{"id":16177,"date":"2021-12-23T19:15:08","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T00:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=16177"},"modified":"2021-12-23T19:15:08","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T00:15:08","slug":"in-the-bleak-midwinter-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=16177","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;In the Bleak Midwinter&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sissel Kyrkjeb\u00f8 - In The Bleak Mid-Winter - 2006\" width=\"474\" height=\"356\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z6yevmluq2M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Not a bad <em>lillejulaften<\/em><\/strong> (little Christmas Eve, as they call it in Norway). No great accomplishments chalked up, but I got a couple things done that I\u2019d been putting off. Faced a minor appliance crisis \u2013 I learned it was a false alarm, though the diagnosis cost me a little. Still, I was expecting much worse. And I got paid for some translation, which always brightens a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the Bleak Midwinter\u201d came to mind for a song tonight. Sissel sings, of course. Based on a poem by Christina Rossetti, it\u2019s bald-faced anglicization of the Christmas story. Whether Jesus was born on December 25 or not (I like to think He was, just to annoy people) it certainly wasn\u2019t in a snow-covered landscape. But our Christmas celebration isn\u2019t only about the first Christmas (though it must be about that primarily). It\u2019s also about the long tradition of commemoration we enjoy in the Christian tradition. Legends included. And in a tertiary way, about the traditions of our own tribes, whatever they may be. My tribe is Scandinavian, and we make kind of a big thing out of Christmas (for reasons I discuss in my novel<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Troll-Valley-Lars-Walker-ebook\/dp\/B006WNC4J4\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2TKLQSDCWBWKO&amp;keywords=troll+valley+walker&amp;qid=1640304553&amp;sprefix=troll+valley+walker%2Caps%2C414&amp;sr=8-1&amp;tag=brandbooks-20\"> Troll Valley<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tomorrow I\u2019ll bake pumpkin pies. No holiday is guaranteed, but this Christmas looks to beat last year\u2019s all hollow, at least for this jolly old elf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hope it\u2019s the same for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not a bad lillejulaften (little Christmas Eve, as they call it in Norway). No great accomplishments chalked up, but I got a couple things done that I\u2019d been putting off. Faced a minor appliance crisis \u2013 I learned it was a false alarm, though the diagnosis cost me a little. Still, I was expecting much &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=16177\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8216;In the Bleak Midwinter&#8217;<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[504,1281,2596,3201],"class_list":["post-16177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-religion","tag-christmas","tag-in-the-bleak-midwinter","tag-sissel-kyrkjebo","tag-troll-valley"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16180,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16177\/revisions\/16180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}