Art, Book reviews, Ceramics, Photographs, Postcards, Quick Fiction, Quotations, and (Usually Aquatic) Reflections.
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Friday, August 10, 2012
Old Man Autumn / Old Man Winter?
Let's look at this mask again, noting the browns in the setting, the context:
I put my Gemini, Sleeping mask next to a brown log and some brown leaves, and the mood and narrative of the piece seem to change. Star-sign shifts to seasonal mythos.
Here, I see Old Man Autumn snoozing away on the left; Old Man Winter, on the right. (Your left, your right.)
My favorite word--garsecg--from the Old English Beowulf is a kenning or poetic riddle-word for the sea. It means "the spear-man," perhaps the echo of a figure like the Norse Aegir or some other surly northern Neptune. In other texts, garsecg seems to be an adjective meaning "sea-like," "stormy" or "tempestuous."