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Littlestone 5386 posts |
Dec 06, 2006, 00:20
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"The testimony of Sue Clifford engages the jury with what the figure means to individuals and to local people. She begins her statement by expressing why the giant is so important to her personally and to the people of the town. She talks about the persistence of the giant and how he characterises the town as the ‘Giants domain’... Three poets, James Turner, Sandra Tappenden and Jan Farquharson, all of whom have contributed one poem to the chapter (are introduced)." * The Cerne Giant: An Antiquity on Trial by T. Darvill, K. Barker, B. Bender and R. Hutton. Oxbow Books. 1999. 172 pages, 19 photographs, 3 maps, 32 text figures/illustrations. ISBN 1-900188-94-5. Review of the book here - http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prehistoric/reviews/03_06_cerne.htm
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moss 2897 posts |
Dec 06, 2006, 08:23
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Jacquetta Hawkes (Prehistoric and Roman Monuments) gives a fascinating two pages to this myth/story, which goes back to a St.Augustine legend told by William of Malmesbury about the wicked pagans of Dorset and how the villagers tied tails to St.Augustine and his followers; whereupon, he called on the lord that all their children should be born with tails - which of course they were.. Stukeley said that the Giant went back to to Helis(Hercules). As it has such early legends, I'm inclined to believe there was something there. ;)
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Littlestone 5386 posts |
Dec 17, 2006, 23:05
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Apologies, off topic I'm afraid, but the following may be of interest. Ian McKellen will be reading Simon Armitage's rendering into modern English of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight on Radio 4 at 2:15pm on Thursday, 21 December. "The core of the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight... embraces many elements central to Celtic mythology, the most prominent being the "severed head" theme..."* * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight
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Rhiannon 5291 posts |
Dec 17, 2006, 23:45
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maybe not so off topic. As people have interpreted part of it being about a barrow. Though that could be the neopagan view. But maybe. And also there's Lud's Church, which is a site on tma.
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StoneLifter 1594 posts |
Dec 18, 2006, 04:03
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The big G grew up on the edge of a hamlet called Barrow Bridge - yes, there are barrows there - but his accent is of Burnley, less harsh than that of Notlob and more redolent of the country perhaps.
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Littlestone 5386 posts |
Dec 18, 2006, 11:28
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Thanks for that mention of Lud's Church on TMA. My copy of the Green Knight seems to have mysteriously disappeared so might treat myself to Simon Armitage's new version :-)
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Littlestone 5386 posts |
Dec 24, 2006, 06:13
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Rites from A Day at the Earth House In the church of St James, at his post on the font a priest with no face holds two smooth- coiled snakes at bay. The two stone avenues coil up over the hill to the henge. Out of sight the organ tunes up for a wedding and, white ribbons shivering, a sit-up-and-beg white Morris takes a road marked red on the map, that cuts the henge. A sideways glance: the bride in the back looks, let's say carsick, as they slow to thread between great stones. The dancers on the green wag their hankies like aunts on the end of the platform of centuries: Morris men in white laundered blouses slashed - cross their hearts - with these sashes of blood red, like barber's poles. Philip Gross "That intense but ambivalent attraction we can have... to prehistoric monuments, and to the other relics of vanished societies, may be what draws many to archaeology; but archaeology - the telling of stories about the past - can only do so much to illuminate our complex emotions or pin them down. The rest is, or could be, the province of poetry. Philip Gross is one of the few poets to tackle these dark areas, and his latest collection, A Cast of Stones, is a set of meditations on Stonehenge and Avebury. In these acute, disturbing and often exhilarating poems he nails truths - the sheer indecipherability of the stones, for example, and the limitations of guidebook knowledge - that no archaeologist would dare to state. He also captures what may be the very essence of the appeal of the past - our simultaneous connection to it, and complete separation from it - that necessarily sounds leaden or lame when expressed in prose."* * http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba18/ba18int.html
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nigelswift 8112 posts |
Dec 24, 2006, 08:27
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"He also captures what may be the very essence of the appeal of the past - our simultaneous connection to it, and complete separation from it - that necessarily sounds leaden or lame when expressed in prose." Yay! I reckon that puts its finger on exactly why there's a fascination about ancient sites. They're so near and yet so far.
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moss 2897 posts |
Dec 24, 2006, 09:35
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"our simultaneous connection to it, and complete separation from it " Tis true, there's me reading all those books about phenomenology, yet, a few choice poetic words express the moment beautifully.. still, on reflection, you have to read all those books to arrive at an answer of agreement or disagreement..... ;)
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Littlestone 5386 posts |
Jan 16, 2007, 22:47
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From time without end you rest there in the midst of the paths in the midst of the winds you rest covered with the droppings of birds grass growing from you feet your head decked with the down of bird you rest in the midst of the winds you wait Aged one. Thanks to moss for this one - she adds that the poem is from the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, and that it's addressed to a stone. The poem is found in David Abram's book, The Spell of the Sensuous. More at http://www.feasta.org/documents/review2/spell_eden.htm
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