At The Edge No 01 1996 03

48 Pages·1996·11.9 MB·English

l\la. 1 March 1 996 £ i!.OO
Exploring new
interpretations of
past and place in
archaeology, folklore
and mythology
ISSN 1361-0058
Issue No.1 March 1996
Editor: Bob Trubshaw
Contents:
2 Cross Hill Close, Wymeswold,
Hilda Ellis Davidson Loughborough, LE12 6VJ
OtherworlCdaH le 2 Telephone: [phone]
A/by Stone
TheP eriloBursi dge 7
Published quarterly
An/bony Weir
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ExplorPiansgat n dP lace 26
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While Dragon keepsE M alivienM idlands 30 for At the Edge correspondence purposes
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Eric Filch
AncieTna tp low 32
Marian Nagabiro © 1996. All articles, illustrations and
FO(jSb ringss tonoeust o ft hem ist 36 photographs are the joint copyright of the
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AB�TRACfS 38
Vncredited articles and reviews by editor.
REVIEWS 41
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The Perilous Bridge
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Duvid Ta ylor
not necessarily those held by the editor.
Printed in England by Newark Chamber of Commerce
What oft hef utureW?e
huvt� not fired all our best
shots in the first issue!
Forthcoming in
future issues of
And welcotne tot hef irisstsu P buckgruw1ds- who knows "vhut
AT THE EDGE of AT THE EDGE. hybridns1i ght emerge?
This is neither a heavyweight A high proportion oft ht=>
acaden1ic periodical or from thP cwTent subscribers will havP
Vlichael Behrend fanciful fringe. At the Edge is transferfrreodn m1y 1wevious
Oxhide tales intendPd to be a wliquten agazinf>a ttempatt e ditorship. the
'walkingo n the cracks' between regionully-Ltnuasgea<zH.iPl
Jeretny Harte disciplines and providing i\!lercian Mysteries. Hopefull�.
Churches auoved by night accPssible insights for all witha n �ouw ill allco nsi<.r ltheat At thP
interest in the latest and most Edge isa n improvetnent inb otlt
innovative ideas about past aiH.l appearancaen dc ontent.
Atme Ross
place. Nevertheless, the absence of
Bog burials
It is nu coicidenee that the Midlands-related infunnatiou
cover illustration of this first issue may Le felt as a loss. If this is
Gavin Snuth
relates to Alby Stone ·s article on the case, then please turn to
A religious paradigm for
'The Perilous Bridge·. At the Edge page3 0 where Rowano f �VhLtP
so1ne English place-name
is itself 'linunal' in its scopP and Dragon explains how tllis gapi s
ele1oents
will be attempting to establish to be bridged.
bridges - perilous or otherwise - Unlike Mercian Mysteries. At
Alby Stone
between the subjects wllich fall the Edge does not aitn to bP uu
A pagan Gothic ritual broadly into the scope of 'earth mysteries' tnagazine. ThP
archaeology, folklore and Ley Hunter already offers
PJu�ab stracts, reviews and n1ythology. excellent national, in<.leed
mall)ot her ideas which have A great deal of encouragetnent international, coveragP of this
yet to be finalised. and practical help has been dotnain, alonwg ith a nwnhPro f
received during the preparation of regionaltnagazsiucnhe ass,
this inaugw·al issue. Special thanks 1\1eyn Mamvro a11tdh e long­
are due to all the authors and established Northern Earth.
illustrators, who have responded Rather, At the Edge induuPs iu
lf youd o nota lready exceptionally well to tny various its scope smne of.the rag-bug of
subscribe to At the Edge requests. I run equally grateful to topics which tnake up earth
theu please consider taking the various 'behind the scenes· 'mysteries, but this will not LP
outa subscription. Even collaborators who havP helped the focus of the content. The
better, encourage everyone with design, publicity and kindred metaphor embedded in thP titlP
-you tneet to do so too. tnatters. To natne nrunes risks At the Edge can be interpretPd
\!Vt> ailtno keep the causing offence by inadvertently at several levels, but tny tnain
cuvPr pricdeo wn but this mnitting smneone so, sufficP to intention was to look both ut thP
dues tneant hat the shoe­ say. if the cap fits please consi<.ler e<.lges of acudetne, where
striug budget can get badly -vourself well and trulv- thanked. innovative dieas are emerging
frayed. Itre alliys true to What of the future? \tVe have despite the inhibitions of JWPr­
:-;a� that evernye w notfi reda llou r best shots in the rPview and career-buil<.ling. uud
subscripthielopns! firsti ssuea,s t he listf coontents at thP activities of' part-tinw ·
for the forthcotning issuerse vPals.n on-professiwohnoa alrse h oniug
Given the incessant
Some ideas on where tny own a cutting edge of exciting insights
iucreases inp aper costs I
interests fall can bef ow1di nt hP base<o.n lso lid researcIht.is
do nut expect the ·Exploripansgt and place· articJP w1fortunatP that the sco1w of At
subsrciption rateo f£ 7.00 on pagP 26. However. the iupuotf thP Edge twe<.l� to he Jpfiw'd
tu hold for tnuclho nger­
other contributors will hPt hPm ain morP b�w hat it is uot, ruthPt·
pleasrPeg ard this as a <e.tlerminnat of the futw·e than by a 'pusitivP · tenu of
'spt>cinitraold uctoryo ffer'. emphasis. My onlyex pectation is rPference. Perhaps this is thP
ThPo nly way Ic an defer an that At the Edge will stea<.ill� inPvitublP naturoef utt Pmptiug
iuuninent increase is for evolve as the issues tnow1utp -but to transgrehsosr <.leralniJB PS
tww subscribers tuc onw I do noth avea ny fixed orf irm PXp}orP liminal ZOHPS.
flooding in! ideas on how. At the Edge might I hopP youe njoy this issw··
be capable of' cross-fertilisiunugJ', if HPcPssary, take out a
iuPats·io m diffPrent< i.scliplines uud su1JS<.Tiptot iAot nth e Edge.
At the Edge 1 No.1 March 1lJlJ6
erwor
Few folklorists and or those
mterested in early religion pay in areas around the
much serious attention to the Meuiterranean there was little
cow. This is a pity, since the good grazing land, and the
symbol of cattle and of the milk warmer cliinate tnade it uifticult
they provide has been to transport fresh milk to tlw
NlOrtnously important in the towns, while olive oil was
past, particularly in the cults of available to replace butter. The
goudesses. In Ancient Egypt the Romans regarded milk as tit
first sa<;red cows were the wild only for infants and invalius,
ones in the Delta marshes, a although cheese was tnade on
symbol of abundant life and the farms and was regularly
eegarded as creatures of the supplied to the army.
Otherworld. Later the sky itself Consequently the Rmnan
was depicted as a great cow, disobedience. These are fertility goddesses took little
her belly speckled with stars, Otherworld cattle, said in Book interest in milk, and are not
iuentified with the goddess XII of the Odyssey not to Le associated with the dairy. In
Hathor, who each dawn gave subject to natural death. Thus the northern Europe, howe;er. this
birth to the sw1, the yow1g idea of special cattle, associated was closely linked with the
bull-calf. By the eleventh with the Otherworld, was a goddesses, although this has
uynasty cows with a special familiar one. They might be tenued to go wrrecognizeu.
patterned hide were regarded singled out by wmsual colouring, There is a striking carving of thf'
as incarnations of Hathor, and or because they were larger and goudess Rostnerta, for instance.
at \lemphis there was a special finer than normal anitnals, or on an altar found at
white cow which represented they might belong to a special Housesteads on the Rmnau \tVaH
hf'r. The milk of the cows kept herd. In India today goddesses (see illustration overleaf). whf'rP
in Hathor's temple was a link are often described as cows. auJ she seetns undoubtedly to be
lwtween the Pharaohs and the milk and milk products offered to working with her plw1ger
gous, for royal babies were fed the gods. turning tnilk into butter. The
on it, and it was Hathor 's milk Si1nilar ideas, though of a less object beside her is very similar
which was said to restore the exalted nature, can he traced in to the wooden churn with iron
ueaJ Pharaoh to new life in the northern Europe, anJ were hoops still used on fanns iu
Otherworld. Again in apparently fatnitiar to the Indo­ northern England at the
\1f'sopotmnia the powerful Europeans. They have left traces beginning of this century.
goJJess Nitnhursag presided in our popular traditions anJ We need to realize the
over a tetnple Jairy, providing folklore, particularly in the tretnenuous itnportance of tnilk
milk for eoyal children. British Isles anJ Scandinavia. and butter in earlier titues and
Among the Greeks there where dairy-fanning anJ the the way in which it influenceJ
were evidently cattle sacreJ to making of Lutter and other milk custotns and legends. There was
Hyperion, the sun-god, since in products has for centuries played gooJ grazing land in the
Homer we find Odysseus a rnajor part in people's lives: \1idlands, and tneJnories of
w an1ing his men against they provided an essential part of Otherworld cattle certaiuh exist
:-;laughtering any beast from his the diet as weB as rich food for thet·e if we take the trouLiP to
�evPH herds for food, and they pleasw·able eating. The position look for them. Nowadays milk
paid Jearly for their was different in southf'rn Europe: comes in the bottle or thP
At the Edge No.1 March 1996
lt is uotii a priviledge and a pleasure to ue able to start malicious neighbour which
the first issue of At the Edge with this article by HIWA prevented the butter from
ELLIS DAVIDSON. Her support and encouragement have coming. The folklore archives in
been most appreciated during the recent nwnths of Dublin have many tales of the
preparation for the launch. dangers of May Day, the titne
when the cream might be stoleu
by witchcraft. Various tnethods
were practiseJ, such as taking
the fi·oth from a river at the
e point where two or three
streams met, uttering such
words as 'All for myself anJ
nothing for the rest of them·,
crossing the boWldary of a
neighbour's farm to gather the
dew and sweeping it up with the
carton all the year roWld, and spaucel used to secure the cow's
we have no idea of the legs while milking, or taking the
excitetnent and eagerness with first water of the day from a
which people greeted the well on a neighbour's fann.
corning of swnmer, after the There is no doubt that such
austerities of winter and Lent. practices were actually tried
By May the calves, who had out, and people who were seen
taken all the milk, were at last on May morning going about
separated frmn their mothers, their lawful occasions might well
and tnilk and cream were be accused of such crimes.
available again. In Tudor titnes There are many legends too of
the yow1g people paired off in wmnen taking on the shape of
the surroWlding woods on the hares in order to steal milk or
evening before May Day, a prevent the production of
custotn regarded as scandalous batter.
by tlte Puritans, although in fact If we eau think ourselves
-
it ofteu resulted in respectable back into such a background.
betrothals and was not rernem.bering that passions
disapproved of by their fatuilies. n1ight rw1 high when the
We lvlow from smne prosperity and perhaps the very
Elizabethan pia ys that on May survival of a fatnily depended on
mortling it was customary for Solheirn. has proJuced a the successful production of
the couples to visit nearby fanus fascinating book on the rich butter and crearn, then thf>
awl feast on such delicacies as traJitions anJ legends legends of OtherworlJ cows
milk laced with rwn, syllabubs associated with the move to the become more w1JerstanJable-.
(for which the cow was n1ilked saetter, the place where the Solheim's exhaustive studv fron1
-
din-'ctly into wine, port or swmner tnonths would be spent. �orway includes nwnbers of
sherrv). sour tnilk and curds He has many stories collecteJ rituals, speUs, prayers, anJ
with ZTPaJn and sugar. jwlkets, from individuals whose families "lucky· practices to obtain mil�
and lTeanl cakes. regularly took part in these and butter. Titese went on from
[u areas where the cattle migrations, including tales of the titne when they fixed a good
were moved up to swntner Otherworld cattle belonging to day for the move to thf>
pastures at the end of April, as the 'underearth' people, who mow1tains, anJ made thf>
happened in Scandinavia and are not wllike our fairy folk. journey with the cows,
parts of the British Isles, this too Part of the rich lore overjoyeJ to be releaseJ frorn
marked the begim1ing of associated with work in the their Jark sheds after the long
suumwr and \vas smnething to Jairy was due to another factot· winter. and continued wttil thev
look forward to with which we now tend to forget: eeturned to the hmne fann. Th�
exciteJnent. A nwnLer of the the extretne difficulty of spells and practices which the�
farm workers moved out with obtai1ling butter in the old useJ urf> a mixture of Christian
the cattle, and were away all upright plw1ger churn. The and pre-Christiau beliefs, sonw
swHJHPr, working harJ to workers did not always keep of them wtdoubtedly very old.
provide supplies of butter for their dairy equipment In the woods and mowttain
thP \·vintPr ahead, and tnaking scrupulously clean, and it was all pastures where the men and
thPIJ" o\VH mnusetnents and too easy for things to go wrong, children lookeJ after the cuttle
pasritllf'S in their spare tinw. A so that there are couutless tales during the day, while the
.\onvegiau folklorist, Svale of witchcraft practised by sonw women workeJ in the dairy,
At the Edge 3 No.1 March 1 996
for her that evening, to euablP
her to attend a fw1eral, or
perhaps go to a feast. The girl
asks where the herd can hP
fowtd, and is told that thP� an-·
dose at hand, aud that vPssels
will be put out ready for t hP
milking. The cows. shP
JiscovPrs, are vet·y fiuP aBHHab.
the kind every fanner would
long to possess, and as a n-'wanl
for her help, the dairymaid !Ita�
be ofiered one of them, which
becomes a fmnily treasure. If
she is foolish enough to refust:>.
because she is afraid of dealiugs
with 'underearth' people, tht:>
wotnau will call it back, and it
disappears with the rest.
Such animals Jnight also lw
seen wandering in the forPst,
but if any attempt were made to
take possession of the1n or 1nilk
them, they would vanish.
However one Inethod of
obtaining them was to throw
steel over then1. There is a
Swedish tale of a girl who saw a
strange cow in her herd. and
flung her sewing at it to drive it
back home. Her steel needle
was in the sewing, however.
and the supernatural wmnan
who owned the cow then
appeared, lamenting that now
she could not take the aninutl
back, and asking if the girl
would give her a lanili or a guuJ
neckcloth in return. Both
�orwegian and Swedish wonteu
Rosmerta and her chum. claimed to have heard thP
supernatural owners of the
A Romano-Brttish stone has-relief sculpture from Housesteads.
cattle calliug their beasts homP
Drawing by Norman Fahy.
in the evening, and quoteJ their
calling songs in which the)
thPy were very conscious of such as 1nice or hannless snakes swmnoned their cows bv ruunP.
the supernatural folk who because they were good mnens The colour of these
.
n1ight someti1nes be for the welfare of the cattle, while Otherworld cattle is often
encountered, and felt it was they cut crosses or what seem to described, but this varies iu
essential to keep on good be ancient sw1 sy1nbols on the diflerent districts, and Solheiut
terms with them as far as vessels in which the milk was thought this 1night be duP to
possible. collected, or put yellow flowers new unfa1niliar strains being
For example, they might such as buttercups or marigolds introduced which see1ned Pxotic
stop by a great stone which into the1n to increase the yield of to those who encountered thent.
they passed on their route to butter. Occasionally bulls frmn thP
thP pastures and greet the Tales have been recorded from OtherworhJ herds were thought
dwPller there by name, women who had heard thent from to mate with ordinar� cows, and
perhaps 1naking s1nall ofierings some older me1nLer of the fa1nih the resulting calves would
like a little 1nilk from the such as mother or grandmother, usually l)e fine ani1nals, although
leading cow released ou to the indicating a widesprPad belief in there were some cases reported
growtJ, or buttennilk poured Otherworld cattle. For instance, a �f tnisshapen or tailless beasts
oB to small knolls or into holes dairy1naid might Le approached as the offspriug of such unions.
in the earth. They encouraged by a strange wonum and asked Fairy cows may also be fouud
insects and small creatures whether she would do the milking in Irish tradition. One such cow
At the Edge 4 No.1 March 1996
nourished St Brigid as an infant, Sweden, when th� mistress of the descended, until at last people
the legendary Abbess of Kildare, supernatw·al cattle summoned iu the Vale of Towy wanted to
who seems to have inherited each in turn by nume. kill her, and she vanished. The
pre-Christian traditions of the Such calliug sougs must huve site at Mitchell's Fold where the
goddess Brigit. The saint was ueen used in England. aud I cow wus said to have appf>ured
closeh associated with cattle and should Le n1ost grateful to anyo11e is sotne distance frotn any
milk . .H er nwther worked as a who can give n1e infonnation habitation, Jnarked by a ring of
dairvmaid, and her daughter was about t.hern. The nineteenth standing stones, now
:->aid. to be born as she stepped century poet Jeau lugelow incomplete, and there are oth�r
across the threshold on her way brought a rmnanticized version of stone circles recorded not far
Lack frotn the dairy, carrying a such a song into her poem 'The away. There is an impressive
vessel of tnilk. The baby could not High Tide on the Coast of view of hills on every side.unJ
thriv� on ordinary cow's tnilk, so LincolnsJ tire': the place would form a suitabk
her foster-father, skilled in From the clovers l�ft your head: centre for people from
tnagical lore, procured an Come uppe Whitefoot, come uppe sw-row1ding villages.
Otherworld cow, a white animal Lightfoot, The concept of an
with n·d ears, for her. Brigid tnay Come uppe Jetty. rise alld follow Otherworld cow who brings
be seen pictured in churches with Jetty, to the milking shed. benefits is fowtd in India, wh�r�
her cow, said to accmnpany her Gabrielle F erro-Luzzi collected
on her visits to fanns on the eve However I have been wwble to over 400 legends about the
of her festival, when a sheaf of find any songs of her owB tin1e self·nulking cow, The basic t uh-'
ha) n1ight be left out for it. White which n1ight have inspired the was about a tnysterious co"'
cattle. with red ears were also verses. which emptied its udder
possessed by that impressive In England we find a regularly over atl anthill or
figw·e the Hag of Beware, thought widespread tradition in the cairn, beneath which was
to have once been a powerful midlands ru1d the north of afterwards discovered a sacred
local divinity. how1tifuJ cows of special beauty, lingatn or the itnage of a god.
Cattle o{ this type certainly yielding large quantities of tnilk, whereupon the local rajah built
existed in England frmn R01nan who cmne frOJn the Otherworld a tetnple to hold the divine
tiuH:'S, and one herd of such and allow people to milk thetn syniliol. The writer's tnain
beasts. kept isolated for centuries, w1til the greed or cruelty of interest was in the difl'erent
still sw·vives at Chillinghrun in certain individuals drives them wuys in which a tradition n1ight
� orthwnberland. Whitehead, away. The most frunous example develop, but her JnateriaJ also
who tnade a special study of is that of MitcheJI's Fold in south shows how the cow can be a
them. is disposed to accept the Shropshire, which was careful]) sytnbol of divine bow1ty.
th�orv that they are descended recorded by Charlotte Burne, who A parallel frotn England call
from �hite cattle brought in by fow1d that in the H�gos tnan) be fow1d in a strange legenJ of
the H.01nans for processions and people in the neighbourhood were St Keneltn told in a t'ourteenth
sacrificial ceretnonies, since the fruniliar with the legend. It was century poe1n from the
native British cattle were n1ostly said that in a ti1ne of famine a collection in the Southern
hluck: this tnight accoWit for their beautiful white cow appeared, English Legendary. Here
associution with the supernatural and anyone tnight cmne and Jnilk Kenehn was a boy-king
\-Vorld. her, providing only one vessel was tnurdered by Ius wicked sistf>r.
lt1 \t\' ales supernatural cattle brought; this would be filled, His body was not fow1d wttil at
an· said to cmne from a fairy whatever its size and shape. All last a white cow belonging to u
reulm beneath the water of went well w1til a Jnean old witch widow was observed to spend
certain lakes. The best known tale brought along a sieve, and tnilked the whole day in a certain
is that of the fairy bride who the cow dry. Various versions of valley, away frOJn the rest of the
makes u tnarriage with a fanner, this tale are fow1d in tnaBy areas herd. The cow took no food. but
but returns to the lake when in Shropshire &nd further north, retnained 'fair ru1d row1d', whilP
eertuin conditions are broken - and in smne places large bones its yield of n1ilk was greater
oftE'H wnvittingly - by her have been produced as proof of than all the others. As result of
huslm11d. She brings her herd of the story. S01netimes the cow this, together with a letter in
wonderful cattle out of the lake died, smneti1nes she vanished English tniruculously delivPreJ
with her, und calls the1n back into after stmnping her foot iu rage to the Pope, the body of tlw
dtt> water when she leaves for and leaving a tnark on a rock. ln child martyr was discovered.
good. The lady of Uyu y Fan Fach Warwickshire she was said to There ure other legends of cows
iu lhfed is said to have left turn into a destructive animul. the or oxen which reveal where a
desc�_,udunts who were fatnous Dw1 Cow, finally slain by Guy of suiut shall Le buried or u church
physiciuns. The tale was not Warwick. There is also a variant built. by t·efusing to stop except
recorJed in print w1til 1861, but it of this legend from Wales, telling ou one particular site. Th�
\Vus kno\\'n to u nwnLer of hovv a white co\v travell�d widely, uttractive l\orfolk saint, St
infonnants. and included a calling Jeuving calves in man� places from V\'istan, said to be a king's :->on
song like those frotn Norwuy und which later cows were saiJ to lw who workeJ as a farm laboLU'Pl'.
At the Edge 5 No.1 March 1 <)<)6
was drawn to Bawbw·gh after existed before the gods along
Further reading:
death by two bullocks which he with the giant Ytuir. whom shP
had reared. They tniraculously nourished, and she licked thP C. Phythian-Adatns: 'Milk and
crossf'd a river, and created primeval ice-blocks until a being Soot' in The Pursuit of Urlum
t\vo healing wells where they called Buri etnerged, from whom
Hist01y, D. Fraser and A. Sutcliffp
stopped to piss on the way. the gods were descf'nded. Sonw
(eds.), London 1983.
V\' alston is shown on a think that this is an Indo­ P. Lysaght: 'Beltaine' in
n)()dstTf'f'n in the church at European origin myth, and
Uarnham Broom with the two whether this is so or not. it Boundaries and Thresholds.
H.R.E. Davidson (ed.), Stroud
animals at his feet. reminds us once again of thf'
1992.
Several northern divinities great and holy significance of the
also possessed oxen, used for cow for our ancf'stors in thf' K.D. Whitehead: The Ancient
ploughing. The Celtic goddess �orth. It is sad to think that this �Vhite Cattle ofBritain, Lo11don
1953.
Brigit had two, who gave her is something now wholly lost,
warning of cattle-stealing with robot milking, J. Wood: 'The Fairy BridP LegPud
anywhere in Ireland, while the commercialism of dairy fanning in \!Vales' Folklore 103, 3:>-72.
D�uish goddess Gefion, a on a huge scalE'. and the 1992.
powerful character, used oxen tendency to regard the cow as G.E. Ferro-Luzzi: The Self-iV/ilkin�.:
to plough round a tract of land nothing more than a tnachine to Cow and the Bleeding Lingam,
in Sweden which became the yield tnilk, condetnned to a short Wiesbaden, 1987.
island of Zealand. In Wales the and not particularly happy life. I
Editor's footnote
Lady of Uyn y Fan Fach called set out to find out more about
her oxen back into the lake Otherworld cattle because of the Thanks are due to AJLv StoHf'
with the cows, and the marks in1portance n1ilk possessed in the for picture research. TI1e­
of the plough they had been cults of the northern goddesses, illustration on page 2 depicts
drawing were said to be visible but soon fow1d they were worthy Hathor as the star-spanglf'd
for six miles. of investigation in their own Heaven-Cow. On page 3 Hathor
Indeed in Norse mythology right. I conunend the study of appears as Queen of the
there is one account of the cattle legends to readers of At Underworld appearing out of thf'
creation of the world beginning the Edge as a part of their own funerary mountain of Western
from a pri1neval cow, whose heritage, and I shall be very glad TI1ebes. Special thanks to Nonuau
name Audhumla is thought to to hear of any relevant local Fa hy for preparing the illustratiou
mean 'Rich, hornless cow'. She traditions. of Rosmerta at short notice.
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At the Edge 6 No.1 March 1996
ALBY STONE is a prolific writer of articles on northern
traditional beliefs and Arthurian legends. He has also written a
number of booklets: Wyrd: fate and destiny in north European
tradition: A splendid pillar; The bleeding lance and The questing
beast. His book on northern creation mythologies, Y1nir's flesh, is
scheduled to be published this surmner.
Earth has not anything to show otherwise separate pieces of of the Cinvat ('separation')
more fair: land, yet at the sa1ne ti111e bridge, 'the holy bridge 1nade
Dull would be he of soul who enhances their separateness. by Mazda' that stretches over
could pass by ·One can travel across it, fr01n hell to paradise, 'which is thE>
A sight so touching in its one land 1nass to another, but route of every one, righteous or
majesty: while on it the traveller is wicked; the width across tlw
This .city rww doth, like a neither in one place nor the route of the righteous is a
garment, wear other. A bridge is a breadth of nine spears, each
The beauty of the morning; quintessentially liminal thing, one the length of three reeds,
silent bare, and it shares those qualities but the route for the wicked
Ships. towers, domes, theatres, that characterise other things becomes like the edge of a
and temples lie that delimit one state from razor' (2). The bridge is
Open unto the jields, and to the another- doors, boundaries, the suspended between two
sky; turning point of one day or year mountains, one in the centre of
All bright and glittering in the to the next - by being the world, one at the· ritn. This
smokeless air. dangerous, enchanted, pregnant serves to reinforce the litniual
with a double-edged potential. bridge's status, by linking the
So wrote Willian1 In his poetn The Bridge, H.W. range of mountains believeJ to
Wordsworth in his fa1nous poem Longfellow marries the liminal encircle the earth, that which
Upon Westminster Bridge. This object with a kindred point in separates the outside from the
crystallises a timeless moment in time: inside, with that of the axis
which the mw1dane is I stood upon the bridge at mundi, which keeps ·earth and
transn1uted into the magical: the midnight, sky apart. Similar bridges
city Pvoked by the poet's words As the clocks were striking the occur in the traditions of the
is u far cry from the grubby, hour. Ossetes, Armeruans, and
uoisy, tumultuous place that Georgians; and the bridge
LouJon has ever been, Tlus place between places is ai-Sirat ('the path') of Islatnic
transfonned by the hour and also a place between times (1]. tradition is almost certain.l}
WorJsworth's vision into a still, Otherwise responsible adults derived from Zoroastrian
mystical reahn in hannony with have been known to revert to a cosmology.
nature, at peace with itself. childhood state while on a The Cinvat bridge is
Bridges have this effect on bridge, feeling free to play the analogous to that crossed by
the perceptive soul. It does not gatne of Pooh Sticks made the Altaic shaman in the
really matter whether popular by the children's books spirit-journey to the
WorJsworth penned his lines of A.A. Milne. Nonnally sane underworld realm of Erlik
while actually standing upon the and sober tnen and women will Khan. This bridge is as wide as
briJge, or was si1nply inspired to happily indulge in infantile a hair, and the sea below it is
writE> then1 while walking across gmnes when they encounter a strewn with the bones of
it - or, for that tnatter, if he just bridge. Obviously it was Milne shmnans who have failed tlw
itnagined that he was there who prepared the way; but it is crossing -like the Cinvat, this
whilE> he was c01nposing the the bridge that is the trigger, bridge will not tolerate a sinner
poetn. The in1portant thing here and there everyday social roles (3). A variation on this motif
is the sytnbolistn: the bridge, and behaviour are suspended. occurs in North Atnerican
and the enchanted world it In cosmological myth, native tnyth: the Telwnni
brings to the poet's mind. bridges sometimes lead fr01n Yo kuts believe that the lanJ of
Tlte very nature of a bridge the reahn of mortals to the land the dead is reached by crossing
dictates its symbolic use. It is a of the dead, or to the abode of a stream by way of a shaking
structw·e that joins two the gods. Zoroastrian tnyth tells bridge that the living cmmot
At the Edge 7 No.1 March 1996
Drawings by David Taylor
locked in a staletnate with US
troops. The structw·e is rebuilt
every day, and destroyed at
night; its Atnerican defenclers
tnove and act as if they are
already dead. The wh�le scene
is spectral and eerie, itnbuecJ
with a depressing sense of
futility and fatalism that neatly
use [4]. In the same vein are the land Odainsakr of Eiriks Saga encapsulates the war in
sword-bridge that features in a Vioforla is reached via a stone Vietnatn, and also suggests the
nwnber of Arthurian romances, bridge [10). The most famous timelessness that is a property
and the pont oil nul ne passe bridge in Norse myth is Bifrost, of all liminal places. The
described in a continuation of the 'trembling way' that is w1doing of the day's labour at
Chretien de Troyes' Perceval. popularly identified with the night-time is a common tnotif in
The last is only half a bridge, but rainbow. Bifrost stretches from folklore; and appropriately
when the hero reaches the Miogaror to Asgaror, terminating enough, the notion of
tniddle it swings about so that the at Himinbjorg, the home of its repetitive, futile labour is often
end that formerly rested on one watchn1an Heimdallr [11]. represented tnetaphorically as
side now leads to the other [5). Bridges, like all crossing 'painting the Forth Bridge' - the
The Arthurian bridges do not places, are dangerous. As routes worker completes a particularly
lead to the underworld, strictly across the body of water that laborious and titne-conswning
speaking, but to an otherworld of separates the Jiving from the task, then has to do it all over
sorts - deeper into the enchanted dead, or across the infernal again frotn the very beginning.
land of adventure. The road to abyss, these mythical bridges are Unlike the bridge of
the land of the dead is said to especially dangerous: the soul of Apocalypse Now, in which the
lead across a bridge in many the sinner caru1ot cross, and the enetny forces are as invisible as
other traditions. The Semang of bridge distinguishes between the ghosts, that of A Bridge Too Far
Malaysia have a bridge called . righteous and the damned. (directed by Richard
Balan Bacham that reaches Earthly bridges are fixed Attenborough, 1977), based on
across the sea to the magical structures, but these are narrow the book by Cornelius R yan,
island of Belet; also in Malaysia, or broad, as occasion den1ands, which tells the story of the
thP Sakai tell of a bridge named or are endowed with an apparent Allied defeat at Arnhen1 in
1\llenteg that spans a cauldron of structural unsoundness that 1944, is a straightforward
boiling water, into which the allows only the morally resolute sytnbol of the cotntnon grow1cl
wickecJ fall [6). For the Moso of to tnake the crossing in safety. that both links and divides thP
southwest China, the otherworld Sometimes, the danger is there c01nbatants. In the filnl of
is reached by a bridge blockaded for all, and for the righteous the Thornton Wilder's novel The
by den1ons [7). bridge is a final test. Invariably, Bridge At San Luis Rey
The Norse myth of Baldr's the bridge leads to a kind of (Rowland V. Lee, 1944), the
death tells of Herm6or's ride to paradise or to an w1derworld that tenuous links between five verv
the land of Hel on Odin's steed will not tolerate the presence of different people are sytnbolised
Sleipnir; on the way he crosses the bad, who fall from it into a by the Peruvian rope-bridge
the Gjallar brU., the gold-roofed place of dissolution or that collapses beneath thetn. A
·echoing bridge' over the river punishment. Gennan film, The Bridge
Gjoll. Saxo Gramtnaticus gives The association of bridges with (Bernhard Wicki, 1959), uses
the story of Hadingus, who is death and testing persists into the the bridge as a tnetaphor for
taken on a journey to the present day. It is a sytnbolic state the transition from childhoocJ to
wu.Jerworld by a tnysterious that has been used to good effect adulthood, when only a group
wonwn; on the road they cross a in the cinetna. Francis Ford of 1 &year-old boys are left to
bridge over a river strewn with Coppola's Apocalypse Now defend a town frotn the Allied
weapons [8). Saxo also tells of a (1979), while largely based on forces in 1945.
river that separates the world of Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of More cotnplex is DavicJ
men frotn a supernatural realm Darkness, often departs into Lean's fmnous 1957 adaptation
inhabited by tnonsters, sparmed mythological territory. One of Pierre Boulle's novel The
by a golden bridge forbidden to spectacular scene is set at a Bridge on the River Kw ai, in
travellers [9); and the paradisal bridge where the Viet Cong are which British prisoners of war
At the Edge 8 No.1 March 1996