What, no boots!

‘…all the great thinkers recognise the importance of rational thought and also the importance of getting beyond the rational and that’s where the myths and fairy stories come in… Plato spends the greater part of his master work ‘The Republic’ berating the poets and story-tellers for telling lies in their myths and then he ends his opus with… a myth’
‘Well, to err is human… But no one’s going to read a book in which all the characters are Giants.’
‘Yet we all live in a world dictated by them… but perhaps you’re right… they have become something of an obsession… the more self-remembering I do… the more giant-like my body and everyone else’s body seems to become… and they do make an appearance in all the mythological traditions… the Titans… the Jotunn… the Asuras… the Fomoire… as opponents of the ‘gods’ usually, which have to be overcome and subdued…and then kept at bay lest the heaven world be breached… and fall.’

Wen becomes pensive for awhile, ‘We need to go to Cerne Abbas…’

…‘I don’t even know where Cerne Abbas is’
‘It’s in Dorset.’
‘Is Set’s Door near Devon?’

Wen pauses for a moment and then smiles, ‘Yes, If Cornwall is the toe of the foot of the country, then Devon is the ball of the foot of the country and Dorset is the arch of the foot of the country.’

I am very much enjoying this description of the place names of Albion.

It makes it sound like the country has got a giant club foot.

‘Albion was a giant originally,’ smiles Wen unfolding a map of the Ancient Country, ‘look, in those days ‘Dorset’ was the domain of the Durotriges clan…’
‘Wow! Where did you get this?’
‘Map shop?’

I am not sure I believe her.

It is much more likely that this has fallen from heaven like manna of old.

It has all the ancient sites marked on it… and everything.

It is a vocational moment.

The world has finally changed for the better and now anything can happen.

‘You know this means that the heel of the foot of the country is called Dover?’

‘Yeahhss’ says Wen suspiciously.

She knows me too well already.

‘Well, that makes Albion, fleet-footed, like Mercury. Albion’s heels are Dove winged!’

Excerpt from Heart of Albion.

HEART OF ALBION

Stuart France & Sue Vincent

Unwittingly drawn into the mysterious and magical landscape of The Initiate, Don and Wen pondered the visual language of symbols, stumbling across revelations and realisations that would alter their perception of the age-old stories they thought they knew… tales that entwine across the tapestry of time.

A hilltop steeped in tragedy, a child whose eyes see too much… a Word-Weaver’s birth into darkness… strange forms shimmering on the edge of vision. They learned to walk the Living Land, listening to the whispers of Earth memory and the ghosts of the most ancient past. And from those tales, another line of communication opens as they explore the folklore, legends and traditional tales handed down, from heart to heart, over the millennia.

As the two friends travel between the sacred sites of Albion, they discover stories that tell how the leys were made, the true origins of the hillforts and the reason why Father Fish had breakfast in Slug Town.

Striding across this landscape of myth are the giants. From Cerne Abbas to the top of the Beanstalk, from Camelot to the Castle of Maidens, how and why is their presence stamped on the Living Lore of the land by their seven-league boots?

Join Don and Wen as the adventure continues, unravelling its mysteries and the magical relationship between Albion and its people.