County Meath, Saturday, 30th July 2022…
***
***
Knowth gives us a relatively accurate picture
of what Loughcrew might once have looked like…
***
***
…With its large mound dedicated to the equinoxes
and a whole host of satellites briefly capturing,
in turn, the rays of the rising sun, on the shortest day,
after it has passed on from the passage cairn at New Grange.
***
***
Although, whether or not
the lawns and mounds
would ever have been
this neat and tidy
is very much up for debate.
***
***
We tend to think, most definitely not,
but we may be wrong.
***
***
The kerb-stones on the satellites
have been left in an authentic state.
***
***
But on the largest mound
because these stones display
a preponderance of the art-work,
they have been protected
by a concrete overhang… blurgh!
***
***
It is quite hard
not to think of the mounds
as houses of some sort.
***
***
King Grim-Gaze, the slug-man, planned a great feast at Red-Hill-Hall.
…Said Grey-Sway to Father Fish, “Wake up, wake up!
You must undertake a work of construction:
a mead house for my father’s banquet is required;
it is to be completed a year from this day.”
So Father Fish set about his work,
and one morning Little Nipper came to him and said,
“soon you will finish your labour, you must not seek payment
until the cattle of Albion are brought before you,
when this is done you must choose from among them all
the white, black-maned cow.”
Father Fish did as bidden by Little Nipper and,
with all the cattle of Albion before him,
he asked only one white, black-maned cow
as the price of his labour.
Now that seemed right foolish to King Grim-Gaze
but he consented all the same…
***
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 hill-forts 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, un-ravelling its mysteries and the magical relationship between Albion and its people.
It looks like someone maintains this site!
LikeLiked by 1 person