Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year

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they wanted to read and interpret the natural world, to learn to recognize the meaning God had planted in it. They saw time and seasons, from the very first day of the world, as carefully arranged by God with method and purpose - so they believed it should be possible to organize the calendar not according to the randomness of custom and inherited tradition, but in a way that reflected that divine plan. Eleanor Parker’s book also got me thinking about the passing of the seasons in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (for The Lord of the Rings , in particular, is a very seasonal book) . Let’s look at these parallel passages, for example. On a side note this book makes Tolkien's use of Anglo-Saxon literature as one of his main influence so obvious. Even if you already know it. Not just names and stories but how he adapts their culture in more general terms. Holgate, Andrew; Millen, Robbie (4 March 2022). "The best books of 2022". The Times . Retrieved 11 March 2022. Connelly, Charlie (15 December 2022). "Tales from a lush life: the non-fiction books of the year". The New European . Retrieved 23 December 2022.

Explore the festivals, customs and traditions linked to the different seasons, and discover how Anglo-Saxons felt about the annual passing of the seasons and the profound relationship they saw between human life and the rhythms of nature. So what’s going on here? Part of the answer lies in the nature of their quest, which is difficult, even penitential. You sometimes get the impression that Chaucer’s pilgrims might as well be going on holiday but that’s clearly not the case for Bilbo or Frodo. They are in deadly danger the moment they leave Lake-town (in The Hobbit ) and the Shire (in The Lord of the Rings ). Maybe Tolkien was thinking more of Sir Gawain than The Canterbury Tales when he wrote these passages. Here, for example, is Tolkien’s own translation of a wonderful passage about the passing of the seasons in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight : Many of the festivals we celebrate in Britain today have their roots in the Anglo-Saxon period - come along to learn about their surprising history, as well as unearthing traditions now long forgotten. This sense of relationship between nature and humanity is something these poets drew upon. They used it as a metaphor for emotion, and for the processes of the world that their Christian god had created. Of course, as these poets and other writers were almost without exception learned men of the church, it is hardly surprising that the focus of their writing, and therefore the focus of this book, is very much Christian. Yet there is some effort to trace festivals, where appropriate, to their pagan past and, equally, to rubbish a few myths that have sprung up in the twentieth century. In some ways, then, 'Winters in the World' is an Anglo-Saxon, early-Christian version of Ronald Hutton's 'Stations of the Sun'.The importance of the cycle of the seasons and the way key dates marked agricultural activity and the maintenance of social structure is consistently emphasised. Parker also has little time for popular but largely erroneous ideas about pagan origins to festivals like Easter, noting that it took its name (indirectly) from a almost forgotten pagan goddess, but that is about all. This was a Christian world, though it's often a form of Christianity that is weird to any modern person even if they are themselves Christians. Saints were powerful beings that were "only a prayer away" in a world where otherworldly help would often be useful. We get insights into everyday life through a line or two in a poem and a sense of the endless cycle of sacred time even as it is punctuated by the coming of battles and the rise and fall of kings.

Hotjar sets this cookie to identify a new user’s first session. It stores a true/false value, indicating whether it was the first time Hotjar saw this user. I expected this book to be interesting. I didn't expect to fall in love with it. Eleanor Parker weaves a tapestry of poetry, literature, history, religion, and language to go through the seasons and practices of the Anglo-Saxon year. The result is a masterpiece that gave me a real sense of connection with the people of long ago. I have just finished reading Eleanor Parker’s excellent new book, Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year . Rather than write a traditional review, I thought I’d offer an article that is part review and part reflection with a Tolkienian twist. It is a book that does what its subtitle suggests. It takes us on a journey through the Anglo-Saxon year. Starting with winter and ending with autumn. Parker admits that what the Anglo-Saxon year looked like before Christianity is hard to piece together. Some of the evidence is there, some educated guesses can be made via Bede and other sources but a lot is lost. But the important dates in the Christian calendar give a structure to the year which is familiar to people even now. We still celebrate Easter and Christmas, but with - most of us - having lost our links to agriculture a lot has slipped into the cultural archives. Known perhaps by name, but not marked or celebrated by the majority of us. Are Harvest Festivals still a thing?Winters in the World' is a lyrical journey through the Anglo-Saxon year, witnessing the major festivals and the turning of the seasons through the eyes of the poets. It is a beautiful, charming, and descriptive voyage into what, to many of us, seems a very distant past. But in venturing forth, the early Middle Ages are shown to be, if not entirely familiar, then at least recognizable. Through Parker's writing, almost everything in this strange land, from the roots of our language to the sense of community - and the appreciation for drink - becomes closer, more relatable. This is no more so than in the appreciation for nature. As Parker points out, while on the surface our lives bear no relation to those of our distant ancestors, we still witness and mark the changing of the seasons; we still marvel at the stark beauty of a wintry landscape; we still enjoy the summer sun while snoozing under the branches of a spreading tree. The reliance on nature might be less pronounced now than a thousand years ago, but our responses to it are not so different. Today it’s become a popular myth that that symbols linked in modern Britain with Easter, especially eggs, hares or rabbits, derive from the worship of Eostre, but there’s no Anglo-Saxon evidence to support that. None of these symbols were linked to Easter in the Anglo-Saxon period; eggs weren’t associated with Easter in Britain until the later Middle Ages, hares and rabbits not until much later still. There’s nothing to suggest any continuity of customs between the pre-conversion festival and the Anglo-Saxon Christian Easter, and the modern observance of Easter owes nothing to Anglo-Saxon paganism, with the sole exception of its English name. Davies, Rhiannon (2 December 2022). "21 best books for history lovers: BBC History Magazine's Books of the Year 2022". BBC History . Retrieved 7 December 2022. Over these descriptions Parker lays a historical account of how the pagan, chilly Anglo-Saxons gradually came to accommodate the feast days of a religion that had its roots in the sweltering eastern Mediterranean. Not until the early decades of the 11th century did the Anglo-Saxon festival of middewinter start to cede to Cristesmæsse, while in the north of England and Scotland, where Scandinavian influence remained strong, the old Norse Jol or “Yule” lasted longer. The time-markers and calendar-makers were kept busy making sure that this patchworked world still hung together. It is, however, literary analysis with aplomb. The selection of texts is as diverse as possible, covering poetry, sermons, scientific texts, and more. The quotations are well chosen, expertly illustrating not just Parker's argument, but the feelings of the Anglo-Saxon writers. In addition, many of these quotations are provided both in translation (usually by Parker herself) and in the original Old English. For the geek, this can provide hours of amusement and a useful way of attempting to learn the language. There can be few better ways of showing the connections between now and then than by showing the similarity in vocabulary.