By Maister Colyne Stewart, October AS 54 (2019)
Talisman Bran’s[1]
| at Brok’s Kaer[2]
grows
The fruit of health[3]
| so fulsome tree’d
Clíodna’s
birds[4]
| eat deep and full
Though locked the gates | of garden pure[5]
From poisons foul | it protects well[6]
In press is crushed | for cider, wine,
Ydromellum[7] |
if done with sweets
So sought by bears | lo, binge we all!
Written in the Anglo-Saxon style
to commemorate a day of apple picking and cider making at the farm of Joffr and
Dubhessa.
Sources
Hooke, Della . Trees in Anglo-Saxon England: Literature, Lore
and Landscape.
Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 2010. Accessed September 28, 2019
Horn, Peter C. “The Alcoholic Drinks of the Anglo-Saxons” (March 18,
2011).
Tha Engliscan Gesiðas https://www.tha-engliscan-gesithas.org.uk/archives/the-alcoholic-drinks-of-the-anglo-saxons
accessed October 3, 2019
Levick, Ben, and Uzzell, Hazel. “Food
and Drink” (1992; 2001). Regia Anglorum https://regia.org/research/life/food.htm
accessed October 3, 2019
Thomas, Kate H. “Comparing æppla and oranges: Anglo-Saxon fruit” (August
3, 2016). For the Wynn. https://forthewynnblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/03/comparing-aeppla-and-oranges-anglo-saxon-fruit/
accessed October 3, 2019
[1] A
reference to ‘The Voyage of Bran,’ a medieval Irish tale.
[2]
Kaer Brok is the name of their farm, and means “castle of the badger”.
[3]
The Anglo-Saxon’s used the apple as a cure for many ailments.
[4] Clíodna
is an Irish faerie, the queen of the banshees. She is attended by birds who are
known to eat apples.
[5]
The forbidden fruit in the biblical story of the Garden of Eden is often
depicted as an apple.
[6]
One of the many medicinal uses of the apple in Anglo-Saxon times was a cure for
poison.
[7] A
form of cider that is fermented with honey.
