Meanderings along Ancestral Polytheist Paths: A Long Lost Treasure

22 November 2010

A Long Lost Treasure

I realised today that one of my all-time favourite books was missing from my catalogue. I have spent a few hours now trying to search for its details on various book sites, so I can upload it to my catalogue, but the closest edition I can find was published in 1970, whereas I have an edition that states it is a "First Edition" but with a copyright in 1969 and two earlier dates of 1967. Perhaps mine was the first Australian edition?

The book in question is "The World's Best Fairy Tales" edited by Belle Becker Sideman and with simple, but lovely illustrations by Fritz Kredel.

I have owned this book now for night on 40 years. It was gifted to my parents when I was born. I read it and re-read it and re-read many times as a child and I still enjoy the tales, even if they have been modified to make them more palatable. Even so, my favourite tale is "The Goose-Girl" mostly because of the sentence passed on the servant girl; it was gruesome to this child's mind, but I relished it and though she deserved it. The magic in the tale also captured my imagination, as it did in all the tales.

I doubt I will ever give this book up, and now that it has been retrieved from storage, I hope to find a bookbinder to repair its sorry, leatherbound spine and restore it somewhat to its glory days.

Festival Calendar

Là Fhèill Brìghde ~ A time to celebrate the end of winter, welcome the beginnings of spring, and the start of new life (and love), usually by the cleaning and purifying the home, and the blessing of animals and children.

Bealltainn ~ The start of the season of fertility.

Summer Solstice ~ A personal celebration wherein I "sit out" all night in contemplation of my ancestors, and how they might have viewed this time of the year, as the days now become shorter, and the nights longer, but the weather warmer.

Lùnastal ~ A time to contemplate blood, family, and honour and the coming harvest.

Samhainn ~ The end of summer and the beginning of winter; a time to honour the ancestors, of the family, older clans, countrymen, and pagan forebears.

Winter Solstice ~ A personal celebration wherein I "sit out" all night to ponder how my ancestors might have endured, and considered during the longest night and shortest day of the year.