For the thirty-fifth time, I think, Claire and I exchanged Valentine’s Day cards today. Valentine’s Day is a huge industry, worth around $20 billion dollars a year I read, but where does the association of Saint Valentine with lovers come from?
From the academic papers I have read, despite many efforts to link various Valentines with love, the originator is Geoffrey Chaucer and his 699 line poem, Parliament of Fowls, printed by Caxton in 1478.
”Saint Valentine, who art high aloft – Thus sing the small fowls for your sake –Now welcome summer, with your sun soft, That this winter’s weather does off-shake.”
Why did Chaucer choose Saint Valentine for his poem about birds and love? Well birds seem very active in our garden today. Mid-February heralds a promise of spring, renewal, and love. When I wrote Fire and Earth, the second book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, I had to look up a lot of Saint’s days in my research. There is no shortage of saints. Perhaps Chaucer simply chose Saint Valentine to suit the setting of his poem and the time of year.
I’m so glad to have written about Chaucer today. I thought I’d check what happened in history on this day, and find myself writing about Al Capone and the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. I must have another go at reading The Canterbury Tales.