Rabbiting" Richard Armer:
"You don’t grow old in Yorkshire.
The Dales are ageless too.
You’ll walk amongst the heather, drift into a different age.
The gorse and bracken timeless they free you from the cage.
The rivers, streams and tarns will forever fill your dreams.
So take a walk up the fell and be a child for good.
A day amongst the Yorkshire wild will leave you feeling how you should."
Later today I am going to a meeting on Springs and Wells at the Folklore Centre so I thought I would look up a couple of 'sacred' wells that I had been to. The first is 'Old Wife's Well' near to Wheeldale and just before you go past the supposed old Roman Road...... taken from here
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| Signs of modern day acknowledgement of 'sacredness' with the clooties hanging The other one of course is the Swallowhead Spring in the Avebury area, with a great deal of sanctity with modern day pagans. Springs are quite interesting there are some around Silbury Hill which maybe one of the reasons the mound was built. I shall have to study spring lines which seem to go through the landscape joined together? It makes you think of ley lines if you are that way inclined.  The two streams or river and stream that meet here belong to the winterbournes, which means they only appear in winter. I love this willow, a true Tolkien tree, but not for its clooties which I find rather ugly. Unspoilt nature is what I prefer. I remember coming to this spot and a good Christian had put up an angry typed missive accusing paganism of goodness knows what. I took it away. The configuration of Swallowhead Spring can be found on the map on Michael Dames thesis here |
I appreciate seeing these wells, something I have only read about. That willow looks all together too much like Tolkien's tree for me to sit under.
ReplyDeleteWell according to Tolkien, 'Old Willow Man' will bind you in his grip ;)
ReplyDelete