Lark Rise

I've dived straight into a Christmas present, Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford.

"Lark Rise" (≈Juniper Hill) was in NE Oxfordshire, very near to the border with Northamptonshire and not far from Bicester. It was wheat country on clay. It's the 1880s.

Online text: https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/thompsonf-larkrise/thompsonf-larkrise-00-h.html .

Boots were often bought with the extra money the men earned in the harvest field. When that was paid, those lucky families which were not in arrears with their rent would have a new pair all round, from the father's hobnailed dreadnoughts to little pink kid slippers for the baby. (p. 31)

The name "Dreadnought" originated with an Elizabethan war-ship, the start of a long naval tradition. Another of its many later uses was to describe weatherproof working clothes; a dreadnought coat, or dreadnought boots. (Lawyer Pleydell wears a "dreadnought-coat" in Scott's Guy Mannering (1815), and the mounted farmer wears "dreadnought overalls" in the opening paragraph of The Black Dwarf, 1816.) In 1899, the early days of motoring, the "Dreadnought" was a new design of durable tyre; actually "tire", it was American. 

Hobnail boots lasted longest in the military and aren't used for muddy land work today. (But I did see a bunch of guys wearing them in the public bar of a remote East Sussex pub in the 1990s.)  

It was no hardship to her to be obliged to keep to the greensward, for flowers strange to the hamlet soil flourished there, eyebright and harebell, sunset-coloured patches of lady's-glove, and succory with vivid blue flowers and stems like black wire. (pp. 35-36).

"Succory" is Chicory (Cichorium intybus). The name "Lady's-glove" is most commonly an alternative name for Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), but here it means Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus); usage recorded from nearby Northamptonshire in Britten and Holland's Dictionary of English Plant-names. Thanks to the Facebook Wild Flower group for help with that one! 

Of different fields at the farm:

... and was the soil easily workable or of back-breaking heaviness or so bound together with that 'hemmed' twitch that a ploughshare could scarcely get through it. (p. 52)

Twitch or Common Couch (Elymus repens) was a significant plant when daily life depended on manually breaking the soil. The web of wiry rhizomes near the soil surface was difficult to chop out and the species re-grows from small fragments. You must never compost twitch, so the roots were burnt; then they had a rather nice fragrance (and were once used as a kind of palo santo incense). FT mentions "the light blue haze and the scent that can haunt for a lifetime" (p. 53). Twitch also grew in the vegetable plots of the hamlet cottages:

Often, on moonlight nights in spring, the solitary fork of some one who had not been able to tear himself away would be heard and the scent of his twitch fire smoke would float in at the windows. (p. 63)

The vegetable gardeners, men after a day of field work, 

considered keeping the soil constantly stirred about the roots of growing things the secret of success and used the Dutch hoe a good deal for this purpose. The process was called 'tickling'. (p. 62)

Singing at the 'Wagon and Horses'

The pop songs of the day: "Over the garden wall", written by Harry Hunter for the London-based Mohawk Minstrels in c. 1879. https://folksongandmusichall.com/index.php/over-the-garden-wall/  . It's remained popular (the Carter Family did a great version)... I've even sung it myself. . .

michaelpeverett · Over The Garden Wall

"Tommy, Make Room for your Uncle". Naughty comic song first published in 1876, written by T.S. Lonsdale and popularized by W.B. Fair. https://folksongandmusichall.com/index.php/tommy-make-room-for-your-uncle/ .

"Two Lovely Black Eyes". Charles Coburn's parody of "My Nellie's Blue Eyes", sung to the same traditional Italian melody, first published in 1886. About that risky conversation topic "the demon politics", as Scott puts it in Waverley. https://folksongandmusichall.com/index.php/two-lovely-black-eyes/ .

Waste not, want not,

  Some maxim I would teach;

Let your watchword be never despair

   And practice what you preach.

Do not let your chances like the sunbeams pass you by,

For you'll never miss the water till the well runs dry. (p. 70)

The chorus (somewhat misquoted) of "You Never Miss Your Water Till The Well Runs Dry", a song probably by Harry Linn, from c. 1875. https://folksongandmusichall.com/index.php/you-never-miss-your-water-till-the-well-runs-dry/ . A song commending promptness and thrift.

"The Barleymow". Traditional cumulative drinking song, first recorded in the 1840s (James Henry Dixon's Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England, William Sandys' Specimens of Cornish Provincial Dialect, William Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, p. 745) but obviously with much older roots. E.g. "Giue us once a drincke for and the quart pot, Sing gentle Butler balla moy:" in Thomas Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia (1609). https://mainlynorfolk.info/tony.rose/songs/thebarleymow.html .

"When King Arthur first did reign". A variant on "When good King Arthur ruled this land", an old nursery rhyme; quoted in an article on Nursery Rhymes in Blackwoods Magazine (March 1835), and later in numerous places including the evergreen Mother Goose's Melodies for Children, or Songs for the Nursery. https://folkplay.info/resources/texts-and-contexts/when-good-king-arthur-ruled-land-1871 .

"Me Feyther's a Hedger and Ditcher", aka "There's Nobody Coming to Marry". Traditional ballad, first printed in 1806. (It distantly resembles "Slighted Nansy", collected by Allan Ramsay in 1723.) https://mainlynorfolk.info/june.tabor/songs/nobodyscomingtomarryme.html .

"Have you ever been on the Penin-su-lah?" Apparently it's only known from Lark Rise.

"I wish I were a maid again." Collected by Percy Grainger in Twenty-One Lincolnshire Folk Songs (1906). https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/whatavoice.html .

"Now all you young chaps, take a warning by me". The second half ("the green leaves they will wither..." etc) resembles "Fair Maidens' Beauty Will Soon Fade Away" in Robert Dwyer Joyce's Ballads of Irish Chivalry (1872), p. 322. 

"Where be Dedington boo-oys..." Composed by the villager himself, says FT.

"Lord Lovell". Traditional (Child Ballad 75). https://folksongandmusichall.com/index.php/lord-lovel/ .

An outlandish knight, all from the north lands,

   A-wooing came to me,

He said he would take me to the north lands

   And there he would marry me. ... (p. 74)

A once-popular ballad in many variants (Child Ballad 4), belonging to an even larger and older tradition throughout Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Isabel_and_the_Elf_Knight . FT says that songs like this had gone out of fashion, and old David was only asked to sing it from politeness. 

Viveca Sten in Jämtland

 

This is the Viveca Sten novel from 2021 titled Dalskuggan in Swedish and published in English translation as Hidden in Shadows. As you can see I read it in the French translation by Amanda Postel and Anna Postel, Les Ombres de la Vallée. It's Verborgen in de Schaduw in Dutch, Tief im Schatten in German, Skyggedalen in Norwegian and Danish, Laakson Varjo in Finnish, Ascunsă în umbră in Romanian, Daladrungi in Icelandic,  . . .

The titles hint at the "valley of the shadow of death" in Psalm 23 (which is mentioned in the novel, Ch 52a). But this time the Lord doesn't defend against evil, seemingly. 

I'll admit I picked it up at the French service station because of the Jämtland setting; I might not have spent my money on one of Viveca Sten's earlier Sandhamn Murders, which are set in the Stockholm archipelago, but I was intrigued by the thought of readers all across Europe reading about Jämtland. In this case "Jämtland" mainly means the area around Åre that tourists flock to every winter. The novel's locations are strung along the central stretch of the E14 (the E75 of my youth), and its abiding image is of the exhausted investigators driving back and forth along this wintry highway, reactively swayed by priorities and struggling to reflect. 

E14, east to west.

(The novel moves forwards and backwards from the initial discovery of the corpse of Johan Andersson. I've done my best not to give away crucial developments, so some of these notes are a bit mystical.)

Sundsvall. The eastern terminus of the E14, a long way east of the other locations. This is where, ten years ago, Daniel's mother was killed by a hit-and-run driver.

Östersund. Largest town in the county of Jämtland, police HQ. Johan's parents live here. Marion picks up her brother Florian from Östersund airport. The helicopter goes to Östersund hospital.

Mattmar. Carina Grankvist (forensics) lives here.

Järpen. Rebecka went to college here. Ida's mother Elisabeth lives in a flat here. The witness Elin works here. Raffe lives at Kall, a few kms north of Järpen; also at Kall, the isolated cabin lent to Johan by a friend. 

Åre. Site of the police station where the team gather at the start and end of each day, with video link to Östersund.  Daniel and Ida live here, they first met at the nightclub Bygget, the same place Anton meets Carl. Anton was born and raised in Åre (or Duved?). Åre has become a tourist sprawl. Hanna lives in her sister Lydia's fancy chalet at Sadeln (new development to the E of Åre). Richard takes the children swimming at the Copperhill Hotel, also in this bit of Åre. On his last afternoon Johan was working at Sadeln with a lunch-break at Björnänge. Linus' wife Sandra works at a beauty salon in the central square of Åre. Near here, Hanna and Daniel eat pizza at the brasserie Werséns. Ida meets her friend Tove at a grill in Åre. Hanna and Daniel are tempted by a maxiburger at Brokens but instead grab a hot-dog at the service station near chair-lift VM6. Hanna drinks alone at the Veranda. Edsåsdalen, where Daniel and Ida planned an excursion, is south of Åre. 

Duved. Johan was born and raised here, went to school here with Linus and Carl. He met up with Carl at the restaurant Pigo on his last night. Carl lives here. Anton lives here. Linus and Sandra live in the countryside a few kms from Duved. Ole's father is in an old people's home in Duved. The van smash takes place near Duved.

Staa. Home of Johan and Marion. They live N of the E14. Staa also has a waste disposal site on the S side. On his last night Johan's van was seen parked south of there ("Klubbvägen", but the street-names in the novel are fictional).

Gevsjön. Johan's van is found here, on a minor road.

Tångböle. Johan's corpse is found near here.

Ånn. Where Rebecka works at the (fictional) kindergarten. 

Enafors. Ole and Rebecka live here, in the house that belonged to Ole's parents. Johan planned to pick up Rebecka at the car-park in Björkvägen (fictional street-name). Jan-Peter Jonsäter, the pastor of the Light of Life religious group (sect? free church?), lives at Handöl, a few kms SE of Enafors. The church and meeting-house are at Snasadalen (a fictional location named after the real mountain Snasahögarna, five minutes drive from Handöl).

Storvallen. Rebecka's parents live here. 

Storlien. The frontier with Norway. The helicopter lands here.

Meråker (Norway). The empty house that Ole inherited from his grandfather is near here, NE of the E14.

Trondheim (Norway). The western terminus of the E14, a long way west of the other locations. Johan and Marion visited friends here a year ago. The Light of Life has a presence here, and Ole has family here.

Other places

Strömsund (50km NE of Östersund). Home of Johan's brother Pär.

Umeå. Ole studied here. Johan's autopsy is here. Daniel's estranged father lives here with his second family.

Gävle. Carl went to university here.

Nerja (Spain). Hanna's mother lives here.

*

Hidden in Shadows is quite a generic scandi noir, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to say about it. Apart from driving along the E14, it's about violence and relationships and society. Crime in a professional sense turns out to be virtually absent. Life in mainstream society isn't necessarily easy, but the novel's values appear reassuringly mainstream; work, leisure and consumption are positive things. Public services are reassuringly present when you need them. On the other hand, non-mainstream activity (e.g. the Light of Life) is intrinsically suspicious; bad things happen in the shadows. It's what you'd expect in the definitive mass-market book genre.

But in scandi noir there's often a discussion going on in the background, and the picture by the end is more nuanced. Violence in relationships takes many forms, not just physical, and it isn't only horrible people who turn violent.  The novel observes the violence of mainstream society too. I don't recall another police procedural so aware of how police investigations wreak their own kinds of violence. Outcomes are hard to control. Modern society is complicated; like love, like life. . .

*

Vocab for reading scandi thrillers in French:

Recroqueville: curls up.

Pathologique: high-risk. "Sa grossesse est pathologique"; her pregnancy is high-risk. 

Déchetterie: waste disposal site.

Étayer: confirm, support, prop up (a theory).

Bouleau: birch.

Soucis de canalisations: plumbing problems.

Lance: another word for "says". 

Bredouille: stammers.

Lâche-t-elle: she blurts out.

Aller fureter: go poking around (on Facebook).

Sa mâchoire sur le point de se déboiter: her jaw on the point of being dislocated.

La ferme! rugit-il: Shut up! he shouts.