K stands for

 King Witlaf's  Drinking Horn.

( By Henry W Longfellow),

Witlaf a King of the Saxons,

 Ere yet his last  he breathed

 To the merry monks of Croyland

 His drinking horn bequeathed--,

 That whoever they sat at their revels,

 And drank from the golden bowl,

 

 They might remember the donor

 And breath a prayer for his soul.

 

 So sat they once at Christmas

 And bade the goblet pass;

 In their beards the red wine glistened

 Like dewdrops in the grass.

 

 They drank to the soul of Witlac,

They drank to Christ the Lord,

 And to each of the Twelve Apostles,

 Who had preached his holy word.

 

 They drank to Saints and Martyrs,

 of the dismal days of yore,

 And as soon as the horn was empty,

They remembered one Saint more.

 

 And the reader droned from the pulpit,

 Like the murmur of many bees,

 The legend of good Saint Guthlac,

 And Saint Basil's homilies.

 

 Till the great bells of the convent,

 from their prison in the tower,

 Guthlac and Bartholomaeus,

  Proclaimed the midnight hour.

 

And theYule -log cracked in the chimney, 

 And the Abbot bowed his head,

 And the flamelets flapped and flickered,

 But the Abbot was stark and dead.

 

 Yet still in his pallid fingers,

 He clutched the golden bowl,

 In which, like a pearl dissolving,

 Had sunk and dissolved his soul.

 

 But not for this their revels

 The jovial monks forbore,

 For they cried "Fill high the goblet!

 We must drink to one Saint more".

 

My thanks to Denise for devising and Keeping ABCW going for many years and to Roger for his infinite knowledge in kindly helping us all to share our thoughts. and not forgetting the team of helpers too!