Remains of Elmet

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Elmet was one of a number of Sub-Roman Brittonic realms in the Hen Ogledd – what is now northern England and southern Scotland – during the Early Middle Ages. Other kingdoms included Rheged, the Kingdom of Strathclyde, and Gododdin. It is unclear how Elmet came to be established, though it has been suggested that it may have been created from a larger kingdom ruled by the semi-legendary Coel Hen. The region of Elmet probably had a distinct tribal identity in pre-Roman times and that this re-emerged after Roman rule collapsed. Such enlightenment, however, as shown in Cave Birds and in the final poem of Remains of Elmet, will only be achieved when we recognise and accept our participation in the world of Nature and our equality with all other living things in this respect; when we examine our roots (as Hughes did) and finally understand that for true knowledge our senses must be opened to the world around us.

What a crying disservice to once of the fiercest female writers and poets, not to mention a feminist icon, to open a poem about her, in THIS of all poetry collections, by talking about some totally, totally irrelevant love interest man??? Not to mention that the second and third lines are SO cringey they genuinely sound like lines from a fanfic by a 14-year-old girl? After the Romans retreated from Britain, West Yorkshire lay in the Kingdom of Elmet which was located between the Wharfe and Don Valleys, the Vale of York and the Pennines. Elmet remained British/Roman for just over 200 years. There were also times when I thought Hughes' writing was genuinely just bad. When I read the title of the poem Emily Brontë, I felt like I had just taken a huge run up and was about to launch into a fantastic poem about one of my heroes, from Yorkshire, in a collection about Yorkshire, by a renowned Yorkshire-born poet. And then the fir Elmet is attested mainly in toponymic and archaeological evidence; a reference to one Madog Elfed in the medieval Welsh poem The Gododdin and to a Gwallog also operating somewhere in the region in one of the putatively early poems in the Book of Taliesin; and historical sources such as the Historia Brittonum and Bede. [4] One source, the Anglo-Saxon Historia Brittonum states that Elmet was a kingdom, although it is the only source that says this directly. While Bede does not specifically describe Elmet as a kingdom, but rather as silva Elmete the "forest of Elmet", it is clear from his discussion that it was a distinct polity, with its own monarchs. The name 'Elfed/Elmet' is Brythonic in origin and is also found in Elfed, the name of a cantref in Dyfed, Wales. [3] textiles, and the upper Calder became "the hardest-worked river in England". Throughout my lifetime, sinceCertainly, the images of the poem depict a paradise on Earth, a paradise overflowing with light, colour and beauty. But there are mythological allusions, too, which belie Hughes’ claim that the poem is ‘simply’ about himself and his brother. The world we are shown is a world held in the “ cupped hand” of the Dawn–Goddess, Eos; and the two figures step into it like her twin star–god sons, Hesperus and Phosphorus, who are also Venus and Jupiter who “ year in and year out / Contend for the crown / Of morning star and of evening star” ( R.118).

It’s also an incredible reminder of the history and heritage which exists beneath our feet, and we look forward to hopefully playing our part in telling this story to visitors to the museum." Ted Hughes is a poet whose work, although I dislike him from the outset as any self-respecting Sylvia Plath fan does, I have tried to read some of, and simply haven't enjoyed. Nevertheless I thought I would give him another go and read a full collection of his poetry, here presented stunningly with photos of areas described by Fay Godwin. So, the dialectic of light and darkness began and the cyclical process of the imprisonment and release of divine light (or Soul) was set in motion. Murphy, Richard. "Last Exit to Nature by Richard Murphy". The New York Review of Books. Nybooks.com . Retrieved 29 January 2014.has come. They are now virtually dead, and the population of the valley and the hillsides, so rooted for so long, Critical reaction to Remains of Elmet when it was published was muted in comparison with the excesses to which some reviewers had been prompted by Hughes’ earlier work. Some who were habitually roused to aggression by Hughes’ poetry accused him, yet again, of violence and “ primal drum–thumping” 2, but the tone of the Elmet sequence was sufficiently different to cause even Hughes’ most determined critics to change their complaints. Instead of violence, they accused him of writing poems “ neither dynamic nor absolute” but “ melodramatic” 3; and of being “ perverse and inverted to a point of indulgent nastiness” whilst, at the same time, repelling the critic by his “ extreme ordinariness of language” 4. The success of the project was gratifying, but what many people didn’t know was the effort it took to get the book published in the first place as few believed in the viability of the project. But in the end it went down very well. I even had a South bank Show programme done on me, the first to feature a photographer.” Godwin's last major retrospective was at the Barbican Centre, London in 2001. A retrospective book, Landmarks, was published by Dewi Lewis in 2002. [6] Awards and recognition [ edit ] The theme of ‘The Mothers’, too, is established here and is reinforced by Hughes’ dedication of the book to the memory of his own mother, Edith Farrar (who died in 1969) and by his prefatory poem ( ROE.7) in which his mother lives on briefly for him through her brother. The recent history of the Calder Valley, the dreams and aspirations of its people –“ the arguing immortal dead / The hymns rising past farms” which Hughes records in this book, are her memories and her brother’s: “ Archaeology of the mouth” which Hughes has attempted to record before the “ frayed, fraying hair–fineness” of the thread linking their lives to his is finally broken. Yet, as has already been suggested, there is more to the theme of ‘The Mothers’ than this. It encompasses, also, the philosophical, alchemical ‘Mothers’ and, most importantly, Nature (the Mother Goddess herself) and the regenerative cycles by which she redresses the errors of humankind and restores universal harmony. The Celtic pre–history of the West Yorkshire, too, is an essential part of this theme, for The Mothers (Matres or Matronea) were an important triad of Celtic fertility goddesses, and Brig (Brigid) the patron goddess of poets, gave her name to the Celtic Brigantian people who once inhabited Elmet.

Around 1865, a Pillar stone with a 5th or early 6th century inscription was found at St Aelhaearn's Church, Llanaelhaearn in Gwynedd. The Latin inscription reads " ALIOTVS ELMETIACOS/HIC IACET", or "Aliotus the Elmetian lies here". It is believed that this refers to an otherwise unattested Aliotus from the Kingdom of Elmet who may have been active in the area before Saint Aelhaiarn founded his church. [14] [15] Legacy [ edit ] The Library's buildings remain fully open but some services are limited, including access to collection items. We'reI am interested in our relationship with the land and that region, at the time with its cotton mills and smallholdings scraping a living against the odds, particularly caught my eye.”

The lark is not a common bird in myth or folklore, but it is worth noting that Shakespeare and Blake also made similar symbolic use of this bird. The lark, in Cymbeline, sings “ at heaven’s gate” (‘Song’.2:3); and, for Blake, the lark was “ a mighty Angel” (Mil.40:12) which mounts to “ a Crystal Gate … the entrance of the First Heaven” (Mil.39:61–2). Kathleen Raine writes that Blake used the lark as a symbol for the “ dimensionless point where eternity flows into time” (Raine.159), a symbolism which is particularly apt for Hughes’ poem. There were also times when I thought Hughes' writing was genuinely just bad. When I read the title of the poem Emily Brontë, I felt like I had just taken a huge run up and was about to launch into a fantastic poem about one of my heroes, from Yorkshire, in a collection about Yorkshire, by a renowned Yorkshire-born poet. And then the first stanza goes: The condition of these souls seeking material rebirth, is linked within the 13 lines of this poem to the fallen condition of our world (which is literally a “ star–broken stone”, separated from the sun but totally subject to its power) and to that of Hughes’ own small part of the world, the Calder Valley: it is an unchanging, changing condition of death and rebirth as part of Nature’s cycles, and it is symbolized by the “ cradle–grave” throughout this Elmet sequence. The major work which closely followed Cave Birds and Gaudete in publication was Remains of Elmet. It was the third long sequence of Hughes’ poems to be published by Faber and Faber between 1977 and 1979 and although Hughes first suggested the Elmet project to Fay Godwin in 1970 and she took some photographs of the area, it was not until 1976 that the book was seriously discussed ( Letters 378–80). Only in 1977 did the first of the Elmet poems began to appear in print 1. It seems likely, therefore, that the whole Elmet sequence was written within this short three year period and subsequent to Cave Birds and Gaudete.

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In Remains of Elmet, Hughes’ beliefs, and his poetic hunting skills, were sufficiently developed to enable him to use the imaginative energies to re–create his childhood experiences, whilst, at the same time, he suggested their significance in relation to his present healing and energising purposes. So, we become aware of the mature poet’s idea that the first magical appearance of the Trout in his childhood world had the extraordinary, personal significance of a sign from the “ wild god” of his future role. Similarly, the flung stones of childhood vandalism, described in ‘Under The World’s Wild Rims’ ( ROE.79), become the first acts of Hughes’ continuing collaboration with Nature in the attempt to enlighten this “ worn–out”, twilight world. About 1 in 4 poems evoked a response in me, the others didn't do anything for me at all or just made me go "Uh?". But those few lines/word pictures astonished me in their ability to evoke a sense of place. I don’t get wrapped up in technique and the like. I have a simple rule and that is to spend as much time in the location as possible. You can’t expect to take a definitive image in half an hour. It takes days, often years. And in fact I don’t believe there is such a thing as a definitive picture of something. The land is a living, breathing thing and light changes its character every second of every day. That’s why I love it so much.”