Norfolk Pilgrim

Once, long ago, many would come on this feast day to St. Mary, Hautbois . Today, there was just me and, if not a host, there was a least, "a scattering of golden daffodils, beneath the trees". I came and prayer and remembered using the Hail Mary of Raymond Lull And I am not sure that I was wandering lonely. I had, rather, strode manfully, through the village and along the disused railway line with plenty of time to ponder on the way. Thoughts about: predestination and the permanents way The primrose path that leads to the everlasting bonfire.  And about the Lamb of God

I was looking for clues to give me a better understanding of what I think of as "my Hautbois font-base." Detail from Hautbois font-base. Bingo! I think I got the chap!  He turns up on a grit stone tomb slab from beneath York Minster (YorkM: 1993.713) I imagine that it is on the basis of the next picture that the scene depicted is interpreted as slaying of the dragon Fafnir by Sigurd as recorded in the Volsunga Saga. At this alarm bells should ring!  The Volsunga Saga is late 13th C. The earliest German versions of the story, in which Sigurd is called Siegfried,  begin in 12th C!  A parallel story is told in the Anglo Saxon epic,  Beowulf -  a text that J.R.R. Tolkien argued must have come from the Conversion period, perhaps some date close to 700 C.E.. The York sculptures above are dated to the 10th C. Consequently they pre-date Scandinavian visual depictions of the story from 11th C onward by 100 years and the Volsunga Saga ...

It  is 9 years since I launched the Churches Together on the Broads web page to promote our heritage churches . By 2016 it had done its job and run its course.  Both  Norwich Diocese and Broads Tourism had taken up the baton Today I picked up the wonderful, new, Visit the Broads Pocket Guide The future looks good! Many thanks to everyone who has shared in the journey and has picked up the baton. I'll allow myself a glass of something tonight and drink your health! Tomorrow I'll crack on!  There's work to be done on  https://norfolksaintsway.wordpress.com/