This is very interesting, how the author, a priest wonders around the mountains and gets shelter and food at the price of having sex and giving material items. It is also interesting how his description of the same women will change between the text and the song. This makes me question what the author finds attractive. This section makes women see very materialistic. It makes it seem as if all they want is jewelry and sex. Perhaps these girls represent humans needs, because in order to get shelter and food, the author must also have sex. Looking at this as is a journey of the human soul, perhaps pain, cold, and tiredness are representative of earthly things, while rest (like sunday they day of rest), bread (like holy bread), water (like holy water), and sex are representative of heavenly things?
In the last story, when the arch bishop bans holy men from having mistresses, it is very surprising how strongly the holy men in the story react. They tell in detail of how enjoyable recent sexual encounters have been with their loved ones. One speaks of a bath he had with his love, the other speaks of how his orphan who he has raised is his mistress. He figures that because he has done such a rightful thing as to raise an orphan, he may keep her as his sexual partner. Is she even willing? One imagines she may not be. These holy men really value sex. They want to appeal the rule. They will go up to the highest of holy men on earth and tell them that they do not have the right to stop anyone from having sex. One even said that he would physically harm the arch bishop. Sex is a big deal to these priests. This is very different from today. The nature of the text as a whole shows how open sex was in Catholicism in the past.
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