The Anathemata
Mabinog’s Liturgy (continued)
What says his mabinogi?a
Son of Mair, wife of jobbing carpenter
in via nascitur2
lapped in hay, parvule.b
But what does his Boast say?c
Alpha es et O
that which
the whole world cannot hold.
Atheling to the heaven-king.
Shepherd of Greekland.
Harrower of Annwn.
Freer of the Waters.
Chief Physician and
dux et pontifex.
David Jones notes
2 See the Homily of St Gregory, Pope, said at matins for Christmas Day.
‘Who was not born in the house of his parents but by the wayside (sed in via nascitur) . . . and as though in an alien place.’
additional notes
a mabinogi: song of infancy.
c A Boast is a literary form designed and used by DJ for a special purpose. It is spoken in the voice of, or about, an individual; but not as a particular individual but as the archetype represented by the individual in differing guises and in various times and places. See for example Dai’s Boast in In Parenthesis (pp. 79–84).
Alpha es et O: ‘I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending’ (Revelation 1:8). See also the carol In Dulci Jubilo (which also uses the word parvule of the infant).
Atheling: a prince of the blood royal (Old English).
Shepherd of Greekland: the usual pastoral metaphor is Judaic but its origins are Greek. See page 91 and note.
Freer of the Waters: refers to the tradition that the unicorn could purify infected water by dipping his horn in it, thus making it safe for other animals to drink. Page 184 of the text has an (inadequately reproduced) image of the process made by DJ.
dux: leader ; pontifex: both priest and bridge-builder (between the human and the divine), from pons=bridge.
The following notes are taken from DJ notes to the next page:
1 Boast . . . Wonderful.
(A) cf. ‘Cnut rules the land, as Xst the shepherd of Greece, the heavens’. [From The Saga of St Olaf in the Heimskringla, quoted by Christopher Dawson in Religion and the Rise of Western Culture.]
(B) Annwn, an-noon, the Celtic hades.
(C) Penfeddyg meaning Chief Physician was the title of Peredur, (Percival) who ‘freed the waters’. See note 2 to page 225.
see also
semantic structures
glossary
b parvule: tiny (Latin). The final -e is sounded: par-vul-ey.
comments
This Boast is a retelling of the story of Jesus using Anglo-Saxon, Greek, Latin and Welsh words and images.