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queenmarytudor · 10 months

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“These now serve one noble Queen,

But if power were in me,

For beauty, praise and virtues sake,

Each one a Queen should be.”

- The Praise of Eight Ladies of Queen Mary’s* court, by Richard Edwards

YOUNG LADIES OF MARY I’S COURT

JANE DORMER - Born in 1537, Jane Dormer was childhood playmates with King Edward VI. Jane joined Mary’s service prior to her accession, and upon becoming queen in 1553 became her closest maid, sleeping in her bedchamber with her, carving the queen’s meat and looking after the crown jewels. Mary was reluctant to let her marry, claiming there was no one worthy enough for her.

Jane was described in a poem by courtier playwright Richard Edwards as “a darling, and of such lively hue, that who so feeds his eyes on her, may soon her beauty rue.”

She eventually married Gomez Suarez, Duke of Feria, a close friend of Philip II of Spain in 1559, and moved to Spain later that year while pregnant with their first child. In Spain, Jane would maintain contact with Roman Catholics in England, and was seen as a champion of exiled English in Elizabeth’s reign; she also corresponded with four different Popes. After her husband’s death she took control of his estates, and was a candidate to take up the governorship of Flanders in the 1590′s.

MABEL BROWNE - Born in 1538, Mabel joined Mary’s household sometime prior to 1552. Due to her long standing service, Queen Mary attended Mabel’s wedding hosted in the Chapel Royal on 28th May 1554; according to historian Mary Everett Green, Mabel first met her husband Gerald Fitzgerald, 11th Earl of Kildare, at a masked ball. Shortly after the pair left for Ireland, where Mabel kept several priests in her household including a private chaplain named Nicholas Eustace. Nicholas was a relation of the Elizabethan rebel James Eustace, who mustered an Irish army with the help of Spanish troops to depose Queen Elizabeth; when this failed he fled to Spain. Mabel’s husband would be arrested in the Tower of London for years under suspicion of treason, which Mabel avoided despite keeping in touch with Jane Dormer.

MAGDALEN DACRE - Born in 1538, Magdalen Dacre was described by historian Sharon Turner as having been blonde, pretty and very tall; she allegedly stood a head above the other maids at court. According to contemporary biographer Richard Smith, one day Magdalen was washing her face when Queen Mary’s husband Philip II of Spain “playfully reached in”. She then picked up a staff and “strongly stroke the King on the arm”.

Like Jane Dormer, she was one of the maids mentioned in Richard Edward’s poem, where she was described as “not dangerous, her talk is nothing coy, her noble stature may compare to Helen of Troy.”

On 15th July 1558, Magdalen married Anthony Browne, close friend of Queen Mary and former Master of the Horse to Philip. The ceremony took place at Saint James’s Palace and the queen was in attendance. During Elizabeth’s reign Magdalen kept an illegal chapel for 120 worshippers, and her home became locally known as “Little Rome”. She supposedly wore a coarse linen smock beneath her court dresses, and was once accused of recusancy. Despite this, Queen Elizabeth visited her and her husband at Cowdray Castle in 1591, where the priests were kept well hidden.

*the poem is titled Queen Elizabeth’s ladies, but all the women mentioned served Mary and not her sister

#i've had this in my drafts for years lol #anyway if no one's making content i'll make it myself!#mary tudor #mary i #tudor #history

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pasiphile · 3 months

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there’s a moment in the new ripley trailer w andrew scott where he’s trying out different accents & going from irish to american & it reminded me sm of the scene in tvd where seb’s teasing jim before he goes to steal the crown jewels & made me so nostalgic for ur fic !!

#Same anon #These Violent Delights

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chyertsar · 2 months

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♔. synopsis: koschei is the youngest of the seelie queen’s three sons: two of which she bore through her late husband, and the youngest being the son of her royal guard. after her death, koschei’s father took him away from the faerie realm to protect him from the deadly plot of his older half-brother, casimir. the runaway prince was ultimately left to the charge of a witch woman named jadwiga, who raised him as her apprentice and stable hand. in his reckless youth, koschei revealed his whereabouts to the faefolk by the improper use of his magic. tricked and abducted by a pooka who'd served casimir, he was flung into a prison realm where he battled for his life for nine infernal years. now having finally escaped, koschei seeks to take revenge on his brother and unseat him as the new seelie king . . . affiliated with rainfile

♔. not set to any particular canon, but will be drawing from a mix of inspirations: slavic and irish folklore, dante’s inferno, naomi novik's uprooted, as well as koschei’s original fairytale ( specifically, his ties to baba yaga and her horses ). i’m happy to comply and/or adjust this to other canons though !

♔. he can possibly be encountered: 1 ) in his youth – as a witch’s apprentice and stable hand – in a village outside the faerie realm that i can easily integrate with any fantasy setting 2 ) traveling through a chthonic realm(s) after being wrongfully cast out from his world; 3 ) as the returned seelie prince, now in possession of the sun stone and gathering allies to dethrone his brother

♔. once he becomes the new seelie king by forcing casimir's retreat, he's either still hunting the traitor down or ( if he’s managed to find and kill him already ) fully settled into his position. . . although proving to be not much of an improvement.

♔. something he encountered in the prison realm is trying to seek retribution for his escape and/or use koschei as a vessel which is driving him to venture further into the dark arts to mitigate the threat. consequently, a seelie king’s unnatural use of magic is having adverse effects on the realm and those surrounding it (e.g., fluctuating temperatures, overgrowths, root rots). many are starting to question what is really afoot or whether he should remain king

it is said by those who ought to understand such things, that the good people, or the fairies, are some of the angels who were turned out of heaven, and who landed on their feet in this world, while the rest of their companions, who had more sin to sink them, went down farther to a worse place. . . . t. crofton crocker the priest's supper

shortly after the birth of the seelie queen's third son, a solar eclipse brought with it the end of a reign. the seelie queen was struck with an incurable illness and decided to leave the matter of succession up to the morrigan by taking her crown jewel ( the sun stone ) and casting it out into the realm. on the eve of her death, she declared that whoever ventured to find the stone would be the recognized monarch of the seelie folk.

her two eldest sons, casimir & oisín, searched every corner of the realm for the stone, but they had no luck. the eldest, aggrieved by his mother's ploy to refuse what he felt was rightfully his, conspired with an unseelie fae to get rid of his brothers, allowing him to take the throne by proxy. oisín was the first to mysteriously disappear, but before any harm could come to the infant prince, his father fled with him back to the eastern lands where his people, the víly, had migrated from. there he called on a favor from an old friend, the bear guardian of an untamable wood.

she could not house the prince. after giving up her bearskin to marry a mortal man, lord lenkov, she knew of only one person who could rival the faerie's magic and thus better protect the child: jadwiga, the local witch woman. she was a capricious crone who the villagers avoided where they could, but they also greatly depended upon her. she was the best healer that could be found within a day's journey, so the people turned a blind eye to her impious nature and allowed her to make a discreet living out of curing their ailments ( and personal vendettas ) via a mix of herbalism and zagоvory ( incantations and sorcery ). but to the priests and boyars who traveled near ( and lived to tell the tale of it ) she was known as one of the finest horse breeders in the kingdom.

jadwiga was convinced to take in the faerie child, if only for the convenience of having an extra hand to help tend to her fields and mounts. she named him koschei, her servant, though she endeared herself to him in time. jadwiga also never lied about his being an orphan brought to her door, nor had it been possible to hide from him that he was one of the fae ( a vilak, is what she called him, even when the boy questioned why he had four wings and not two ) she glamoured his faerie form until he was old enough to learn the art himself. koschei proved to be an eager pupil, and not even the crone could deny his gift for sorcery. at the age of 10, she took him on as an apprentice; her one condition was that he was not to wield magic outside the confines of her hut. jadwiga made it clear that his survival depended upon heeding this, but his coming of age was rife with mischief and recalcitrance.

at barely 17, koschei was forced to reckon with his foolishness when jadwiga had no choice but to leave the hut on important business. she was gone for three days, and in that span koschei tended to the villagers who came to her hut during the day, and wrangled her wandering horses back to the stables at night. on the third day, he broke the witch woman's rule for one final time. on the third night, a stallion had strayed farther than the others. he found it in the middle of the main road to the lenkovs’ village, but something was off. the beast, its mane mangled and flank covered in mud, refused to move forward, apparently too spooked.

unable to assuage its fear, koschei did as he was taught: he used a handkerchief to blind the horse and mounted it to spur it forward. sure enough the horse began to trot – and then galloped at breakneck speeds. try as he may, koschei could not reign in the beast nor unmount his back. its laugh was a wicked sound which made clear that this was no horse. it was the pooka who'd come to deliver on the final piece of his bargain with casimir. koschei was dragged through the bramble of the wood until the pooka finally came to an abrupt stop and launched koschei into a boghole– an ancient portal that swallowed him, like his brother before him, into a prison realm where no soul could hope to escape.

the search was deemed futile. jadwida could sense that koschei was no longer in this plane. still, lord lenkov's son, mishka, who had grown up with koschei and considered him his best companion, scoured the woods for him until even he lost hope. for nine years koschei had been assumed dead. then, on a cold night, he showed up again at jadwiga’s doorstep: covered in mud and blood, smelling of brimstone and decay, but he was alive and tied loosely around his neck was the sun stone. refusing to speak on what he endured or how he had managed to come back from that underworld, he instead demanded to know the truth about how he came to be jadwiga’s charge. she gave him the whole of it, but he only cared to know who was responsible for his banishment into the hellmouth.

there was no reasoning with him then. koschei set out for the faerie realm, posing as a vílak refugee to infiltrate his treacherous brother’s summer guard. he didn’t trust that revealing his true identity and possession of the sun stone would be enough to stave off another one of his brother’s ploys and earn his seat. it was his mother's mistake to underestimate casimir's influence with both the seelie and unseelie folk, and it was not one koschei intended to repeat. now he hides in plain sight, biding his time forming secret alliances with whomever he can ( the other víly especially ) bent on gathering the forces he needs to stage a successful coup.

♔. the víly ( pl.) [ sing. fem. víla , mas. + neu. vílak ] in this verse are not subject to a particular gender and is generally known in the faerie realm as a subclass of "lesser" fae. they originally lived among mortals, serving as guardians of the forests or sworn to protect chosen heroes, who they refer to as their vílenik. eventually, christianization ( or some similar cultural shift ) turned the mortals against them, and they were driven to seek refuge in the faerie realm, where they were accepted into the military class. the víly are similar to the valkyrie in appearance and function, but also have other distinguishing features dependent on the element of nature they embody. they can be found in both the seelie & unseelie courts.

♔. koschei's faerie form is a mix of his parents: his father was a vílak with a universal pair of bird-feathered wings, but was distinguished as one from the woodland víly by his horns made of tree bark. his mother as the seelie queen of summer had four fairy wings of gold, which leaves koschei's true form to appear as four white feathered wings, horns made of tree bark, golden hair and lots of summertime whimsy

♔. his wings were badly burned in the time he spent within the hellmouth, rendering him flightless, but he'll still glamour them and all other markers of his struggle so as to appear unmarred. it's not that others aren't aware of his inability to fly, but that he's conscious of appearances being deemed important in the seelie court, and he'd rather not incite further discourse of his being unfit to rule

♔. koschei mayyy or may not be deathless post-hellmouth -- that's not a theory anyone has managed to test yet, so most muses can assume he isn't :3 also we're heavy on the yarilo and icarus-vs-lucifer vibes here; this (zombie) fae boy is looking no older than his late 20s.

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honourablejester · 5 months

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Random Interlude

My father, while we were talking about Shannara and Wishsong of Shannara and Slanter the gnome and pragmatic cowards with a badly hidden honourable streak, reminded me of another rank cad and shirker and dishonourable coward, with not so much of a honourable streak: Colonel Thomas Blood, from George MacDonald Fraser’s ‘The Pyrates’ (yes, based -if loosely- on the historical Colonel Thomas Blood, the one who tried to steal the crown jewels, had a chat with the king, and got off scott free from it). The Pyrates is one of the original golden age of piracy spoofs, written in the 1980s, and primarily follows Captain Benjamin Avery of the King’s Navy, a fully over the top parody of a classic swashbuckling hero, who gets embroiled in the theft and search for a jewelled crown that’s been taken and split into six parts by a cadre of pirate captains (who, again, are ‘loosely’ based on RL golden age pirates). But also embroiled in said mess, as a counterpoint, is our own Irish Colonel Thomas Blood, who is, to put it mildly, a card-carrying scoundrel.

Now, this was from the 80s, and a parody, so the treatment of various topics and the behaviour of some of the characters is a bit … yeah. But. I do enjoy it for what it is, and I’ll always remember one particular Blood and Avery moment, very early in the book. Blood has gotten in a fight with Avery, thinking the dashing blond idiot will be easy to knock off, and then he can snaffle the crown for himself. But he gets injured during the fight, which will ID him if anyone goes looking for whoever knocked off Avery on deck during the night, so he has to recalculate and make Avery believe it on the fly. So he decides to abruptly, mid-fight, to disarm the man with a dirty trick and then pretend to be another Admiralty agent sent to shadow and test Avery, and we get this gem:

---

“All right, all right!” Blood interrupted warmly. “Can you think of a better cover?” he asked knowingly.

“You mean,” whispered Avery incredulously, “that you’re not really a notorious foul villain of ill repute—”

“Rank repute.”

“— Rank repute and noisome infamy, steeped i’—”

“If I was, you wouldn’t be standing here running off at the mouth, remember?” snapped Blood. “Some of us,” he went on virtuously, “don’t mind being given a bad name if it enables us to serve his majesty better. We don’t insist on going poncing about like Sir Walter Raleigh. We are content to wear,” he added bitterly, “dishonour’s mask in honour’s cause.” Here, that’s not bad, he thought; a nifty to remember.

---

I just love that abrupt mid-combat switch, where the murder failed, so it’s time for a quick change-of-pace con to get him back out of the hole again. And Avery, being a very logical and virtuous hero-type, and also familiar with the British Admiralty and their tendency to just do things and not tell the Joe Soaps on the ground about it, buys this hook line and sinker. And is all anguished that he failed the test, and is found wanting, and not only doubted but wounded this ‘honest, sturdy gentleman’. They head back below decks arm in arm, and as they part:

---

There they bade each other a comradely good-night, and sought their respective cabins, Avery thinking, what a worthy fellow, and Blood thinking, what an amazing birk.

---

It is a fun book, and Blood is easily the best part of it. ‘Here, that’s not bad, he thought; a nifty to remember.’ It’s a great line, dishonour’s mask in honour’s cause, and he’s just making it up off the cuff based on what he thinks this idiot will swallow.

You’ve got to love a quick-thinking swindler, even when he’s got no particular morals to speak of. Just for the craft. Heh.

#quotes #the pyrates #george macdonald fraser #colonel thomas blood #conman and swindler extraordinaire #and decent sword fighter when pushed

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colleenmurphy · 3 months

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"Little pig little pig come out come out wherever you are..."

The taunt in her reedy smoked over voice sent a chill down the blue eyed man's spine. He knew he never should haven laid a hand on that sweet doe eyed woman he'd picked up. Now here he was running and hiding for his life from her screwball bestie that most assuredly had a record of some sort not to mention more land acreage than God himself. Joel Benson was essentially being hunted for sport tonight and it was by his own hand. The fact that he was hiding like a rat in what looked like to be a barn or workspace of some sort both enraged and terrified him. Hell, this dizzy bitch enraged and terrified him. He didn't even remember her name.

"I've just realized something..."

That hippy dippy breathy put on voice was to lure him out of his hiding spot but he thought himself smarter than that. He watched her, unblinking in case she moved and her eyes seemed to lock onto him like a heat seeking missile.

"You don't even know who I am."

In her right hand the tall Irish woman carried a steel rebar handled shovel spray painted neon safety green, most likely to scare him. It wasn't working.

"Or what I am.."

With one swift swipe she had a bench cleared as the shovel head came down with a clang like a sword or a guillotine blade. Benson gulped. Her long ink black hair felt from her claw clip framing her milk white face. Directly over his head she cleared the second bench causing him to dodge out of the way of broken wood and tools. Backing up towards the last bit of corner he could he tried to keep his back against the wall, under his left foot he felt a crunch and knew he'd given his position away. It was at that moment the dark haired witch turned and saw him in all his glory a wolfish grin graced her face and she was hot on his heels as he tried to run from the barn. Too busy looking for a place to run he failed to see the gigantic figure coming out from the right about to head him off by holding out a massive hand until it was too late and his face connected with it. Stars and flashes filled Joel's head as he crashed to the ground back first as the deep voiced figure loomed over him blocking out the full moon. His world was spinning as he heard church bells somewhere off in the distance. The stone faced figure was male this time, also with long dark hair. Joel remembered as a kid reading about viking berserkers, wrap this fella up in furs and give him an axe and he'd be ready was all he could think until the behemoth smiled coldly at him flashing his pearly white dangerously sharp canines at him. Somewhere off in the distance he heard horses hooves as a procession of vibrant jewel toned clad figures rode up towards the crux of the turn off deeper into the woods. There had been others out there looking for him. Sitting gently composed and side saddle atop a cream colored pony adorned with damn near every bloom he could ever think of was Helene. Her long chocolate colored curls were adorned with a flower crown of myrtle ,white roses and somehow candles had been intertwined into the flowers and she glowed like the sun.

"Don't look at her. You're not fit."

Were barked at him by the still unnamed woman. She had somehow changed her clothes. Gone were the jeans and t-shirt, instead she was dressed in gossamer grey robes and crowned with her own ring of blood red roses. A grab for his face caused him to startled and for her grab at him harder. Her crimson nails digging slightly into his flesh as her green eyes bore into his soul.

"You could have had so many wonderful things if you had only treated her correctly. You were given time to correct your actions and you chose not to."

For the first time Joel found his voice.

"So fucking what, bitch?"

The crunch of bone and agonized pain shot through his lower jaw as she simply tapped him. The half strangled scream of pain didn't startle one of the horses or any of their riders as they looked on at the spectacle before them. Back down on his back in the dirt again he grabbed at his face.

"You'll do to remember my name is Colleen."

The dark haired green eyed woman spat as her Goliath henchman grabbed him by the hair and pulled him to his feet. The man's hand hit neatly around Joel's skull leaving him with a feeling that he could crush his very head like a grape, he just chose not to or was waiting for Colleen to give the command. He could see her a bit more clearly now. Her robes changed yet again this time to glimmering ghostly white and jingled merrily as she turned to grab hold of her own horse's bridle to climb up astride it. She too sat side saddle atop her mount, an ethereal white version of some sort of Arabian bedecked with it's own garland of blood red roses that nearly overpowered him. The horses's eyes glimmered in the moonlight as it studied him.

"Do you know why you're here tonight?"

He hadn't so much as heard the words as felt that as the gargantuan man holding him in place asked him the question that he'd been wondering this entire time. The pain in his lower disappeared as Colleen reached down and touched his cheek. The bone had knit itself back together ever so neatly Joel wouldn't have believed it had he not heard it in his own head.

"What the fuck are you?"

A callous grin crossed Colleen's features as she bent forward on her horse reaching up to stroke it's mane, greatly resembling a large cat sunning itself on a windowsill and thought of her answer carefully.

"Something that it much older than you could ever hope to be and very disappointed in the human world."

A shiver went straight up Joel's spine as Colleen's henchman, Lord Petrus of the Green, let him go for a moment he dared not to move for fear of having his head caved in by that large hand.

"Still doesn't answer much. Looks like a theater troupe that's down on their luck."

A ripple of anger crossed her face and a rumbling snarl was heard behind him. He knew in that moment that he had royally misstepped. Did he hear drums and chanting?

"Release the hounds!"

Snarling barks and the occasional howl were heard as kennel doors were opened and the dogs released.

"There are no actors here, Sir. Only a hunting party looking to put a wrong right. Just as you harmed our Lady of the Spring you'll receive it ten fold."

Lady of the Spring? Helene. It all made sense now. The shovel Colleen had been holding had somehow changed into a rather ornate looking sword and was being carefully carried over by yet another tall lean figure. He recognized this fellow as the tattoo artist from down on Grafton street.

"Thank you, Micajah."

The hounds sounded closer now, somewhere to the left a horse whinnied and another stomped it's hoof impatiently.

Somewhere in the distance he heard a crow call to him, then another and another until a murder circled overhead nearly blacking out the moon, all beckoning him to run.

The telltale sound of a a sword being unsheathed made Joel's blood turn cold. His feet took him blindly through the woods as he heard the familiar jingling hoof beats keeping time with his heartbeat. The overpowering smell of roses made him gag as he looked over his shoulder he saw a sword flash the emerald in the hilt glowing as brightly as it's owner's eyes as she pursued him.

"If the dogs don't get you I will."

#@aristobun #forgive the Drabble I've no idea where it came from but here we are!#I'm thinking Colleen is having a bit too much fun torturing Mr. Benson in all honesty #Spotify

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thoughtfulfangirling · 1 year

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2023 Reads

A new year means a new book list! I don't think I can top my 2022 count, but that's okay! I'm not totally sure what my reading goals this year will actually be, but I guess I'll sort it out on the way! XD For future reads, here's my 2024 list!

Four Treasures of the Sky - Jenny Tinghui Zhang

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass+

The Bear and the Nightengale - of the Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden

The Secrets We Keep - Mia Hayes

Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal - Patty Loew+

The First Sister - Linden A. Lewis^

The House of the Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury~

Fin Mac Cool - Morgan Llewlyn^

How Long 'til Black Future Month by N. K. Jemisin

Lavinia - Ursula K Le Guin^

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austin*

Black Cowboys of the Old West: True, Sensational, and Littke-Known Stories form History - Tricia Martineau Wagner+

The Mysteries of Thorn Manor - Margaret Roberson%

Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space - Amanda Leduc+

Her Majesty's Royal Coven - Juno Dawson^

She Who Became the Sun~ - Shelley Parker-Chan*

The Witch King - H.E. Edgmon^

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Legends & Lattes - Travis Baldree*

Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin^

The Adventures of Amina El-Serafi - S.A. Chakraborty

Humankind: A Hopeful History - Rutger Bregman+

The Folk Keeper - Frannie Billingsly*%

Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens - (Suzy) Eddie Izzard+

Juniper & Thorn - Ava Reid

Upright Women Wanted - Sarah Gailey%

I Await the Devil's Coming - Mary MacLane+

Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut~

Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights - Molly Smith & Juno Mac+

The Woman in White - Wilke Collins^

King of Battle and Blood - Scarlett St. Clair

Sarah - J.T. LeRoy^

The City Beautiful - Aden Polydoros^

Freshwater - Akwaeke Emezi

Always the Almost - Edward Underhill

All Systems Red - Martha Wells%

The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

Nevada - Imogen Binnie

A Dowry of Blood - S. T. Gibson

The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli

The Second Rebel - Linden A Lewis

Get a Life Chloe Brown - Talia Hibbert

The Hero and the Crown* - Robin McKinley

What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing - Bruce D Perry & Oprah Winfrey+^

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea - Rebecca Thorne

The Eye of the Heron - Ursula K Leguin

Artificial Condition -Martha Wells%

The Kraken's Sacrifice - Katee Robert%

Crown Duel - Sherwood Smith*

Rogue Protocol - Martha Wells%

Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self Involved Parents - Lindsay C Gibson+

Wildcat: The Untold Story of Pearl Hart, the Wild West's Most Notorious Woman Bandit - John Boessenecker+

The History of Wales - History Nerds+%

Ander & Santi Were Here - Jonny Garza Villa

The Glass Castle - Jeanette Walls^

Rosemary and Rue - Seanan McGuire^

The Gilda Stories - Jewelle Gomez

Irish Fairy and Folk Tails - Various+

The Dead and the Dark - Courtney Gould

Haunted Wisconsin - Michael Norman and Beth Scott+

The Other Black Girl - Zakiya Dalila Harris

The Ruins - Scott Smith

He Who Drowned the World - Shelley Parker-Chan

Fledgling - Octavia Butler

Vampire Forensics: Uncovering the Origins of an Enduring Legend - Mark Collins Jenkins+

The Vampyre - John Polidori%

This is Halloween - James A Moore

Sorrowland - Rivers Soloman

The Lamb will Slaughter the Lion - Margaret Killjoy%

Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Love Her or Lose Her - Tessa Bailey^

One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston*

The Last Hero - Linden A. Lewis

Lovelight Farms - B. K. Borison

Reindeer Falls Collection: Volume One - Jana Aston

Currently reading: One Last Stop (Audiobook to help me sleep XD)

Nonfiction is annotated by + A Re-read is annotated by * A book completed from the list below is annotated by ^ A Read with Empty will be annotated by ~ A Novella %

My current, loose and not that interesting goal for this year is to really work on the books I have current access to right now... at the start of this year. Because it's a lot XD This means books currently favorite in Scribd, on my StoryGraph 'to read' pile, or a book I currently own on my shelves. Main goal is at least one of these a month.

For my own personal reference, I'm putting a list of such books below to hold myself accountable.

Edit: Now the end of 2023, and here's a breakdown of my goal to read books I already had access to at the start of 2023:

I didn't read one a month per se, but I got more than 12 done, so I call this a win. These books are:

-Can't Spell Treason Without Tea - Rebecca Thorn -The City Beautiful - Aden Polydoros -Finn Mac Cool - Morgan Llewlyn -The First Sister by Linden A Lewis (proceeded by the other two in the series) -Get a Life, Chloe Brown - Talia Hibbert -The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls -Haunted Wisconsin - Michael Norman & Beth Scott -Her Majesty's Royal Coven - Juno Dawson -I Await the Devil's Coming - Mary McClane -The Kraken's Sacrifice - Katee Robert -Lavinia - Ursula K Le Guin -Love Her or Lose Her - Tessa Bailey -Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin -Nevada - Imogen Binnie -The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli -Rosemary and Rue - Seanan McGuire -The Ruins - Scott Smith -The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller -Sarah - J.T. LeRoy -Vampire Forensics - Mark Collins Jenkins -What Happened to You? - Oprah Winfrey -The Witch King - H. E. Edgmon -The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

The books I did not get around to reading from this list are as follows: Black Water Sister by Zen Cho; Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye (o); The Book of M by Peng Shepard (o); Charity and Sylvia by Rachel Hope Cleves (o); The Cruel Prince by Holly Black (a); The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey (s); Fallen by Lauren Kate (o); Fanny Hill by John Cleland (o); Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender (s); The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea (s); The Great Hunger by Cecil Woodham-Smith (o); Helping Her Get Free by Susan Brewster (o); The Impossible Girl by Lydia Kang (s); Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (o); The Merry Spinster by Daniel Lavery (o); On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (o); The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang (s); Radiance by Grace Draven (a); Watching the Tree by Adeline Yen Mah (o); The Willows by Algernon Blackwood (s); Wings of Fire (o); Witches Steeped in Gold by Clannon Smart (o); The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid (s)

23/46 Whoa! That's exactly 50% of the books I had on my list! That's pretty cool! All in all, I consider this 2023 goal successfully done!

#tf reads #2023 reads #books #yearly lists #long post #well it will be ok even without the readmore eventually #reading #my reading index

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psalmonesermons · 6 months

Text

When I make up my jewels Part 1

Malachi 3:16-18

Lessons from the Scottish Revival 1948-52

Message given at House of Prayer, Carlow, Ireland- (Prophetic Word)– 7th June 2000.

He is ready to gather the emeralds for His crown.

Understanding intercession and revival

Two of the greatest revivals in the 20th century were the Welsh and the Lewis/Hebridean revivals, both involving Celtic peoples.

Has God forgotten the Irish?

God loves the Irish!

Why has Satan laboured so hard to divide and destroy Ireland.

The spirit of Herod is still at work, trying to destroy that which is newly born in the body of Christ.

Will the coming Irish revival touch the whole earth?

Malachi 3

16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened,

and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the

LORD, and that thought upon his name.

17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my

jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him

that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

v17 The Welsh were the rubies, the Scots the sapphires.

God wants to gather his emeralds for his crown.

We must pray that these precious lost jewels will be found.

His jewel box is the Church of Jesus Christ.

God is putting us in remembrance of something about his character tonight and

wants us to remember the Lewis/Hebridean revival.

Pastor Sean Mullarkey recently told me of a prophecy he had heard that the Irish would no longer dance with their hands at their sides but would dance like the Scots with their hands in the air.

The Hebridean Revival 1948-52

The revival came back in those days on the Isle of Lewis - one of the islands of the Hebrides, just off the coast of Scotland.

The church elders met in Stornoway to discuss the sad state of the church.

Dead, dry and without much hope, some of the churches were about ready to close their doors. The young people were in the drinking places and the dance halls - they were not at all interested in spiritual things.

Seven men begin to change their world through prayer

As a result of the meeting, seven men and one of the elders decided to pray and seek God for

the Hebrides Isles. They met in an old barn by the side of the road. Three times a week they

met and prayed and sought the face of God. As they knelt in the straw of the old barn God

reminded them of a verse of scripture in

2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people who are called by My Name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive

their sin and heal their land."

They began to pray according to this verse.

God is the Covenant Keeper

And then the Holy Spirit gave them a revelation - that He was a covenant-keeping God.

They realised that if they kept their end of the covenant i.e. to humble themselves and pray

and seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways" then God was bound by His own

covenant to come and keep His end of the two-way promise - to "Hear from heaven and

forgive their sins and HEAL THEIR LAND."

They continued to pray day after day - keeping their faith strong and reminding God of His

word. They obeyed God and cleansed their hearts - and sought His face - and held on to the

covenant promise. They had no doubt that God would heal their land and visit the people of

the Hebrides.

Two elderly ladies change their world through prayer

At the same time, two elderly ladies, sisters, one of 82 and the other of 84 years, were also

praying continually in their cottage, for God to come in His power and visit their island.

Simultaneous glory

One night after five months, as the men were praying and travailing before God, suddenly the

barn was filled with the glory of God. At the same time, the little cottage where the sisters

were praying, was also filled with the glory of God - they knew that God had heard and that He was about to descend in power among them.

God is coming in two weeks

God instructed the sisters to write to Duncan Campbell, a well-known Keswick speaker- a

godly man of prayer. God revealed to the sisters that he was the man the Lord was calling to

preach during this visitation.

Duncan Campbell received the letter but replied that his itinerary was full, and that they should continue to pray and that he would come the following year. When the sisters heard this, they said, "Well God is coming in two weeks!"

They continued to pray, and Duncan Campbell s itinerary got cancelled - so he decided to go

instead to the Hebrides and be available to preach.

Amen

Prayer for revival

In Part 2 we find out what happened next when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Hebrides.

#christianity #bible study #bibletruth #blog post #blessings #psalmonesermons #faith #victory #devotional #Malachi 3:17 #when he comes to make up his jewels

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lafcadiosadventures · 1 year

Text

Madame Putiphar Readalong. Book One, Chapter Ten:

Were it not for the open ending this chapter could have been a short story like those in Champavert. A young woman is stabbed by her father’s henchman who thinks he’s murdering her lover instead (as commanded by her father) Once the mistake is discovered, the father is distraught, not because he has much love for his daughter but because it frustrates his negotiations to marry her off.

Romeo and Juliet Act Five Header illustrated by Kenny Meadows, engraved by John Orrin Smith. From the Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive

We begin with more Cockermouth characterization which allows Borel to explain us the different ways in which English domain of Ireland was exerted. The autonomous since 1690 Irish Parliament was now under English control (whatever the intervened parliament decided had to be approved by the English Crown)

Both the Irish clergy and the rebels are fervently against Cockermouth (Cockermouth is so extreme and baroque in his power abuse that he had proposed to implement mandatory castration of catholic priests)(and the rebels that had fallen in his power during the Kerry uprisings had been treated with the utmost cruelty)(Cockermouth is here to rip the country’s culture off and obliterate its morale via gruesome violence)(Borel tells us this castration ordeal had been implemented before, and Cockermouth was merely trying to bring it back in 1723)(all I could find was this: “In 1719 a law was put forward which included the penalty of castration for unregistered priests. It was rejected by the British authorities. A 1723 bill was to require all Catholic bishops and clergy who were members of orders to leave the country, along with secular priests who did not take an oath of abjuration.”-> source )

But after that intro about exerting and holding power in colonies, the narrative violently swerves and we dive into the preparations for Cockermouth’s birthday party.

The only people adhering to the celebrations are the paupers (earlier the local workers payed their compulsory respects to their lord), who come expressly to their lands to pay liege homage to the kitchen. The description of the charity by the ladies of the castle is vaguely idealized. Anne and Deborah are like the good fairies feeding and dressing the mendicants. We are told they are dressed elegantly but are humble and kind and generous. The people are naturally grateful and happy at being fed and treated kindly. A full fledged popular party breaks out, bagpipes are implemented, the minstrels sing traditional songs and improvise some new ones in their hostesses honor. There is no irony in the treatment of charity by Borel. He makes that comment on the women’s elegance among the smoky surroundings and the dirtiness/raggedness/nudity of their guests, but calls it a beautiful example. However, this paragraph comes right after the one about Cockermouth violence so we cannot help but put them in contrast. How do the local poor people felt at being forced to get their food at the house of an infamous torturer, (who also usurped their land of its resources) willingly entering his house to beg for food because its a celebration day. It is very revealing of their desperation, even if Borel doesn’t highlight and has only positive words for Debby and Anne.

By nightfall, the comme il faut guests start arriving to the Castle. They are received by the Lord and Lady. She, “(...) of an interesting beauty even through a forest of fandangle (...) ” (translation -and footnotes- here!! ) I like Borel dismissing luxury as being in detriment of beauty (takes us back to his proclaimed love of poverty in the prologue for the Rhapsodies) So of course Debby, who is Petrus’ ideal wears no fussy jewels -but she has other reasons besides aesthetic ones to avoid attention. As soon as she can, she tries to get lost into the crowd.

But she is forced to abandon her hiding place to meet her husband to-be. She keeps her lips tightly shut in a smile, curtseying to her suitor, making herself into a pleasant doll, a nodding Coppelia, playing her part hoping it would make it all pass as quickly as possible.

And we hear about her suitor. Through him Borel sketches his own prototypical libertine in an 18 th c novel, but there is no glamour, no appeal to the figure. He is a man of leisure who is a professional rapist (the peasant girls he thinks himself so irresistible to, flee on his sight like Daphne from Apollo) He is also ridden with venereal diseases (the peasant girls run away from him like from the Plague, he is the masculine version of the prostitutes in Félicien Rops’ paintings, a skeleton hiding behind a grinning mask, but in his case even the mask is blood-curdling). His family is trying to prevent any grave scandal by marrying him off (by giving him Deborah) but of course he has no intention of changing his ways and is merely glad that his future wife is good looking and that her money would enable him future conquests because “Money is the sinews of war.”

Deborah was aware of his reputation, but even if she hadn’t been she would have been instinctively repelled because his demeanour made him as repelling to women as poison.

As once as his disgusting attentions were over, she fled.

Leaving lights in her window when leaving her room to make it seem occupied, she ran to meet Patrick. We return to Cockermouth who is not enjoying himself, he is too anxious checking his watch, thinking of his plot to have any fun. At nine he meets Chris at the courtyard (and the next scene between them is once again a theatrical dialogue)

Thinking Debby was still in her room, they lock the gate expecting to keep her trapped inside. Chris complains about the lack of stars, the visibility is very low and he can’t see ahead. Low visibility notwithstanding, they still station themselves in a turret and Chris aims and shoots at a figure walking by bellow. They descend, and Cockermouth watches as Chris humiliates his victim.

Chris makes sure to bring up that one time Patrick refused to drink with him, and jokes on how he wouldn’t drink with him whom is now disembowelling him. To which lord Cockermouth feels compelled to add the disembowelling is done on his behalf. (to which Chris adds, rather insolently, on half his behalf) Cockermouth grows impatient at his henchman’s childish sadism (he is compared to Harlequin, we already discussed this but they are farce and commedia coded). As he would never be able to murder him by hitting him with the butt of his rifle only, the Lord hands him the feudal sword to make the task swifter. (and I bet Chris would have been extremely pleased by being bestowed that honor, touching the blade of his beloved Lord, but he is having too much fun stabbing away to remark on that fact. Cockermouth asks for his sword to be cleaned before it being returned to him)

After the carnage, Cockermouth nonchalantly returns to the banquet. He invites his guests to follow him to the dining room. They all seat for the feast. Deborah’s fiancé misses her, and asks over and over for her. Lord Cockermouth angrily sends Chris to find her, bring her back and scold her for her rudeness. When Chris returns, he reports that Deborah was nowhere to be found. However, her rooms were locked from within and the lights were still burning. Cockermouth extended arm fell inertly on the table, all the guests noticed his distress and his pallor...

#madame putiphar #long post #text post #once more an enjoyable chapter

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