#986: Part 2 of “Bricriu’s Feast”

The old Irish story of “Bricriu’s Feast” continues. Not content with stirring up Ulster’s greatest heroes against each other, Bricriu proceeds to put their wives at each others’ throats, too!

Chs. 3-4

15:53.

Btw, you should cast your eye on the epic space opera poem “The SkyPath Crusade” by Daniel Schilling! This is good stuff, and funny, too.

“But now I’m here, through wind and fear,

Such slaughter I’ve survived

The last of twenty Island men,

The only one alive.”

“Of course,” she said, “I knew you’d be.

When others’ luck ran out

You always were the kind of cur

To turn the odds about.”

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

#985: Ch. 5, Brain Twister by “Mark Phillips”

Brain Twister continues, and so does Malone’s trying journey to Yucca Flats with his telepath. But at least he gets to hear why she’s doing all this….

Chapter 5

35:02.

Read Full Post »

#984: Ch. 5, On Prayer by Origen

On Prayer continues, as Origen tells us how one should prepare to pray, and some of the benefits of keeping one’s mind fixed on God.

Chapter 5

8:58.

Read Full Post »

#983: Chs. 35-36, Bk. 5, Against Heresies by St. Irenaeus of Lyons

Against Heresies ends, with two final chapters on the world to come. I was fascinated to see an old tradition included.

Chapters 35-36

18:09.

This is the end of my longest audiobook. It’s been extremely interesting for me to spend so much time with St. Irenaeus, and I hope you’ve found it useful, too. He’s a good teacher.

Read Full Post »

#982: Ch. 34, Bk. 5, Against Heresies by St. Irenaeus of Lyons

Against Heresies continues, with more interesting info on the New Jerusalem, the new heaven and earth, and the life to come, according to the prophets of old.

Chapter 34

9:43.

Read Full Post »

#981: Ch. 33, Bk. 5, Against Heresies by St. Irenaeus of Lyons

Against Heresies continues, as Irenaeus points out that Christ promised to drink actual new wine with his apostles in the Kingdom, and that the Patriarchs were promised banquets of real food and drink. (Kinda pointless if you don’t have an eating, drinking body in the Kingdom.)

Chapter 33

11:38.

Read Full Post »

#980: Chs. 31-32, Bk. 5, Against Heresies by St. Irenaeus of Lyons

Against Heresies continues, with more of St. Irenaeus’ fascinating discussion of the end of the world and the world to come. In these chapters, he defends the resurrection of the dead as a real coming event, not some kind of pretty allegory.

During the course of these last few chapters, it becomes obvious that Irenaeus was a major influence on the Four Last Things as portrayed by C.S. Lewis — or at least, somebody influenced by Irenaeus was. Obviously it’s no secret that Lewis read a lot of theology, but it’s kinda neat to spot this kind of stuff. It’s like picking up a book at the used book store and seeing notes scribbled in the margins in an old friend’s hand.

Chapters 31-32

12:35.

UPDATE: Bad link fixed. Thanks again for pointing it out!

Read Full Post »

#979: Ch. 14B, The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison

The Worm Ouroboros continues, as Mivarsh unveils a plan of his own.

Chapter 14 (cont.)

14:29.

Read Full Post »

#978: Ch. 14A, The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison

The Worm Ouroboros continues, as Queen Sophonisba tells Lord Juss how to rescue his brother Goldry.

Chapter 14: The Lake of Ravary.

12:52.

Read Full Post »

#977: Ch. 11B, The Girl of the Golden West by David Belasco

The Girl of the Golden West continues, as Johnson/Ramerrez and the Girl continue their chat.

Did I mention the howling snowstorm? Yep, time to cry Blizzard! and let loose the Flakes of Romance. (Actually, I suspect Belasco’s snowstorm is the reason we have so many Flakes of Romance in American love stories. But feel free to take that trope as a thesis topic.)

12:35.

Read Full Post »

#976: Ch. 4, Brain Twister by “Mark Phillips”

Brain Twister continues, with more near-future science fiction fun from the fertile brains of Randall Garrett and Lawrence M. Janifer!

Agent Malone finally has his telepath and has gotten the show on the road. But unfortunately, his telepath also has a few unusual demands…. (It should be pointed out that this novel predates the founding of the SCA by about ten years.)

Chapter 4

28:17.

(As you can see, Brain Twister is back up and has stopped doing odd things to my upload, but “Bricriu’s Feast” is still hiding in the recesses of the servers. When that’s fixed, I’ll put up all the chapters I’ve gotten done so far.)

Read Full Post »

#975: Ch. 2E, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine by John Henry Newman

An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine continues.

Chapter 2E

16:36.

Read Full Post »

#974: Ch. 2D, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine by John Henry Newman

An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine continues, with more on Christianity and authority.

Part 4 of Chapter 2

26:11.

Read Full Post »

#973: Chs. 12-13, Bk. 1, A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation by St. Thomas More

A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation continues, with some thoughts on Purgatory and the reasonableness of suffering for one’s beliefs, or lack thereof.

Book 1, Chs. 12-13.

17:46.

Archive.org is still acting up. I can’t get Bricriu to show up (much less load new chapters), and I can’t upload a new chapter of Brain Twister without getting cut off. So I’m going to post the updates that are working, and wait for the rest to reappear.

Read Full Post »

Technical Difficulties

Archive.org seems to be experiencing some cleanup problems after their big maintenance project last week. As soon as that clears up and I can upload the files, I’ll put up new podcasts here.

Read Full Post »