Winter Solstice Beach Lit

Waterside reading/listening for the turning of the year.

Wael-Seax: The Slaughter-Knife of Beagnoth

A replica of the famous Anglo-Saxon weapon fished from the Thames.

To give you a sense of the size of this mere "knife", my hands are of a fair size and both of them fit handily on that hilt.  Beowulf used such a long-knife on the dragon; Grendel's mother attempted to use such a long-knife on Beowulf.

Sentinels in Blue and Green

Sentinels of the imagination?  Guardians of the bookshelf?  Okay, so they aren't the Ruritanian palace guard nor Strider's ancestors guarding the river approach to the southern kingdom . . . .

Greeters?  "Hello, fellow reader!  Pick a book, any book.  Or, we can suggest one for you, if you'd like?"  That's the duck talking.

The dragon?  I'd like to say he'd caution you against dog-earring favorite pages, but I do that myself.  He may look somewhat goofy, but he does have teeth and fire at hand--as do most books, the ones worth your time; or they should do, if you're lucky.

Welcome to the Gates of Ivory and Horn.

Self-Portrait #50: sculpture mix; blue (with a bit of green) glazing, layered.
Green Dragon (Somewhat Goofy): sculpture mix; green glazing, layered.

Must Be Dragons

Didn't St. Patrick banish all the snakes from Ireland?

So this Celtic design, borrowed from the Book of Kells, I believe, must be dragons. Or, are they really snakes?

Earth wisdom, earth power--either way. Good luck to the wearer.

In his Winter Count, which is where I found the following passage, Barry Lopez quotes Jorge Luis Borges on dragons from The Book of Imaginary Beings, a passage that's always stuck with me. Listen:

"We are as ignorant of the meaning of the dragon as we are of the meaning of the universe, but there is something in the dragon's image that appeals to the human imagination, and so we find the dragon in quite distinct places and times."

This dragon-buckle is the work of Peter O'Loughlin, the silversmith who crafted the three-dogs-running pendant I featured earlier this month, and you may find him in a booth on Telegraph Avenue near UC Berkeley. In fact, he's usually selling his fine pieces in that first block next to Bancroft Avenue.