Frederic Wilhelm Burton, Hellelil and Hildebrand, The Meeting On The Turret Stairs
I am looking at this painting on photobucket while my husband sits nearby watching with excitement the latest March Madness basketball game. He stops the TV to have me look at a play; and then I look back at the romantic painting and think that the only way this became art because it was painted long before the invention of basketball and certainly not in the month of March! Then I read an English translation of the tragic Danish poem . If I understand it correctly, Hildebrand is about to slay her father and six of her brothers before she intercedes to save the life of the seventh. That brother then turns and kills Hildebrand. Hellelil dies soon after. One line stands out to me, "none knows my grief but God alone."
Such tragedy! It was March Madness from an earlier time! Hellelil, you were one of a long line of women forced to endure men enjoying their inner warrior. I may not know your grief but I sort of get it, as my husband shouts at the TV set one more time. God made them for us to love.
Judy Garland - Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart
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