Joseph Addison, b. 1672. “Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.”
Elizabeth Marie Pope, b. 1917. Author of the Newbery Honor book The Perilous Guard. I haven’t read this book since I was a kid of a girl, so I’m not sure how well I’d like it now. I might enjoy it very much IF the pagan, fairy elements are truly pagan and in opposition to Christianity instead of melded into some sort of vague benevolent spirituality. This book uses the legend/ballad of Tam Lin as a sort of of jumping-off place, according to reviews at Amazon. Interesting, because I read Tam Lin, a novel by Pamela Dean based on the same ballad, and I’m still not sure what I think about it. Dean’s novelization of Tam Lin is set on a modern day college campus that is “haunted” or maybe invaded by faery folk disguised as professors and students. The students themselves are rather pagan, with very little hint of even the vestiges of Christian thought to inform their decisions. And to add to the theme, I’m now reading I, Coriander by Sally Gardner, a YA book about a girl in the time of Cromwell whose mother came from fairy land and who is caught between that place outside of our world and the world of Cromwell’s London. All these faery/fairy tales with realistic human-size fairies are making me think about fairy tales and paganism and the relationship of pagan tales of evil and malicious beings to the freedom that’s found in Christ. Could today’s neo-paganism easily turn dark and savage (as those tales often are), and does contemporary Christianity have the insight and power to counter that darkness?
May 1 is also Mother Goose Day.
From last May 1st: My favorite nursery rhyme is one that Organizer Daughter altered when she was little:
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and taco shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.
The Mary in the rhyme was either Mary, Queen of Scots or Bloody Mary (Elizabeth I’s half-sister) or Mary Magdalene. And the silver bells and cockle shells are either decorations on a dress or instruments of torture. The pretty maids? Mary’s ladies in waiting or the guillotine. Take your pick. Admit it. Don’t you like our version better than the original? Taco shells are so harmless, and they have no hidden symbolic meaning as far as I know.
For more information on how to celebrate Mother Goose Day, go to the Mother Goose Society website.
For recipes, crafts and coloring pages, try mother goose.com, or go to this Nursery Rhyme page for more educational links.