More fandom parallels

[regshoe]

...the tide which for a year had been carrying the Englishman, half ignorant, sometimes resisting, among unlooked-for reefs and breakers, away from the safe, the stagnant Dead Sea of his choice, had borne him to no unfitting anchorage...

—D. K. Broster, The Flight of the Heron

All quests end here, all voyagings, all ventures:
Is not my white breast haven to your sail?

—'The Wave's Song', quoted by D. K. Broster as the epigraph to Book Four of Sir Isumbras at the Ford, although I'm not sure of the original source (any ideas?)

We are drawn together because we are drawn. We are content to abide together just because we are content. We feel that we have reached a certain harbour, after much or little drifting, just because it is for that haven, after all, that we have been moving on and on; with all the irresistible pilotry of the wide ocean-wash friendly to us.

—Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum

:)

(hmm, there is also the title of the epilogue to Flight of the Heron, of course...)

Comments

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Oh, what a lovely post!! :D I am very partial to sea imagery, especially when it's used as metaphor for homecoming and stuff like that, and these are great examples of that.

You know, when I first read Tfoth, it reminded me of "Imre" at times. Mostly because Imre is not unlike Keith in some ways... but yes, I totally approve of these parallels! <3

And that epigraph from "Sir Isumbras" is my holy grail, haha, but I remain hopeful that one day the mystery will be solved!

[regshoe]

I am very partial to sea imagery

Really, theseatheseatheopensea? I'd never have guessed ;D Seriously, however, I agree—it is some lovely imagery. I like the sea imagery in ballads and folk songs too—I suppose the sea in ballads is often threatening and terrible ('Sir Patrick Spens', 'The Demon Lover'; or perhaps the refrain in 'De två systrarna', where the threatening weather on the sea is a constant repeating background to the horrible events of the ballad), but then there's stuff like the lovely my bonny moorhen has gane o'er the main... It's an adaptable source of descriptions!

Aww, yes, Imre is a bit like Keith—what a nice parallel.

And that epigraph from "Sir Isumbras" is my holy grail, haha, but I remain hopeful that one day the mystery will be solved!

Well, if even you can't find it then it must be very mysterious :D I hope the mystery is solved some day.

[sovay]

—'The Wave's Song', quoted by D. K. Broster as the epigraph to Book Four of Sir Isumbras at the Ford, although I'm not sure of the original source (any ideas?)

No; it's not her usual suspect of Browning, it's not Kipling or Stevenson, and it's so apropos that it makes me wonder slightly if she wrote it herself, although that doesn't seem to have been Broster's style. Generally speaking, she seems to have gone for the big guns. It is definitely not a Child ballad. If it's a translation (although it doesn't read like one), all bets are off. I think of the safe harbor of the lover's breast as one of the classic tropes. It even turns up in Sayers' "Veronica" (1920): "Have I not told you that my quiet breast / Is cooler than the sea?" I have used an inverted version of it myself.

[theseatheseatheopensea]

(reposting this because I f**** up the comment thread, sorry about that!)

"No; it's not her usual suspect of Browning, it's not Kipling or Stevenson, and it's so apropos that it makes me wonder slightly if she wrote it herself, although that doesn't seem to have been Broster's style. Generally speaking, she seems to have gone for the big guns. It is definitely not a Child ballad."

A Child ballad unfamiliar to me was my first thought, but nope! I'm also pretty sure it's not Shakespeare (another apparent favourite of hers), so it might be something super rare, or that has faded into obscurity, or not made it online. But if she wrote it herself, then that would be delightful, because that was very much Prime-Stevenson's style, and so it would add another parallel to this awesome post! :D

[sovay]

(reposting this because I f**** up the comment thread, sorry about that!)

No worries!

so it might be something super rare, or that has faded into obscurity, or not made it online.

I wondered about something recognizable to an audience of 1918 and dead obscure to an audience a century later, but it's still curious to me that she doesn't credit it. The one recurring author of hers I wouldn't have the capacity to identify is Hebert Trench, but she names him in the other two novels—Almond, Wild Almond and The Wounded Name—in which I've seen him quoted. Everything else in Sir Isumbras at the Ford is balladry, so it would make a certain sense if "The Wave's Song" were something in the folk tradition, but it's just the wrong style.

But if she wrote it herself, then that would be delightful, because that was very much Prime-Stevenson's style, and so it would add another parallel to this awesome post!

Does anyone in this circle have access to her poetry? I saw the existence of the one posthumously published volume, but also that it doesn't seem to be available online.

[theseatheseatheopensea]

It's a a bit of a mystery, isn't it? I'll definitely keep on searching! :D

I am *so* curious about that posthumous poetry collection (I think it was privately published by her friend/housemate Gertrude Schlich?!) Some of the poetry DKB published during her lifetime can be found online, and I've included it in this list (along with a bunch of other interesting things!) If you ever happen to run into something that isn't there, please let me know, and I'll add it!

[regshoe]

if she wrote it herself, then that would be delightful, because that was very much Prime-Stevenson's style, and so it would add another parallel to this awesome post! :D

Hee, I was just thinking that quoting herself in the epigraph without saying so is just the sort of thing EPS would do! (I've started reading the stories in Her Enemy, Some Friends..., and I was delighted to see the 'Xavier Mayne' epigraphs from Imre :D )

[theseatheseatheopensea]

It would be so cool to find out that Broster wrote it herself--she could be funny and snarky and troll readers, so it's possible, I guess? I hope we find out one day!

Yay! I hope you are enjoying the stories! I'm really looking forward to your review! :D Our friend Xavier pops up in some of them, as well as in the epigraphs, and so does another sort of pseud... no spoilers, but it's very funny, and another example of trolling the readers! XD

[regshoe]

I couldn't find anything when searching for the title or the text, but it being Broster's own translation from another language is a very plausible potential explanation for that—or her writing it herself, hmm... Her epigraphs often seem to be formatted with fairly minimal information, which is all very well for the famous stuff but makes more obscure things difficult to find—I remember I had no idea about the 'heron's flight' epigraph to FotH until theseatheseatheopensea found it, and that one is actually on the internet!