# Sir Able is Tannhauser

*The Urth list — 3 messages, 3 voices, 19 May 2006*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4599>

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### BlackWilbo at cs.com
*19 May 2006, 01:51*

Surely I can't be the first to notice correspondences between Sir Able and 
Tannhauser?  Have misspelled a search , or something?

Black Wilbo

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### Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
*19 May 2006, 04:57 · in reply to BlackWilbo at cs.com*

For those of us who aren't big opera fans, can you give us
an outline of Tannhauser?

> On 5/18/06, BlackWilbo at cs.com <BlackWilbo at cs.com> wrote:
> Surely I can't be the first to notice correspondences between Sir Able and
> Tannhauser?  Have misspelled a search , or something?
> 
>  Black Wilbo
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> To post, write urth at urth.net

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### maru dubshinki
*19 May 2006, 05:54 · in reply to Dan'l Danehy-Oakes*

> On 5/19/06, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com> wrote:
> For those of us who aren't big opera fans, can you give us
> an outline of Tannhauser?
> 
> On 5/18/06, BlackWilbo at cs.com <BlackWilbo at cs.com> wrote:

>> Surely I can't be the first to notice correspondences between Sir Able and
>> Tannhauser? Have misspelled a search , or something?
>> 
>> Black Wilbo

> From the ever-redoubtable Wikipedia: "According to medieval German
> legend, Tannh?user is a knight and poet who found the Venusburg, the
> subterranean home of Venus, and spent a year there worshipping the
> goddess. After leaving the Venusburg, Tannh?user is filled with
> remorse, and travels to Rome to ask Pope Urban IV if it is possible to
> be absolved of his sins. Urban replies that forgiveness is as
> impossible as it would be for his papal staff to blossom. Three days
> after Tannh?user's departure Urban's staff blooms with flowers;

messengers are sent to retrieve the knight, but he has already
returned to Venusburg, never to be seen again."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tannh%C3%A4user&oldid=52446220
Not our best article, to be sure, but serviceable for our purposes).

If I don't miss my guess, Wilbo is struck by the resemblance of a
knight spending time in fairy lands of some sort, returning obsessed
with honor and forgiveness and such-like, and eventually returning.

~maru

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