Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

(Pisanello, Madonna della quaglia [Madonna of the quails], tempera on wood,  c. 1420; Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona)

Hello again! I’m sorry I’ve been away for so long, both here and on your blogs, I’ve fallen completely out of the loop and it feels strange now I have a moment to reflect upon it. I have missed you! The last weeks – maybe months? – have been a frenzy of teacher-training tasks, lengthy viruses and spurts of preparation for Christmas. Finally, all of that is finished and tomorrow we are setting off to stay with my parents in England for a week. From the news I understand that only the highest peaks of Britain are still above water and of course now rather crowded with the entire population clinging to them, so we are packing a boat, candles, tinned food.

In book news I am now deep in an Iris Murdoch binge, I had forgotten how good she is and how much I like her. This follows the Holly Roth detective novel I bought earlier this year, which I am afraid was pretty awful in terms of characterization, plot and style and yet whiled away a couple of plague-ridden hours most pleasantly, and some Ann Bridge, whose novels I enjoy but I have to take in small doses as she is so fearfully bossy.

Anyway, after the holidays I promise I shall write here much more frequently; I’ll reply to Florence’s questions and crack on with the Grimms’ tales. In the mean time, here is one of my favourite Christmas poems: the anonymous fifteenth-century ‘I syng of a mayden’, which survives in one copy, in the British Library (Sloane 2593). You can hear Benjamin Britten’s enchanting setting of it here.

I syng of a mayden
þat is makeles,
kyng of alle kynges
to here sone che ches.

He came also stylle
þer his moder was
as dew in aprylle,
þat fallyt on þe gras.

He cam also stylle
to his moderes bowr
as dew in aprille,
þat fallyt on þe flour.

He cam also stylle
þer his moder lay
as dew in Aprille,
þat fallyt on þe spray.

Moder & mayden
was neuer non but che –
wel may swych a lady
Godes moder be.

(þ is pronounced ‘th’; ‘che ches’ means ‘she chose’)

Merry Christmas, dear readers and fellow bloggers! Thank you for all your comments and all the pleasure your own web-logs have given me this year. May you all enjoy the holidays and let us all look forward to a splendid 2013!

Comments

[litlove]

Merry Christmas, dear Helen, and a very happy, healthy and productive 2013 to you and yours! I am right behind the packing of emergency survival supplies for the UK, wellingtons would be good, too, if you have any. We are waiting to see if we are flooded by the village pond, which would be really funny in an absurd way if it were happening to someone else. Hope you have a wonderful festive season, and looking forward to whatever you write in the New Year!

[Helen]

Oh my goodness litlove, I do hope you remain high and dry. I should not like a pond of any description creeping over my threshold, you have all my sympathy.

I hope that you manage to have a fabulous Christmas despite this. Until 2013!

[Joan Hunter Dunn]

Wishing you a good journey & a relaxing, loving, festive family time back home. At least the sparkles from everyone's trees & flashes of colour from wreaths adds a bit of colour to the grey skies.

[Alex]

I hope you get to England in time to hear the Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings College. It is a Christmas Eve tradition that we always stop whatever we are doing that afternoon and just let the wonderful music roll over us. As I write this the sun has just come out but certainly we have had some appalling weather over the last few days and I fear there is more to come. You are always welcome to join us at the top of our hill but getting here might be rather difficult, twice last week all the approach roads were under water. I feel like renaming it Mt Ararat.

[Christine Harding]

Have you listened to any of the Grimm Thoughts on BBC Radio 4? Last week and this week, 15 minutes each day, Marina Warner's musings on the Grimms, and some of the tales. It's fascinating stuff, although it is quite brief - longer slots would have been wonderful, but I am enjoying the series immensely.

[Stefanie]

Merry Christmas!

[Ana @ things mean a lot]

Have a wonderful holiday season, and best wishes for 2013! We've missed you too - looking forward to more posts of yours in the new year.

[Jenny]

A very belated merry Christmas! I am catching up on the blogs just now (oh so belatedly) and finally enjoying the restful part of my vacation. Laying about reading blogs and eating yummy foods. Oh how I don't want to get back to regular life! Why must we? But it will be nice to return to regular blogging.

[Iris]

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that 2013 will be a very happy year for you!

[Guilherme]

A very belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you as well!
Could you please shoot me an e-mail?

Thanks.

[Helen]

Hello and thank you all for your lovely comments! I hope that you all enjoyed the holidays and that 2013 has begun well for you.

Joan - who could fail to be delighted at all those sparkles? How right you are that the grey sets them all off so well, I hadn't considered that before.

Alex - my there was a lot of rain, even in East Anglia! I hope that you weathered the floods. It sounds as if things might have been just a bit too exciting at your house...

Christine, I almost wept when I read your comment because it was too late even for iPlayer and I should have loved to listen to them! Never mind, I am sure that they'll be repeated or perhaps even published somewhere. Or perhaps you could blog about them, hint hint? ;)

Merry Christmas to you too Stefanie! I'm looking forward to catching up with your posts.

Ana, that was kind! I hope that you're settling into your new home, here's to a wonderful 2013 for you.

I am with you completely Jenny, why must pesky regular life intrude on my holidays? I love Christmas food, including all the ones everyone hates, like Christmas pudding and Brussels sprouts. And all the booze, ahem. I hope you are feeling nicely rested now.

Thank you Iris! I hope the same for you, and am looking forward to your blogs!

And thank you Guilherme, I shall email you immediately after posting this.

I am looking forward to catching up on everyone's blogs, I think I've missed a good month's worth of writing and I am sad about that. I can't wait to get back to posting and reading regularly. Hurrah!