The mild weather lately makes me wonder if winter is still revving her engine. Although Christmas is past, January’s dark, cold days bring the lyrics of an old carol to mind:
“In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan. Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone. Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow…”
The song stuck itself in my mind until I decided to do some digging. I wasn’t surprised to learn that the person who penned the words suffered from depression throughout her life. What did surprise me was learning the title has also been used for both a book and a movie!
“In the Bleak Midwinter” began as a poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). Originally called “A Christmas Carol,” Scribner’s Monthly published it in 1872. Not until 1906 was the poem set to music, first by composer Gustav Holst. This is the tune most familiar to us. Another by Harold Darke composed in 1909 is widely performed by choirs. As recently as 2008, some of the world’s leading choirmasters and choral experts named it the best Christmas carol.
You might question the song’s theology or even its weather. Although it describes the kind of winter we Canadians know well, chances of “snow on snow” at the time of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem are slim at best. Though we don’t know for sure what time of year Jesus was born (some scholars say April), we do know average April temperatures in Jerusalem range between plus 14 and plus 25 Celsius. Still, the song’s lilting melody provides a beautiful background for its message, making it a favorite of many.
The movie version of In the Bleak Midwinter is a 1995 British romantic comedy written and directed by Kenneth Branagh. An out-of-work actor named Joe Harper makes a slow decline into depression. In an attempt to beat it, Joe volunteers to help save his sister’s local church from land developers by putting on a production of Hamlet. The volunteer cast he assembles is not exactly the cream of the crop. Joe casts himself as Hamlet and rehearsals commence with no end of foibles and misadventures. But, as in every great story, something bigger begins to emerge in the village. The film was shot in black and white for artistic effect.
Finally, in 2002, New York Times best-selling author Julia Spencer-Fleming released a mystery novel titled In the Bleak Midwinter. It won six awards for best first novel, including the Agatha Award. The book introduced the characters of Clare Fergusson, an ex-Army helicopter pilot who has become an Episcopal priest, and Russ Van Alstyne, a married police chief who lives in the same town.
In a cold, snowy December in the upstate New York town of Millers Kill, newly ordained Clare Fergusson is on thin ice as the first female priest of its small Episcopal church. Her blunt manner, honed by years as an army pilot, is meeting with a chilly reception from some members of her congregation. Police Chief Russ Van Alystyne doesn’t know what to make of her or how to address “a lady priest.” When a newborn baby is abandoned on the church stairs and a young mother is murdered, Clare must pick her way through the secrets shadowing the town. The book is followed by several more mystery novels involving the same main characters.
So, there you go. Three “Bleak Midwinters” to keep you humming, watching, and reading your way through this one and hopefully make it not-so-bleak.
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