A review by mathomgiver
The Wandering Scholars of the Middle Ages by Helen Waddell

5.0

Waddell's writing is beautiful and rich in allusions from her seemingly endless knowledge of literature. This book is a difficult read because a ready knowledge of the subject matter (including Latin, German, and French) is assumed. It is easy to get lost in Waddell's swift transitions from subjects. Her enthusiasm for the work of these often overlooked poets is infectious. She closes saying that these "nameless vagabonds...kept the imagination of Europe alive: held untouched by their rags and poverty and squalor the Beauty that made beautiful old rhyme. And for those of us who are the conservatives of letters, for whom literature obeys the eternal movement of tides, for whom the heavens themselves are old, there remains the stark simplicity of Terence - 'In truth they have deserved to be remembered of us'"(238).