V is for Various Readings, Knitting, and Byron at Villa Diodati (A to Z on Tolkien and the Inklings)

is for various readings.

I love the idea of the Inklings reading aloud from their essays and stories and poems, discussing all sorts of ideas having to do with myth and fairy tales and history and language... All over a pint or two in firelit rooms...

It's funny to think of, but they probably sat with their hands idle. Whereas a group of women, when they met, would have had a quilting circle, or a bit of sewing or knitting in their hands.

Speaking of which, I never really specified it as part of my ROW80 goals, but I still try to keep up my knitting projects! The only thing is, I seem to have been a bit lax in taking photographs. I'm in the middle of three things at the moment, a blanket for a cousin's new baby, a shawl for a friend, and a sweater for myself (that one is not likely to ever be finished). In between I made a few more new-baby items, including these wee hats:

It's a good thing that I have other photos to share instead!

It's interesting that I can't seem to find any direct reference to Tolkien's views on the Romantics (Byron, Shelley, Keats, and so on). C. S. Lewis's ideas I could distill -- if I had all my books from storage! I know I keep saying this. But there might be a light on the horizon! We're looking into having everything shipped...

All this is bringing me in a roundabout way to our last visit to the villa that Lord Byron stayed at, 200 years ago next month, when he arrived in Geneva. We've visited the Castle of Chillon, which inspired his Prisoner of Chillon poem, but we've also been up to see the villa Diodati, which is still a private residence, across the lake (roughly) from our village:

Byron's meadow

Villa greenhouse

Road behind the house

Address

Gatehouse

Villa Diodati

It was so quiet back then that you could hear the lake lapping on the shore far below

Peering in at the gate...

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