Taliessin Through Logres
by
CHARLES WILLIAMS
First published 1938
Second impression 1948
Printed in Great Britain
For
HUMPHREY MILFORD
UNDER WHOM WE OBSERVED AN
APPEARANCE OF
Byzantium
CONTENTS
PRELUDE 1
TALIESSIN’S RETURN TO LOGRES 3
THE VISION OF THE EMPIRE 6
THE CALLING OF ARTHUR 14
MOUNT BADON 16
THE CROWNING OF ARTHUR 19
TALIESSIN’S SONG OF THE UNICORN 22
BORS TO ELAYNE; THE FISH OF BROCELIANDE 24
TALIESSIN IN THE SCHOOL OF THE POETS 27
TALIESSIN ON THE DEATH OF VIRGIL 31
THE COMING OF PALOMIDES 33
LAMORACK AND THE QUEEN MORGAUSE OF ORKNEY 38
BORS TO ELAYNE; ON THE KING’S COINS 42
THE STAR OF PERCIVALE 46
THE ASCENT OF THE SPEAR 48
THE SISTER OF PERCIVALE 51
THE SON OF LANCELOT 54
PALOMIDES BEFORE HIS CHRISTENING 64
THE COMING OF GALAHAD 69
THE DEPARTURE OF MERLIN 75
THE DEATH OF PALOMIDES 78
PERCIVALE AT CARBONEK 81
THE LAST VOYAGE 84
TALIESSIN AT LANCELOT’S MASS 89
NOTE 95
Unde est, quod non operatio propria propter essentiam, sed haec propter illam habet ut sit.
De Monarchia, I, iii.
active member of the Inklings, an informal literary society formed by C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.
In a passion of patience he waited the expected second.
Suddenly the noise abated, the fight vanished, the last
few belated shouts died in a new quiet.
In the silence of a distance, clear to the king’s poet’s sight,
Virgil was standing on a trellised path by the sea.
Taliessin saw him negligently leaning; he felt
the deep breath dragging the depth of all dimension,
as the Roman sought for the word, sought for his thought,
sought for the invention of the City by the phrase.
https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20181213