We are thinking a lot about Vikings, and you can too if you log onto this BBC Horrible Histories game, here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z7nrydm/articles/zdmgbqt
We have been reading this fabulous children’s book by historian and author, Dr Janina Ramirez.
She describes it as “Scandi noir for kids”.
Busby says, ” I won’t lie. This has come as quite some relief to me. I like bones as much as any other dog, but I find Nordic noir contains far too many – and never in a good way.”
Officially, the book is for age 9 and up, although younger, confident readers might also enjoy it.
You can see what the author has to say about her book, here: https://www.janinaramirez.co.uk/riddle-of-the-runes . You can watch a film clip about the book, here: https://youtu.be/hzsWGIAcqWI
Much older readers might enjoy this episode of the podcast You’re Dead to Me – Old Norse Literature, featuring Dr Janina Ramirez and her vast Viking knowledge (and sense of humour).https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p099dyw3
We have been listening to a Scandinavian invasion of another kind.
How many songs can you spot and name?
We have been looking at Viking designs.
Did you know that there were several distinct styles that evolved during this time, and that versions of Scandinavian motifs developed in the British Isles?
You can have a go at colouring in some wonderful, authentic designs taken from Viking artefacts, here: https://www.jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Colouring-Sheet.pdf Spot the mandala!
Photo of Viking jewellery -Klugschnacker, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Older readers can find out more about Viking designs, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_art#:~:text=The%20Urnes%20Style%20is%20named,are%20interwoven%20into%20tight%20patterns.
We have been transported to the marshes of North Carolina…
Not literally, but through the art of Alice Ravenel Huger Smith whose name appears in the credits of Where the Crawdads Sing, a film we watched recently, that is set in North Carolina. You can discover the artist’s atmospheric watercolours of the region, here: https://aliceravenelhugersmith.com/ or on the website’s gallery, here: https://aliceravenelhugersmith.com/gallery/
For a different portrait of the region, you can click on the film’s soundtrack, here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egxyRSb_XtI
Landscape, c. 1928. Watercolor on paper, The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, S.C
We have been listening to a very expressive thrush…
and noticing how its song really is a series of 2 – 6 repetitions of different sounds. Listen, here: https://youtu.be/kNxz-A9CUtk
So, when Busby was listening to our poetry audiobook recently, he was thrilled to spot the way the poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson , evokes this in his poem, The Throstle. See what you think!
The Throstle*
‘Summer is coming, summer is coming.
I know it, I know it, I know it.
Light again, leaf again, life again, love again,’
Yes, my wild little Poet.
Sing the new year in under the blue.
Last year you sang it as gladly.
‘New, new, new, new’! Is it then so new
That you should carol so madly?
‘Love again, song again, nest again, young again,’
Never a prophet so crazy!
And hardly a daisy as yet, little friend,
See, there is hardly a daisy.
‘Here again, here, here, here, happy year’!
O warble unchidden, unbidden!
Summer is coming, is coming, my dear,
And all the winters are hidden.
*Old word for ‘thrush’
Finally, as promised last month…
We have been finding out about the Cornish miners who left Cornwall to find work across the world – wherever there was a mine. View the slideshow, or read the BBC article, below, to find out more about the Cornish diaspora and the origin of the term cousin Jack.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig_emig/england/cornwall/article_3.shtml and, if you missed our last blog post, you can listen to the song, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgyRWKLkxvE
Did you know …
there is an island off the coast of Virginia, USA, where a large community of Cornish fisherman settled and were so isolated that, over the years, they developed their own dialect. You can listen, here: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180206-the-tiny-us-island-with-a-british-accent
Image credit: Veena Rao
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