Only cats here…
Over on Gemæcce (my research blog) there’s a post about the discovery of a new edition of the Eordu recension of Cædmon’s Hymn. There’s other Early Medieval news to share, too, but I didn’t have time for that this week.
Meanwhile on Patreon a very cool set of alt-Menewood fictions:
- The original beginning I wrote before Hild was even published
- An alternate version of events following the battle of Hatfield
- A tiny bright snippet that I ended up cutting because although I loved it, it didn’t further the plot.
Assuming all goes well with the access and formatting of those pieces, in a week or two I’ll post the pièce de résistance of alt-Menewood: a whole magnificent chapter concerning several characters from Hild who do not appear in the published version of the sequel. Trust me, that is a fucking good chapter, really great; it broke my heart to cut it. (And Kelley came the closest to not speaking to me since…well, ever.)
Here, however, in honour of Çaturday, we have a picture of George, taken Thursday afternoon, sitting on a small table in front of the pots of dead sticks and a few leaves (unlike the kitchen deck):
It was clear he was paying close attention to something but from where I stood, I couldn’t see it—until he leapt off the table into the air…and it turned out it was the first of the cherry blossom falling. Perhaps he thought it was a bird.
Yesterday morning, here he is again, sitting on the same table in front to the same bare pots, only, well, see for yourself: it looks as though they’re suddenly blooming.
The cherry tree is shedding faster than I thought possible…
#altFiction #caturday #Gemæcce #george #hild #menewood #outtakes #patreon


