I think it pretty accurately described the walks of many people that travel the Way of Saint James today, though. I did talk to one woman there that had walked both the Camino Frances and the Camino del Norte with her husband, and they were now planning on starting in Rome and walking from there, going as far as Siena this time. I didn't mention that I had just visited Siena--I didn't even know it was on the Via Francigena!
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| the Via Francigena |
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| The Cathedral in Siena (Duomo di Siena) |
I think the people that would most appreciate this film, however, would be those that had actually walked at least a portion of the route. I can't imagine discussions of tendonitis, blisters, the need to reduce this weight of your backpack, and snoring would appeal to anyone under normal conditions, but maybe I'm wrong. The photography, however, was spectacular. And listening to some of the people there who had never been amazed me as they completely underestimated the physical rigors of the journey even after hearing all of this. . .I'm just hoping that I'm not underestimating the Via Podiensis portion that I'm intending to do as I understand it is more strenuous than the Camino Frances. . .
I have been wondering about the word ultreia which apparently was used more in times past in encouraging people along the Chemin de Compostelle, today more and more replaced by buen camino. Ultreia and its response et suseia apparently date from the 12th century Codex Calixtenus I mentioned in my previous blog, but no one is completely sure of the meaning. It has been suggested that one is "onward" the other "upward", so "onward and upward", or, according to another source, ultreia was wished going, suseia on the return journey. Another source suggests it basically means "hallelujah". In my research, however, I discovered a somewhat modernized version* (i.e. using the original chorus) of an old French pilgrim song sung along the journey:
Ultreïa
Tous les matins nous prenons le Chemin,tous les matins nous allons plus loin,
jour après jour la route nous appelle,
c’est la voix de Compostelle!
Chorus:
Ultreïa! Ultreïa! Et sus eia!
Deus adjuva nos!
Chemin de terre et Chemin de foi,
voie millénaire de l’Europe,
la voie lactée de Charlemagne,
c’est le Chemin de tous mes jacquets!
Et tout là-bas au bout du continent,
Messire Jacques nous attend,
Depuis toujours son sourire fixe
Le soleil qui meurt au Finisterre.
which might be roughly translated:
Every morning we take the path,
Every morning we go farther,
Day after day the road calls us,
The voice of [Santiago de] Compostela!
Chorus:
Onward! Onward! And upward!
God help us!
Earthly path, heavenly one,
thousand year old European route,
the Milky Way of Charlemagne,
the Way of all the pilgrims of Saint James!
And over there at the end of the continent,
Santiago awaits us,
his smile always fixed
[on] the sun that dies at Finisterre.
And recently, a German pilgrim, Falk Ritter, returned from his Jakobsweg, and posted some fantastic photos of the Via Podiensis on the Facebook Camino/Via Podensis/Le Puy/Chemin St Jacques/la Voie du Puy-en-Velay page. He made a direct link available to his Picasa postings: click here for Falk's Picasa link which is motivation enough to go! I'm not sure what people do with all these wonderful photos--I'm beginning to accumulate quite a number myself, even though mine aren't necessarily of the greatest quality. Right now my last year's Camino de Santiago photos serve as a screen-saver for my computer, and I love looking at them. They never seem to get old. . .
* The modern version, very popular especially among Francophone pilgrims, was written by Jean-Claude Benazet, the founder of the Fraternité internationale du Chemin de Saint-Jacques. You can listen to him singing it here along with an explanation about the song in French.
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