now is the perfect time to get to know him, because he's going to be with us in the years ahead.
Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/
I maked this: pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM
Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com
Christendom or Europe? in a new edition, edited by Michael Martin: https://angelicopress.com/products/christendom-or-europe
 

This week we're going still further back in time, and further north, to read some Middle English from the tale of Gawain and the Green Knight. It's a galloping adventure that's been translated by some of the greats--including J.R.R. Tolkien--and reading the original is a good chance to practice dipping your toe into the more obscure forms of English that make the past feel like another country. Plus: how we appropriated Viking culture.
Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM
Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/
Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com
Tips on pronouncing Middle English:
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cb45/middle-english-basic-pronunciation-and-grammar
https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/mediawiki/media/images_pedia_folgerpedia_mw/1/1f/How_to_pronounce_Middle_English.pdf
Recordings of expert readings:
https://www.arthuriana.com/sggk-rendall

So you want to defend the Western canon, huh? Why, exactly? In this episode I take a step back and ask why, outside of politics, we should care about books. Especially in the age of podcasts and digital media, with the publishing industry bleeding profits, it's easy to think of books as obsolete. But that might be exactly why we need them most--to hold ourselves together in a world of digital dissolution.
Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/
Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM
Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com
We maked this: Lists of recommended works at The New Jerusalem. https://open.substack.com/pub/thenewjerusalem/p/list-16-brightness-visible?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Have you ever thought about how weird it is that our oldest English literature is somehow...in another language? If you want to become a better communicator, understand your own history better, and just generally have an awesome time reading cool stories about knights and stuff, you could do no better than to read the great chivalric tales of the English past. But how to start? Today I'm embarking on a new Friday series that will answer that very question, for busy people who want to read Aurthurian romances and have time to play Prince of Persia.
Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM
Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/
Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com