By Herman Pleij
Think a dreamland the place roasted pigs wander approximately with knives of their backs to make carving effortless, the place grilled ducks fly without delay into one's mouth, the place cooked fish bounce out of the water and land at one's toes. the elements is usually light, the wine flows freely, intercourse is instantly on hand, and every person take pleasure in everlasting youth.
Such is Cockaigne. Portrayed in legend, oral heritage, and artwork, this imaginary land turned the main pervasive collective dream of medieval times-an earthly paradise that served to counter the discomfort and frustration of day-by-day lifestyles and to allay anxieties approximately an more and more elusive heavenly paradise.
Illustrated with amazing art from the center a long time, Herman Pleij's Dreaming of Cockaigne is a lively account of this misplaced paradise and the area that introduced it to existence. Pleij takes 3 vital texts as his beginning issues for an encouraged of the landscape of rules, desires, well known faith, and literary and creative construction found in the overdue heart a long time. What emerges is a well-defined photo of the period, provided with a wealth of element from all of Europe, in addition to Asia and America.
Pleij attracts upon his thorough wisdom of medieval ecu literature, artwork, background, and folklore to explain the fantasies that fed the stories of Cockaigne and their connections to the important obsessions of medieval existence.