✧˚· . 𝓟ower, ℳystery, ℛomance ⋆✧₊˚

I shine only with the light you gave me. — The Moon Will Sing by The Crane Wives

INPRNT

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This is a recreation of The Meeting on the Turret Stairs (1864) by Frederic William Burton. Credit to the wonderful @soulhollow for giving me the brilliant idea and commissioning this 💚

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The costume design for Alfred

They said they wanted to see Alfred in purple/gold tones, so I self-indulgently designed a costume for Alfred (though again not necessarily trying to be historical accurate)

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Details for archaeology nerds (So it happens again I guess)

1. The tablet-woven bend

Design is loosely taken from an actual archaeological find from the Taplow Barrow in Buckinghamsire, dating to the early 7th century. The original piece really had the gold threads on it by the way. You can see the modern reconstruction here.

2. Pattern on the tunic

Taken from a part of an arcade illustration in the Royal Bible (Royal 1. E. vi, 4r.) c. 1000-1025 in British Library, London. Added some vine patterns that are quite common to see in insular art for reasons.

3. Pattern on the shawl

Taken from a part of the stole and the maniple in St. Cuthbert’s coffin, dated to early 10th century, now in Durham Cathedral Museum.

4. Embroidery on Alfred’s sleeves

The pattern is from an illustration in the manuscript of Bede’s Life of St Cuthbert (MS 183, f. 1v) c. 937 in Parker Library, Cambridge, which depicts King Æthelstan showing the book to St Cuthbert himself.

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The process

And the reason it works is that it’s not just a handy literary device that creates mystery, it is perfectly in line with the rest of Will’s character. He is in fact sneaky, repressed, and traumatized. There are parts of himself and his past that he’s unable to accept, thoughts and memories that terrify him, that he has to keep locked up. He can’t even enjoy a hug from Violet without feeling guilt. He realizes he might be the Dark King in like chapter 3 but doesn’t allow himself to think/process it till Katherine dies. He knows how many minutes it takes to choke someone to death. Being attracted to James is too Sarcean-like so he tries to not have those thoughts as well, even though it feels like “the sun, or something brighter”

And all these things are for the reader to infer from Will’s actions rather than being told explicitly by the narrative, which forces the reader to actively participate in the storytelling and become more invested.

Open.

Away from the tour, I didn’t live that far from where Jimmy lived in those days, in Sussex, and a lot of time we would go to each other’s houses for lunch on a Sunday, that sort of thing. But it was a different Jimmy Page once you got on tour. That’s true of any artist, but magnified in Jimmy’s case because of the vastness of what Led Zeppelin had become by then [1973]. All of them were normal types when they were at home. John Paul Jones is still with the same wife now he had then. It was probably more difficult for Jimmy, though, to build a solid foundation of real friends, because he is by nature a little reclusive. Then becoming as big as they got, that sealed his fate, in a way.

“What Did John Winston Lennon and James Paul McCartney Really Do in Those 101 Hours They Spent in New York?…