True as this may have been, a close examination of the sequence suggests that this is not the whole story; and it is as well to recall Sylvia Plath’s warning to her mother not to take Hughes’ explanations too seriously. Referring to one of Hughes’ early plays she wrote: He is so critical of the play … that he needs to invent elaborate disguises as a smokescreen for it ( Letters Home 16 Dec. 1960). After the Romans retreated from Britain, West Yorkshire lay in the Kingdom of Elmet which was located between the Wharfe and Don Valleys, the Vale of York and the Pennines. Elmet remained British/Roman for just over 200 years. In addition, whilst evidence that Hermetic myths have directly influenced Hughes’ handling of Remains of Elmet is to be found throughout the sequence, his opening poem, ‘Where The Mothers’ ( ROE.10) provides an early and clear example of this. Using rhythms and sounds which capture the wildness of the elements as they are commonly experienced on the pictured moors, Hughes describes the disembodied souls as they, like the wind and the rain, howl through heaven and Pour down onto earth Award from Northern Arts for the Year of the Visual Arts, and from the Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation to work on the contribution of small farmers to the character of the Cumbrian landscape. Godwin's last major retrospective was at the Barbican Centre, London in 2001. A retrospective book, Landmarks, was published by Dewi Lewis in 2002. [6] Awards and recognition [ edit ]

Godwin enjoys challenging perceptions, and finds working with other photographers on workshops a stimulating experience. “I hardly teach,” she tells me. “It’s more like a gathering of minds looking at one subject and learning from each other. I enjoy the process. a b c Smith, A.H. (1961). The Place-names of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Vol.4. Cambridge University Press. pp.1–3. After the unification of the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria, the Northumbrians invaded and overran Elmet in 616 or 617. It is not known definitely what prompted the invasion, but it has been suggested that the causus belli was the death by poisoning of the Northumbrian nobleman Hereric, who was an exiled member of the Northumbrian royal house residing in Elmet. It may have been that Hereric had been poisoned by his hosts and Edwin of Northumbria invaded in retaliation; or perhaps Edwin himself had Hereric poisoned and invaded Elmet to punish Ceredig for harbouring him.After the unification of the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria, King Edwin of Northumbria led an invasion of Elmet, and overran it in 616 or 617. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People says that a Northumbrian noble, Hereric (father of Hilda of Whitby), an exiled member of the Northumbrian royal house was killed with poison, while living at the court of King Ceretic of Elmet. It has been suggested that this was either the casus belli for the invasion, if Hereric was poisoned by his hosts, or a pretext for a Northumbrian annexation of Elmet, if Edwin himself had Hereric poisoned. The Historia Brittonum says that Edwin "occupied Elmet and expelled Certic[ sic], king of that country". It is generally presumed that Ceretic was the same person known in Welsh sources as Ceredig ap Gwallog, king of Elmet. A number of ancestors of Ceretic are recorded in Welsh sources: one of Taliesin's poems is for his father, Gwallog ap Lleenog, who may have ruled Elmet near the end of the 6th century. Bede mentions that "subsequent kings made a house for themselves in the district, which is called Loidis". There are echoes of Nordic myth, too, in Hughes’ opening lines where the ‘Mothers’“ gallop” like Valkyries across the land looking for bodies to re–animate. But ‘The Mothers’ are also the elements: the alchemical ‘Mothers’– Air, Water and Fire – from which, together with the fourth element Earth, all things are created 13. In the poem, the vivid immediacy of these elements “ howling” through the bleak landscape gives the mythical ‘witch’s brew’ of the world of genesis a physical reality. Here, as in other poems in this sequence, the abstract ‘elements’ of philosophy are materialised as the forces of Nature, in this case the inclement weather –“ The witch–brew boiling in the sky–vat” (‘Moors’ ( ROE.19), which so frequently prevails on these West Yorkshire moors.

Godwin appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs programme in 2002. Here’s what she chose as her eight favourite pieces of music. Godwin's archive, including approximately 11,000 exhibition prints, the entire contents of her studio, and correspondence with some of her subjects, was given to the British Library [3] Publications [ edit ] 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).A major battle between Northumbria and Mercia, the Battle of the Winwaed took place in the area in 655, according to Bede, somewhere in the region of Loidis. 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).

Koch, John T., ed. (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-440-7. More frequently, it seems that Hughes provided a simple explanation for his work which masked its real complexity, exactly as he did in the programme notes for the Ilkley Festival performance of Cave Birds. Hughes’ poems in Remains of Elmet chronicle this process of reclamation, but he also attempted a re–creation of his own; and the shaping influence which he brought to bear in structuring the sequence makes this work Hughes’ own very personal account of an apocalyptic vision of the kind which Blake presented in Jerusalem. The final poem 'The Angel' continues from where Moortown Elegies left off, and where Birthday Letters would later resume, of mourning those close to him in publication through intimate verse — a dream of a terrible angel with a halo of square linen, the same linen that would be the death shroud of his mother.

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landscape that both creates and is inured to its people, whose moors 'Are a stage for the performance of heaven. All upcoming public events are going ahead as planned and you can find more information on our events blog When Godwin sold her darkroom recently, it was the end of an era. A reluctant parting, here is the list of equipment that was sold, described in her own words. After the conquest of Elmet, the realm was incorporated into Northumbria on Easter in 627 and its people were known as the Elmetsæte. They are recorded in the late 7th century Tribal Hidage as the inhabitants of a minor territory of 600 hides. They were the most northerly group recorded in the Tribal Hidage. The Elmetsæte probably continued to reside in West Yorkshire as a distinct group throughout the Saxon period and may have colluded with Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd when he invaded Northumbria and briefly held the area in 633. The existence of Elmet is attested in the Historia Brittonum, which says that King Edwin of Northumbria “occupied Elmet and expelled Certic, king of that country”. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People says that Hereric, the father of Hilda of Whitby, an important figure in the Christianisation of the English, was killed at the court of Ceretic. It is generally presumed that Ceretic/Certic was the same person known in Welsh sources as Ceredig ap Gwallog, king of Elmet. However, Bede does not speak of Elmet as the name of a kingdom but rather of the silva Elmete“forest of Elmet”. He mentions that “subsequent kings made a house for themselves in the district, which is called Loidis”, and the battle of Winwaed was also in the region of Loidis – probably the area covered by the present day City of Leeds.