knight errant

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jan 23, 2005

Never on earth did any man see more:
Gainst us their shields an hundred thousand bore,
That lacèd helms and shining hauberks wore;
And, bolt upright, their bright brown spearheads shone.
Battle shall we have as never was before.

Among Charlemagne's numerous wars were those he waged against the Muslims that had conquered and subjugated Christian Spain (the Song of Roland, from which the lines above are taken, celebrates a disastrous rear-guard action in 778 at Roncevalles in the Pyrenees). By 803 Charlemagne's vassal princes were able to retake Barcelona and carry the battle for Christian reconquest southwards.

Spain, together with the rest of Western Europe, is once again threatened by an Islamic incursion. Christendom is losing the battle of the birthrates to the Muslims, whence Leftist Spain's infatuation with the condom -- of which we heard so much last week -- appears as a symptom of a cultural degradation and fatigue that positively rejoices in sterility.

What caliber of warrior can the West put in the field today against the Saracen? I can't say -- but I was struck by an obituary in today's New York Times reporting the death, at age 50, of a choreographer in Copenhagen, "survived by Karsten Mach, whom he married in Denmark, where same-sex marriage with full rights is legal." Outstanding. The decedent might stand as the embodiment of the ideals for which the New Europe is yet willing to fight.

He was knighted by Queen Margrethe of Denmark, receiving the Order of Dannebrog in 2003, for his services to Danish dance.

Services to Danish dance. That must strike fear in the heart of the Moorish midwife.

Stout blows with Durendal I'll lay,
With my good sword that by my side doth sway;
Till bloodied o'er you shall behold the blade.
Felon paynims gathered to their shame,
I pledge you now, to death be doomed to-day.