Celtic scholars have begun work on compiling a dictionary of the earliest Celtic languages, from a variety of sources including Ogham and Classical sources. The project, hosted at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth, while directed by Dr. Simon Rodway ofAberystwyth, is collaborative, and will eventually be available in print and online. This project is…
November
The month of November, the 11th month of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar, was formerly the 9th month. The Modern English November derives from Middle English Novembre, which in turn derives from Latin November via Old French. The Latin root of November novem means nine, because before the Roman senate altered the calendar…
Teind
The Queen o Fairies she caught me, In yon green hill to dwell. And pleasant is the fairy land, But, an eerie tale to tell, Ay at the end of seven years We pay a teind to hell; I am sae fair and fu o flesh, I’m feard it be mysel (Tam Lin Child Ballad…
October
October 1. The tenth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar. Middle English Octobre, from Old French Octobre and Old English October, both from Latin Octōber, eighth month, from octō, eight; see oktō(u) in the Appendix of Indo-European roots (AHD). The root of the word October, octo, means “eight,” an odd ancestry of the tenth month of the calendar. That’s because back in the…
Cranberries
One year while working as volunteer staff for the Viable Paradise writer’s workshop on Martha’s Vineyard we discovered a local farm, Morning Glory farm, with locally grown produce, including fresh cranberries from nearby Cape Cod Massachusetts, and Carver (in Eastern Massachusetts), both places where commercial cranberry bogs are carefully cultivated, and the wild native cranberry…
Mistletoe
Mistletoe, while celebrated at Christmas for reasons that are, historically speaking, distant enough to be unattributable to a specific cause, is unfairly held in disdain the rest of the year. The green small-leaved white-berried plant, dismissed as a parasite most of the year, is, at Christmas, gathered in small bunches, woven with ribbons, and suspended…
December from Walters W. 425
December calendar images typically feature a pig slaughter, a common labor for December. In the case of the fragmentary prayer book from The Walters museum, Walters W. 425, a pig being butchered was the image for November. December calendar images, when they don’t feature a hog being butchered, often feature a boar hunt….
November from Walters W. 425
The November calendar page from The Walters Walters W. 425 features gold scrolling leaves in the margin, with a small Sagittarius astrological sign in a medallion in the margin. The November calendar has a very conventional scene depicting the labor of the month; Walters W. 425 f. 11r shows a man and a woman slaughtering a…
October from Walters W. 425
Walters W. 425 calendar pages for October, f. 9v and the primary image for the labor of October, Walters W. 425 f. 10r, both have greenery in their marginalia, though f. 9v also includes some striking blossoms, including a Heart’s Ease or Pansy, and a flower that looks very much like a Chrysanthemum, and one that might…
More on the Bristol Vulgate Cycle fragments about Merlin
Fragments of a medieval Merlin manuscript in Old French discovered two years ago in a Bristol’s central library have been more thoroughly examined. The fragments, found in a binding, are from the Old French Vulgate Cycle or Lancelot-Grail Cycle. While the Vulgate Cycle was composed circa 1220-1225, the fragments are dated to 1250–1275 via paleographic analysis, with…
