In Arthurian legend the Fisher King, or the Wounded King, is the latest in a long line charged with keeping the Holy Grail. Versions of his story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin and incapable of moving on his own. In the Fisher King legends, he becomes impotent and unable to perform his task himself, and he also becomes unable to father or support a next generation to carry on after his death. His kingdom suffers as he does, his impotence affecting the fertility of the land and reducing it to a barren wasteland.

^a ‘twin’ refers to Romulus and Remus; hence ‘twin-urbs’ is Rome. DJ said ‘It was perhaps a mistake to use the plural urbes, for I never, if possible, use urbs for anywhere but Urbs Roma. I think I wrote urbes because it sounded better on the ear’ [quoted in Hague, p.20]. However, the English ‘twin-cities’ might also refer to St. Augustine who contrasted the City of God with the secular city (the former being an idealisation of the latter), though the pun does not work in Latin since Augustine always uses civitas (‘city-state’, a political construct) for city rather than urbs (town, a social construct).

^b  the ‘matrices’ are the sources of legend, myth, culture, of everything that links us with our past. For example, Troy is the matrix of West-oppida (page 57) (oppidum = town).

^c the ‘ancile’ (pl. ancilia) was a small oval shield that fell from heaven durng the reign of Numa, king of Rome in the 8th century BCE. Since the safety of the city was regarded as being bound up with the safety of this shield, Numa had eleven exact copies made so the original could not be determined (e.g. for purposes of theft).

^d the fertile ashes: of an unborn calf burned in ancient Roman religion on the feast of the Earth Mother which were scattered on the fields on the feast of Pales, the pastoral god(dess).

^e the Palladium was also sent down from heaven: an image of Pallas Athene, which guaranteed the safety of the city of Ilium (Troy) and later taken to the new city of Rome by Aeneas.