Medieval Women

Als Nachfahre der mächtigen Söhne des MacAlpin weigert sich Iain MacKinnon, sich der englischen Krone zu beugen. Doch als sein kleiner Sohn entführt wird, schwört der standhafte schottische Clanführer, nicht eher zu ruhen, bis er die Rückkehr seines Sohnes sichergestellt hat. Im Gegenzug raubt er die Tochter seines Feindes, um sich auf einen Handel mit dem Teufel einzulassen.

An original recording of one of Oscar Wilde's comedic classics and a precise satire of Britain's upper classes. At a gathering at Hunstanton Chase, the young Gerald Arbuthnot has been given a rare opportunity to make something of himself by the cavalier Lord Illingworth, but a chance meeting between his mother Mrs. Arbuthnot and Lord Illingworth reveals that there's more behind the offer than Gerald knows.

A Woman of No Importance takes place in a 24-hour period during a house party hosted by Lady Hunstanton at her country estate. The upper echelons of English society mix, mingle and flirt, including Lady Caroline Pontefract (who is on her fourth husband), the witty and ironic Mrs. Allonby and the dandyish Lord Illingworth. Wilde balances these worldly characters with a visiting young American woman, Hester Worsley.

Paris, 1393. A masquerade ball at the palace ends in tragedy, with four revelers burned to death. Was it an accident...or did someone deliberately hurl a flaming torch at the dancers? Convinced it was an act of murder and that the king himself was the real target, Queen Isabeau has asked Christine de Pizan to spend time at court in an attempt to uncover the identity of the would-be assassin.

Was Joan of Arc accused because she was a woman? Then why did so many fierce and battle-hardened male warriors line up their troops behind her? Yet, not even one of her soldiers, be they longbowmen, cavalry riders, knights, artillerymen, and nobles, ran from the command of a woman. Instead, they marveled at her as she mounted the ladders to a heavily defended castle, right along with the men, shot arrows, thrust spears, and galloped on her great white steed along with the best of them. She was wounded twice and yet did not shirk from battle.

The idea of a powerful woman in the Middle Ages seems like an oxymoron. Females in this time are imagined to be damsels in distress, trapped in a high tower, and waiting for knights to rescue them, all while wearing traffic-cones for a hat. After rescue, their lives improved little. Their career choices were to be either docile queens, housewives, or be burned at the stake for witchcraft. But what if this image of medieval women is a complete fiction? It turns out that it is. Powerful female rulers fill the Middle Ages.

Hildegard von Bingen was never meant to be remembered by history. The 10th child of one of the Graf von Sponheim’s knights, she was given to Disibodenberg monastery partly out of gratitude to God, but also partly because her visions made her too odd to make a suitable wife. When she succeeded Jutta von Sponheim as magistra and prioress of Disibodenberg monastery, she found herself unable to keep her visions secret any longer. What happened next led her to revolutionize not only monastic life for women, but the whole world too.

In The Trachinian Tragedy, better known as the Women of Trachis, the wife of Herakles, Deianeira, finds she has a rival in the house for her husband's affection. The consequences of her counteraction are incredible. In this faithful translation, F. L. Light attempts to write as good a play in English as the original in Greek. F. L. Light has also translated Antigone of Sophocles.

L'audio libro "Voci dal Medioevo" è tratto dal libro di Paola Amadesi "Dieci donne e quattro uomini" (disponibile su Amazon). Figure come Eleonora d'Aquitania, madre di Riccardo I re d'Inghilterra, Eloisa, Egeria la pellegrina, Ildegarda di Bingen e Matilde di Canossa danno grande forza e voce a donne che hanno sofferto, amato, studiato, lottato contro la società del loro tempo. Sono voci che vengono da lontano ma che ci sono vicine, simili a quelle che si sentono gridare nelle strade oggigiorno.

Catherine de Valois, am besten bekannt, als die Braut Henry des V. aus Shakespeares "Henry V.", war eine außergewöhnliche Frau, voller Glauben, Mut und Überzeugung, in einem Zeitalter politisch mächtiger Frauen.