News
From Avonlea to Avalon, or The New Book
A year ago at this very time, we were delighted by the announcement about the publication of Ewa’s first book, whose journey across outer and inner landscapes continues to this day. We could say the theme of this journey still sounds like an evergreen in our hearts – and the cover of the next book, entitled “The Arthurian Legend from the Victorian Perspective in Tennyson’s ‘Idylls of the King’”, seems to confirm.
A Glimmer of Remembrance
This blog post is addressed to those who, in the context of the upcoming Solemnity of All Saints and the second anniversary of Ewa’s death (26 XI), would like to light a symbolic candle of remembrance for Ewa that will warm their memory of her.
In the Footsteps of Ewa
In 2012, Ewa Młynarczyk had carried out a library study in Bangor, gathering material for her dissertation. In May (2024), Ewa’s book — and thus, symbolically, Ewa herself — embarked on a sentimental journey in her own footsteps, but at the same time blazing many new paths, not only those belonging to the world of thought.
Irish echo in the heart of Sweden
Läs Is More — a second-hand bookshop with English-language literature in Gothenburg is one of the few places outside Poland and the British Isles where Ewa’s book has found its place. The reply to the message I sent to Stephanie Coughlan, the owner of the bookshop, came back in a flash, and the tone was uplifting. At the same time, it turned out that the green dominant of the interior design evoked in me, not coincidentally, associations with the Emerald Isle…
In one of these lonely Orkney Isles
Birsay Books Antiquarian is one of the few buildings on the western edge of Birsay, which is part of Orkney’s largest island. The term ‘at the edge of the world’ would not be an exaggeration, as further out there is only the ocean adorned with a ruff of cliffs. And it is at this end of the world, by the ocean, amidst meadows, Neolithic relics, wild rabbits, seals, birds, and blooming wind roses, that Ewa’s book awaits.
Gem of Cornwall
In the southeastern part of the Cornish peninsula, where the river reaches into the English Channel, lies the picturesque town of Looe. Somewhere in the labyrinth of its narrow streets, reminiscent of Naples but lacking the Italian hustle and bustle, is hidden a real gem – the unique secondhand bookstore Old Hall Bookshop…
The most beautiful bookshop in the land of Albion
I have no doubts that Slightly Foxed is the most beautiful bookshop in the British Isles. I know that the beauty of a place is the reflection of the beauty of the inner landscape of people who co-create it. The kindness of Lisa and Claire shown to me (actually, a stranger) and to Ewa and her work, made me experience this beauty with my soul’s eyes and share it with you.
The book on its journey
Ewa’s book — following the example of the 19th century poetical heroes of poetic works described in it — has set off on a journey. With a little bit of luck, you may come across it at selected bookcrossing points, antiquarian bookshops and various cultural institutions in Poland and around the world. The list will be updated.
Evergreen, or book release
The book by Ewa Młynarczyk has finally seen the light of day (and of the moon). It has been published by the Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw. Hard copies of the book can be purchased at a charity auction, all proceeds of which will be donated to Avalon Foundation.
Bookmarks to promote the book
The bookmarks, featuring quotes from the works of A. Tennyson, W.B. Yeats, E. Dickinson, W. Wordsworth, P.B. Shelley, V. Woolf and the Brontë sisters, were created to promote Ewa’s book in English-speaking countries. You can print (and laminate) them by yourself and distribute them. The quotes have been chosen so that they bring comfort and encouragement to the person into whose hands they come.
Book cover
We are pleased to present the cover of Ewa’s book entitled Literary Appropriations of Myth and Legend in the Poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Morris, Algernon Charles Swinburne and William Butler Yeats. The author of the cover art is Barbara Sobczyńska.
Memorial plaque in Haworth
The road to Wuthering Heights leads through Haworth, the small town in the Pennine Mountains where the Brontë sisters spent most of their lives. On the first day of spring, at dawn, Haworth became richer with a handful of words from Poland where they have been engraved on a brass plaque…
About This Site
This site was created for the sake of Ewa Młynarczyk (1982–2022 ∞) — a tireless scholar in the field of the 19th-century British poetry, expert on the Arthurian legend, author of a doctoral thesis, English language teacher, but above all Daughter, Friend and one-of-a-kind Person for whom whole another world should be invented, to encompass all the richness of her passions, knowledge, talents, sensitivity and creative energy. The seed of such a world has been sown here, in the virtual space that shimmers with the shades of the Emerald Isle and Green Gables.
The original idea of this project, however, was not so much to commemorate Ewa in a kind of museum of memories as to create a place where she could constantly become present, influencing life that only seemingly goes on without her: inspiring new research and artistic explorations, stimulating (self)cognitive curiosity or evoking emotions which often become the wind of change and the source of much-needed hope.
By paraphrasing Olga Tokarczuk’s words, one could say about Ewa — and to her: “And that even if [we] were to say, ‘[You’re] lost,’ then [we’d] still be starting out with the words ‘[You are]’”. For death does not seem to be a dot of full stop closing the content of someone’s Book of Fate; it is rather the longest punctuation mark — the em dash, a symbolic pause for breath between the words, which connects them like a bridge, and yet “the transition from absence to presence takes place over the bridge of the language” (M.P. Markowski). So let this place, like its main Heroine, truly connect: words and worlds.
All research articles by Ewa Młynarczyk have been shared online on this website. Her doctoral thesis, entitled Literary Appropriations of Myth and Legend in the Poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Morris, Algernon Charles Swinburne and William Butler Yeats, has been released in 2024 and is available here in its digital version as well. Therefore, nothing else left, but to encourage Readers to read all the shared texts by Ewa, which in some way will be an act of encounter with their Author — in line with the conviction expressed once by John Milton in his speech Areopagitica: “For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.” Let every textual meeting with Ewa be a confirmation of this.
MS
Still have I left a little breath
To seek within the jaws of death
An entrance to that happy place,
To seek the unforgotten face […].