Some December midnight
Christ, lord, lie warm in our byre.
Here are stars, an ox, poverty enough.
—George Mackay Brown, “A Child’s Calendar”
published in FISHERMEN WITH PLOUGHS (Hogarth Press 1971)
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #Christmas #poem #poetry #Orkney
A Dream of Snow
The Orkney writer George Mackay Brown (1921–1996) was fascinated by the Christmas story, retelling it time & again in his poems, short stories, & plays. In 2012, to mark the writer’s centenary, Edinburgh University curated this online exhibition from their major collection of George Mackay Brown books & manuscripts, covering the whole festive season from Advent through to Epiphany
@Shaamba George Mackay Brown was a wonderful poet and novelist. There’s a brief essay about him here:
@Shaamba … a tiny selection of his poems online here:
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/george-mackay-brown/
@Shaamba … and some new editions of some of his work recently republished here:
@scotlit Saving this thread.
I'm more so enamored by the Norse-Gael Jarldom of Orkney, than the Gaelic Earldom (and, of course, everything afterwards), but all Orkney is awesome, and still super useful for what I intend to write. Thanks, friend.
@Shaamba You might find this thread to be of interest, if you’ve not seen it before:
Assoc for Scottish Literature
Shaamba Ⓥ
