“i’mma wade, i’ma wave through the waters / tell the tide ‘don’t move’”

[larryhammer]

With Yuletide authorships revealed, I can admit that I wrote a crossover between two very Welsh literary artifacts, both requested by the recipient. One is technically a verse closet drama and the other a technically-prose radio drama, but they are remarkably consonant in style and substance. Maybe because they were both written by Welsh Modernist poets, though that both are set by seaside also helped:

Behind Stars and Under Hills (1551 words) by lnhammer
Fandom: Ballad of the Mari Lwyd - Vernon Watkins, Under Milk Wood (Radio)
Characters: Captain Cat, Rosie Probert, Mr Ogmore, Mr Pritchard, Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard
Additional Tags: Welsh Folklore, solstice rituals, Dreams, Ghosts, Inspired by Poetry, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Mild Sexual Content, faux Dylan Thomas, honestly faux Dylan Thomas ought to be an archive warning
Summary: The Dead return. Those Exiles carry her, they who seem holy and have put on corruption, they who seem corrupt and have put on holiness.

They strain against the door on a moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black.

Basically it’s the dead characters of Under Milk Wood bring the Mari Lwyd to Llareggub.* The tag “faux Dylan Thomas” is, I feel, obligatory,** but so is the confession that I did steal some passages of real Thomas to prop up my fake tissue. There’s not much to the story aside from bringing out the consonance of the two works, but weaving together the two fibers was fun.

Fwiw I was matched on “The Ballad of Mari Lwyd,” and if you’re not familiar with it, here’s a copy.


* Which, remember, is “bugger all” backwards.
** It is not sociable to thrust Dylan Thomas, cod or kosher, upon people without warning.

---L.

Subject quote from Freedom, Beyoncé feat. Kendrick Lamar.