Walther of Châtillon {Gualterus de Castellione} was one of the most brilliant and influential theologian-poets of twelfth-century Europe. He was born about 1135 in Lille, France. He studied under Stephen at Beauvais, law at the University of Bologna, and probably theology at the University of Paris. Walter then joined the learned court of King Henry II in England. After Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in 1169, Walter left England for the continent. He died from leprosy in Amiens in northern France about 1200.
In the 1170s, Walter authored the Alexandreis, a medieval Latin epic of the life of Alexander the Great. Drawing considerably on classical Greco-Roman literature, the Alexandreis addressed men’s self-understanding and men’s personal dilemmas. Walter also wrote vibrant and dynamic poems of men’s sexed protest, as well as many other learned compositions.
Men remember women who warmly and generously loved them. That leads to anguish and desperate hope, threatening men’s safety. Make love safe for men! … Read the post remembrance of love fills men with anguish and desperate hope
Perversely responding to gender injustice in love, medieval troubadour Peire Cardenal advocated strict gender equality inconsistent with Christian love. … Read the post an impious medieval man’s response to gender injustice
Some men distrust all women. Medieval love poetry helps to explain that problem. It can be overcome with sympathy and work for social justice. … Read the post sympathetically understanding why some men distrust all women
In medieval Europe, Ripoll love songs sing the joy of sex, with concern for women’s consent, without the totalitarianism of today’s rape culture. Swerve! … Read the post the now-inconceivable medieval joy of sex
At the core of the world in the Inferno, Dante perceived Satan-Lucifer-Leviathan, Alexander the Great, and eternal death. … Read the post Dante’s eternal death evokes Alexander’s quest for glory