Talliessin Through Logres
by
CHARLES WILLIAMS
GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
Oxford University Press, Amen House, London E.C.4
EDINBURGH · GLASGOW · NEW YORK · TORONTO · MELBOURNE · WELLINGTON ·
BOMBAY · CALCUTTA · MADRAS · CAPE TOWN
Geoffrey Cumberlege, Publisher to the University
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.
Prelude
I
Recalcitrant tribes heard;
orthodox wisdom sprang in Caucasia and Thule;
the glory of the Emperor stretched to the ends of the world.
In the season of midmost Sophia
the word of the Emperor established a kingdom in Britain;
they sang in Sophia the immaculate conception of wisdom.
Carbonek, Camelot, Caucasia,
were gates and containers, intermediations of light;
geography breathing geometry, the double-fledged Logos.
II
The blind rulers of Logres
nourished the land on a fallacy of rational virtue;
the seals of the saints were broken; the chairs of the Table reeled.
Galahad quickened in the Mercy;
but history began; the Moslem stormed Byzantium;
lost was the glory, lost the power and kingdom.
Call on the hills to hide us
lest, men said in the City, the lord of charity
ride in the starlight, sole flash of the Emperor’s glory.
III
Evil and good were twins
once in the alleys of Ispahan; the Moslem
crying Alla il Alla destroyed the dualism of Persia.
Caucasia fell to the Moslem;
the mamelukes seized the ancient cornland of Empire.
Union is breached; the imams stand in Sophia.
Good is God, the muezzin
calls, but lost is the light on the hills of Caucasia,
glory of the Emperor, glory of substantial being
https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20181213
https://theoddestinkling.wordpress.com/2016/05/12/an-introduction-to-taliessin-through-logres/