Advent Calendar

[tree_and_leaf]

Small prize, consisting of, er, the honour of being right, for anyone who spots the (admittedly relatively slight) connection to Sherlock Holmes!

The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame;
"All hail," said he, "thou lowly maiden Mary,
most highly favoured lady," Gloria!

"For know a blessed Mother thou shalt be,
all generations laud and honor thee,
thy Son shall be Emmanuel, by seers foretold,
most highly favoured lady," Gloria!

Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head,
"To me be as it pleaseth God," she said,
"my soul shall laud and magnify his holy Name."
Most highly favoured lady, Gloria!

Of her, Emmanuel, the Christ, was born
in Bethlehem, all on a Christmas morn,
and Christian folk throughout the world will ever say--
"Most highly favoured lady," Gloria!

Words: Basque carol;
trans. Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924), folk music collector, werewolf expert, and eccentric even by the standards of Victorian clergymen. Not dull, though.

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Presumably it's Baring-Gould?

OT, but we were watching the Astaire / Rogers film Carefree the other day, and I was amused to note that it was from an original idea by Guy Endore. Presumably this is the same Guy Endore who wrote The Werewolf of Paris ...

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes; specifically the detail that his grandson, who wrote a Holmes bio, based Holmes' childhood on S B-G.

[grondfic.livejournal.com]

Baring-Gould is a major character in The Moor, which is an un-canonical, un-Conanical Snoop-Sherlock story, relying heavily on The Hound of the Baskervilles for background.

Written by Laurie R King, it is full of non-beta'ed-for-Britglish gaffes and a certain amount of anachronism. It is, however, great to see Sabine appearing, larger-than-larger-than-life, in a work of fiction. I ALMOST forgave her for providing Holmes with a wife; when obviously the OTP has to be Watson!

Indeed!

[tree_and_leaf]

S B-G was definitely the best thing about The Moor

There's another uncanonical connection, in that S B-G's grandson wrote a Holmes biography in which he based Holmes' childhood on the elder Baring-Gould.

I don't buy Holmes' marriage at all, though Watson's always seemed too straight for really convincing slash (I suppose I see it as a platonic OTP, if such things exist). There is something queer about Holmes, though, Irene Adler or not, and I'd buy Holmes/ Watson before I bought Holmes/ whatever the woman's name was (her blatant Sue-ishness doesn't help, of course).

Re: Indeed!

[(Anonymous)]

Holmes fell in love with a woman at least once - I mean with Alice de Merville, in The Illustrious Client. Read his description of her to Watson and tell me if it has the sober rational tone we expect from the "thinking machine". He is, however, clearly a severely emotionally constipated person. I, myself, buy Peter Tremayne's view that he came from the Anglo-Irish ascendancy, which was apt to produce people even more emotionally constricted than late Victorian England. A contemporary Irish Ascendancy victim was GB Shaw, who was indubitably straight and nevertheless "the only man ever to cut a swathe through the theatre and leave it strewn with virgins". Holmes and Shaw would make an excellent pair.

Re: Indeed!

[grondfic.livejournal.com]

According to Fred Saberhagen (The Homes-Dracula File - again strewn with britglish mistakes), Holmes was obscurely related to Dracula (the evidence given is the striking similarity between the two physical descriptions).

Re: Indeed!

[azdak.livejournal.com]

"the only man ever to cut a swathe through the theatre and leave it strewn with virgins".

lol! What a fantastic quote!

[carlanime.livejournal.com]

That is my favourite carol. *hugs you*

[tree_and_leaf]

Glad to have provided it, then *hugs*

It's one of mine, too - the tune's magnificent, but I think it's mostly the sheer genius of 'his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame'. Now that's what I call an angel!

[carlanime.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed. It manages to capture that sense of something it wouldn't be entirely comfortable to meet, even knowing in advance what side it was on.

[tree_and_leaf]

Angels are definitely not cute. There's a reason why the first thing they say to people is 'Don't be afraid!'

[rosemary-green.livejournal.com]

Such a lovely tune -- it's definitely a favorite carol. It feels like a dance, somehow...

[tree_and_leaf]

Well, 'carol' appears to have originally meant 'dance' - and it is a beautiful tune.