H04066 HARDY AT HALLOWEEN - 10/31/04 - HARDY FORUM ARCHIVES
From: ? hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: Hardy at Halloween
Date: October 31, 2004 7:10:14 AM PST
Dear All,
Here is a one of Hardy's ghostly poems for the occasion. Wishing you all a
Happy Halloween.
Betty
I Rose Up as My Custom Is
I rose up as my custom is
On the eve of All-Souls' day,
And left my grave for an hour or so
To call on those I used to know
Before I passed away.
I visited my former Love
As she lay by her husband's side;
I asked her if life pleased her now
She was rid of a poet wrung in brow.
And crazed with the ills he eyed;
Who used to drag her here and there
Wherever his fancies led,
And point out pale phantasmal things,
And talk of vain vague purposings
That she discredited.
She was quite civil, and replied,
'Old comrade, is that you?
Well, on the whole, I like my life, -
I know I swore I'd be no wife,
But what was I to do?
'You see, of all men for my sex
A poet is the worst;
Women are practical, and they
Crave the wherewith to pay their way,
And slake their social thirst.
'You were a poet - quite the ideal
That we all love awhile:
But look at this man snoring here -
He's no romantic chanticleer,
Yet he keeps me in good style.
'He makes no quest into my thoughts,
But a poet wants to know
What one has felt from earliest days,
Why one thought not in other ways,
And one's Loves of long ago.'
Her words benumbed my fond faint ghost;
The nightmares neighed from their stalls,
The vampires screeched, the harpies flew,
And under the dim dawn I withdrew
To Death's inviolate halls.
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From: philip.irwin@btinternet.com
Subject: Re: Hardy at Halloween
Date: October 31, 2004 9:08:24 AM PST
Thanks for posting 'I Rose Up as My Custom Is' -
certainly very apt for this time of year. I notice
that the narrator leaves his grave 'On the eve of
All-Souls' day': All Souls is on Nov 2 (Nov 1 is All
Saints (All Hallows)). Was there a tradition in
Hardy's time that nightmares/vampires/harpies/ghosts
were to be encountered on that day rather than on
Hallowe'en?
Philip
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: Re: Hardy at Halloween
Date: October 31, 2004 10:27:32 AM PST
Celtic tradition has it that Hallowe'en was October 31 which was the last day of the year (on the old Celtic calendar). On this night -- the eve of All Hallows Day on November 1 -- witches and warlocks went abroad ( Robert Burns celebrates this in his poem "Hallowe'en" - Sottish tradition holds that those born on this day own the gift of second sight).
Christianity changed All Hallows Day to All Saints Day. All Soul's Day has a separate tradition. Catholics honour this day with prayer and almsgiving for the souls in purgatory. The legend goes that a pilgrim returning from the Holy Land was warned of a cliff vault by a hermit he encountered on his voyages. The vault, where the cries of tormented souls in hell could be heard, spurted forth flames and was said to be the opening to the inferno of hell. The pilgrim reported this to his boss, the abbot, who set aside Nov 2 (All Souls) for prayer for the souls in purgatory.
So, the poor ghost in Hardy's poem is suffering in purgatory for his sins -- namely for being a poet! Are we to be comforted by the fact that pagan witches dance at his party -- Celtic beliefs, in this instance, being less brutal than the purgatorial beliefs of Catholics? Hardy being Hardy is possibly aligning the two mythologies (much as he aligns the President of the Immortals with the English judicial system at the end of Tess), to point to the relative inhumanity of certain Christian concepts of punishment and salvation.
Happy Hallowe'en!
Rosemarie
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From: ann.whitlock282@btinternet.com
Subject: Re: Hardy at Halloween
Date: October 31, 2004 11:44:11 AM PST
In the Celtic tradition the festival of Samhuinn, which preceded Halloween as we now know it, was a farming seasonal festival when the cattle were brought in for the winter. The magical aspects of seasonal festivals were always on the Eve - in this case, All Hallow's Eve, which was traditionally on 31st October with All Hallow's day, the Christian equivalent on November 1. At Samhuinn ghosts rose from their coffins, and spirits mingled with the living. It was a time when questions might be asked of the ancestors with regard to impending decisions and choices.
.All Hallow's Eve was traditionally Celtic New Year's Eve and the Celtic New Year began on November 1.
Some writers believe that the name, Samhuinn is based on the ancient Aryan Lord of Death, Samana -- called "the Leveller", the leader of ancestral ghosts and spirits.
Hardy refers to 'the grim leveller' (1912 edition) in his elegiac description of the journey of Fanny Robin's coffin through Yalbury wood; the time of year being October.
In some readings of the festival of Samhuinn, the revelry lasted several days, and finished on November 5. At the end of this period bonfires were lit, to symbolise the coming of the Dark Time.
Hardy was well acquainted with these traditions, through his knowledge of oral myths and passed down seasonal tales, in villages where the seasonal festivals still held a place in the affection of country families. In Chapter Three of The Return of the Native he refers to the bonfires on Egdon Heath and the surrounding parishes at that time as 'rather the lineal descendents from jumbled Druidical rites and Saxon ceremonies than the invention of popular feeling about the Gunpowder Plot.'
I found the poem rather moving, and well suited to the atmosphere of the night.
Ann Whitlock
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From: dcorney@westnet.com.au
Subject: Halloween
Date: October 31, 2004 5:37:04 PM PST
"Hallow" is the Old English word for 'holy' and was connected with saintly persons and can be found used in the Lord's Prayer - 'hallowed be thy name'. In some Christian calendars, Nov 1 is still called 'All Hallows Day'. 'Holy', I think has a Greek connection, while 'saint' probably derived from Latin 'sancta' and arrived in the language via French. The two words were used interchangeably. Nevertheless, the conversion of the Celtic festival into the Christian one was part of the process of cultural domination, as was Easter.
Regards,
David Cornelius
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From: gary.alderson@btinternet.com
Subject: Re: Halloween
Date: November 1, 2004 12:13:09 AM PST
"Holy" is an Anglo-Saxon word with affiliations to the word "whole" - think
of the German (original) version of Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. The Greek
is "hagios", which still just about hangs around in "hagiography".
Incidentally, the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory isn't so ghastly as is
commonly thought. Belief in Purgatory meant that the prayers of the living
could still be effective for their dead loved ones, and established a form
of community that was destroyed by the Reformers - cf Eamonn Duffy's "The
Stripping of the Altars". In Newman's "Dream of Gerontius", Gerontius is
lead off happily to Purgatory, knowing that until he has been purified he
will be unable to live directly in the presence of God.
Incidentally, because All Saint's/Hallow's was due today, many churches with
that dedication held the feast yesterday - so churches were celebrating All
Hallows on the same day that small children were dressed as pumpkins in the
name of Hallowe'en.
The Shade rising on the evening of All Hallows' would have been appropriate
because of the All Souls' link (2nd November) - All Souls' being the day in
particular when Christian people remember their loved departed.
sorry, just brought out the pedant in me.
regards
Gary Alderson
"Hallow" is the Old English word for 'holy' and was connected with saintly
persons and can be found used in the Lord's Prayer - 'hallowed be thy
name'. In some Christian calendars, Nov 1 is still called 'All Hallows
Day'. 'Holy', I think has a Greek connection, while 'saint' probably
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: Re: Halloween
Date: November 1, 2004 6:03:24 AM PST
I like these less than "ghastly" notions of purgatory. "Purgatory" was levelled at us, at my childhood convent, rather too often and too punitively, for me to carry away any sense of benignity. And given that ghosts, poor souls (in Catholic belief), are the shades of the benighted condemned to wandering the earth alone and lonely for all time (used to make my childish heart bleed), I was rarely able to pray for the souls of the dead without a shuddering sense of horror. Having said that, all things are relative of course and the infernos of hell (thanks to the nuns) never entered the picture. Now that would have traumatised me, at seven years old.
Just love the picture of human pumpkins at the altar! Almost as engaging as the Mexican habit of situating the Virgin alongside Charlie Chaplin and Jesus with Mickey Mouse.
Thanks Gary--
Rosemarie
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