Goblin Fellow

“L'erinni scomparsa” Particolare tratto dal dipinto “la città di Dite” canto IX

“weird”

From Old English wyrd "fate, destiny", ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wert “to turn” (related to the word “versus”, meaning “turned against”). The literal meaning is something like, “what will become” and in German, this root forms the future tense (sie wird trinken “she will drink”).

It is the last business day in Australia before Christmas so it’s as good a time as any for the Librarians in the Rare book team to retrieve one of our favourite Christmas Books from the collection. Published in Boston by L.C. Page in 1928, Christmas in Many Lands features a number of stories from mostly European counties, adapted in he English or new stories set in those countries by contemporary writers. The book features illustrations including some gorgeous coloured plates that can only be described as classic chocolate box. These idealised images of mostly European Christmas celebrations are very different to the warm weather scenes of an Australian Childhood. The authors and illustrators were particularly found of stories featuring cats or dogs, either heroic or friendly. This copy is part of the Library’s Rare Book Collection. It is part the Library’s Model School Library Collection which was selected by librarians at the Library between 1938 to 1949 to represent what was at the time thought to be an ideal collection for an Australian school. 

Striding Bull

Cylinder seal and impression

Persia, Achaemenid period, ca. 550–330 B.C.

Chalcedony