Nativity with Beasts and Shepherds
(Dum Medium Silentium Tenerent Omnia)
drypoint, 1928, on wove paper
drypoint, 1928, on wove paper
by David Jones
*
In the middle silences of this night’s course the blackthorn blows white on Orcop Hill.
They do say that on this night
in the warm byres
shippons, hoggots and out-barns of Britain
in the closes and the pannage-runs and on the sweet lawns of Britain
the breathing animals-all
do kneel.
Some may say as on this night
the narrow grey-rib wolves
from the dark virgin wolds and indigenous thickets of Britain
though very hungry and already over the fosse, kneel content on the shelving berm.
If these are but grannies’ tales
maybe that on this night
the nine crones of Glevum in Britannia Prima, and the three heath-hags that do and do and do
north of the Bodotria
in a wild beyond the Agger Antonini
and all the many sisters of Afagddu
that practise transaccidentation from Sabrina Sea
in Mona Insula
tell their aves
unreversed.
(from the ‘Mabinog’s Liturgy’ section of The Anathémata by David Jones)
__________________________
David Jones (1895-1974), in his work as both an artist and a writer, made extensive use of allusive symbolism. Here are some glosses on the text above for those that need to know.
Orcop Hill
David Jones reports that he spoke to a farmer in Herefordshire in 1949 who claimed to have seen the thorn blossoming on Christmas Eve. The farmer also related the legend that animals knelt at this time, though it was outside his personal experience.
Shippons ... pannage-runs
Cow sheds ... pig pastures.
Glevum
Gloucester (for the nine crones see 'Peredur' in The Mabinogion)
Bodotria
Firth of Forth
Agger Antonini )
Antonine Wall
Afagddu ) These three rhyme
Cerridwen's son
Sabrina Sea )
Bristol Channel
Transaccidentation
Transformation brought about by sorcery (but with a suggestion of transubstantiation)
Dindaethwy
The seas around Wales
Mona Insula
The Isle of Anglesey
Aves unreversed
Even those practising the black arts are redeemed here.
David Jones (1895-1974), in his work as both an artist and a writer, made extensive use of allusive symbolism. Here are some glosses on the text above for those that need to know.
Orcop Hill
David Jones reports that he spoke to a farmer in Herefordshire in 1949 who claimed to have seen the thorn blossoming on Christmas Eve. The farmer also related the legend that animals knelt at this time, though it was outside his personal experience.
Shippons ... pannage-runs
Cow sheds ... pig pastures.
Glevum
Gloucester (for the nine crones see 'Peredur' in The Mabinogion)
Bodotria
Firth of Forth
Agger Antonini )
Antonine Wall
Afagddu ) These three rhyme
Cerridwen's son
Sabrina Sea )
Bristol Channel
Transaccidentation
Transformation brought about by sorcery (but with a suggestion of transubstantiation)
Dindaethwy
The seas around Wales
Mona Insula
The Isle of Anglesey
Aves unreversed
Even those practising the black arts are redeemed here.
