Remains of Elmet

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After the unification of the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria, King Edwin of Northumbria led an invasion of Elmet, and overran it in 616 or 617. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People says that a Northumbrian noble, Hereric (father of Hilda of Whitby), an exiled member of the Northumbrian royal house was killed with poison, while living at the court of King Ceretic of Elmet. It has been suggested that this was either the casus belli for the invasion, if Hereric was poisoned by his hosts, or a pretext for a Northumbrian annexation of Elmet, if Edwin himself had Hereric poisoned. The Historia Brittonum says that Edwin "occupied Elmet and expelled Certic[ sic], king of that country". It is generally presumed that Ceretic was the same person known in Welsh sources as Ceredig ap Gwallog, king of Elmet. A number of ancestors of Ceretic are recorded in Welsh sources: one of Taliesin's poems is for his father, Gwallog ap Lleenog, who may have ruled Elmet near the end of the 6th century. Bede mentions that "subsequent kings made a house for themselves in the district, which is called Loidis". Godwin was born Fay Simmonds in Berlin, Germany, the daughter of Sidney Simmonds, a British diplomat, and Stella MacLean, an American artist. She attended nine different schools before beginning a career as a travel representative. She moved to London in the 1950s. [4] She married publisher Tony Godwin in 1961; the couple had two sons, Jeremy and Nicholas. They split up in 1969 and later divorced. [5] According to Neoplatonic and Hermetic cosmology, primordial chaos contained infinite Light (often called ‘Divine Spirit’ or ‘Soul’); “ an infinite darkness in the Abyss or bottomless Depth”; Water; and “ a subtle Spirit intelligible in Power” which is called, variously, ‘ Nimbus Numinis Descenatu’, ‘ Anima Mundi’ and ‘Nature’ (Pymander). Light, attracted by the subtle Spirit (Nature), combined with it and became ‘coagulated’ matter. So, the sensible world was made and Soul was incorporated in material bodies to create living creatures. Because of these events, infinite Light and Soul became finite and subject to dissolution. With dissolution, however, the Soul is again released, an event of which Vaughan wrote: Ignorance gave this release the name of Death, but properly it is the Soule’s Birth, and a charter that makes for her liberty ( V.50). One further important aspect of Remains of Elmet has yet to be examined, and that is Hughes’ own participation in the sequence. Not only did he create the imaginative rituals of the poetry and manipulate the energies so as to effect healing and re–integration, but he specifically included himself in this process. In so doing, Hughes deliberately subjected himself to the energies and to the ritual of re–integration which he attempted. Figuratively and psychologically he returned to his formative years and re–lived the events and situations to which he was exposed, thus facilitating a healing catharsis. 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.

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 general, however, Remains of Elmet impressed its reviewers with its power to evoke the bleak, rugged and haunting beauty of the Calder Valley. Fay Godwin’s photographs were universally praised, and Hughes’ poems were variously described as “ the most restrained, beautiful and unobtrusively effective poems” 5, “ his most approachable volume” for a long time 6; and “ Landscape poetry” 7. Few reviewers regarded the sequence as much more than Hughes’ nostalgic reaction to Fay Godwin’s photographs. Only one discerned any connecting thread linking the poems, beyond their common concern with the Calder Valley. Even Gifford and Roberts characterise Remains of Elmet as “ a social history [written] as a natural history”, although they did believe that in this book Hughes was “ writing at the height of his powers” and they remark on the frequency with which he achieved “ complete unity between the vision of the poem and its language” ( G/R 239, 249).

The Calder valley, west of Halifax, was the last ditch of Elmet, the last British Celtic kingdom to fall to the Angles. For centuries it was considered a more or less uninhabitable wilderness, a notorious refuge for criminals, a hide-out for refugees. Then in the early 1800s it became the cradle for the Industrial Revolution in textiles, and the upper Calder became “the hardest-worked river in England”. Throughout my lifetime, since 1930, I have watched the mills of the region and their attendant chapels die. Within the last fifteen years the end has come. They are now virtually dead, and the population of the valley and the hillsides, so rooted for so long, is changing rapidly.’ Ted Hughes, Preface to Remains of Elmet (1979) 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. After the conquest of Elmet, the realm was incorporated into Northumbria on Easter in 627 and its people were known as the Elmetsæte. They are recorded in the late 7th century Tribal Hidage as the inhabitants of a minor territory of 600 hides. They were the most northerly group recorded in the Tribal Hidage. The Elmetsæte probably continued to reside in West Yorkshire as a distinct group throughout the Saxon period and may have colluded with Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd when he invaded Northumbria and briefly held the area in 633. Godwin has long been associated with clunking medium-format cameras and leggy tripods. She refuses to endorse any particular system (although I know full well she was a fan of a certain Swedish manufacturer). But in conversation she lets it slip that she has recently bought a Minolta DiMage digital compact and has become hooked on her new-found medium.In Remains of Elmet Hughes’ warnings are repeated most strongly. He uses this poetic and photographic re–creation of the fate of the Calder Valley not only as an example, but also as a powerful imaginative tool with which to stimulate us to awareness. At the same time, by describing for us certain events of his childhood, he, as it were, establishes his credentials for this task. Hughes, however, was not merely a prophet of doom. In adopting the persona of the crocodile, Hughes shared the destructive and creative energies associated with this animal in mythology and folklore where, like its relatives the serpents and dragons, it is a symbol of fecundity and power. The crocodile is linked, too, with Leviathan who is “ king over all the children of pride” ( Job. XL1:34) and, symbolically, with foresight and knowledge. And the old belief that crocodile eggs were magically hatched from the river mud by the power of the sun associates the beast with the natural alchemical power by means of which water, earth and sun are joined in the processes of creation.

Even the goat which the farmers wait for in the poem ‘Auction’( ROE.107) has a symbolic parallel in Porphyry’s essay: the Zodiacal constellation of Capricorn (the goat) marks the “ southern gate” through which Souls “ enslaved by genesis, are set free, coming to live again and receiving, as it were, another birth” ( P.33–34). Once analysis of the finds has taken place, it is hoped the lead coffin can be displayed in an upcoming exhibition at Leeds City Museum . is reviewed between 08.30 to 16.30 Monday to Friday. We're experiencing a high volume of enquiries so it may take us Koch, John T., ed. (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-440-7. Certainly, 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).a b c Smith, A.H. (1961). The Place-names of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Vol.4. Cambridge University Press. pp.1–3. This furthers the possibility that Elmet was recognised as a distinct region well into the 14th century; and perhaps did in fact regain independent status after the 7th century. The distinction between Leeds and Elmet in the bill is unexplained, however. [9] [10] [11] Her book, apart from The Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare, would be The Rattlebag, an anthology of poems by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney.

It is a measure of Hughes’ skill that such retrospective interpretations of his early feelings and actions did not interfere with his ability to re–create his initial spontaneity. In ‘Under the World’s Wild Rims’, for example, we share the boy’s impressions of the weird, “ desecrated”, dust–filled landscape through which he walks to school. Compared to the world’s ‘wild rims’, this was a strange world, deathly and unnatural, strewn with “ steel objects” that seemed “ magical” and “ futuristic” in their unfamiliarity, and leaking a “ warm horror”, so that it both repelled and fascinated him. Instinctively the boy responded to these conflicting emotions with a campaign of stealthy and pleasurable destruction, smashing, “ one by one”, the regimented, guardian rows of “ glass skylights” that seemed to watch him. Go fishing / Join water, wade in underbeing” ( R.42) he writes in River, where his entry and return from the elemental other–world has become most accomplished but no less fraught with danger. The waters he fishes hide terrifying monsters, “ Killers from the egg” (‘Pike’); he is “ hunted / and haunted by apparitions from tombs” (‘Earth–Numb’ ( THCP.541); and the river itself is “ Alive and malevolent” (‘Stealing Trout on a May Morning’ ( THCP.137)), roping his ankles like “ a drowned woman” and rushing “ headlong” past him like a routed army, “ Mixed with planets, electrical storms and darkness” which tear “ the spirits from my mind’s edge and from under”. At times, too, the river is “ evil”, a “ grave” where “ The strange evil / Of unknown fish–minds” lies in wait for him ( R.76;62). These fish which lurk beneath the “ smoothing tons of dead element” are one with it, so that when one bites “ the river grabs at me … stiffens alive ... the whole river hauls” and the struggle between Man and fish becomes a struggle with the elements: Something terrified and terrifying 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 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."As she sits overlooking the beach near her home, Fay Godwin’s eyes sadden. The 73-year old photographer is not in the best of health these days, and while mentally she’s still as sharp as the photographs that made her famous, her ailing heart leaves her with little energy for taking photographs. 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. After the unification of the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria, the Northumbrians invaded and overran Elmet in 616 or 617. It is not known definitely what prompted the invasion, but it has been suggested that the causus belli was the death by poisoning of the Northumbrian nobleman Hereric, who was an exiled member of the Northumbrian royal house residing in Elmet. It may have been that Hereric had been poisoned by his hosts and Edwin of Northumbria invaded in retaliation; or perhaps Edwin himself had Hereric poisoned and invaded Elmet to punish Ceredig for harbouring him.