Christmas Lore & Legend
is a collection of fourteen previously uncollected `Yuletide
Essays’ by Llewelyn Powys, although five of them have previously
been published in books which include `A Baker’s Dozen (2)’;
`Dorset Essays’(2); `The Twelve Months’ and
Kenneth Hopkins’ `Llewelyn Powys – A Selection from His
Writings’ The remaining nine essays were previously
published in newspapers and magazines during the 1930s, with
about half of them being written in Switzerland during the final
three years of Llewelyn’s life, and they are collected here in
book form for the first time.
This is the third book of `collected essays’ from the Sundial
Press by this author, following `Durdle Door to Dartmoor’ and
its companion volume, `Still Blue Beauty’, and the publishers
are to be congratulated, for as all devotees of Llewelyn Powys
know, apart from `Wessex Memories’ (2002) and Cecil Woolf’s
`Powys Heritage Series’ of diary publications selected & edited
by the excellent Peter Foss, in recent years any previously
unpublished Llewelyn Powys material has been – and remains - as
rare as frog's feathers!
Of course it is regrettable and little disappointing to those
who collect his work that any new title with Llewelyn Powys
named as author should contain any previously published
material at all, yet considering that it’s seventy one years
since his death, it’s almost inevitable that this should be the
case as the volume of his work -- especially that which
constitutes publishable material -- becomes exhausted. Perhaps
then, we should be thankful for small mercies and welcome this
latest publication into the canon of his books, remembering that
it could also be an introduction to the author for someone who
is only initially interested in the lore and legend of
Christmas! For even if the author’s name meant nothing, the
startlingly attractive cover alone would most certainly catch
the interest and attention of such a person, for it bears all
the festive hallmarks of the 1930’s period Christmas with the
ubiquitous Robin and sprigs of holly against a merry red
background, and looks for all the world like the fattest
Christmas card you ever saw. Dare I hint that it would make an
ideal Christmas gift?
The book benefits from an intuitively written and extremely
perceptive foreword by Anthony Head, whose brilliant summation
of this collection of essays can neither be gainsaid nor
surpassed when he writes:
Rich in imagery and anecdote, woven through with local lore and
personal reminiscence, these Yuletide essays bring vividly alive
the customs and character, the sounds and tastes of earlier
generations and are informed by the lively curiosity and deep
nostalgia that typify Powys’ best work.
`Rich in imagery and anecdote’ is true of all his work, but oft
repeated anecdote constitutes a blemish on an otherwise flawless
page, and there are blemishes here which include the repetition
of both anecdote and phrase in several of the essays. Of content
and style they represent a mixed bag, with the author’s virtues
and faults paraded together; well-balanced lyrical sentences
marred by the use of an obscure word or phrase, one or two mixed
metaphors, the striving for effect with an over-indulgence in
exclamation marks…!
Equally, those who are familiar with Llewelyn’s best work will
recognize instances where his normally unique style becomes
affected – doubtless influenced by writing for a specific
readership, but nevertheless disconcerting; and given his avowed
and much vaunted pagan rationalism, some of these `affectations’
are incommiscible. And whilst some may feel that two or three of
the essays lack the quality of construction and crystal clear
coherence normally associated with Llewelyn, others may be
bemused by comments which would seem to indicate the author’s
tacit acceptance of some of the tenets of Christianity.
Criticism apart, some of Llewelyn’s finest work is also
represented here, perhaps nowhere more so than in the very first
essay, `The First Fall of Snow’ when, reminiscing about his time
in Africa, he writes:
I have felt the earth, our ancient Mother Earth beneath my feet,
tremble and quiver in an ecstasy of childbirth under the sweet
persuasion of those torrential down-pourings; but never once did
she attain to such mysterious power as when, at rest under a
covering of snow, she lies with the appearance and potency of a
sepultured goddess who is in truth dead and yet retains that
upon her ivory forehead which is equivalent to immortality.
Devouring the book at a single sitting (as I did) tends to
highlight the `blemishes’ and makes its faults more apparent,
and in accord with the publisher I would agree that it’s `rather
like a box of chocolates that shouldn’t be eaten at one go but
dipped into and savoured one by one’. Although for the
devotees of Llewelyn Powys `Christmas Lore & Legend’ will be a
welcome addition to the literary canon of this most
controversial of the published Powys Brothers.
Neil Lee Atkin
The Powys Society Newsletter, No 71, November 2010
Available from
The Sundial Press
CHRISTMAS LORE AND LEGEND
Yuletide Essays by Llewelyn Powys
(Fourteen essays: ten previously uncollected)
1 The First Fall of Snow
2 The Spirit of the Season
3 A Childhood Christmas
4 The First Christmas Tree
5 Merry Is the Word
6 Mistletoe and Fir
7 The Month of December
8 Charity and Christmas Ballads
9 A Christmas Mystery
10 Town and Country
11 Our Merry Ancestors
12 Evergreens and Corn Sheaves
13 Ships and Stockings
14 The Wassail Bowl and New Year Customs
%20-%20Copy.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)