Letters in Winterfylleth - Autumn Newsletter

2 days ago

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Letters in Winterfylleth

October Newsletter from

Letterdust.co.uk

Winterfylleth marked the beginning of winter for the Anglo-Saxons. It fell in October around the full moon of that month. There were only two seasons for the Anglo-Saxons - Summer and Winter - which feels about right to me. I'm either wearing a cardigan or I'm not.

When I'm wearing a cardigan I know its time to start preparing for the cold and the dark, and to start the rituals that will boost my resilience during the hard months. I love burning clove and orange at this time of year in my oil burner. The orange is uplifting and vibrant, whilst the clove grounds and settles my soul. I use oils from Tisserand as they are an English company who source exceptionally high quality and sustainable oils. Plus, Robert Tisserand literally wrote the book on essential oils use!

Trick or Treating

The equinoxes were a liminal time of year, when the spirit world could, and did, bleed into the corporeal world. To blend in with these spirits that walked the earth, Brythonic peoples would dress up in terrifying costumes of animal hide to try to blend in with the spirits and avoid their notice. Later on, as the Christian traditions of charity and neighbourliness took hold, people would knock on the doors of their neighbours and exchange prayers for soul cakes. These traditions merged into the modern trick or treating that we see these days.

This year I'm making soul cakes (spiced, dried fruit, biscuity-cake-things) to hand out alongside our modern tradition of Haribo, and I'll be going trick or treating with my daughter. She is going as the Grim Reaper, and I'll be her faithful Ghost.

A Time of Rituals

Soulful landscape of Tintagel inspiration for short story King Arthur

Winter was a time of rituals for ancient peoples in Northern European. The months ahead were cold, dark and long, and the risk of death significantly increased. They appealed to any and every higher power, in the hope that they would receive that stroke of luck, providence or serendipity that would be the thing that saw them through to the growing seasons again.

Other key rituals included reciting stories, especially the myths and legends of the people. Brythonic people lived in an oral druidic system. The druids were much more than religious priests and priestesses. They were historians, bards, doctors, judges and mystics. Sadly, we have very few of their stories left to us, but we do have some subsequent myths that may help to indicate places, people and themes who were important to them.

One of those places is Tintagel and the stories that surround one of our greatest legends - King Arthur. This ancient, atmospheric castle is famous as hisbirthplace and it is the wellspring of many myths and legends.

Whether or not King Arthur and the famous Druid Merlin actually lived here, this place and its people were remarkable enough for their stories to echo down the generations and the themes of love, loss, pride, and the fight to preserve something honourable and decent against the tides of progress and change.

Stormy Starts

Stormy Atlantic waves hitting the Cornish coast during a seasonal transition

The first storm of the season landed at the end of October, so obviously we headed west to meet it. The British Isles are part of the Western European Naming Group, which names storms for the Isle of Ireland, the Isle of Britain, the thousands of islands around these two larger masses, and the Netherlands.

Our storms generally come rolling in off the Atlantic courtesy of the gulf stream and hit the western-most parts of the country first.

Cornwall, Britain's western most county, is fully exposed to the ravages of the oceanic elements (being as there is no land between it and Nova Scotia), and bears the brunt of many storms.

It's beautiful, atmospheric, and very, very wet and windy - a perfect transition into the season of Winterfylleth!