As the holidays draw closer and the weather in the Midwest turns cold and snowy, I am reminded of the description of a cold morning and the new year crawling ever closer in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:
NOW neȝez þe Nw Ȝere, and þe nyȝt passez, Þe day dryuez to þe derk, as Dryȝtyn biddez; Bot wylde wederez of þe worlde wakned þeroute, Clowdes kesten kenly þe colde to þe erþe, Wyth nyȝe innoghe of þe norþe, þe naked to tene; Þe snawe snitered ful snart, þat snayped þe wylde; Þe werbelande wynde wapped fro þe hyȝe, And drof vche dale ful of dryftes ful grete. Þe leude lystened ful wel þat leȝ in his bedde, Þaȝ he lowkez his liddez, ful lyttel he slepes….1 |
Now New Year draws near and the night passes, day comes driving the dark, as ordained by God; but wild weathers of the world awake in the land, clouds cast keenly the cold upon earth with bitter breath from the North biting the naked. Snow comes shivering sharp to shrivel the wild things, the whistling wind whirls from the heights and drives every dale full of drifts very deep. Long the knight listens as he lies in his bed; though he lays down his eyelids, very little he sleeps....2 |
These mornings become all too familiar at the end of fall semester, and sometimes, the best way to spend a cold, sleepy morning is simply to read a fresh book. If you are looking to escape the holiday reveling and winter cold with new monographs or an edited collection to read, check out our new releases, including Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Women in Tenth-Century England, edited Rebecca Hardie, and Pedro Calderón de la Barca and the World Theatre in Early Modern Europe, by Rasmus Vangshardt. It has been a busy year, and we have so much more planned for 2024.
And as we near the new year and the close of 2023, Medieval Institute Publications would like to take a moment to thank all of our authors, readers, reviewers, editors, and supporters! And we hope everyone spends the holidays celebrating and taking time to sleep more than a little. We look forward to working with you in the new year!
1 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967), Early English Books Online, Ann Arbor Michigan, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/Gawain, accessed on Dec. 19, 2023.
2 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by J. R. R. Tolkien (New York: Harper Collins, 1967): 1998-2007.