Imagine. It is Christmas Day 1443 and Lynn mystic Margery Kempe’s 70 year life is being celebrated in a remembrance service of words and music in her beloved parish church of St Margaret’s Lynn, with a dozen songs about her and her contexts as the carols and with dramatic readings from her Book as the Lessons.
Premiered in 6 You Tube episodes, beginning today with ‘Anchorless and Quite Alone’ (featuring Julian of Norwich) and every Sunday from now to Christmas at 3 pm:
1. https://youtu.be/ajVfKAQeLWg Anchorless and Quite Alone Tuesday 22 Nov 3 pm
2. https://youtu.be/VViwn4ytM64 Heaven and Hell Fire! Sunday 27 November 3 pm
3. https://youtu.be/0JeMQewaJg4 The Mortification of Mr Margery Sun 4 Dec 3 pm
4. https://youtu.be/-afa3sDavDU Pilgrim, Mystic Sunday 11 December 3 pm
5. https://youtu.be/D2VBx8CHJ2c Roaring Margery Sunday 18 December 3 pm.
6. https://youtu.be/WIsA1J0r-hU A Lynn Carol Sunday 25 December
Peacock's Tale folk indie duo evoke Margery in a musical duet of female and male voice and through various perspectives: in the context of her fellow female contemporary Norfolk mystic Julian of Norwich; her Merchant prince of Lynn father and the Hanseatic League; of her husband John Kempe and her role as mediaeval wife and mother of 14; her semi- unauthorised pilgrimages and mysticism; her famous weeping and her and often disputed claims to ('kitchen sink'?) mysticism; her status as a homely carol icon - carols being originally not just for Christmas but holy songs written by the common people rather than by professional clerics, this homeliness most charmingly embodied by her auditory vision of the English robin redbreast in place of the traditional dove of the Holy Ghost; her relationship with the Lollard heresy (notably its promotion of holy writ in a vernacular language); her loving kindness, attacks on clerical hypocrisy and dereliction of duty and her status as the (illiterate) mother of English autobiography. Kitchen sink mysticism from https://peacocks-tale.bandcamp.com
The soundtrack album as a one hour digital download with full lyrics, commentaries, historical, theological and literary analysis, credits, track art, links, photography and much else besides, becomes available with the premiere of A Lynn Carol the final episode. https://peacocks-tale.bandcamp.com/album/a-mass-of-carols-for-margery
A pocket guide to Margery Kempe https://bitternbooks.co.uk/product/the-book-of-margery-kempe-of-lynn/
