Songs of Holy Mary

Song #16
The knight chose to love Mary above all other women. One important theme is that love is crazy. In this song desire is compared to the "devils work". Once the knight falls in love, he pursues this love like a madman. Also, when the knight visits the abbot, the abbot wants to “rid him of his passion” because he is sure that it will lead to evil. this song emphasizes how powerful love is and its potential to influence the way people act. The idea of choosing to love something that does not exist in the natural world over the an actual person is also an important concept in this story. The knight chooses Mary because he thinks she embodies perfection. I think that Mary is supposed to represent the perfect kind of love that mortals can never attain. The religious implication in this text is that love can only be satisfied through God or religion because it is the truest kind of love. this is important because during this time the people of spain were going through religious transformation and were told that Christianity is the right religion as opposed to Judaism,


Song #5
The plot of this song is how the empress over came many struggles with the help of the Holy Mary. The main theme is the vindictive way people acted during this time when they thought someone did something decitful. They acted by only what they heard from each other and didn't act after getting proof. the empress was upset because her loved emperor had to leave to Jerusalem show his loyalty to god. now to make matters even worse the emperor's brother admitted to the empress that he loved her. He has betrayed his brother, this shows the theme of vengefully  driven people. The Holy Mary aids the empress in her time of need, in the ocean, during her beatings. The Holy Mary saved the empress from hunger and gave her the strength. The people join together to excommunicate and kill the people they belive to have betrayed someone or stolen. The empress was continulosuly hurt by people who had loved her.