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Welcome to Kildonan Times ezine! Kildonan Times is the occasional newsletter/ezine of the novel, Clovenstone, Stones Seven, and beyond to things medieval, Celtic, literary, and mythic. BACK ISSUES OF KILDONAN TIMES are published on the Kildonan Times website. If you wish to read or print any of the back issues, the Kildonan Times website can be accessed from pages on Clovenstone Chronicles or you can go directly to the website at Kildonan Times You can also subscribe to Kildonan Times at either site. KILDONAN TIMES MIDSUMMER!
GORSE In my discussions of herbs in all the issues of Kildonan Times, I present only general information. It is not intended to be a guide for the use of the herbs. If you wish to use any of the herbs described in Kildonan Times, consult an herbalist or a definitive guide book to using herbs. ************************* The web page on Cornish Customs (see article below on Midsummer) begins poetically, As the last glimmers of the setting sun strike the heather and gorse of the now still Cornish Moors, orange glimmers of light flicker; fire beacons blaze forth from hilltops from Lands End in the far South West to Kithill on the Cornwall Devon border. My memories of walks on moors and common grounds from Cornwall to Scotland are colored with yellow gorse and purple-pink heather. Gorse thrives in Wales, Ireland, France, and even Denmark. It is a stiff, woody, prickly bush that blooms almost all the time. Gorse, (from the Anglo-Saxon word gorst) is also called furze (from the Anglo-Saxon fyrs), whin, prickly broom, goss and frey. Gorse is shelter for small wild animals and good wood for burning. The peasants depended on it in early years. Chopped or bruised, it makes excellent livestock fodder. Gorse is invasive, spreads fast, and, like Peter Rabbit's briar patch, creates a nearly impenetrable mass of branches and prickers. The flowers of gorse yield a good yellow dye, and burned gorse ashes are very alkaline. They are used to make soap, or as dressing for fields. It grows well near the sea. I have walked at times up a seacoast hill on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales where narrow paths wound through dense, yellow gorse. The twisted, prickly shrubs were at home there with treeless land and chill sea winds. The seeds and flowers have been used for teas to cure jaundice, scarlet fever, and diarrhea. The seeds were soaked and sprinkled around the house to kill fleas. Folklore says that the early Danes made beer from the flowers of gorse. Because it has been so important to the survival of folks close to the land for centuries, gorse plays a large role in earth-centered religions both ancient and modern. If it grows around your property, it will protect you from curses or hexes. It provides a barrier which protects from influence of the Sidhe (Irish faeries who steal people away). Made into a 'broom' gorse will sweep away evil influences from your house. Sweep from east to west chanting "out with evil, from this house, as the sun travels, bring us peace." ************* My basic herb references for the herbs I use either for food or medicine in this feature are: The Herb Book by John Lust (Bantam Books), Rodale's Encyclopedia of Herbs (Rodale Press) and Herbs by Lesley Bremness (DK Publishing), plus several websites.
Here is a treat that could be an appetizer or as a side dish, or even the main dish of a light meal. It can be made a day ahead and refrigerated, and will be fine for a couple of days if kept cold. VIAUNDE OF CYPRES RYALLE (Cold Chicken Mincemeat) Olde English: Take the braun of capounes or of hennes ysothe or rosted and bray it in a morter small as myed bred, and take good almound melk lyed with amodyn or with floure of rys & colour it with safroun and boyle it wel. & carge it with rosted braun,and sesn with honey and salt, and florsche it with maces and quibybes. redaction: (modern translation) COLD CHICKEN MINCEMEAT 4 cups cooked chopped chicken Arrange the cold cooked chicken in your serving dishes. Pour the hot syrup over the chicken. Chill well; serve cold. Source: Hildegarde's Kitchen p. 51 Traveling Dysshes (serves 8-10 at feast or 4-6 as entree)
MIDSUMMER! In the Clovenstone Chronicles books, I named the summer solstice SeumorFest, a celebration of the longest day of the year. It is at SeumorFest that the Erthe goddess Tuatha appears to Fiona to give her guidance in her quest for Clovenstone. SeumorFest is celebrated in Kildonan with fires on mountains and in meadows where local witches perform rituals to pray to the gods of Erthe for a good harvest. Peasants and herders dedicate gifts of milk, wool, and grains to the gods also to appeal for a good harvest and healthy sheep for shearing. Witches in the Chronicles range in skills from the neighborhood "wicche," who practices healing charms and religious rituals for the locals, to a Prime Wizards like Maeve and Vidar, who possess immense magickal powers. While surfing the web a while back, I happened upon a website about Cornish Customs, http://www.cornishlight.co.uk/midsummer-kithill.htm and found a description of a Midsummer's Night Festival that is still celebrated in Cornwall. The page was still under construction, and a bit sketchy. It does, however, present one Midsummer's Eve Fire ceremony in detail. A woman, "Lady of the Flowers" casts into the fire a bunch of herbs bound together, both good herbs and bad ones. The ceremonial ritual speeches are below. The first one is in Cornish Gaelic, as used in the ceremony. An English translation follows. The Ceremony in Cornish ORDENARY: Towl lemmyn an blejyow! English Translation MASTER OF CEREMONIES: A FEW THOUGHTS FROM THE EDITOR (me, Ruth) It's summer, and I'm back on the road again. We spent the first couple of weeks of this summer's trip visiting American history and cultural sites in Virginia and Pennsylvania. As I have mentioned before, I write short travelogues, which I call "Postcards from the Road," to friends and family who are interested in them. Today is the first of June. We spent the Friday of Memorial. Day Weekend, last Friday, at Gettysburg Military National Park. It is a memorial to the thousands who died on the Gettysburg battlefield in the Civil War as well as the site of a battle that turned the tide of the war. Following is a selection from what I wrote in "Postcards," which has some news about the national park, and some impressions of the battlefield. "We began at Gettysburg park with the Cyclorama, the huge nineteenth painting in the round of the Battle of Gettysburg. It was as amazing as it had been thirty years ago when we last saw it. One section was missing, covered by dust clothes and scaffolding as it undergoes restoration. The interpreter told us that sixteen feet of sky was also missing from the top of the painting we were seeing. But it is coming back. Cyclorama will close in November, and the whole building, as well as the present visitor center building, will disappear. The ridge they sit on will be returned to its condition at the time of the battle, and added to the battlefield. A new visitor center will be built farther away. In it, the Cyclorama will be restored to its full size and exhibited as it was when it was shown over a century ago. It's something to look forward to, but we have to be patient. The new building will not open until late 2007 or perhaps 2008... ******************* ...On the auto tour, we could appreciate the study and work that has gone and still goes into preserving that land. The single large tree, the copse of trees, the wheat field, the fences stand as they did on July 1-3, 1863. It was almost eerie to stand where men had fought hand to hand to gain a foot of ground, like walking into the Cyclorama and the past. We drove the roads, walked paths, and visited monuments on the battlefield until almost dusk. The lowering sun on the memorial statues sculpted them in bright golden highlights and sharp black shadows, so surreal that they might have leaped off the pedestals and charged up the ridges. There are many other colonial and civil war battlefields we can visit. Gettysburg sums up the spirit of all of them, historically sacred grounds to the bravado, pain, and futility of war." R
And, as always, tell your aunts, uncles, cousins and friends about the novels of Clovenstone Chronicles. Give them an adventure! Order your copy of Clovenstone or Stones Seven from: or your local bookstore.
All art work and text © copyrighted by Ruth McIntyre-Williams unless otherwise noted. |
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ERBS
EDIEVAL FOODS
OTES
