The Anathemata
Mabinog’s Liturgy (continued)
If these are but grannies’ tales
maybe that on this night
the nine crones of Glevum in Britannia Prima,3 and the three heath-hags that do and do and do
north of the Bodotria4
in a wild beyond the Agger Antoninia
and all the many sisters of Afagddu5
David Jones notes
3 Cf. ‘the nine witches of Gloucester’ that Arthur and his war-band exterminated at the Castle of the Wonders in Peredur son of Efrawg, the Welsh Percival tale.
Britannia Prima is here employed merely for convenience, of the Lowland Zone of Britain, all England is meant. The lines of demarcation between the provinces of Roman Britain are, I understand, a matter of conjecture.
4 The Firth of Forth, all Scotland is meant.
5 Afagddu, av-ág-thee, thus rhyming with Antonini, Sabrina Sea and Dindaethwy. Afagddu was the ugly brother of the beautiful sister, both being children of Ceridwen, a ‘nature-goddess’, hence of varying attributes. Afagddu is used also as a common noun meaning complete darkness.
additional notes
DJ note 5: Afagddu is used as a personification of all who are ugly and dark in mind, hence all who are the dark sisters of the three witches of Macbeth.
a Agger Antonini: the Antonine Wall from Forth to Clyde.
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