Yuletide

We durst not venture, in forest at night,

So sit in mead hall, in flickering light,

The festive board laid, for the full twelve nights,

Children lark and laugh, like merry field wights.

 

Let us full frolic, the twelve holidays,

Make merry wassail, under smoke and haze,

Before winter fully, cometh to town,

And Helle’s deep snow, from heavens falls down.

 

Beams decked with holly, and green leaves of plants,

Holly and ivy, leaves shimmer and dance,

Yule log burns bright in, centre of long hall,

Warming flames flicker, and shadows grow tall.

 

Mead barrel carried, with due reverence,

Mead cup bearing boys, folks thirst soon to quench,

Rush lights glitter on, joyful festive board,

Merry folk lining, benches of the lord.

 

The mid winters feast, fills warm festive hall,

With scents and rich smells, of brave Winterfull,

About the long hall, our mead cups to raise,

We over indulge, in our merry ways.

 

As merry mead flows, folk join in the chant:

 

Never burn ash for Yule, if you can burn oak,

Never cut staff from oak, if you can from ash,

Never make bow with ash, if you can with yew,

Never shield with yew, if you can with linden,

Never draw a knife, if you can a sword,

Never drink small beer, if you can drink strong,

Never drink melomel, if you can drink mead,

Never sip mead, when you can wassail,

A merry Yuletide, wassail and drink hail!

 

Copyright Andrew Rea All Hallows’ Eve 2025

Nicors

 

Northern Lincolnshire, flat level lowlands,

And misty marshes moist.

Local folklore and, tales lost in time long,

Ancient tales now unvoiced.

 

In Lincoln there is, a haunted lake,

Nikerpole is its name.

Old English nicor, a water monster,

A risky mire of fame.

 

Old water monsters, of the wet land mere,

A night evil unseen.

Half-human creatures, and foul water-wyrms,

Move in dark depths obscene.

Nikerpole ghost lake, filled with nicors,

Too evil to approach.

Death dark shadow, the water surges beneath,

Only heros may encroach.

 

Beneath its surface, a murderous place,e

Uncanny depths at night.

Hidden under dark cloud, and deepest shadow,

Cloaked out of sight.

 

The cursed eerie, atmosphere of the lake,

A mooreland goblin blight.

Bedeviled monster-filled body of water,

Arcane water sprit.

 

No brave Beowolf here, to boldly battle,

The nicors deep below.

Undines and water goblins on the strand,

Silent slipping shadow.

 

Bottom of the mere, has never been delved,

By like of common folk.

Unnatural things, shine in the darkness,

Look out the creature woke.

 

Copyright Andrew Rea Lammas 2025

 

Notes

Nikerpole, Nykarpole, Nychar-pool, Nicarpool, Lincoln first mentioned in1296-8, is the pool inhabited by a nicor; the pool in question lay at the junction of Sincil Dyke and the Great Gowt. Nicors were water monsters and were also mentioned in Beowulf, notably in lines 422 and 575,

The Galdr’s Battle Spell

 

Oh thee Haegtesse, I do summon thee,

Decent from the sky, make our enemies flea.

Stir up much mayhem, before our great might,

Split their ranks asunder, put them to flight.

 

Blunt their feeble swords, and shatter their strength,

May their broad swords break, to half of their length.

Let their linden shields, splinter and shatter,

Let our enemy tremble, in dread and scatter.

 

With thunderous bolts, Wotan strike our prey,

Cause their spears to rot, their hopes to decay.

May heavens hail down, with wrath and strong storm,

Grimr assist us, and destory their swarm.

 

I summon Waldorfaedor, blind their sight,

Leave them stumbling, lost in shadowed night.

Tiw fill us all with, thy strong battle might,

Give us victory in, this true noble fight.

 

Drichten grant strength, that will never wane,

Advantage be ours, their efforts in vein.

May our swords and seaxs, stay ever bright,

Give us swift speed, of the fire drake’s flight.

 

May power of wild boar, reinforce our flanks,

We’ll slither like fishes, between their ranks.

Linden shields stand firm, and strengthen our hand,

Unyielding we rise, by Drichten we stand.

 

Copyright Andrew Rea Mid Summer 2025

Notes

Haegtesse - wild, armed supernatural women riding out in a group and causing harm havoc and mayhem! But also known to help warriors on the battlefield and hinder others.

Grimr - Wotan’s physical form on Earth.

Waldorfaedor - the solar god, the consort to Nerthus.

Tiw - the god of war, Tiw’s day became Tuesday.

Drichten - the Lord, as in god.

Fairy Ash Meadow

 

Why dost thou not go, to yonder meadow,

Where choral cow parsley, dost dwell and blow.

Weary willow herb, in tall bunches long,

Camp campanula, in clusters ding dong.

 

Partying plantains, march over the green,

And dosey dead nettle, darkly unseen.

Unnoticed fairies, they frolic about,

Where one may observe, young flowers to sprout.

 

Unseen by your eyes, fairies lark and play,

As merry field wights, in the meadow fey.

Those creatures unseen, hiding in their nook,

It’s not what one sees, it’s where you don’t look.

 

They glide through shadows, you may not yet see,

Flicker of vision, behind the ash tree.

Sprinkling fairy dust, growing the flowers,

Helped by a little, warm summer showers.

 

Concealed field wights and, small meadow sprites,

Nightly weaving their, misterious rites.

Protecting the ash, by side of the field,

Long staves, arrows spears, and Yule logs to yield.

 

Copyright Afterre Lithe 2025 Andrew Rea

 

Hretha Eorthan Modor - Heavily based on Hertha by Algernon Charles Swinburne

I am that which began, out of me the years roll,
Out of me God and man, I am equal and whole.
Before ever land was, before ever the sea,
Or soft hair of the grass, or fair limbs of the tree.

The fresh fruit of my branches, thy soul was in me,
Out of me man and woman, and wild-beast I set free.
First life on my sources, first drifted and swam,
Out of me are the forces, that save it or damn.

I the mouth that is kissed, and the breath in the kiss,
The seeker, the sought, the soul and the body that is.
I am that thing which blesses, my spirit elate,
That which caresses, with hands uncreate.

My limbs that measure, the length of thy fate,
I am thou whom thou seekest, I give thee thy trait.
I the grain and the furrow, the plough-cloven clod,
The ploughshare drawn thorough, the germ and the sod.

The deed and the doer, the seed and the sower,
Hast thou communed, in spirit as the food grower?
Hast thou known how, I fashioned thee,
Or given the thee thine fire, that impassioned thee.

Canst thou say in thine heart, thou hast seen with thine eyes,
What is here, dost thou know it? what was ancient and wise.
Mother, not maker, born, and not made,
Though her children forsake her, allured or afraid.

In the spring-coloured hours, when my mind was as May's,
There brake forth of me flowers, by centuries of days.
I bid you but be, I have need not of prayer,
I have need of you free, as your mouths are mine air.

Thy life-blood and breath, the life-tree am I,
Green leaves of thy labour, of sweat and cry.
I am in thee to save thee, give thou as I gave thee,
As my soul in thee saith, was it hard to be free?
Not as servant to lord, nor as master to slave,
Shalt thou give thee to me, as to thee I gave.

Andrew Rea January 2025