Frost must freeze, glistening ice-clear

Review of 'Winters in the World' by Eleanor Parker (2022)

Winter byð cealdost, 
lencten hrimigost - he byð lengest ceald; 
sumor sunwlitegost - swegel byð hatost; 
hæarfest hreðeadegost; hælðum bringeð 
geres wæstmas, þa þe him God sendeð.

Winter is coldest, 
spring frostiest - it is longest cold; 
summer sun-brightest - the sun is hottest; 
harvest most glory-blessed; it brings to men 
the year’s fruits, which God sends them.

Maxims II (in Parker, 2022: 9)

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Hi there,

How have the first few weeks of 2024 been treating you? We’ve been experiencing some plunging temperatures here in South Yorkshire: I went for a run up to Stanage Edge yesterday and found myself traipsing through snow!

I have finally finished reading Winters in the World by Eleanor Parker and WOW. What a beautiful exploration of the way that the Anglo-Saxons wrote about the seasons of the year. I know, it sounds like quite a random concept, but as a (not-so) closet hippie who has been trying to lean into seasonality more recently, I was very interested to hear what my favourite time period had to say.

What is the premise of the book?

Winters in the World travels through the Anglo-Saxon year via Old English poetic and narrative language. Parker takes her readers on a journey through each season in turn, allowing us to listen to real-life experiences in the words of the historical actors themselves. She shares the histories and etymologies of seasonal names, key festivals, as well as their development over time, to show what these might have meant to those who kept them. The book hangs on the structure of extensive Old English quotations, most of which are Parker’s original translations.

Frost must freeze, fire burn up wood, 
the earth grow, ice build bridges,
water wear a helmet, wondrously locking up
shoots in the earth. One alone shall unbind
the frost’s fetters: God most mighty.
Winter must pass, good weather come again,
summer bright and hot.

Maxims I¹

What I enjoyed about this quote is the way that it brings out the inevitability of the seasons, something that we still experience today. We have no control over the weather and its impact on our landscape, a bond we share with those who lived in these lands 1000+ years ago. For us, too, frost binds the earth in its chains each day until the ‘good weather’ returns to release the shoots held prisoner in the earth.

What does it do well?

Parker draws out both our connection and disconnection with these distant ancestors in our engagement with the seasonality of our world. We experience the changing seasons in much they same way as they did: moving through the cold and warm each year; seeing plants bud, blossom, fade, and hibernate; connecting emotionally with joy, pain, sadness, and love. And yet, twenty-first-century comforts allow us to maintain a semblance of neutrality through the year, as central heating and hot water provides the pretence of warm weather throughout the colder months. Their key festivals were centred around seasonal markers such as harvest, but Parker shows how many of our festivals today, though seasonal at root, have become separated from this heritage.

Snow bound the earth
in winter tumults. The skies grow cold
with hard hail-showers, and ice and frost,
hoary battle-marchers, locked up the homeland of men,
the dwellings of the people. The lands were frozen
with cold and chilly icicles; the force of the waters was shrunken.
Across the river-currents ice built a bridge,
a dark sea-road.

Beowulf²

Parker also illuminates the beautiful language used by Anglo-Saxon writers to describe the seasons. In the quote below from Beowulf, for example, the writer suggests that winter traps or imprisons the earth, locking it up and weakening its power. This, to me, brings a beauty to the season of winter, a romantic element that I’m not sure I often consider once we are past the twinkling lights and cosy fires of the Christmas period. She also draws out the agency given to the seasons in Anglo-Saxon writings: here it is the snow and the ice doing the binding up. This contrasts with our tendency to be very human-centric when we think about the world around us today, and yet the Anglo-Saxons knew that these things come and go without our interaction, happening to us rather than by our efforts.

The wise hero must perceive how terrible it will be
when all this world’s wealth lies waste,
as now in various places throughout this earth
walls stand blown by the wind,
covered with frost, buildings snow-swept.
The halls decay, the ruler lies
deprived of joys, the troop all dead …
Thus the Creator of men destroyed this dwelling-place,
until, deprived of its citizens’ revelry,
the ancient work of giants stood empty.

The Wanderer³

What does it not do so well?

I’m not sure I can think of something here - this is genuinely one of the best books I’ve read in a long time! So well-researched, engaging, and interesting throughout.

What’s a standout quote or section?

Again, it’s hard to choose this as I loved the whole book. If I had to choose, then perhaps I resonated most with the section on winter, comprising three chapters: ‘From winter into winter’, ‘Midwinter light’, and ‘New Year to Candlemas’. In England, we currently find ourselves deep in the season of winter, with a particularly cold snap bringing temperatures of -5C (in the daytime!) to us here in South Yorkshire. Snow blankets much of the country and the sky changes daily between crisp, clear blue and slightly hazy white. Parker’s discussion of the Anglo-Saxon winter made me realise how easy it is to become disconnected from the seasons and how much I lament this. I long to get back in touch with nature and the passing of seasons throughout the year - something that, I think, is easier now that I have moved away from the built-up landscape of Greater London. I also felt particularly drawn to the language used by Anglo-Saxon writers to describe the seasons, which just feels so romantic and beautiful. I found myself inspired to copy them when writing the latest instalment of Bertha’s Tale: check it out here and let me know whether you think I succeeded!

The ocean seethed with storms,
battled against the wind; winter locked the waves
in icy bonds, until another spring came
to the dwellings, just as it does now still,
the gloriously bright weathers which unchangingly
follow their appointed seasons. The winter was past.

Beowulf⁴

Who should read this book?

Anyone interested in…

• Anglo-Saxon history

• Seasonality and connecting with the natural movements of the year

• The history of words and their etymologies

Let me know if you decide to read Winters in the World, and comment to share below what you’ve been reading recently and what the weather is like where you are!

Wishing you all the best as always,

H

1. Parker (2022), p.51.

2. Ibid, p.42-3.

3. Ibid, p.57.

4. Ibid, p.48