Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Oxford Myths & Legends

During my first couple of weeks as an Oxford student, I've been regaled by the older grad students with all sorts of myths and legends about Oxford student life. Here follows a short selection of things I've been told that I don't (quite) believe:

1. In the infamous Balliol vs. Trinity feud, the death toll stands at four: one Trinity student and three Balliol students.
For those of you who have never heard of the Balliol/Trinity feud, it supposedly started back in the sixteenth century, when Trinity was founded. Apparently Trinity's founder, Sir Thomas Pope, purloined some land from Balliol in order to build his new college. Balliol has never forgiven us, and the feud dates all the way back to, well, several decades probably. Anyway, they sing at us every time they have a party and get drunk, and occasionally attempt to scale the walls into our college. I guess they're just not satisfied with their own grounds!
Supposedly, sometime in the seventeenth century, one of Trinity's more elderly fellows had a stroke and lost his mind. He proceeded to march over to the senior common room, which overlooks Balliol's grounds, and shoot several Balliol students with a shotgun. According to the story I heard, he managed to kill three of them.
No one has yet provided me with any stories behind the one Trinity death.

2. Somewhere in the Oxford University Exam Regulations, it states that if you appear for your exams riding a horse, dressed in full armor and carrying a sword, the examiners must provide you with a pitcher of ale.
I'd like to see someone try this one.

3. Several years ago, an undergraduate fresher booked the Trinity college chapel for her wedding date seven years in advance. When asked whom she would be marrying, she replied that she didn't know yet.
The person who told this story swears that it's true, but I really don't believe it. It can't be very cheap to book the chapel!

4. Noted medievalist Eric G. Stanley once made a seminar presenter shrivel up and float away like a little puff of smoke solely through the use of sarcastic comments made after his or her presentation.
OK, so I made this one up. But it's by far the most believable myth I've recorded here.

On the subject of Oxford legendary, this Friday marks the feast of St. Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford. She was an eighth century abbess who managed to preserve her virginity from the lecherous King Algar of Mercia through the grace of God, who struck the King with a mysterious blindness which prevented him from finding the saint. I'll be attending an evening service in the chapel at Magdalen College in her honor.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the rivalry between Balliol and Trinity may even stretch back to the thirteenth century, when the Benedictine Durham College stood on the site of modern-day Trinity.

The rivalry nowadays no longer results in deaths, but still manages to be fairly entertaining. At the start of term, Trinity students regularly gather at the wall dividing the two colleges and sing rude songs at our rivals. Until recently these songs were actually printed in the Trinity College handbook.

Another interesting Trinity myth is the tale of the Organist in the Chapel. In the 1950s or '60s, Trinity had an organist who was quite obese. Now, the stairway leading up to the organ loft is rather narrow and bendy. It happened that the one night the organist suffered a heart attack and died after conducting a service. While he could squeeze himself up and down those stairs just fine while alive, his bearers could not succeed in fitting his stiffening corpse down them. In the end, they had to remove one of the Chapel's priceless stained glass windows and haul him out with a forklift or similar device. Legend has it his spirit was none too pleased with this arrangement, and still haunts the Chapel at night.

One could spend a lifetime collecting Oxford myths such as these, some of which are true and others which possess what John Colbert calls "truthiness".

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