Eleanor Parker

In times that feel apocalyptic, where do we place our hope? It's an apocalyptic moment. The grim effects of climate change have left many people in despair. Young people often cite climate fears as a reason they are not having children. Then there’s the threat of nuclear war, again in the cards, which could make climate worries a moot point. The paradoxical answer ancient Judaism gave to such despair was a promise: the promise of doomsday, the “Day of the Lord” when God will visit his people and establish lasting justice and peace. Judgment, according to the Hebrew prophets, will be followed by renewal – for the faithful, and perhaps even for the entire cosmos. Over the centuries since, this hopeful vision of apocalypse has carried many others through moments of crisis and catastrophe. Might it do the same for us?On this theme: creation is transformed and made new.That’s what the “end of the age” meant to Jesus and his early - Peter J. Leithart says when old worlds die, we need something sturdier than the myth of progress. - Brandon McGinley says you can’t protect your kids from tragedy. - Cardinal Peter Turkson points to the spiritual roots of the climate crisis. - David Bentley Hart says disruption, not dogma, is Christianity’s grounds for hope. - Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz reminds us that the Book of Revelation ends well. - Lyman Stone argues that those who claim that having children threatens the environment are wrong. - Eleanor Parker recounts how, amid Viking terror, one Anglo-Saxon bishop held a kingdom together. - Shira Telushkin describes how artist Wassily Kandinsky forged a path from the material to the spiritual. - Anika T. Prather learned to let her children grieve during the pandemic.Also in the issue: - Ukrainian pastor Ivan Rusyn describes ministering in wartime Bucha and Kyiv. - Mindy Belz reports on farmers who held out in Syria despite ISIS. - New poems by winners of the 2022 Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award - A profile of newly sainted Charles de Foucauld - Reviews of Elena Ferrante’s In the Margins, Abigail Favale’s The Genesis of Gender, and Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility - Readers’ forum, comics, and morePlough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

Winters in the World is a beautifully observed journey through the cycle of the year in Anglo-Saxon England, exploring not only the rituals and customs linked to the different seasons, but the profound relationship between human life and the rhythms of nature. Eleanor Parker provides an imaginative connection to the Anglo-Saxon world, tracing the surprising history of its festivals – many of which are still celebrated today – unearthing traditions now long forgotten and celebrating some of the finest treasures of medieval literature.

"Outstanding." - The Sunday Times"Beautifully written." The Times"Superbly adroit." The Spectator"Excellent." BBC History MagazineThe Battle of Hastings and its aftermath nearly wiped out the leading families of Anglo-Saxon England – so what happened to the children this conflict left behind?Conquered offers a fresh take on the Norman Conquest by exploring the lives of those children, who found themselves uprooted by the dramatic events of 1066. Among them were the children of Harold Godwineson and his brothers, survivors of a family shattered by violence who were led by their courageous grandmother Gytha to start again elsewhere. Then there were the last remaining heirs of the Anglo-Saxon royal line – Edgar Ætheling, Margaret, and Christina – who sought refuge in Scotland, where Margaret became a beloved queen and saint. Other survivors, such as Waltheof of Northumbria and Fenland hero Hereward, became legendary for rebelling against the Norman conquerors. And then there were some, like Eadmer of Canterbury, who chose to influence history by recording their own memories of the pre-conquest world.From sagas and saints’ lives to chronicles and romances, Parker draws on a wide range of medieval sources to tell the stories of these young men and women and highlight the role they played in developing a new Anglo-Norman society. These tales – some reinterpreted and retold over the centuries, others carelessly forgotten over time – are ones of endurance, adaptation and vulnerability, and they all reveal a generation of young people who bravely navigated a changing world and shaped the country England was to become.

Pain is inevitable. Almost everyone is living with some kind of pain, whether the cause is physical, emotional, financial, social, or spiritual. A desire to escape it has led thousands of Canadians to seek euthanasia, and countless others into opioid addiction. What can we learn from people around the world for whom pain is a fact of life? How can we help others bear their pain? How might the wisdom of earlier eras help us? What answers does faith offer? On this theme: - Navid Kermani visits farming Madagascar battling drought caused by climate change. - Benjamin Crosby asks why churches haven’t spoken out against Canada’s euthanasia experiment. - Tom Holland sums up the history of pain in two artworks and three lives. - Lisabeth Button shares correspondence with a friend succumbing to Alzheimer’s. - Rick Warren demonstrated how our own suffering can lead to our best ministry. - Wang Yi, an imprisoned Chinese pastor, calls churches to face repression boldly. - Leah Libresco Sargeant profiles nuns providing palliative care. - Eleanor Parker considers an Anglo-Saxon poem, “The Dream of the Rood.” - Brewer Eberly tells what he learned from an insufferable patient. - Randall Gauger, who lost his son to cancer, finds lessons in C. S. Lewis. Also in the issue: - A report on the resurgence of bison by Nathan Beacom - Original poetry by Sofia M. Starnes and Julia Nemirovskaya - An excerpt from a new graphic novel, By Water - Reviews of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, James K. A. Smith’s How to Inhabit Time, and Nick Cave’s and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage. - Readings from Eduardo Galeano, Felicity of Carthage, Anselm of Canterbury, Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther, and J. Heinrich Arnold Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

Pain is inevitable. Almost everyone is living with some kind of pain, whether the cause is physical, emotional, financial, social, or spiritual. A desire to escape it has led thousands of Canadians to seek euthanasia, and countless others into opioid addiction. What can we learn from people around the world for whom pain is a fact of life? How can we help others bear their pain? How might the wisdom of earlier eras help us? What answers does faith offer? On this theme: - Navid Kermani visits farming Madagascar battling drought caused by climate change. - Benjamin Crosby asks why churches haven’t spoken out against Canada’s euthanasia experiment. - Tom Holland sums up the history of pain in two artworks and three lives. - Lisabeth Button shares correspondence with a friend succumbing to Alzheimer’s. - Rick Warren demonstrated how our own suffering can lead to our best ministry. - Wang Yi, an imprisoned Chinese pastor, calls churches to face repression boldly. - Leah Libresco Sargeant profiles nuns providing palliative care. - Eleanor Parker considers an Anglo-Saxon poem, “The Dream of the Rood.” - Brewer Eberly tells what he learned from an insufferable patient. - Randall Gauger, who lost his son to cancer, finds lessons in C. S. Lewis. Also in the issue: - A report on the resurgence of bison by Nathan Beacom - Original poetry by Sofia M. Starnes and Julia Nemirovskaya - An excerpt from a new graphic novel, By Water - Reviews of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, James K. A. Smith’s How to Inhabit Time, and Nick Cave’s and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage. - Readings from Eduardo Galeano, Felicity of Carthage, Anselm of Canterbury, Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther, and J. Heinrich Arnold Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

Winters in the World is a beautifully observed journey through the cycle of the year in Anglo-Saxon England, exploring the festivals, customs and traditions linked to the different seasons. Drawing on a wide variety of source material, including poetry, histories and religious literature, Eleanor Parker investigates how Anglo-Saxons felt about the annual passing of the seasons and the profound relationship they saw between human life and the rhythms of nature. Many of the festivals we celebrate in Britain today have their roots in the Anglo-Saxon period, and this book traces their surprising history, as well as unearthing traditions now long forgotten. It celebrates some of the finest treasures of medieval literature and provides an imaginative connection to the Anglo-Saxon world.

"Outstanding." - The Sunday Times"Beautifully written." The Times"Superbly adroit." The Spectator"Excellent." BBC History MagazineThe Battle of Hastings and its aftermath nearly wiped out the leading families of Anglo-Saxon England – so what happened to the children this conflict left behind?Conquered offers a fresh take on the Norman Conquest by exploring the lives of those children, who found themselves uprooted by the dramatic events of 1066. Among them were the children of Harold Godwineson and his brothers, survivors of a family shattered by violence who were led by their courageous grandmother Gytha to start again elsewhere. Then there were the last remaining heirs of the Anglo-Saxon royal line – Edgar Ætheling, Margaret, and Christina – who sought refuge in Scotland, where Margaret became a beloved queen and saint. Other survivors, such as Waltheof of Northumbria and Fenland hero Hereward, became legendary for rebelling against the Norman conquerors. And then there were some, like Eadmer of Canterbury, who chose to influence history by recording their own memories of the pre-conquest world.From sagas and saints’ lives to chronicles and romances, Parker draws on a wide range of medieval sources to tell the stories of these young men and women and highlight the role they played in developing a new Anglo-Norman society. These tales – some reinterpreted and retold over the centuries, others carelessly forgotten over time – are ones of endurance, adaptation and vulnerability, and they all reveal a generation of young people who bravely navigated a changing world and shaped the country England was to become.

Why did the Vikings sail to England? Were they indiscriminate raiders, motivated solely by bloodlust and plunder? One narrative, the stereotypical one, might have it so. But locked away in the buried history of the British Isles are other, far richer and more nuanced, stories; and these hidden tales paint a picture very different from the ferocious pillagers of popular repute.In this book, Eleanor Parker unlocks secrets that point to more complex motivations within the marauding army that in the late-9th century voyaged to the shores of eastern England in its sleek, dragon-prowed longships. Exploring legends from forgotten medieval texts, and across the varied Anglo-Saxon regions, she depicts Vikings who came not just to raid but also to settle personal feuds, intervene in English politics and find a place to call home. Native tales reveal the links to famous Vikings like Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons, Cnut, and Havelok the Dane. Each myth shows how the legacy of the newcomers can still be traced in landscape, place-names and local history. Meticulously researched and elegantly argued, Dragon Lords uncovers the remarkable degree to which England is Viking to its core.