Adam lay in bondage,
Bound in fetters strong;
Four thousand winters
Thought he not too long:
And all was for an apple,
An apple that he took,
As holy men find written
In their holy book.
Had the apple not been taken,
The apple taken been,
Never would Our Lady
Have been Heaven’s Queen.
Blessed be the time
That apple taken was!
Therefore we must sing,
“Deo gracias!”
— Medieval English Verse
published by Penguin Classics
05.16.2024: The apple: perhaps one of the most misunderstood fruits in all of history.