11 May 2026
I wrote last Monday that I hoped the delay in repairing our connection would be small; however, as all can see it is a week later, and the simple repair–the power supply that sustains both the landline and the internet had failed–was not so simple afterall and was only repaired because I got tired of waiting for them to come and fix it, ordered a compatible power supply and installed it myself late Saturday night. It is surprising how most of our modern appliances and electronics now require an internet connection to operate properly! Anyway, we pick up today where we would have been last Monday, and offer our sincere apology to our readers.
4 May 2026
Whether or not this get posted on time depends on when the Internet at our house gets repaired. . . . (30 January 2015) Last time in Coleridge’s poem, we saw the lady under the oak tree, unprepared to be out in the woods at night, and so we speculated that she was either in distress, or some kind of supernatural creature, neither of which bodes well for our heroine. This week, we learn the lady’s name–Geraldine–and she gives an account of what she is doing here:
The lady strange made answer meet,
And her voice was faint and sweet:-
‘Have pity on my sore distress,
I scarce can speak for weariness:
Stretch forth thy hand, and have no fear!’
Said Christabel, ‘How camest thou here?’
And the lady, whose voice was faint and sweet,
Did thus pursue her answer meet:-
‘My sire is of a noble line,
And my name is Geraldine:
Five warriors seized me yestermorn,
Me, even me, a maid forlorn:
They choked my cries with force and fright,
And tied me on a palfrey white.
The palfrey was as fleet as wind,
And they rode furiously behind.
They spurred amain, their steeds were white:
And once we crossed the shade of night.
As sure as Heaven shall rescue me,
I have no thought what men they be;
Nor do I know how long it is
(For I have lain entranced, I wis)
Since one, the tallest of the five,
Took me from the palfrey’s back,
A weary woman, scarce alive.
Some muttered words his comrades spoke:
He placed me underneath this oak;
He swore they would return with haste;
Whither they went I cannot tell-
I thought I heard, some minutes past,
Sounds as of a castle bell.
Stretch forth thy hand,’ thus ended she,
‘And help a wretched maid to flee.’
The lady, Geraldine, claims that she was taken in the morning of the previous day–it is now after midnight, so that means a single day–by five rough men, who tossed her on a horse and rode like the wind, and then when night came, they left her under this tree promising to return. This raises several questions, and puts her tale into doubt. A horse cannot gallop all day; a horse can gallop for a time, but then must be walked for a time before it can be again ridden–she makes no mention of this fact. Even at a horse’s fastest speed, she would still have to come from someone’s castle within Christabel’s knowledge. Further, why would they steal her, and then abandon her in the woods? Why did they take her in the first place? If their reasons were nefarious, as they seem to be, they would have carried out that purpose–rape, murder, etc.–rather than leave her here with a promise to return. There is something strange going on here! Come back on Wednesday and learn Christabel’s response to this apparent damsel in distress. Good reading.
Clyde B. Northrup 
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