The New Mythology of John Cowper Powys

John Cowper Powys was a great writer. And most certainly a very original one. In thought he was like an eagle winging high into the heavens and taking those who could follow him into strange and wonderful realms. I hope that I may catch for your benefit some of the gleam and glitter from his wings.

I shall begin with an incident from a novel published in 1932, A Glastonbury Romance. It is evident that in this novel Powys wished to present some of his fundamental ideas and I am going to use one small event among many to illustrate the way that Powys can clothe his thought in imagery and symbolism. He chose for this novel a spot in England soaked in mythology, superstition and legend. Glastonbury is not only the ancient seat of Christianity since the time that Joseph of Arimathea is reputed to have brought the Holy Grail to England, but it is also a centre of the stories which surround the half-historic, half-legendary King Arthur of the Round Table.

The incident I take from the novel is about a young man called Sam Dekker. He was the son of a Glastonbury parson and also an ardent naturalist. At the time of the event that I am going to tell you about he had been going through a very difficult period. He was caught in a painful dilemma to which he could not find a solution. Thinking it was his Christian duty to care for the poor and outcasts he had given up his own life of happiness and gone to live alone in the town, devoting himself to their welfare. In the misery of his doubt and indecision he went for a walk by the river Brue. It was night time and as he walked by the river’s edge he was aware of two emotions within him: one a profound and overwhelming sense of his own suffering, and the other, welling up in him, thrilling spasms of a quivering happiness. This joy seemed to be caused by the most unlikely objects as he found himself glancing casually at them. In this experience of containing within himself both these warring emotions at the same time, it seemed to him as if the flood of joy was overcoming and consuming the great banks of pain.

He continued to be acutely conscious of all that was around him. He felt himself to be an entity among all the rest as he was carried along on the ‘night journey of the voyaging planet’ He heard the river water as it gurgled and sucked near him, he heard a late

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