It's sad that going to the library makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, isn't it? But it does, so there.
Thanks to my marvellous organisation skills I took my last haul of several months ago back to the library last weekend and completely forgot to bring the list of books and articles I wanted to get in exchange. I'm clever that way. But at least I didn't run up any fines this time, and I did manage to get pretty much all of the books I was after. No Wisdom of the Outlaw as I was hoping (I was too late by two days, apparently...this book has a habit of disappearing on me one way or another...), but so far the other books I got have more than made up for it. These include:
Understanding the Universe in Seventh Century Ireland - Marina Smyth
British Calendar Customs: Scotland Volume III - Mrs MacLeod Banks
Lady With a Mead Cup - Michael J. Enright
Folklore of County Wexford - Ó Muirithe and Nuttall (Eds.)
Rites of Marrying: The Wedding Industry in Scotland - Simon R. Charsley
A Third Manx Scrapbook - W. W. Gill
Milk and Milk Products from Medieval to Modern Times - Patricia Lysaght (Ed.)
And then a couple of journals for some articles that I've been after for a while. I was unable to use the photocopier in the end, so not being able to find the rest of the articles on my list was no great disaster, and I have more than enough to be getting on with, at least. Some of the books I intend to read all the way through, but most I'll probably just use for reference - I've already discarded Rites of Marrying as not being what I was after, and some of the articles I got in the same subject area were disappointing to say the least.
Otherwise, so far I've got stuck into Marina Smyth's book, which has been interesting in terms of dealing with early medieval cosmology, but in some ways it's not quite what I was hoping for. She's concentrated solely on a Christian context so far, and I was hoping she'd go into evidence of native hangovers creeping their way in at least here and there. Not so much, but still lots to chew on.
Sadly I couldn't find much at all in the way of useful books on the Isle of Man. Most of those are antiquarian and therefore in the Special Collection at the university, which means I have to arrange access and so on. Seeing as I can get access to them online through archive.org, there's not much point going to that hassle. There were a few books on the shelves in Manx, which I'm sure would be a fantastic read, but not much good to me right now seeing as I don't speak the language. So the book I did get in that respect was about all that I've not had my hands on before now.
I've had Lady With a Mead Cup out before now, this time I got it out for researching my next article (on marriage, in case you hadn't guessed - which is turning out to be far more complicated than I anticipated) but I might give it a full read if I have the time. There's some good stuff in there.
What with chicken pox and school holidays I've not had much time for reading or writing lately, and I'm kinda feeling it. Hopefully with the kids going back to school tomorrow I'll be able to get stuck in to it again.