AND FINALLY
Anglo-Saxons wrote from the heart, too
ONE of my Christmas books is called Winters In The World by the academic Eleanor Parker. It’s subtitled A Journey Through The Anglo-Saxon Year — and I do realise it wouldn’t be required reading for everybody!
But I studied Old English as a part of my tough English language and literature degree, spent two years moaning and shirking, but in the final year buckled down at last (no choice, really) and realised I rather liked the subject. There’s a message there . . .
Anyway, this fascinating book takes the reader on a journey through the seasons and festivals of that long-ago world. We can still identify with the great cycles of nature because we live them each year.
One of the reasons for reading both history and literature is to realise both how humankind has developed and what we still have in common with our ancestors — for example, a belief in what the Anglo-Saxons called wyrd, or fate. Although we have choices, we have no control over living and dying, no more than over winter chill.
The book introduces me to a poem which speaks as loudly now as ever. It says:
Truth is most elusive, treasure is dearest, Gold to every man, and an old one is sagest, Wise with bygone years, he has experienced much. Sorrow is wondrously clinging. Clouds glide on. What does it mean? That in life, the truth is valuable, and yet ‘recollections may vary’, as our late Queen memorably said.
Of course, ‘treasure’ (wealth) is desired by everyone, and yet to an old person wisdom is what matters — the kind of insight and common sense gained with time and experience. Finally, to quote the author’s summing up: ‘Sorrow may cling to the heart, but time keeps gliding on, like clouds in the sky.’
Who can argue with all that? Don’t we all have to realise that in spite of our pain, the clouds will keep scudding across the sky? That may seem tough to bear, but I find it a comfort.
Bel answers readers’ questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. Write to Bel Mooney, Daily Mail, 9 Derry Street, london W8 5HY, or email bel.mooney@dailymail.co.uk. Names are changed to protect identities. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence.