The Anathemata
Sherthursdaye and Venus day (continued)
Tryst-keeper
his twelve-month-and-a-daya
falls tomorrow.
He would put on his man’s lorica.b
He has put it on
his caligaec on
and is gone
to the mark-land.
Unless his two-edged gladius gain it
what tillage is there
for the Volk?
Unless he ask the question1
how shall the rivers run
or the suitors persuade their loves
or the erosion of the land cease?
What more should he do
that he hasn’t done?2
His dispositions made
he would at once begin the action.
He has begun it
here
within the camp
see
he takes the auguries.
How else the dawn deployment?
What shapes else the quarter-lessd contact
at the mound?
David Jones notes
1 The reference is to the Percival story concerning the consequences attendant upon the failure of the hero to ‘ask the question’. See The Mabinogion, translated Gwyn and Thomas Jones, Everyman edtn 1949, p. 218. For a full discussion of the task of the hero see From Ritual to Romance, Ch. II, Jessie Weston, Cambridge, 1920.
2 Cf. the Good Friday Liturgy, the Adoration of the Cross, Versicle, Quid ultra etc. ‘What more ought I to do for thee and have not done it’.
additional notes
DJ note 1: Chrétien’s Perceval (1180) is the first piece of work that mentions the Fisher King. In this work, Percival encounters a man and his servant fishing on a lake. These two individuals have a short conversation with Percival, which ends with them directing Percival to the Grail Castle. Upon entry, Percival sees a beautiful castle and is surprised when he discovers that the Fisher King is the one to welcome him in. After entering, Percival is given a sword by the Fisher King and then celebrates Percival’s arrival with a huge feast. During the feast, at the beginning of every course, a procession containing a candelabra, a bleeding lance, and a grail are all brought through the dining hall. Percival watches the objects go by and fails to ask the Fisher King about each procession. After the feast ends, Percival retires to his room, and once awake from slumber, discovers that the castle is in ruin and everyone gone. Over time Percival discovers that the failure to ask about the procession causes the Fisher King’s wound to remain unhealed.
a At the start of the quest for the holy grail, as told by Malory, Gawain vows ‘I shall laboure in the queste of the Sankgreall, that I shall hold me out a twelve-month and a day or more if needs be’ (Book 13, ch. 7).
d quarter-less: giving no quarter.
see also
semantic structures
glossary
b lorica: breastplate.
c caligae: army boots (or sandals).
comments
Christ is seen as fulfilling the quest of the hero, first as Percival and then as a Roman general.