English major finds timely meaning, timeless themes in 14th-century poem
Sean Brenner I UCLA
“I wanted to feel like I was in the 14th century.”
For Eric Sican, a third-year English major, that mindset was a key component of a sophisticated research project on a Middle English poem called “Earthe Upon Earthe.”
The poem, whose original author is unknown, explores the relationship between humans and the planet, both as a source of life and as their eventual resting place in death. Over time, “Earthe Upon Earthe” came to exist in multiple versions — with verses likely added by many different authors, each with subtle variations in wording and meaning.
Sican’s research, which is supported by the UCLA/Keck Humanistic Research Awards program, aims to unravel those additions and differences, and to analyze how they reflected evolving medieval attitudes toward agricultural, medical and religious practices.
And while time-traveling back to the 1300s was not in the cards, Sican took a unique approach to his research. He not only scoured texts at UCLA’s Charles E. Young Research Library and William Andrews Clark Library, but — knowing that iterations of “Earthe” were sung during church services during the Middle Ages — he also arranged meetings with a half dozen Los Angeles priests and nuns.
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Photo credit: Sean Brenner/UCLA Humanities