Winter Tales

basalt coulee walls disappear within the winter fog

Daily Note

Every day, a photograph, a poem. On days like this when the coulee walls disappear within the flowing winter fog, eerie magic and old tales of wandering spirits are reimagined and remembered while walking closer to the the thick mist. Will we disappear too?

I imagine before modern times when people toiled farms by hand and tended flocks and herds of animals in all weather, when the why of the mist and the world could only be told as tales of possibilities. And at night by the light of the warming winter fire, tales of the unknown flowed as much to answer the people’s questions and portend warnings as to entertain.

I found a wonderful blog about Winter Tales by Terry Windling. It’s filled with a bit of history and marvelous illustrations that will remind you of the old tales too.

And with just a moment’s googling I’ve found for you “More English Fairy Tales” edited by Joseph Jacobs. The introduction seems to indicate these may be tales from Scotland. One of the illustrations by John D Batten is of the bogles, a Scottish word for ghost. The story is “The Golden Ball.”

bogles holding their hands up — illustration by John D Batten in
More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, page 12

Gutenberg online and download
Internet Archive online and PDF

I give you a warning: no doubt the banners of books would banish these tales of ghosts with their violent hacking as in the story, The Golden Ball. Ah, but they are more afraid of people who love each other than of violence, given they also support the insidious belief in the second amendment right to bear arms anywhere and everywhere by anyone without any restrictions. And banning books is about censorship of different people and of history, of making them invisible, though they are our friends and relatives. See American Federation of Teachers article about Elizabeth Acevedom award winning author: Not About Protecting Kids. You may also be interested in AFTs Reading Opens The World program.

But, back to the tales told in the foggy nights of winter… a poem / haiku: