Amazing Blondel: Alleluia

No, not radical orthodoxy's Maurice Blondel, but another one :)

My sister's just watched Robin Hood and asked me why King Richard (the lionheart), who appears at the beginning of the film, looked so unhappy. I said maybe it was because he'd married someone he (probably) didn't love, Berengaria of Navarre, or because he didn't take Jerusalem (the third crusade), or because he was held ransom for a couple of years.

But anyway, that reminded me of the legend of Blondel de Nesle, about whom it was ...

claimed that, after Richard I of England was arrested and held for ransom in 1192, he was found by the minstrel Blondel, whom he saw from his window, and to whom he sang a verse of a song they both knew. Later versions of the story related that Blondel went from castle to castle, singing a particular song that only he and Richard knew, and that the imprisoned Richard replied with the second verse - thus identifying where he was imprisoned. Then, Blondel either aided the king's escape or reported his position back to his friends. Blondel finally found Richard at Dürnstein; in fact, there was no mystery about Richard's location.

He's so famous, he's been immortalized in literature, movies, and there's a band named for him too, Amazing Blondel. Here's a video of them at Lincoln Cathedral ....