Winters in the World:
Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year by Eleanor Parker
A review of all that Anglo-Saxon literature has to tell us about the year and the seasons.
The varying names, half recognizable. In one sense, they had two seasons, winter and sumor (or gear, the source of our year), but they also spoke of lencten, when the days lengthened, and haerfest, or harvest. It goes into their symbolic significance, all the more so in that so limited our sources are that a metaphor of "winter-cold misery" is a vital part of our evidence.
Also hits on days and seasons. Christmas was Midwinter, and took centuries to be called Christmas. Easter was early, and even used to translate Passover. The call of the cuckoo was the herald that it was safe to take to the sea again. Summer is generally favorable, the earthly paradise of the phoenix is described as endless summer, but "The Wife's Lament" has her lament the summer-long days of her suffering. Haerfest might technically last until early November but in reality ended with the harvest, even though the slaughter was yet to come, with Martinmas.
And much more.
A review of all that Anglo-Saxon literature has to tell us about the year and the seasons.
The varying names, half recognizable. In one sense, they had two seasons, winter and sumor (or gear, the source of our year), but they also spoke of lencten, when the days lengthened, and haerfest, or harvest. It goes into their symbolic significance, all the more so in that so limited our sources are that a metaphor of "winter-cold misery" is a vital part of our evidence.
Also hits on days and seasons. Christmas was Midwinter, and took centuries to be called Christmas. Easter was early, and even used to translate Passover. The call of the cuckoo was the herald that it was safe to take to the sea again. Summer is generally favorable, the earthly paradise of the phoenix is described as endless summer, but "The Wife's Lament" has her lament the summer-long days of her suffering. Haerfest might technically last until early November but in reality ended with the harvest, even though the slaughter was yet to come, with Martinmas.
And much more.