ISBN: 978-1-58089-179-0
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| Cover image from www.charlesbridge.com |
Theophane is a young monk in the monastery of Mourne. Unlike the other monks, who march in a stately line, Theophane often skips his way through the day, pilfering bits of his breakfast bread to give to the birds, taking a moment of his day to pause and gaze out the window. Theophane isn't quite suited to sitting still, copying works of literature, science, and theology, so the senior monk attempts to find a place in the monastery where Theophane's exuberance will be a help and not a hindrance. Sent to make the ink the brothers will use to make their copies, Theophane experiments with the colors he sees in nature: the juice of ripe berries, roots, flowers, and leaves. Theophane spends a night carefully crafting works of art around the written words in the brothers' manuscripts, creating an illuminated manuscript.
While this is a technically a poetry picture book, every so often, Millen punctuates the events of the poetry with a few lines of poetry in the voice of Theophane, adapted from the poems found in the margins and scribbled on scraps of parchment written by the Irish monks. In an author's note Millen (2010) states that those bits and pieces of poetry, written by the monks, were curated and translated by Thomas Kinsella into The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse (30). One could easily separate the poetry from the drawings, and study it on its own. The snippets of poetry written by actual monks is a nice touch. They take the idea of two-dimensional historical figures, and with Millen's (and Theophane's) help, turn them into people with which a reader might identify. Every schoolchild, from Kindergarten to grade 12 knows how it feels to gaze out of a classroom window at the sunny scene outside. Older (adult) readers will appreciate Theophane's sentiments upon leaving their labors to to enjoy a spring afternoon: "As he opened the door / a breeze kissed his brow / and removed every trace / of Theophane's frown" (Millen 2010, 15). Millen easily transitions from the narrative into Theophane's poems by using Theophane's actions and thoughts to "inspire" them. Despite the subject matter and setting, Millen (2010) keeps the religious aspects to a minimum, with a single poem praising God for the abundance of colors in nature (22).
Millen writes the poem with a rhythm that mimics a young child skipping across a field, swinging their lunchbox. It's actually a quite good reflection of Theophane's personality. The rhythm is just on this side of descending into a sing-song rhythm, and is readily apparent from the very first lines:
In the mountains of Mourne,Millen uses a rhyme scheme, but it's quite sporadic in that that second and fourth lines rhyme, but the first and third don't. It breaks up the rhyming in such a way so that it prevents the rhythm of the poem from going into that sing-songy style. Millen's word choice is strong enough that she doesn't need to use rhyme to establish the rhythm.
up twisted old bends,
past blackberry brambles
and ancient wood glens,
there stood a tall tower --
a circle of stone (Millen 2010, 1).
One of Millen's most effective phrases is the repetition of "simple brown _____" when describing the life of the monks. She first invokes it on the very first page, talking about monks wearing "simple brown robes, / filling simple brown books, / eating simple brown bread, / and saying their prayers / by their simple brown beds" (Millen 2010, 1). Just two words inform the reader of the static consistency of the routine of the monastery. Millen doesn't use a great deal of figurative language, but every so often she uses a bit of personification, such as when she describes the breeze kissing Theophane's brow. The strength of Millen's language lies in the adjectives and verbs she chooses to describe Theophane, his actions, and the environment. She juxtaposes Theophane's outward appearance with his internal burst of emotion when the senior brother sends him out of the scriptorium: "Theophane solemnly / slid from his chair, / laid down his pen, / and skipped down the stairs" (Millen 2010, 11). Theophane's joy is short-lived, because Millen (2010) instantly sends him down into a room
at the pit of the tower,
down where the ink
was made over a fire,
....................................
Sweating and sleepy,
thirsty and tired,
Theophane toiled
all night at the pyre. (13)
The alliteration in "sweating and sleepy" and "thirsty and tired" make those two lines stand out from the others, illustrating just how different the room where Theophane makes ink is from the scriptorium. The poetry does an excellent job of depicting Theophane's personality. Anyone who falls flat on their face when they've tripped, but laughs with pleasure sounds like an optimistic sort of person.
Wisnewski's artwork is reminiscent of woodcuts, with their thick, heavy outlines. The colors she used are vivid, but slightly muted, keeping in the gentle overall tone of the book. The drawings are wonderfully detailed, so that the reader can see the striations on the surface of leaves and flower petals. Wisnewski also illuminates the text of the poem, surround each page of text with Celtic knotwork motifs, flowers, vines, or blackberry brambles. She nicely contrasts the browns and greys of the monastery with the varied greens, purples, reds, and yellows of the outdoors. Wisnewski draws the monks so they do resemble one another. Theophane, however, is drawn as a much younger man with a playful smile that leaps off the page.
In the Author's Note at the end of the book, Millen briefly recounts the role of Irish monasteries in preserving ancient Greek, Roman, and Arabic scholastic and literary works. She describes some of the methods the monks used to make colored inks, and also mentions the Book of Kells, one of more famous examples of an illustrated manuscript. Millen provides a short list of additional books and websites that discuss the history of illustrated manuscripts and how to make your own ink from plants. The book does lack page numbers, but it's not a major deterrent to a reader at all, considering it's essentially single poem.
This is such a lovely book. It might not appeal to younger readers, but students studying the Middle Ages might enjoy it as part of an enrichment activity. Art history and art students might also like it, especially as an introduction to a unit of medieval art and illuminated manuscripts. The book's theme that everyone has their place in the world shines through without being heavy-handed or ham-fisted. Theophane is a nonconformist through and through, but he chooses to be proactive about trying to find where he fits into the world of the monastery and still retain his sense of joy in the world, rather than trying to force the monastery to mold itself to him.
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Spotlight on...
He sliced and he slivered,
he grated and chopped,
preparing the plants
to be boiled in pots.
"Weld blooms bring orange,
cabbage leaves, green.
The more madder I get,
the redder it seems.
"The buckthorn turns golden,
while woad leaves turn blue,
and bilberries spill
very bright violet hues.
"And from the wee crocus*********************************************************************************
such a strong yellow shade."
Theophane smiled
at the rainbow he'd made. (Millen 2010, 21)
I would use this book to introduce a unit about illuminated manuscripts in an advanced art class. Students would either write their own original poems (subjects up to the students) or bring in a favorite poem. They would then illuminate it, based on what they've learned about illuminated manuscripts. Students can choose to either type their poem into a Word document and choose a calligraphic font or learn how to write in calligraphy and physically hand-write the poem. Students can use ready-made inks or paints to illuminate the poems. If they're so inclined, they can try their hand at making ink using organic substances (flowers, berries, plants), like Theophane. They can use the resources listed at the end of the book to start their research.
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Works Cited
Millen, C. M. 2010. The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane. Illustrated by Andrea Wisnewski. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge.
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