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

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This is a lyrical and wide-ranging exploration of the Anglo-Saxon world through its literature, using the framing device of the cycle of the traditional year. A someone who has read most of the Old English poetry and other works Parker draws on, some of it in the original language, it was a pleasure to revisit it via this perspective. She highlights both the elements which are timeless and have not changed and the ways in which this world was very alien. Spring and summer are welcomed and celebrated, but a world in which winter was hard and sometimes fatal didn't go in much for Keatsian wistfulness about autumn, for example. 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.

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. She also writes beautifully about many Anglo-Saxon poems. Time and time again, she models how to read literature closely and sensitively. Winters in the World isn’t simply a book about the Anglo-Saxon calendar and world view, it’s a great example of what literary criticism can be when it’s done well. In that sense, it reminds me of Tom Shippey’s The Road to Middle-Earth , another book which opens works of literature as you would unwrap a gift rather than dissecting them as you might a cadaver. 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.

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What is clear in the poem is that Gawain leave the comforts of home at such an unpropitious time of year because, just like Bilbo and Frodo, he has a task to do which no one else can complete, a quest which only he can fulfil. Like them, he cannot wait for ideal travelling conditions. What matters here is courage, not good weather. BBC World Service – The Forum, Cnut: England's Viking king, The Viking's bloodthirsty Skaldic poetry". BBC . Retrieved 5 February 2020.

Foot, Sarah (19 August 2022). "Conquered: The last children of Anglo-Saxon England by Eleanor Parker". Church Times . Retrieved 26 August 2022. Drawing on a wide variety of source material, including poetry, histories and religious literature, medievalist Eleanor Parker of the University of Oxford takes you on a journey through the cycle of the year in Anglo-Saxon England. Most of all I felt a deep appreciation with the sacred cycle of time both then and now. I really love the Catholic liturgical cycles and how they connect with the natural world. This book brings that to the fore since the Anglo-Saxons were so much more in tune with nature and the seasons. 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. This sense of relationship between nature and humanity is something the Anglo-Saxon poets drew upon. They used it as a metaphor for emotion, and as a way to understand the processes of the world that their Christian god had created. The church calendar, and its method of dating, does, then, determine the course of the book. However, 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. The line between myth and fact can be a fine one, and the reader can on occasion sense the extent of Parker’s frustration at modern notions, particularly when there is no textual evidence from the era to support various claims.

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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. Connelly, Charlie (15 December 2022). "Tales from a lush life: the non-fiction books of the year". The New European . Retrieved 23 December 2022.

Now, this is very curious because, as Eleanor Parker points out, autumn is very much not the time for journeying (not even the Anglo-Saxon autumn which began on 7th August!). Spring is the journeying season and, of course, that is when Bilbo sets off at the start of The Hobbit . He leaves in April, a month forever associated with pilgrimage since Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales . But the key date at the start of The Lord of the Rings is not April 28th (when Bilbo first leaves Bag End) but September 22nd, Bilbo’s birthday and Frodo’s too. Rather than leave Bag End in spring, they leave on or about the autumn solstice. In other words, they leave the Shire at precisely the wrong time of year. Let’s take just a couple of examples, starting with the most important date in The Lord of the Rings : 25th March. This was the day on which the ring was destroyed and Sauron fell. As a direct consequence, it also became the first day of the new year in Gondor. What’s more, it was the day Aragorn arrived at the Bridge of Baranduin and the birthday of Elanor, Sam’s first child. (Elanor is, I think, a much more significant character in The Lord of the Rings than is widely recognised, but more on her another time.) As Eleanor Parker points out, many Anglo-Saxons believed that the 25th March was also the date of the Annunciation, the date of the Crucifixion, and the eighth day of creation. In other words, it was the most important date in history.Holgate, Andrew; Millen, Robbie (4 March 2022). "The best books of 2022". The Times . Retrieved 11 March 2022.

Eleanor Parker’s 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. Beginning during the darkest days of winter, when writers read desolation and dread in the world, we are introduced to the hopefulness of the festivals of returning light; the promise of better (and less hungry) times ahead as the days lengthen and the plants bud; the fruitfulness of the harvest; and the calm reflection of the autumn. We feel the thrumming in our souls as we recognize on some primaeval level the connectedness of humanity, the environment, and the cycles of nature and life, even if other aspects – the marking of the seasons, the religiosity, the extremes of feast and famine – are alien to us. And we approach an appreciation of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors as we dive into the rhythms of their lives and language, their turns of phrase, and the force of their habits. So one day, although autumn was now getting far on, and winds were cold, and leaves were falling fast, three large boats left Lake-town, laden with rowers, dwarves, Mr Baggins, and many provisions… The only person thoroughly unhappy was Bilbo.There is, of course, a great deal more to be said about both Tolkien and the Anglo-Saxon year but that’s probably enough from me for the time being. I’ll finish with another quotation from Eleanor Parker which really sums up the importance of the calendar to the Anglo-Saxons (and not just the Anglo-Saxons). She’s writing about Aelfric and other authors of his time, though her words could equally apply to Tolkien, I think: Eleanor Parker only mentions Tolkien in passing in this book, though she has written and spoken about him in detail elsewhere. However, her book incidentally provides all sorts of insights for anyone who enjoys Tolkien’s fiction.