239/365/Poetry and Form

Sometimes fly recipes read like poems. I was reminded of this when listening to some of the coverage that The Feather Thief is getting lately. I don’t tie flies, and I should find a modern recipe that is short and pretty, but instead I refer you to a book I mentioned in July, that oldest book I’ve ever touched. Here is the translation of some mid-fifteenth-century recipes, a found poem of sorts.

How one should bind hook[s] for the

whole year and according to each month

In the first May thus take a dark feather and black

light brown under that so it gives a good shine underneath.

And what you may have of black feather, that

you should lay on top and golden and black silk under that

and a red hook with red feather and gold and red [silk]

under it. Therefore you have quite enough for first May.

Should the water be turbid or swollen, then make your hook

or the feather so much larger.

In June [“second May”] take a light brown feather and

black and red [silk] under that and take a white feather and

gold and black [silk] under that and take a reddish brown feather

and white and red [silk] under that and for a black

hook tied with it and a red hook also always

on the line as I have written before and make that

well tied and large and adjust yourself according to

the water [conditions] as I have written before.

In the first August you should bind a red tuft of

red feathers with red and with brown [silk] and a golden

breast under that. After that you should bind dark gray

feather and bind silver and red silk under that and

take white partridge  feather and bind white and a red

silk under that. Take a red stingel feather and bind

red and yellow [silk] under that and for always a black

hook and a red [one] on the line and adjust yourself always

according to the water [conditions].

In September [“second August”] thus take ash-colored feather

and bind under that gray and light blue [silk] and take

yellow feather and bind red and yellow [silk] under that

with a golden breast and take

wryneck feather and bind gray and white [silk] under that

and take the white [feathers] of the woodpecker which he has beneath

the crop and mix them among another feather that is

light gray and bind red and white [silk] under that and

bind the two hooks as before and adjust yourself

according to the water.

In October [“first autumn”] thus take pale mousey brown feather

with white and with red [silk] and a golden breast

under that and take a gray feather from a

heron and take gold and gray [silk] under that and

take dark glass-colored [feather] and bind red and white

under that and a yellow hook as I have previously

written and work hard so that the smaller the water

is, so the smaller you should tie and black

and red [hooks on the line] as before.

In November [“other autumn”] you should bind really small and should

lay down a light gray feather and light blue and white [silk]

under that and take green woodpecker feathers and wind green

and yellow [silk] under that and take light ash-colored feather and

wind gold and white [silk] under that. What you take thus of pale feathers,

that is all good, and take red and white [silk] as before.

So you have the entire art/craft [chunst] of the tying and what you

would make as a breast for every month and on

all hooks, which you should do in the color as this is tied.