Remains of Elmet

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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). The Life of Cathróe of Metz mentions Loidam Civitatem as the boundary between the Norsemen of Scandinavian York and the Britons of the Kingdom of Strathclyde: if this refers to Leeds, it suggests that some or all of Elmet may have been returned to Brittonic rule for a brief period in the first half of the 10th century before Anglo-Saxon reconquest, but not as an independent state. https://www.nature.com/news/uk-mapped-out-by-genetic-ancestry-1.17136 citing Leslie, S., Winney, B., Hellenthal, G. et al. The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14230 Towards the end of the 6th century, Elmet came under increasing pressure from the expanding Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Deira and Mercia. Forces from Elmet joined the ill-fated alliance in 590 against the Angles of Bernicia who had been making massive inroads further to the north. During this war it is thought Elmet's king Gwallog was killed. The northern alliance collapsed after Urien of Rheged was murdered and a feud broke out between two of its key members. 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).

But after dispensing with a few choice words on humble journos (for not turning up to see her latest exhibition of digital work), she relents a little, and explains what’s kept her away from the hills these last few years. David Hunter, principal archaeologist with West Yorkshire Joint Services, said: "This has the potential to be a find of massive significance for what we understand about the development of ancient Britain and Yorkshire.

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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: 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.

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). Remains of Elmet, in fact, is far less simple than Hughes’ published statements about it would have us believe. There is a metaphysical aspect to it which has been almost overlooked; and, as in Cave Birds, it has a transforming alchemical purpose. It also displays as many congruencies of thought and belief between Hughes and Blake as were evident in Cave Birds. It is a sequence not only by virtue of the poems’ common geographical location, but also because of a consistent underlying cosmology and because it represents, as reviewer Richard Murphy perceptively realised at the time of its publication, Hughes’ attempt to “ re–sacralise” the world through poetry 8.However, the incredibly long historical view that the title immediately evokes left me wishing that Hughes wrote more about the landscape itself, the shape of which has been formed by and inherited from tribes and kingdoms from very, very long ago (Becca Banks and Grim's Ditch for example), and that he took, again, a much longer view of history. This is brought out from time to time in poems such as Churn-Milk Joan, however it was only really the last 200 odd years that got a good look in, which I thought was a shame, having geared up for reading the collection by reading lots about the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons and the Angles.

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. 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." Poetry by Ted Hughes Remains of Elmet (London: Faber and Faber, 1979)/ Elmet (London: Faber and Faber, 1994) 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. Fortunately, Hughes’ shamanic powers did not die. As experience replaced innocence and “ life grew more complicated” ( PIM.16), Hughes began to channel his hunting instincts into writing poetry. At first he did not recognise that this was happening. Describing these changes in his early life in Poetry in the Making, he wrote: It was years before I wrote what you could call an animal poem and several more years before it occurred to me that my writing poems might be partly a continuation of my earlier pursuit. Now I have no doubt ( PIM.7).The Academic Suppression of the history of the native British or Cruthin, the People of the Pretani 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. The Life of Cathróe of Metz mentions Loidam Civitatem as the boundary between the Norsemen of Scandinavian York and the Celtic Britons of the Kingdom of Ystrad Clud (Strathclyde). This is thought to suggest that the Kingdom of Elmet may have either regained independence soon after Northumbria's original annexation of it (Bede makes note of the fracturing of Northumbria after Edwin's death) or was either independent or recognised as a distinct entity until at least the 10th-11th centuries. [6] [7] [8] Unlike the biblical closing of Paradise, the passage from innocence to experience is gradual. In Remains of Elmet, Hughes does not detail his journey to maturity, that is not his purpose; but he does include the significant factors which shaped his role of visionary prophet and shaman. So, in the poems that follow ‘Two’, we find that the terrifying, pervasive influence of chapel religion on the “ Jibbing” ( ROE.82) boy is tempered by the love and pride inspired in him by the old people of the valley, by the land itself, and by the example of the Brontes (Emily in particular) who had shared his love of the “ dark Paradise” ( ROE.96) of Nature.