AN ENGLISH CHRISTMAS FEAST: PLUM PUDDING, HOLLY & THE GREEN KNIGHT

For this holiday special we begin with a traditional English Christmas feast as described by a family friend, highlighting a strange historical black dessert called a plum pudding or simply a Christmas pudding. Being topped with a holly sprig, we then learn the origins of some ancient plant-lore. But the meat of this sumptuous episode is a reading from a deeply mysterious and haunting, 14th-century Arthurian legend that takes place at a Christmas feast; one rudely interrupted by an axe-wielding Green Knight who demands a volunteer to join him in a deadly game. Merry Christmas!

Reading excerpts from Folklore of Kent by Fran & Geoff Doel;  English Botany Or, Coloured Figures of British Plants · Volume 2 by James Sowerby; and Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics; Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-lore of the Plant Kingdom by Richard Folkard.

Main reading from Sir Gawain and The Green Knight translated by Simon Armitage.

"Sweet was the Songe the Virgine Sung"
16th-century Christmas Carol
Performed by Ernst Stolz & Katrhine Brandt

"Dove's Figary or Chestnut"
English Country Dance
Performed by Ernst Stolz

"Be Merry, Be Merry I Pray You"
Medieval English Carol
Performed by Ernst Stolz

"What Child is This? (Greensleeves)"
English Folk Song
Performed by Ernst Stolz

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