The Anathemata
Mabinog’s Liturgy (continued)
tyrannoi of Britain and these Arya were cawraidd)1 down over the high-laced buskinsa (these the Notitia2 permitted) to where the supple Andalusian buck-skin, freighted from Cordoba, cased her insteps (for all the transmarine nego tiators, prospectors, promoters, company-floaters and mercatores laded and carried for her) covering all but the lower eyelet-rings and the thong-tags and other furnishings of polar ivory
to obtain which
who but Manawydan himself, on the whale-path, but four and half degrees of latitude without the arctic parallel, two hundred and twenty nautical miles south-east by south of Islont3 with Thor’s Fairy-Haven4 Isles looming on his starboard beam about six Gaulish leagues, alone and by himself—except for his môr-forwyn-mates5 —running free with the wind on the starboard side, carried away and handsomely, the rare dexter tooth of the living bull narwhal that bluffnosed the southwester nose-ender with spiralled ivories lancing the bright spume scud.
The cruising old wicing!
David Jones notes
1 In Welsh tradition one of Arthur’s Gueneveres (there were three) was the daughter of Gogyrfan Gawr; the epithet cawr means ‘giant’, but it may also mean ‘tyrant’ in the sense used of Œdipus. Cawraidd is the adjectival form of cawr (-aidd as eith in either).
2 The Notitia Dignitatum Imperii Romani was an official compendium dealing with a variety of subjects from the dispositions of the defences of Britain to the number of lights carried before members of the imperial family. The Occidental section that has survived was issued early in the fifth century. While having this directory and book of etiquette in mind I am not citing a specific item.
3 Islont, iss-lent, accent on first syllable, called also Ynys-yr-Ia, Island of Snow, Iceland.
4 The Faeroe group.
5 môrforwyn, sea-maiden, morr-vorr-win, accent on the penultimate syllable. As has already been noted, Manawydan, man-now-id-an, was a sea-god and perhaps an agriculture-god, who appears in the tales as a Welsh ruler with magical powers.
additional notes
DJ note 5: in the second edition (1955, reprinted 1972), the pronunciation of ‘Manawydan’ is incorrectly given as ‘man-now-ud-an’. I have corrected this.
The narwhal’s bluff nose was meeting the south-west wind head on. Running free, with the south-west wind on his starboard side at the location given, the mariner would have been driven east-north east by the North Atlantic Drift (Gulf Stream) heading for Norway.
see also
see page 171 for more about Manawydan.
semantic structures
glossary
a buskins: knee- or calf-length boots made of leather or cloth traditionally laced up, but open across the toes.
comments
Gwenhwyfar’s buskins were finished with ivory accessories from the tusk of a narwal captured by Manawydan himself.