The Anathemata
Mabinog’s Liturgy (continued)
Gwledig Nefoedd and
Walda of every land
et vocabitur WONDERFUL.1
Coming with great power
Twelve legiones, besides auxiliars and flanking alae.2
In that day, amara valde3
when she, our Wést-light falls from her tráck-way.
Né me pérdas ílla díe4
in that treméndous day
when Clio has no more to muse about.
When, of the other eight
Polymnia with Eutérpe alone remain:
how else the Spondaulium5 of the Lamb, slain
ab origine mundi?6
David Jones notes
1 Boast . . . Wonderful.
(A) Cf. ‘Cnut rules the land, as Xst the shepherd of Greece, the heavens’.
(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.
(D) Gwledig Nefoedd, goo-led-ig nev-oithe, Ruler of the Heavens. Taliesin addresses God as gwledig nef a phob tud, ‘ruler of heaven and of every country’ or people. Historically the title Gwledig was used only of territorial rulers of importance and its use is confined to the sub- and post-Roman period in Britain.
(E) Walda, Old-English word for ruler, pronounce as in Bretwalda.
(F) See Isaias IX, 6. ‘Unto us a child is born . . . and his name shall be called Wonderful.’ This is used as the Introit for the Second Mass of Christmas Day.
2 See Matt. XXVI, 53.
3 See Office of the Dead, Nocturn III, Versicle.
‘ . . . that great and most bitter day.’
4 See the hymn Dies Irae, verse 9. ‘Not me confound in that day.’
5 The sacrificial hymn called the Spondaulium was accompanied by flutes; and of the nine muses it is Euterpe, the muse of Lyric poetry, that has the flute.
6 See Apocalypse, V. 12, and XIII, 8.
additional notes
DJ note 2: The text in Matthew refers to the time when Jesus was taken by the Roman soldiers and rebukes Peter (who tried to defend him), saying ‘Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?’.
A Roman legion had auxiliaries such as archers, slingers, light cavalry and so on. The alae (‘wings’) were the elite cavalry.
DJ note 3: the text is from the Libera Me.
DJ note 4: the Dies Irae, when history (whose Muse is Clio) comes to an end and the Moon (West-light) goes out.
DJ note 5: See Wikipedia for the nine Muses. Euterpe was song and lyric poetry, Polyhymnia sacred poetry and music. A spondaulium is a type of hymn, not a specific one.
DJ note 6: the texts are
‘. . . Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.’
and
‘And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.’
comments
the Boast ends with a reference to the Day of Judgement.