By Castle and River: Jelena, Queen of Croatia

The Brook

By: Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

I come from haunts of coot and hern,
I make a sudden sally,
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley.

By thirty hills I hurry down,
Or slip between the ridges,
By twenty thorps, a little town,
And half a hundred bridges.

Till last by Philip's farm I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.

I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.

With many a curve my banks I fret
by many a field and fallow,
And many a fairy foreland set
With willow-weed and mallow.

I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.

I wind about, and in and out,
with here a blossom sailing,
And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling,

And here and there a foamy flake
Upon me, as I travel
With many a silver water-break
Above the golden gravel,

And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.

I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers;
I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.

I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows;
I make the netted sunbeam dance
Against my sandy shallows.

I murmur under moon and stars
In brambly wildernesses;
I linger by my shingly bars;
I loiter round my cresses;

And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Jelena, Queen of Croatia

Statue of Queen Jelena, Solin

Jelena of Zadar (also known as Jelena the Glorious), Queen of Croatia, was the wife of Croatian King Mihajlo Krešimir II. They jointly ruled over Croatia from 946 to 969, a period which was marked by "peace, order and expeditious growth". Queen Jelena was "revered by her subjects" and "most adored for her charity".

Here is a great page that I found with information on the reign of Jelena and her husband.

http://royalcroatia.tripod.com/kresimir2.htm

Jelena died in October 976 and is buried next to her husband in Sv. Marija. The royal inscription on her sarcophagus is amongst the most important ( and most beautiful, I think.) epitaphs discovered by archaeologists.

"In this grave rests the glorious Jelena, wife of King Mihajlo, mother of King Stephen. She ruled/ brought peace to the Kingdom. On the 8th day of October 976 from the incarnation of Our Lord..... she was buried here. During her life as Queen she was also mother of orphans and protectress of widows. May those who look here say: God have mercy upon her soul."

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