That debate was a big moment in a hinge time. Not for the last time in Wales, I guess. The poetic metaphor of 'story' has come over the hill to lend weight to history, a breath of a song. Gawain travels far over continent and centuries, revisits knowledge with legends?
I ask myself: who was the poem written by, who was it written for, and what would have been on their minds at that time? It turns out that the answers take me to interesting places,literal and metaphorical.
That puts it in a nutshell for us following this tale. I find myself following you, places literal and metaphorical. It was the 'Pelagian moment' that I had in mind. I happen to be reading Kingsnorth's latest book as he is much concerned with the 'modern mind', a condition I share. He reaches back as far as Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo in his quest for pre-conditions. His recent acceptance into the Orthodox Church might be preventing him getting to Pelagius.
Wales has a longer story or two. Hu's oxen bring a poetic metaphor to life in that 'bellow' that brought the stones to build a (C)church. Kingsnorth must write about the Romantic reaction to the Enlightenment, and about neo-Paganism, along with England's adoption of extractive industries to build its imperial cities, but Arthur's reality as the Classical civilisation got rearranged, not so much.
A lot of all this only appears as I sit down to write. The Pelagian debate happened before Arthur, but it was something that the Brythons were still debating while the Saxons overran their kingdoms. And it was still relevant in the Welsh Marches when Gawain and the Green Knight was written, a thousand years after Pelagius lived. The Welsh really do stick to the belief that they, and only they, will decide their future.
Yes, I need to keep in mind the timeline, but its this stuff that keeps popping in and out of what we call history, that is live in the story... ongoing. Its interesting that writing is the prompt.
That debate was a big moment in a hinge time. Not for the last time in Wales, I guess. The poetic metaphor of 'story' has come over the hill to lend weight to history, a breath of a song. Gawain travels far over continent and centuries, revisits knowledge with legends?
I ask myself: who was the poem written by, who was it written for, and what would have been on their minds at that time? It turns out that the answers take me to interesting places,literal and metaphorical.
That puts it in a nutshell for us following this tale. I find myself following you, places literal and metaphorical. It was the 'Pelagian moment' that I had in mind. I happen to be reading Kingsnorth's latest book as he is much concerned with the 'modern mind', a condition I share. He reaches back as far as Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo in his quest for pre-conditions. His recent acceptance into the Orthodox Church might be preventing him getting to Pelagius.
Wales has a longer story or two. Hu's oxen bring a poetic metaphor to life in that 'bellow' that brought the stones to build a (C)church. Kingsnorth must write about the Romantic reaction to the Enlightenment, and about neo-Paganism, along with England's adoption of extractive industries to build its imperial cities, but Arthur's reality as the Classical civilisation got rearranged, not so much.
A lot of all this only appears as I sit down to write. The Pelagian debate happened before Arthur, but it was something that the Brythons were still debating while the Saxons overran their kingdoms. And it was still relevant in the Welsh Marches when Gawain and the Green Knight was written, a thousand years after Pelagius lived. The Welsh really do stick to the belief that they, and only they, will decide their future.
Yes, I need to keep in mind the timeline, but its this stuff that keeps popping in and out of what we call history, that is live in the story... ongoing. Its interesting that writing is the prompt.