“He arrived here as a knight with an arrow through his arm. The man has a history. Unearth it.”

I come up empty-handed when I try to think of another set of books that has altered and enhanced my view of medieval life, medieval politics and the struggles to build a cathedral quite like The Pillars of theEarthand World WithoutEnd.

Yes. I’m obsessed. 

Kölner Dom

She’s been through so much, this cathedral. 

Someone dreamed her up and began building her in 1248, even though they knew they would never see her finished.

Building stopped abruptly in 1473, leaving her open to the elements. She stood mute and silent for another four centuries for building to begin again.

Finally completed in 1880, (according to the originalplan!) she gleamed like a beacon along the Rhine for a mere sixty years - a blink of an eye in her life - until the bombs began falling in World War 2. She sustained numerous massive hits, yet remained standing while the rest of the city was leveled.

Repairs were completed in the 1950’s, and now the Cologne cathedral stands proud as a Unesco World Heritage site. 

Maybe my recent re-reading of The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End have wormed their way into my mind too much, but I can’t help but wonder … the person who dreamed this cathedral up and sketched it out in sand and on parchment? Do you think he dared to dream that his cathedral would still be standing in the twenty-first century? 

Sources - Wikimedia Commons

Things Are Looking Up…byFunky Slug on Flickr.

Interior of Canterbury Cathedral - the site of Thomas Beckett’s murder in 1170

Inlay image of the third disc from The Pillars of the Earth.

Source