The Anathemata
Sherthursdaye and Venus day (continued)
Her Thursday’s child
come far to drink his Thor’s Day cup:5
At night, within
at his lit board.
Without in the night-grove
far side the torrent-bed
and on Gwener’s morning
on Skull Mountain.
Marquis of demarking waters
Warden of the Four Lands
David Jones notes
5 See the Nursery Rhyme: Monday’s Child, line 4, ‘Thursday’s child has far to go’.
additional notes
The references in the first eight lines are to the Last Supper (Thursday, lit board), the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (night-grove) and the brook (torrent-bed) Kedron which flowed through it, and the Crucifixion (Welsh Gwener = Venus, hence Venus-day or Friday), Skull Mountain = Golgotha (Aramaic?) where Jesus was crucified.
The last two lines refer to the domains of earth, hell, purgatory and heaven of which Mary is Mundi Domina and Marchioness (page 209). According to Dante, these domains are separated by rivers.
see also
For the lit board see the account of the Last Supper in Rite and Fore-time (page 52).
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