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London Review of Books

Buckwheat Porridge, Three Miles Thick subscriber-only content

Paul Strohm

  • Dreaming of Cockaigne: Medieval Fantasies of the Perfect Life by Herman Pleij, translated by Diane Webb

Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, having raised the siege of Belrepeire, finds its inhabitants gripped by famine. They have slack skin, ashen complexions and sunken bellies. Parzival knows what must be done to avoid the frenzied scenes which would otherwise ensue now food is again available: ‘Faultless Parzival proceeded as follows. He first shared out the victuals neatly himself . . . He did not wish them to gorge themselves on empty stomachs, so he gave them enough and no more, and they were pleased to follow his advice. He gave them some more in the evening, steady affable man that he was.’

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Paul Strohm, a fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford, teaches medieval literature, critical theory and film studies. He is the author of Theory and the Premodern Text.