The Washer of the Ford: Legendary moralities and barbaric tales — John Shaqi
The Washer of the Ford: Legendary moralities and barbaric talesSharp, William
General
The Washer of the Ford: Legendary moralities and barbaric tales
Sharp, William
Mythology, Celtic -- Fiction; Scotland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
If in a composition such as "The Annir-Choille," there is the
expression of revolt--not ancient only, nor of the hour, but eternal,
for the revolt is of the sovereign nature within us whereon all else
is an accidental superstructure--against the Christian ethic of
renunciation, with an echo of our deep primeval longing for
earth-kinship with every life in nature: if here there is the breath
of a day that may not come again, there is little or nothing of the
past, save what is merely accidental, in "The Fisher of Men" or "The
Last Supper." I like to think that these _eachdaireachd Spioradail_,
these spiritual chronicles, might as well, in substance, have been
told a thousand years ago or be written a thousand years hence. That
Fisher still haunts the invisible shadowy stream of human tears: those
mystic Spinners still ply their triple shuttles, and the Fair Weaver
of Hope, now as of yore and for ever, sends his rainbows adrift across
the hearts and through the minds of men. What does it matter, again,
that the Three Marvels of Hy are set against the background of the
Iona of St. Columba? St. Francis blessed the birds of Assisi, and San
Antonio had a heart as tender for all winged and gentle creatures: and
there are innumerable quiet gardens of peace in the world even now
where the kindred of San Antonio and St. Francis and St. Columba are
kith to our fellow-beings, knowing them akin one and all to the seals
whom St. Molios blessed at the end of his days, and in his new
humbleness hailed as likewise of the company of the Sons of God.
But of this I am sure. If there is spiritual truth in the vision of
the Blind Harper who saw the Washer of the Ford, or in that of Molios
who hailed the seals as brethren, or in that of Colum who blessed the
birds and the fish of the sea and even the vagrant flies of the air,
and saw the Moon-Child, and in that seeing learned the last mystery of
the life of the soul, if in these, as in the "Fisher of Men" and "The
Last Supper," I have given faint utterance to the heart-knowledge we
all have, I would not have you or any think that the pagan way is
therefore to me as the way of darkness. The lost monk who loved the
Annir-Choille was doubtless not the less able to see the Uinneagan
Neimh because he was under ban of Colum and all his kin: and there are
those of us who would rather be with Cathal of the Woods, and be
drunken with green fire, than gain the paradise of the holy Molios who
banned him, if in that gain were involved the forfeiture of the sunny
green world, the joy of life, and the earth-sweet ancient song of the
blood that is in the veins of youth.
These tales, let me add, are not legendary "mysteries" but legendary
"moralities." They are reflections from the mirror that is often
obscured but is never dimmed. There is no mystery in them, or
anywhere: except the eternal mystery of beauty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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