Halcyon Daze
£17.10
Once more the ancient feast returns,
And the bright hearth domestic burns
with Yuletide’s added blaze;
So, too, may all your joys increase
Midst floods of mem’ry, love, and peace,
and dreams of Halcyon Days.
– HP Lovecraft 1890-1937
The expression “halcyon days” refers to a fortnight of calm weather which occurs around the Winter Solstice. Over time it has become synonymous with a period of tranquillity in life, a special, golden time of peace and, nostalgically, with the long, sun-drenched days of youth.
In Greek legend “halcyon” was another name for kingfisher. There was an ancient belief that the female bird built a floating nest on the sea at that time of year and that she charmed the wind and the waves to keep her precious nest safe from harm during the seven days of incubation and for a further seven days after her eggs had hatched and her chicks had fledged. And all the time, during these fourteen magical, halcyon days, the sea remained unnaturally flat calm and unruffled.
I’ve spotted twenty two little halcyon dudes in this sampler but it’s been a while since I did the head count so, if we’ve had calm seas recently, there could well be more.
Comes to you at any time of the day or night as a pdf download, borne on sea foam and flanked by gentle manatees because they’ve been overlooked far too often in the past.
- Area in stitches: 273 x 270