Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Yuletide Youtube, Tuesday Shopping

Let's kick the season off right with The Boar's Head Carol. It's sung at the opening of every madrigal dinner I've ever been to. (I know there are better version, but I like this guy's voice and the general enthusiasm of the kids)












This carol dates to 1521. The story goes that Capcot, a scholar at Queen's College, Oxford, was attacked by a wild boar on his way to Mass (as so often happens on college campuses). He grabbed the boar by the scruff of the neck and shoved a copy of Aristotle down its throat. As Aristotle was just as dry in the 1400s as he is to day, the boar promptly choked to death. Capcot took the head on his staff to Mass and later delivered it to dinner.

The fact of it is, Boar hunting season runs Christmas Day to Candlemas (Feb 1), and the boar's head may be a remnant of a Nordic sacrifice to Frejya at Yule.



Today for Shopping Suggestions:
The Literary Underworld.

Do you have readers on your list? Of course you do.
The Literary Underworld, a small press author consortium, offers fiction (and some nonfiction) for every taste.

Gamers can test out the Stars of Empire steampunk RPG

Fantasy and Horror readers have their choice of award winners from John Everson to Elizabeth Donald, Wrath James White and Sara Harvey.

YA readers will enjoy Jackie Gamber's dragon series or the Katana series

For the aspiring writer, we have copies of Nick Mamatas' Starve Better

For the romantic, there are all flavors of romance. from my lesbian Adventuresses to Sara Harvey's tale of a Kitsune and a Dragon, Seven Times a Woman, Elizabeth Donald's vampire series, Nocturnal Urges, to the dark future gay Pygmalion, Nikolai.

Check out the Underworld!

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