the Hidden Childhood of Arthur

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kei and Arthur were milk brothers

at the Court Of Kynyr, Celtic Warlord.

Bedwyr also fostered there.

At this rocky fortress deep in the hills,

Arthur grew, hidden in a gaggle of brats.

 

 

And where glade and thicket gave way at last

to the primeval forest,

the ancient wildwoods that covered

this Island like a cloak,

there lived a hermit, Blaise,

in a sacred nemeton, a holy grove

of Ancient trees,

Oak and Elder and Rowan entwined

around the Sacred Spring.

 

The White Hart he sent for them,

out of the forest one day.

They followed though they were forbid

to enter the Perilous Forest.

 

It lead them through

the Mist of Concealment

laid about the grove

the Ghost Fence with its row of grinning skulls,

gave way at last to twin pillars of stone,

a gateway to a twisty maze

of tendrils live as adders green.

 

Uncanny darkness had fallen.

an Owl flew before them.

The mazy twist spiralling inward,

Sunwise, drawing them in,

drawing them in.

 

In the centre of the spiral maze,

a dark and ominous mound.

a ghastly voice from within

Enter Who Dare

 

and Artos, stepped forward

as one possessed

and straightway entered

that gloomy hole

 

and as he did a horn sounded

and thunder growled

but no dragon within, no fearsome worm

only gentle Blaise, Archdruid of Prydein.

 

He kept vigil at the Sacred Fountain.

Upon a stone was carven a verse:

“Drink here, and drink thy fill,

For the water falls by the wizards will.”

 

And there he taught the young princes,

for such they were,

the arts and manners,

the duties and obligations

pertaining to their station :

 

the King holds the Land

in trust for the People.

the King holds the People

in his Swift Sure Hand.

the King is a Bridge

between the Worlds.

 

Should the Harvest fail,

Should Plague ravage the Land,

Should the Wasteland blight the Realm,

Then the King must offer

the Great Sacrifice,

his Life for the Healing of the Land.

 

The Progress of the King:

the King’s Procession,

with his Court, his Great Retinue,

his Twenty Four Knights,

and all the Officers and Servants thereof

he shall encircle the Kingdom

and shew himself unto the People.

 

and his Pathway, his Trackway

shall Wind the Realm Sunwise,

binding the Land to him,

and him unto the Land.

 

One Hundred Castles shall be his Courts.

One Hundred Feasts for his Companions.

One Hundred Hounds for the Hunting.

One Hundred Gifts for the Gifting.

 

the King has certain Secret Duties,

in the Ritual Year of the Ancients

he must play his Divine Roles :

the Golden One at Beltain,  Springs Madness,

who comes to mate with the Silver Maiden.

the King Stag at Midsummers Mount

to meet the Challenge of his Son.

 

the Corn King of Golden Harvest,

who takes unto himself

the Evil of the People,

and becomes the Sacrifice.

the Glorious Corpse of Samhain,

the Bridge unto the Otherworld,

the Deaths of the Ancestors.

 

 the Black One in deep Midwinter,

who brings the Spark of Fire,

in the Longest Night.

the Babe in the Womb,

the Son of the Mother,

in the Conclave of Light.

 

and when Merlin did visit

his Master and Scribe

in that Space between the Worlds,

he taught them of the Dragon Power

that lived deep in the Earth,

and how to Rouse it,

to Summon, Stir and Draw it forth.

 

he shewed them Shapeshifting,

the Great Art of Illusion,

of Appearances and Vanishments,

of the Casting of Glamours

 

they learned there the Powers of Stone,

the Humming Stones, the Whirling Stones,

the Stones that stand in Circles,

the Stones where Earth kisses Sky.

 

He gifted them with the Battle Spells,

Fleetness of Foot, Iron Fist,

Bloodlust and Battleshout.

the Unhealing Wound.

 

and Blaise, Master of Merlin,

imparted the Wisdom of the Herbs,

the Potions and Decoctions,

of Magic Mushroom and Poison Weed,

of the Dreaming Blooms,

Gateways to the Inner Planes.

 

And from Kynyr they learned

Riding, Hunting and Hawking,

Sword and Shieldsmanship,

Arrow and Spear and Warknife.

to leap Wide Rivers,

scale the Steepest Crags,

to move through Forest silent as Elves.

 

and from Taliesin, Shining Brow,

Chief Bard of this Island,

they learned the Joy of Music,

to Speak in the old Formal Manner,

of Courtesy to Guests and Bards,

of Generosity and the Granting of Boons,

 and the Protection of the Poor and Weak.

  

for they were the Golden Youths,

straight of limb and fair of face.

Noble of bearing but friends to all,

the Flowering of the Dreams of Merlin,

the Seeds of the Summer Kingdom.

 

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