The Christmas Book Flood

Image: Engraving by F. Barnard from Christmas Books by Charles Dickens, (LRA.S.6660/1). Title page.

Here at the UCF, things are feeling firmly festive – the tiny office tree has been bedecked, mince pies are heaped in the break room, and staff are sporting some of their best knitwear – it’s definitely almost Christmas! Beyond all the feasting and gift-giving, one of my favourite moments of the season is having the time to slow down and relax, to cosy up in front of a warm fire and read a good book by the glow of fairy lights. And this is exactly the Christmas custom in Iceland. Every year in the few months approaching December, publishers release all their new titles in the prevailing tradition of Jólabókaflóðið, or the “Christmas book flood”. This practice dates back to World War II, where currency restrictions limited the amount of imported giftware. This did not extend to paper however, and therefore the humble book became the default gift. Christmas Eve is the main gift-giving day in Iceland, and after receiving their crisp new books many Icelanders spend the night cosied up and reading away, as in my idyllic winter image.

In the same spirit, I hope to introduce you to a deluge of Christmas books held here at the UCF. Amongst the more literary offerings, there are some unexpected instructive volumes; The history of the Christmas card (.74168 Bud.) for example, a guide to eradicating Christmas tree pests (Reference seq.) and the slightly less seasonal, An investigation of the coconut-growing potential of Christmas Island (F 634.616 Dir.). I’m not sure those titles are exactly what I’m hoping to find under my tree this year!

Offering us a more festive read is Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Christmas Sermon (LRA.S.3773). First appearing in the pages of Scribner’s Magazine in 1888, these musings were subsequently published in their own slim little volume by Chatto & Windus in 1906. Here, Stevenson considers how Christmas is a period of both reflection and celebration:

“There is no cutting of the Gordian knots of life; each must be smilingly unravelled. To be honest, to be kind – to earn a little and to spend a little less, to make, upon the whole, a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation – above all, on the same grim condition, to keep friends with himself – here is a task for all that a man has fortitude and delicacy. He has an ambitious soul who would ask more; he has a hopeful spirit who should look in such an enterprise to be successful…But Christmas is not only the mile-mark of another year, moving us to thoughts of self-examination: it is a season, from all its associations, whether domestic or religious, suggesting thoughts of joy (p. 14-16)”

A handwritten inscription in the opening pages, “With much love from…” shows us that this book too was originally given as a gift, which is a cheering thought.

Furthermore, I cannot think of Christmas and not think of Dickens. This may be because The Muppet Christmas Carol is the most beloved film in my household at this time of year, but I am firmly of the opinion that in this tale, Dickens created the best and most enduring Christmas story of all time. We hold several editions of this classic at the UCF, including within a collection of Dickens’ Christmas books published in 1892 by Chapman & Hall (LRA.S.6660/1). In the preface, Dickens writes of the volume: “My chief purpose was, in a whimsical kind of masque which the good-humour of the season justified, to awaken some loving and forbearing thoughts, never out of season in a Christian land.” Bound in an appropriate holly-green with gold lettering on the spine, this beautiful volume is further illustrated inside with 28 engravings by F. Barnard. Above you may see the decorative title page, whilst below is Ebenezer Scrooge encountering the ghost of Jacob Marley, and a transformed Scrooge carrying Tiny Tim through the streets on Christmas day.

Image: Christmas Books, opposite title page.

Image: Christmas Books, p. 8.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My family will most definitely be receiving some rectangular-shaped packages this Christmas, although perhaps not a first edition Dickens. During my most recent bookshop trip I even accidentally picked up a little gift for myself – Stuart Kells’ The Library: a catalogue of wonders (Counterpoint, 2018). The blurb calls it, “A love letter to libraries and to their makers and protectors”, and I can’t think of anything better to curl up with on Christmas Eve. A Merry Christmas to us all, and happy reading!

 

Daisy Stafford, UCF Library Assistant

Halloween Highland Superstitions

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Image: Title page of a manuscript copy of The secret commonwealth by Robert Kirk, 1692. Held in The Laing Collection (La.III.551).

The day of Halloween is upon us and here at the UCF we’re marking the occasion the only way we know how…with some seriously spooky books! A quick click through the catalogue reveals some absolutely terrifying reading material. Titles such as Bats in roofs: a guide for surveyors (699.878), A bibliographical ghost revisits his old haunts (.01 Fra.), and Safe handling of corpses containing radioactive substances (WN650 Nat 1966) are lurking on our shelves. It’s enough to make even the most stoic librarian shudder!

Continuing to search for the magical and mystical amongst our collections, I came across a title by Robert Kirk; The secret commonwealth of elves, fauns & fairies: a study in folk-lore & psychical research (tOD 91 KIR). Kirk was a Gaelic scholar, folklorist, and alumnus of The University of Edinburgh. He collated this collection of folklore between 1691 and 1692 but died without seeing it published, which wasn’t until over a century later in 1815, by Sir Walter Scott. Several copies are held amongst the universities collections, whilst an 1893 edition, digitised by the HathiTrust, can be found here. Besides being a very significant work in its own right, it has recently served as the inspiration for the title of the second volume in Philip Pullman’s Book of Dust trilogy.

We only hold one item however, with the word Halloween actually in its title. This is Alexander Macgregor’s Highland superstitions; connected with the Druids, fairies, witchcraft, second-sight, Hallowe’en, sacred wells and lochs, with several curious instances of Highland customs and beliefs (SSSA.S.841). Published in Stirling in 1901 it lives amongst the School of Scottish Studies collection. A slim, unassuming volume, bound in forest-green, it details the events of All Hallows Eve as follows:

“Hallowe’en in Gaelic means “Samhuinn,” that is “Samhtheine,” the fire of peace. It is a Druidical festival, at which the fire of peace is regularly kindled. There is no night in the year which the popular imagination has stamped with a more peculiar character than Hallowe’en. It was the night, above all others, when supernatural influences prevailed. It was the night for the universal walking abroad of all sorts of spirits, fairies, and ghosts, all of whom had liberty on that night. It was customary in many parts of Scotland to have hundreds of torches prepared in each district for weeks before Hallowe’en, so that, after sunset on that evening, every youth able to carry a blazing torch, or “samhnag,” ran forth to surround the boundaries of their farms with these burning lights, and thereby protect all their possessions from the fairies. Having thus secured themselves by these fires of peace, all the households congregated to practice the various ceremonies and superstitious rites of that eventful evening. (p. 44)”

Some of the rites and ceremonies Macgregor describes we might recognise, such as ducking for apples or the reading of fortunes in teacups. Others, less so, “the wetting of the shirt sleeve, the sowing of hemp seed, pulling the stalks of corn, throwing the clue of blue yarn into the pit of the kiln, the white of eggs put into a glass of water” (p.46) do not feature in our modern autumnal festivities. An evocative account of the latter ceremony follows, in which a fresh egg is punctured with a pin and allowed to drip into a glass of pure water, to reveal one’s destiny:

“The glass is then held up to the candle, and some important event in the future of the life of the inquirer is found exhibited hieroglyphically in the glass, – the egg droppings assuming an endless variety of shapes, in which the skilful in these matters discover a resemblance to things, which, by association, clearly point out coming circumstances and events. All this was done by an old, weird Sybil, who had been invited for the special purpose of reading to the young folks the various signs and indications of this privileged right. (p.49)”

Perhaps you will take a leaf out of our book (and Macgregor’s) by adding this early 20th century rite into your revelries this evening. The Beltane Samhuinn Fire Festival is keeping the smahnag tradition alive with their yearly blazing display on Calton Hill. Happy Samhuinn!

 

Daisy Stafford, UCF Library Assistant

Movers and Shakers

Movers and Shakers by Madeleine Leisk CC BY-NC

 

Summer is the time when our day-to-day service at the University Collections Facility is at its quietest. The undergraduate cohort has flown the nest and are busy celebrating their well-earned graduations, so book requests are limited to the few postgraduates and external researchers enjoying the comparative tranquility of the library. However, this doesn’t mean we sit in idleness enjoying the view of the rolling stacks, since it is also the perfect time to undertake any re-distribution of collections and re-configuring of spaces. The opening of our shiny new Unit 3 facility housing the art and musical instrument collections has emptied out areas in the other two units. Subsequently, the last few weeks has seen a surge of staff presence at the UCF as we tackle several large collections moves.

First was the shifting of the Research Support Collection from Unit 1 to Unit 2. This was the least geographically challenging of all the moves since it remained within the same building, but still involved much re-arranging and re-labeling of shelves. It also allowed the opportunity of handling one of our most diverse collections – a run of bibliographies caught my eye in particular, including catalogues of Persian Manuscripts, Greek Papyri and the collections of the Bibliotheca Vaticana. One volume, intriguingly titled A Bibliography of Unfinished Books (RSC Ref. Z 1025 Cor.) was published in 1915 and declares in its preface: “No book of importance is considered complete now-a-days unless valuable aid is given to the student by the addition of a list of books closely connected with the subject he is studying. He is thus able to pursue his course of reading by reference to these authorities.” Such is succinctly summarised the importance of the Research Support Collection!

Next up was the temporary transfer of collections from the Art and Architecture library to the UCF to allow for renovation works happening to that building, which involved the coordination of teams on both ends as books were moved between sites. This move will be mirrored before the beginning of the autumn semester as the books head back to their rightful place in readiness for the next wave of art and architecture students.

The last and largest of the moves was that of the Semple collection. Originally homed at New College, it has spent several months in external storage before arriving at the UCF last week and is primarily made up of religious texts from the school of divinity. Comprising approximately 20,000 bound volumes or 800 linear metres of books it was a huge job to move in. Many of the items were in fragile condition with friable covers and so required extremely gentle handling. Supervisors were on hand to provide a first-line check of each box of books in order to identify any immediate conservation hazards. This is now being followed up by three project collections assistants who are undertaking a more thorough survey of individual volumes and assigning each a conservation priority level. As they work through the collection they will be bestowing the accolade of ‘Find of the Week’ to their most interesting discoveries – so watch this space!

Now that this hectic burst of activity has dissipated somewhat we are returning to ‘normal’ levels of activity out here at the UCF. Each move was meticulously planned and involved members of staff from all over information services travelling out to the Gyle to chip in and do their bit. It once again firmly impressed upon me the inherently collaborative nature of collections work and the dedication of this particular library team.

Daisy Stafford, UCF Library Assistant