The Luttrell Psalter Film

[ellenkushner]

Has everyone seen The Luttrell Psalter Film on YouTube?  Very useful and beautiful if you write (or read) pre-industrial fantasy/historical fiction with a rural setting . . . or just want pretty pictures of the English countryside, its flora & fauna.  A real sense of the textures of the land, and of the kind of work that went into sustaining people on it.

Oh, and there's a Luttrell Psalter Film website, explaining what they did, and why, and how!

Comments

[rosefox]

That is super-cool!

[jamesovei.livejournal.com]

Beautiful film. Thank you for bringing attention to it.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

I love the way you can see the psalter illustrations in the real people and things they filmed.

What's always striking to me about this sort of thing is the flora and fauna - I majored in medieval history and I've always loved the sorts of illustrations you see in Books of Hours and so forth, but it's always strangely jolting to see flowers and animals and birds that actually look like the ones in the pictures. It's not that I didn't think that they were based on real flowers, but there's something really strange about looking at a flower and recognising it from a piece of artwork (when I was in Brugge a few years ago, I kept recognising flowers from the Flower Fairy books, which was also odd - it's strange to know exactly what something is, and how it grows and then suddenly to see it doing its thing).

We have a lot of imported European plants here, but the weeds and wildflowers are completely different, and those are the sorts of things that tended to appear in the illustrated margins. And even the non-weedy things are somewhat different - I don't know if we have a different species of oak here, or if they just grow differently because of the climate, or maybe just look different because of the light. Whichever it is, our oaks look real, but English oaks look like the ones in pictures...

unrelatedly,

[lutin.livejournal.com]

I found this and thought of Delia & you. (I know you're out of the age bracket, but you probably know people who are in it & there.)

Find the Future: The Game

On May 20, 2011, a very big game with the New York Public Library will launch. It’s called Find the Future: the Game… and if you between the ages of 15 and 29, and are anywhere near New York City, you will want to save the night of May 20 (all night — 8 PM to 6 AM) to have an incredible, once-in-the-lifetime experience. Stay tuned for more details in early 2011.

link: http://janemcgonigal.com/secrets/

[renesears.livejournal.com]

Thank you for linking to this. I hadn't seen it, and it's amazing.

Completely off topic

[robin-hobb.livejournal.com]

Imaginales?!?! YAY! It is the best! I was so happy to see your name on their website. Great setting by the river, wonderful food, lively and interesting topics with tons of readers of all ages there . . . This is going to be great!

Robin

Re: Completely off topic

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Yay and yay!! Delia's coming too, of course. I can't wait to get there, and renew French friendships, and eat that food, and see you again . . . . So glad to know you've been before and loved it.

Re: Completely off topic

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Just got this on FB from Jean-Claude Dunyach: "@Ellen : Great! So you're invited to the picnic during the festival (saturday lunch, put that in your diary :-). It's an event where every participant brings something local from his/her region. A personal recipe or some cheese, sausages, alcool, whatever. So the picnic is a trip round culinary France (and Belgium, Switzerland, etc.). Be ready for my foie gras! You and Robin Hobb will be our guests of honor (double portion of everything)."

I am fainting with anticipation. He gave Delia his recipe for dried/preserved duck breast (in salt & herbs), and we live on it!