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Jan. 29th, 2012 04:39 pmI'm just about done with databases of journals, or they're just about done with me. I ought to (in an ideal world) check four more years in one database. Instead, I'm stopping here.
The last article I looked at was not at all relevant to any of my projects, and my library's subscription only let me see the first page, but that first page was about Rashi's maps. Anything to do with Rashi is a good note to end on.
In other not-news, the Oxford English Dictionary's* etymology for 'green man' only goes back as far as 1578, and the 1578 reference is a curious one: "Two men, apparrelled, lyke greene men at the Mayors feast". This makes me think of mummers and the St George play and early reference to morris dancing. The sixteenth century might have been guilty of some interesting things.
Or maybe it's me, misremembering, who is guilty of interesting things. Once upon a time, when my physical life wasn't confined to such small distances, I saw the mummers perform in the Lea Valley and I participated in the ritual buying of drinks. The players admitted that they were enacting a cultural revival and we all shared the view that it was a very fine piece of culture to have revived.
Since then, my memory has been guilty of thinking that a lot of English folklife is revival of things that may not really have happened before the sixteenth century or the nineteenth century. That doesn't mean I love English folklife any less. It just means that I want evidence if anyone claims Medieval or pre-Medieval origins and that my mind will conflate everything to Shakespearian England, given half a chance.
*I get their word of the day.
The last article I looked at was not at all relevant to any of my projects, and my library's subscription only let me see the first page, but that first page was about Rashi's maps. Anything to do with Rashi is a good note to end on.
In other not-news, the Oxford English Dictionary's* etymology for 'green man' only goes back as far as 1578, and the 1578 reference is a curious one: "Two men, apparrelled, lyke greene men at the Mayors feast". This makes me think of mummers and the St George play and early reference to morris dancing. The sixteenth century might have been guilty of some interesting things.
Or maybe it's me, misremembering, who is guilty of interesting things. Once upon a time, when my physical life wasn't confined to such small distances, I saw the mummers perform in the Lea Valley and I participated in the ritual buying of drinks. The players admitted that they were enacting a cultural revival and we all shared the view that it was a very fine piece of culture to have revived.
Since then, my memory has been guilty of thinking that a lot of English folklife is revival of things that may not really have happened before the sixteenth century or the nineteenth century. That doesn't mean I love English folklife any less. It just means that I want evidence if anyone claims Medieval or pre-Medieval origins and that my mind will conflate everything to Shakespearian England, given half a chance.
*I get their word of the day.