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/