The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, Amended and Enlarged Edition

First published in 1948 by Creative Age Press. First amended and enlarged Noonday paperback edition, 1966. Thirty-fourth printing, 1999. An enormously versatile and prolific writer, translator, and critic, Robert Graves considered himself primarily a poet. Nevertheless, he became best known for his unorthodox historical novels about Rome and for his studies of the mythological and psychological sources of poetry. "The White Goddess" is perhaps his finest and the most popular of these works. In this book Graves explores the stories behind the earliest of European deities, the White Goddess of Birth, Love, and Death, who was worshipped under countless titles. She was beautiful, fickle, wise, and implacable, and in one of her later forms she is known as the Ninefold Muse, patroness of the white magic of poetry. In this brilliant tapestry of poetic and religious scholarship, Graves uncovers the obscure and mysterious power of "pure poetry" and its peculiar, mythic language. Robert Graves (1895-1985), born in London, was one of the most talented, colorful, and prolific men of letters in the twentieth century. He is best known for his historical novels, "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God". He spent much of his life on the island of Majorca. The definitive edition of one of the more extraordinary and influential books of our time This labyrinthine and extraordinary book, first published more than sixty years ago, was the outcome of Robert Graves's vast reading and curious research into strange territories of folklore, mythology, religion, and magic. Erudite and impassioned, it is a scholar-poet's quest for the meaning of European myths, a polemic about the relations between man and woman, and also an intensely personal document in which Graves explores the sources of his own inspiration and, as he believed, all true poetry. Incorporating all of Graves's final revisions, his replies to two of the original reviewers, and an essay describing the months of illumination in which The White Goddess was written, this is the definitive edition of one of the most influential books of our time. FOREWORD 9 I. POETS AND GLEEMEN I7 II. THE BATTLE OF THE TREES 27 III. DOG, ROEBUCK AND LAPWING 49 IV. THE WHITE GODDESS 6l V. GWION’S RIDDLE 74 VI. A VISIT TO SPIRAL CASTLE 97 VII. GWION'S RIDDLE SOLVED 113 VIII. HERCULES ON THE LOTUS I23 IX. GWION'S HERESY 140 X. THE TREE-ALPHABET (1) 165 XI. THE TREE-ALPHABET (2) 189 XII. THE SONG OF AMERGIN 205 XIII. PALAMEDES AND THE CRANES 223 XIV. THE ROEBUCK IN THE THICKET 245 XV. THE SEVEN PILLARS 259 XVI. THE HOLY UNSPEAKABLE NAME OF GOD 272 XVII. THE LION WITH THE STEADY HAND 301 XVIII. THE BULL-FOOTED GOD 314 XIX. THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST 342 XX. A CONVERSATION AT PAPHOS — A.D. 43 349 XXI. THE WATERS OF THE STYX 364 XXII. THE TRIPLE MUSE 383 XXIII. FABULOUS BEASTS 409 XXIV. THE SINGLE POETIC THEME 422 XXV. WAR IN HEAVEN 442 XXVI. THE RETURN OF THE GODDESS 474 XXVII. POSTSCRIPT 1960 488 INDEX 493 Poets and gleemen The battle of the trees Dog, roebuck and lapwing The white goddess Gwion's riddle A visit to spiral castle Gwion's riddle solved Hercules on the lotus Gwion's heresy The tree-alphabet (1) The tree-alphabet (2) The song of Amergin Palamedes and the cranes The roebuck in the thicket The seven pillars The holy unspeakable name of god The lion with the steady hand The bull-footed god The number of the beast A conservation at Paphos A.D. 43 The waters of the styx The triple muse Fabulous beasts The single poetic theme War in heaven The return of the goddess Postscript 1960.

the White Goddess Is Perhaps The Finest Of Robert Graves's Works On The Psychological And Mythological Sources Of Poetry. In This Tapestry Of Poetic And Religious Scholarship, Graves Explores The Stories Behind The Earliest Of European Deities—the White Goddess Of Birth, Love, And Death—who Was Worshipped Under Countless Titles. He Also Uncovers The Obscure And Mysterious Power Of Pure Poetry And Its Peculiar And Mythic Language.

Examines the language of ancient Celtic and Mediterranean poetic myths, probing the role of the all-encompassing female figure, the White Goddess, in the earliest forms of poetry.