Overview

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE MONTH A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK As winter comes and the hours of darkness overtake the light, we seek out warmth, good food, and good company. But beneath the jollity and bright enchantment of the festive season, there lurks a darker mood - one that has found expression over the centuries in a host of strange and unsettling traditions and lore. Here, Sarah Clegg takes us on a journey through midwinter to explore the lesser-known Christmas traditions, from English mummers plays and Austrian Krampus runs, to modern pagan rituals at Stonehenge and the night in Finland when a young girl is crowned with candles as St Lucy - a martyred Christian girl who also appears as a witch leading a procession of the dead. At wassails and hoodenings and winter gatherings, attended by ghastly, grinning horses, snatching monsters and mysterious visitors, we discover how these traditions originated and how they changed through the centuries, and we ask ourselves: if we can't keep the darkness entirely at bay, might it be fun to let a little in?

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9781803513706

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Reviews

This is a lively, moving, thoughtful and erudite survey of the more disturbing aspects of the modern world's most important festival. It is probably the best, and certainly the most accessible -- Ronald Hutton Away from the turkey and tinsel, Sarah Clegg bravely escorts us to the dark side of the festive season, a wintry underworld of witches and demons, sinister customs and strange ancient rites. A fascinating, menacing miscellany -- Malcolm Gaskill, author of The Ruin of All Witches and Witchfinders [A] fascinating, scholarly and entertaining history of the dark side of Christmas lore. [Clegg] traces the evolution of Austria's child-eating Krampus, the horse-skulls of the Welsh Mari Lwyds and other monstrous characters to show how the terrifying and demonic has always had a place in midwinter -- Nikki Marmery, author of Lilith

Author Information

SARAH CLEGG has a PhD in ancient history from the University of Cambridge. Her first book, Woman's Lore, was shortlisted for the HWA Non-Fiction Crown. She is a former bookseller and now works in publishing.

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