Sorcerer in training
"Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine, was originally married to his older brother, Arthur. Naturally it was an Arranged Marriage, so when Arthur died young it was agreed that Henry would marry his brother's widow. This was somewhat problematic—the concept of affinity meant that the couple was technically considered incestuous, so the pope had to give special dispensation to allow it. When five of the couple's six children later died young (leaving only a daughter) Henry claimed that God disapproved of the marriage and that it should thus be annulled."
At the time of the proposed marriage, it was firmly established Arthur had never slept with Catherine, being far too ill. Henry's claim came after around twenty years and no male heir. The testimony for the divorce (that Catherine did sleep with Arthur) was described by one author as 'locker room stories'. Ouch
The Bible law allows marriage to a brother's widow if no issue from the original marriage. Part of this would be to continue the technical bloodline, and part to provide for the widow. The Levi tribe, Israel's priests, who were not allowed to do take their brothers' widows as wives. The widows would be taken care of by their tribe, since succoring widows and orphans was part of the priests' job, and could eventually remarry elsewhere. The priestly class was set apart from the other Israelites in many ways.
So one part of the Bible tells the Israelites at large one thing, and another part tells the Levites another. Has made for some fun quote mining through the years since. /sarcasm
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
True Tears
Just a minor nitpick... but who moved the "Game of Thrones" entry from "LITERATURE" to "LIVE ACTION TV"? I didn't even know that the A Song of Ice and Fire books had been turned into an HBO series by the time of putting in the entry...
Edited by Narrator1 ... Hide / Show Replies
My opinion is such things should be either noted as in [folder] in the later entry, or copied and possibly reworded, not moved. I don't think -and wouldn't depend on- anyone reading every. single. entry. in every folder. I certainly don't.
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
I am wondering if the situation in Heralds Of Valdemar (Queen marries second-born Prince of neighboring kingdom, relationship falls apart to the point of attempted murder, Queen meets third-born prince almost 20 years later and falls for him on the spot) qualifies as an inversion....
In the Bible example, did Leah pray to god to arrange for her father to swap her for Rachel, or did she do the swap herself? I'm confused. I always thought the father, Laban, was found guilty of tricking Jacob into marrying the eldest daughter first. It seems that, if Esau was such a jerk, there is no supernatural explanation needed for any of the things that happened.