The Anathemata
Mabinog’s Liturgy (continued)
By the Mabon!! he will
when he runes the Croglith,1
in all the white bangors2
of the islands of the sea
where there is salt
on the Stone within the pared.)3
David Jones notes
1 Croglith, ’Lesson of the Cross’ ; crog-lith, accent on first syllable. In Wales Good Friday is called Dydd Gwener y Groglith, crog, cross, plus llith, from lectio.
2 The word bangor means the top row of rods in a wattle fence. As the Celtic religious communities were enclosed in such fences the word appears to become applied in some cases to such enclosures. Cf. the place-names Bangor Iscoed, ‘the bangor below the wood’, and Bangor Fawr, ‘the great bangor’.
3 pared, a as in parry, accent on first syllable. A dividing wall (from parietem), here meant of a chancel-screen.
additional notes
DJ note 2: the wattle fence and enclosure is an important symbol for the poet (see my note to page 77).
comments
The poet speculates that the Welsh culture may be replaced by the Romano-Christian culture. (‘Stone’ = altar.)