Above, a hymn much better known in England than on this side of the pond (though I doubt it’s sung much in schools there anymore), “Jerusalem,” a musical setting of William Blake’s poem. It’s been called England’s second national anthem.
It’s based on the legend (how ancient the legend is seems uncertain) that claims that the first Christian in Britain was none other than Joseph of Arimathea, the character from the gospels who gave up his tomb for Christ’s burial. According to the legend, Joseph was involved in the tin trade, with connections in Britain. Supposedly he was also Jesus’s uncle, and took Him along on one of his business trips to the barbarian island. Later, after the resurrection, he is supposed to have gone there as a missionary, founded the church at Glastonbury, and thrust his staff into the earth, where it budded to become the famous Glastonbury Thorn (which was, according to my reading, in fact a Middle Eastern variety of tree). We Protestants cut it down during the Reformation, but cuttings have been taken, and some survive.
(Another legend, by the way, says Aristobulus, St. Paul’s associate mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans, was the first missionary to Britain.)
I’m studying Glastonbury right now, because it will play a part in my Haakon the Good book. It’s a matter of record that King Athelstan raised a number of foreign princes at his court; this is one of the facts that make the story of Haakon’s fosterage with Athelstan plausible.
And Athelstan was a strong patron of Glastonbury Abbey, promoting it as a center of learning. Among the clerics educated there was the famous St. Dunstan – whom I intend to incorporate into the story.
I also had a strange, stray thought this morning, which I managed to snag with my little metaphorical net before it flew away. I thought of a way to suggest that a character is an angel, without actually saying he is an angel. I think it’s kind of clever, though it will probably pass over most readers’ heads.
Now I’ll have to figure out a place for an angel in the story.
We sing this one in our church regularly, and it’s on the soundtrack for “Chariots of Fire,” naturally.
It was sung as a hymn at the wedding of the current prince and princess of Wales
Good to hear.
What you say about a Glastonbury angle for your novel-in-the-works is intriguing for sure. It’s a source of satisfaction to me that my birthday is the day of the commemoration of St. Joseph of Arimathea, given the way his legend connects with Arthuriana, so attractive to my imagination.
Enjoying Mandell Creighton’s History of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome (Book II, chapter VII, in the “New Edition in Six Volumes”, Volume II, 1909) I was struck by his noting the confident assertion by the English at the Council of Constance on 30 March 1417 that England was converted by Joseph of Arimathea while France was merely converted by Dionysius the Areopagite!