Drifting

Well, I am not well;) so I am curtailing my use of this computer for a time.  Though it takes me to the marvels of the world, I think it is playing havoc with my eyes.  Lying in bed this morning idling on the tablet through an old blog of mine, - Poems, Paintings and Photos, especially from 2008. I came across Dragons and Yews.  It was a period of my life when I fell in love with the early Saxon writings, the poetry so strong and dense, and often  strangely enough very sad, always harking after a better time.  If you click on Dragons and yews, you will find the tale of the Nicor, a terrible sea monster.  This reference had taken me back to when the family had owned two small engineering factories, and the one in the Midlands was called Nicor.  It was strange at the time coming on the meaning and though both men are long gone and dead, I often wondered why they named it as such.

Now there is another story told by Nennius (an 8th AD Welsh monk), who though his stories are often thought of as mythlike and foolish, does tell an exceedingly good tale. Dragons dreams can foretell a future event, and in one of the chapters of Nennius's book, he tells the story of a young boys dream. Nennius had access to 5th century books, and this story is about Vortigen, who had found a young boy call Ambrose, the boy had a dream in which he saw a tent at the bottom of a pool, in this tent slept two dragons , a red one and a green one. They woke up and fought, and the red dragon who represented the Saxons overcame the green dragon who represented the British, the tale in its full version from Nennius is told here.....

"a pool; come and dig:" they did so, and found the pool. "Now," continued he, "tell me what is in it;" but they were ashamed, and made no reply. "I," said the boy, "can discover it to you: there are two vases in the pool;" they examined, and found it so: continuing his questions," What is in the vases?" they were silent: "there is a tent in them," said the boy; "separate them, and you shall find it so;" this being done by the king's command, there was found in them a folded tent. The boy, going on with his questions, asked the wise men what was in it? But they not knowing what to reply, "There are," said he, "two serpents, one white and the other red; unfold the tent;" they obeyed, and two sleeping serpents were discovered; "consider attentively," said the boy, "what they are doing." The serpents began to struggle with each other; and the white one, raising himself up, threw down the other into the middle of the tent, and sometimes drove him to the edge of it; and this was repeated thrice. At length the red one, apparently the weaker of the two, recovering his strength, expelled the white one from the tent; and the latter being pursued through the pool by the red one, disappeared. Then the boy, asking the wise men what was signified by this wonderful omen, and they expressing their ignorance, he said to the king, "I will now unfold to you the meaning of this mystery. The pool is the emblem of this world, and the tent that of your kingdom: the two serpents are two dragons; the red serpent is your dragon, but the white serpent is the dragon of the people who occupy several provinces and districts of Britain, even almost from sea to sea: at length, however, our people shall rise and drive away the Saxon race from beyond the sea, whence they originally came....

The old yew in Pewsey Valley.  It has an incredibly beautiful inner wood, though torn with old age it has a special beauty.