Green Knowe Readalong, Week Two

Haunting songs and very good horses

There’s a special, limited edition UK hardback of Wintering - designed for Christmas gifting and keeping - launching on Thursay. Order yours here or at your local bookshop • My interview with the lovely Jenna Abdou on 33Voices • Lots of people are gifting The Way Through Winter course and we’re already getting lovely feedback - thank you!

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Hello,

We’re over halfway through the book already, and there is a lot happening that seems quite unconnected at the moment - stories from the earthly lives of Toby, Linnet and a horse thief who arrived after their time - but those of you who’ve made it to the end will know that it’s all actually very significant. One thing that strikes me as I re-read this book is how beautifully it’s constructed.

Rebecca Armstrong

and I did not manage matching sweaters this time, but we’re in talks for next week. In the meantime, we talked about:

• Feste, the very best horse

• The use of song in the book, particularly Green Grow the Rushes and its witchy connotations

• Lucy M. Boston’s memoir of acquiring and restoring Hemingford Grey Manor, the real-life Green Knowe

• Linnet’s encounter with St Christopher

• Death and time throughout the book.

We also spend some time on the problematic treatment of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people in the book. For an insider account of GRT culture, I’d recommend Damien Le Bas’ excellent The Stopping Places. You might also like to explore the work of Delaine Le Bas (they are married), who was shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize.

If you’d like to listen to some of the songs mentioned, here are some good versions:

Green Grow The Rushes-o sung by Jennifer Rose or alternatively the Sesame Street version (or maybe you prefer the Sesame Street pondlife version?).

Coventry Carol King’s College always do the best version.

Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day which these days is usually performed in truncated form because the extended lyrics, as recorded by William Sandys in 1833, are antisemitic.

The Holly and the Ivy back on safe territory. But I got annoyed at all the excessively slow versions on Spotify. IMHO, this song should be sung at a vigorous clip. You can probably hum it anyway, without my interference. (It’s an interesting song though, with a long lineage I’ve added a footnote below for the curious)*.

Enough from me! Please tell us what you think: we adored reading your interpretations and responses last week. What did you think of the moment Tolly finally meets the children? Did Linnet really see St Christopher or was she just a bit feverish again? Exactly how excited are you to reach the end?

Coming up next:

Week 3 - Wednesday 18th December

To read in advance: From Alexander’s story to the end (pp. 105 onwards in my edition).

We learn more about Alexander’s powerful passion for music. Meanwhile, dark forces stir in Green Knowe.

Here’s a clip from our conversation, plus the transcript. Paid Subscribers can find the full recording further down.

Transcript Children Of Green Knowe Readalong, Week Two

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*Holly is commonly said to represent the crucifixion, with its prickles and blood-red berries. In the Cornish St. Day or Sans Day Carol, the lifecycle of holly berries carry the various phases of Christ’s life, white as the milk and the swaddling silk provided by his mother, green as the grass of Calvary, and black as death. But in The Holly and the Ivy, holly is used to represent Mary’s own suffering in multiple ways, its blossom signifying her purity, its berries ‘as red as any blood’ and prickles ‘as sharp as any thorn’ seeming to denote the pain of childbirth, and its bark ‘as bitter as any gall’ carrying the note of her sacrifice.

Older carols perhaps hint at pre-Christian symbolism in which the holly is male and the ivy is female. In The Contest of the Ivy and the Holly, which dates to the fifteenth century, the holly is ‘fair to behold’ and dancing vigorously with his merry men as the ivy and her maidens look on, weeping and suffering from chilblains. The holly is flocked by beautiful birds like the nightingale and the laverock or lark, while the ivy has only an owl, who eats her berries and cries ‘How! How!’ as she concedes mastery to the holly. Although both songs are quite different, they both contrast female loss and suffering against male ascendancy. At least Mary gets to bear the son of God. Poor Ivy just gets chapped hands.