The Anathemata
Rite and Fore-time (continued)
Long, long ago they’d turned the flow about.
But had they as yet morained
where holy Deva’sa entry is?
Or pebbled his mere, where
still the Parthenos
she makes her devious exit?1
David Jones notes
1 Bala Lake or Pimblemere is called in Welsh Llyn Tegid, the Lake of Tacitus.
It may be noted that Tacitus was the name of Cunedda’s great-grandfather. The basin is formed of solid rock but the S. W. end at least is thought to have been influenced by morainic deposits. At some remote geological period the outflow was southward, whereas now the Dee flows northward through the lake, but, says immemorial tradition, the two waters never mingle. Bala ‘rhymes’ with valour not with parlour.
additional notes
a The river Dee (Welsh: Afon Dyfrdwy, Latin: Deva Fluvius) flows through the Roman town of Chester (Deva Victrix or just Deva). Parthenos is the Greek word for a virgin.
comments
The poet is still speculating about the action of geological forces in shaping the landscape.