The Anathemata
Angle-land (continued)
Spey of the Symbol stonesa and Ness from the serpentineb mere
all mingle Rhenus-flow
and are oned with him
in Cronos-meer.
I speak of before the whale-roads or the keel-paths were from Orcades to the fiord-havens, or the greyed green wastes that they strictly grid
quadrate and number on the sea-green Quadratkarte
one eight six one G
for the fratricides
of the latter-day, from east-shore of Iceland
bis Norwegen1
(O Balin O Balan!2
how blood you both
the Brudersee
toward the last pháse
of our dear West.)
***
David Jones notes
1 I had in mind a squared chart issued for special service requirements by the German Naval Command, described as Europäisches Nordmeer. Ostküste von Island bis Norweqen, 1861 G., on which the grid, numerals and other markings are imposed in green on a large-scale map of that area. Date c. 1940.
2 Cf. Malory Bk. II, Cp, 18. How Balin met with his brother Balan and how each slew other unknown.
additional notes
a The Spey valley is noted for its Pictish stones with remarkable carvings. A recently discovered example may also be found here.
see also
semantic structures
b A very neat pun. DJ was a Londoner. [The river Ness is the outflow of Loch Ness, famed for its legendary serpent-like monster. The Serpentine is a well-known pond in a famous London park.]
comments
The ship is drawn on, far away from the continental shelf, past the mouths of the rivers mentioned (which would all have flowed into the former northbound Rhine), all the way to the Arctic ocean (Cronos-meer, see page 97) and Thulê and (who knows?) perhaps even Oceanus. [In ancient Greek cosmology the Okeanus was a great fresh-water stream which circled the flat earth. It was the source of all of the earth’s fresh water.]
Meanwhile, back on this earth one and a half millennia later, the descendants of those invaders we have met in this section have come to blows with the descendants of those of their brethren who remained in their native land.
The last line refers, of course, to Spengler’s Decline of the West which –at least for a time– greatly influenced DJ.