Badbury Rings
In April this year, I went to Badbury Rings - I have a deep fascination for pre-history - the term evokes for me lost civilizations, stone temples aligned with the stars - I imagine Dorset, covered with wild wood, the chalk ridgeways guarded by hill forts - men with tangled beards look down into valleys choked with oaks and alders - wild boar glare out from wild coils of brambles -
I enjoy looking at Ordnance Survey maps, seeing the sites of barrows, tumuli, mounds, dykes - influenced by my reading of The Old Straight Track, I try to plot the alignment of ley lines -
It took me an hour or so to drive to Badbury Rings - I listened to Weird of Hermiston in the red Peugeot - I could see the Rings from the car park - the concentric green ramparts enclosed a wood - I could see the gracious outlines of the trees - the ditches and ramparts were like deep ripples, or waves, in the turf -
I was suprised how steep the ramparts were, how sheer and smooth their slopes were - I walked all the way round the outer ring - I passed by a man in a waxed jacket, accompanied by his sleek labrador - apart from these two figures, I saw no one -
Inside the Rings, I walked through the tall trees - they were thinly spaced - sunlit glades were filled with long shining grass - one tree was lit up by white flowers upon its branches - they were like tiny white lights, pure and precious symbols -
Right in the centre of the rings, was a large metal disc, set upon a plinth - you could see inscribed upon it all aspects of the view around - Knowlton Church and Circles - Deanes Leaze - Melbury Hill -
Standing there, I looked up at the sky - there were no shapes in it to disconcert me - I thought of the people who had lived here - I wondered if they had ever lit wendfires - I could imagine the kings leaving their mounds, clasping their bronze swords -
I made my way back to the car park, scrambling through the trees - I slid down the banks of turf, faster and faster - I thought that any moment I might see figures dancing, or hear hoof beats upon the turf -
In April this year, I went to Badbury Rings - I have a deep fascination for pre-history - the term evokes for me lost civilizations, stone temples aligned with the stars - I imagine Dorset, covered with wild wood, the chalk ridgeways guarded by hill forts - men with tangled beards look down into valleys choked with oaks and alders - wild boar glare out from wild coils of brambles -
I enjoy looking at Ordnance Survey maps, seeing the sites of barrows, tumuli, mounds, dykes - influenced by my reading of The Old Straight Track, I try to plot the alignment of ley lines -
It took me an hour or so to drive to Badbury Rings - I listened to Weird of Hermiston in the red Peugeot - I could see the Rings from the car park - the concentric green ramparts enclosed a wood - I could see the gracious outlines of the trees - the ditches and ramparts were like deep ripples, or waves, in the turf -
I was suprised how steep the ramparts were, how sheer and smooth their slopes were - I walked all the way round the outer ring - I passed by a man in a waxed jacket, accompanied by his sleek labrador - apart from these two figures, I saw no one -
Inside the Rings, I walked through the tall trees - they were thinly spaced - sunlit glades were filled with long shining grass - one tree was lit up by white flowers upon its branches - they were like tiny white lights, pure and precious symbols -
Right in the centre of the rings, was a large metal disc, set upon a plinth - you could see inscribed upon it all aspects of the view around - Knowlton Church and Circles - Deanes Leaze - Melbury Hill -
Standing there, I looked up at the sky - there were no shapes in it to disconcert me - I thought of the people who had lived here - I wondered if they had ever lit wendfires - I could imagine the kings leaving their mounds, clasping their bronze swords -
I made my way back to the car park, scrambling through the trees - I slid down the banks of turf, faster and faster - I thought that any moment I might see figures dancing, or hear hoof beats upon the turf -
Have you read Red Shift or the Owl service, by Alan Garner? Of course you have! Maybe we live contemporaneously with our ancestors: if space-time is curved, isn't it possible, even likely, that we meet up with parts of our same universe in which only the time is different - if for example, space-time is like a Moebius Strip?
ReplyDeleteI promise you that I did not post this comment at 03.59 on Dec 29th, more like midday. At 0300 this morning I was watching the end of the Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - never intended to stay up but was completely gripped by it!
ReplyDeleteGreetings,
ReplyDeleteI am writing on behalf of my client, the novelist Sean Pidgeon, to ask your permission to use your still photo of Badbury Rings at http://whodoyoubray.blogspot.com/2012_12_01_archive.html (top full perspective image with wooden fence in foreground).
We would like to use your photo as part of a 44 minute web video to accompany the audio of Mr. Pidgeon's recent lecture on the Search for the Historical King Arthur at this year's Hay Book Festival at Hay-on-Wye, Wales. An mp3 podcast of the lecture is available for listening or downloading at the Hay Festival Archive at http://www.hayfestival.com/p-5966-sean-pidgeon.aspx.
Your photo would appear with accompanying attribution/credit and may be zoomed and/or panned at the producer's discretion. Your permission, should you grant it, would be limited to this specific use and distribution.
Mr. Pidgeon is the author of FINDING CAMLANN: A NOVEL, published earlier this year by W.W. Norton. You can read more about the author and the book on the author's website, http://www.seanpidgeon.com.
To grant your permission, please email me directly at chris [at] circlevmarketing [dot] com, if possible by Friday, 28 June, and feel free to mention any special requirements you may have for the use of your photo. You may also specify a preferred attribution to accompany the photo in our video (for example, ©2013 John Smith).
Thank you for your consideration.
Regards,
Christopher Verdesi
CircleV Marketing & Design
circlevmarketing.com