The Anathemata
Mabinog’s Liturgy (continued)
And then he must (after he has joined his hands together) relate in a clear high voice from this Aramaean brut,a of how that within six months5 from the beginning of the Sixth Age of the World, our divine Ymherawdr6 Octavian, ever august, of the blood of the progenitress the Purifier, Turner of Hearts7 and of Mars Pencawr8 (the old Pantocrator) seated in curia, in his ivory chair, with his cushion under him, in the apsed hall of his palas9 on the Caelian heightsb that surmount the earth, sent out a decree, demanding his heriots, man-fees and entertainment-dues from the free-trevsd and the bond-trevs of all the cantrevs of the whole universal orbis, and of how the wolf-watch in the lower-field (for it was winter calends) because of certain marvels, understood where to find the Maban.10
But when he comes to the end
of the heavenly englynion11 that the poor men from the villein-trev heard the messenger that brought the amnesty and with him the bright-mailed war-band of full complement, 12 sing in Latin (that is to say at the word voluntatis),
David Jones notes
5 The Last Age of the World was reckoned from the birth of John the Baptist. It was he who stole the Mid-Summer Fires from Servius Tullius, son of Vulcan the Smith.
6 Imperator gave ameraudur in earlier Welsh, now spelt ymherawdr (urn-herrow-der) accent as in the Latin original. Like the word Mair (see note 5 to page 217) this word also connects us directly with Roman Britain. It must have been heard in some similar form over much of Britain during the first half millenium AD. It must have been heard sometimes in the streets of Latin-speaking cosmopolitan Roman London.
7 It will be recalled that Venus apart from her title Genetrix as Mother of the Roman state had also the other titles, Cloacina and Verticordia which can be seen as corollaries of the first title, for it was under these titles that she was supplicated as guardian of nuptial fidelity. It is an aspect of Venus-worship glossed over by the Romantic tradition, but it was there and is part of our deposit.
8 Pencawr pen-kowrr (as in cow), head giant, or chief tyrranus.
9 palos, pal-lass, accent on first syllable, palace.
10 Maban, mab-ban, accent on first syllable, male child.
11 englynion, en-glun-yon. Strictly speaking this refers to stanzas of a particular construction, but I use it here of the angel’s song because had that message a Welsh mythological setting, the song would have been in the form of an englyn. The reader will be familiar with the expression, ‘Then he sang this englyn’ in Lady Guest’s Mabinogion; it is as though to say ‘prose does not meet the case’.
12 Cf. Mass, Preface for Christmas, cumque omni militia caelestis exercitus.
additional notes
DJ note 5. Servius Tullius was the sixth king of Rome, reigning 578-535 BCE. He was said to have been born with a ring of fire around his head, hence the claimed association with Vulcan. The second sentence of DJ’s note is a condensation of two sentences in Frazer’s Golden Bough (Chapter 14): ‘a festival of jollity and drunkenness was celebrated by the plebeians and slaves at Rome on Midsummer Day, and that the festival was specially associated with the fireborn King Servius Tullius’ and ‘One other feature in the Roman celebration of Midsummer deserves to be specially noticed . . . it was to some extent a water festival; and water has always, down to modern times, played a conspicuous part in the rites of Midsummer Day, which explains why the Church, in throwing its cloak over the old heathen festival, chose to dedicate it to St. John the Baptist’.
DJ note 7: Cloacina: the Purifier. This included the purification of sexual intercourse within marriage. Verticordia: Turner of Hearts. Both of these aspects were important to the Pre-Raphaelites.
DJ note 12: ‘and with all the host of the heavenly army’ [we sing your praise]. The Gospel text ends ‘in terris pax hominibus bonae voluntatis’ (‘on earth peace, good will toward men’) (Luke, 2:14). This is the amnesty just mentioned.
b Caelian heights: The Caelian Hill is one of the seven hills of Rome. In those days it was a fashionable place to live for the very wealthy.
see also
semantic structures
glossary
a brut: chronicle (Old English).
c heriot: a fee or tribute payable to a landlord on the death of a tenant.
d trev: a homestead (of which a hundred formed a cantrev or cantref) (Welsh).
comments
The decree of Octavian (Caesar Augustus) and the announcement to the shepherds in a Welsh setting, as it were.