nr 10 ss. 155–166 2020
ISSN 2083-5485 https://doi.org/10.34858/polilog.10.2020.325 © Copyright by Institute of Modern Languages of the Pomeranian University in Słupsk
Original research paper Received: 12.01.2020
Accepted: 12.05.2020
THE INTERPLAY OF TIME AND SPACE IN WALTER MAP’S
OTHERWORLDLY STORIES
Idalia Smoczyk-Jackowiak ORCID: 0000-0002-1483-0588
Pomeranian University in Słupsk Słupsk, Poland
idalia.smoczyk@apsl.edu.pl
Key words: time, space, courtier clerics, underworld, Herla
‘Augustine says: “In time I am and of time I speak, and what time is I know not.” With like wonderment I may say that in the court I am and of the court I speak, and what it is I understand not.’1 Walter Map, the 12th century cleric courtier, attached to the court of Henry II Plantagenet, makes this remark in the fi fth distinction of his work
De Nugis Curialium. What he achieves, is an interesting blend of ideas which could
serve as an underlying motif of the whole book. By referring to St Augustine of Hip-po and his considerations about the nature of time, he sets his text in the intellectual tradition of late antiquity. What is more, he associates time with court, and later in the same passage he compares court to Hell, which he regards as a penal place.2 In eff ect,
time and place seem to be inseparable, they merge into one powerful image of Hell,
which is both, an abstraction, and a place existing beyond linear historical time. Thus, it appears that at the heart of De Nugis Curialium, which numerous critics perceive primarily as a loose collection of anecdotes or court satire [Hinton 1917: 81–132; Brooke, Mynors 2002: xlii, xlv, xxx, xxxix; Rigg 1992: 92f.; Echard 2001: 93–108], there are serious epistemological questions. How to know time, how to know space in which one is imprisoned? How to know the object, or how to defi ne it, being deprived of the possibility of getting an outer perspective? One of the anecdotes included in De
Nugis seems to illustrate several issues relating to those questions. The story of Herla, 1 Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium, 499–501: “Augustinus ait: ‘In tempore sum et de tempore
loquor, et nescio quid sit tempus.’”
2 Walter Map, De Nugis, 500, 501: “Hell, they say, is a place of punishment. … So too the Court
the king of ancient Britons, who takes his journey to a fairyland and returns to earth as a ghostly leader of a phantom troop, focuses on one of central ideas of the book, that is on the preoccupation with the fl ow of time and especially with the British past deeply rooted in the insular landscape.3
Synopsis
The tale Of King Herla (De Herla rege), included in the fi rst distinction of the De
Nugis Curialium, opens with a reference to the Angevin court: “One court and one
only do stories tell of that is like our own.”4 This short remark serves as a link, con-necting a long sequence of sections comparing the restless, chaotic life at Henrician court to Hell, with the narrative about Herla, the king of ancient Britons. The story is set in the distant past, in Herefordshire in West Midlands. One day king Herla is visited by a pygmy king mounted on a large goat and claiming to be the king of many kings and princes and of innumerable people. He appears to possess foreknowledge and informs Herla that the king of the Franks decided to off er him his daughter in marriage and had already sent his ambassadors. The pygmy tricks Herla into an agree-ment, promising to attend Herla’s wedding, if the king of Britons attends his in a year time. Having uttered these words, he suddenly disappears. When Herla, “struck with wonder,” returns home, the ambassadors are already awaiting him. The wedding day fi nally comes. The pygmy king keeps his promise and appears swiftly with a “vast crowd of similar beings.” They set up their own pavilions and move around carrying vessels of “precious stone” and plates of gold and jewels fi lled with food and drink. They are wearing splendid attire and jewels which “made them shine like burning lights.” When the wedding fi nishes, the pygmy king reminds Herla about their agree-ment and disappears with his people before dawn. After a year, he suddenly appears again and makes Herla fulfi ll the agreement. The king of Britons, having equipped himself and his people with appropriate provisions, follows him and they fi nally reach a cave in a high cliff which they enter. It is dark inside, but after the interval of dark-ness they see a light from innumerable lamps, showing them the way to the mansion
3 The tale of Herla appears twice in the De Nugis Curialium: fi rst, almost at the beginning of
the book, in the fi rst distinction [i.11] and then, much later in the text, in the fourth distinction [iv.13]. The fi rst narrative is longer and more developed, while the second version is shorter and focuses on the host’s disappearance. Editors of the De Nugis Curialium, C.N.L. Brooke and R.A.B. Mynors proved that the original arrangement of the text was strikingly diff erent from that which we have today, with the Distinctions 3, 4 and 5 preceding Distinctions 1 and 2. At a certain point Walter Map changed the conception of the whole work, “arranging the material into approximately its present order” [Map 2002: xxx]. Schwieterman observes that this fact is suffi cient to prove that the shorter narrative was fi rst composed, whereas the longer one was added later, after the process of revision and creative reworking of the original material [Schwi-eterman 2010: 6]. Therefore, it should be suffi cient to base this analysis on the longer version of the tale in i.11, complementing it where necessary with references to the shorter text [iv, 13].
4 Walter Map, De Nugis, 26, 27: “Unam tamen et solam huic nostre curie simile fuisse fabule
of the pygmy. After the wedding is celebrated, Herla departs “laden with gifts and presents of horses, dogs, hawks and every appliance of the best for hunting or fowl-ing.” The pygmy presents the king with a small bloodhound and warns him that on no account must he or any member of his party dismount until that dog leaps to the ground. Soon Herla arrives back at his kingdom, enjoying full sunlight and the beauty of his native land, but when he asks an old shepherd about his Queen, the man opens his eyes in amazement and says:
Sir, I can hardly understand your speech, for you are a Briton and I a Saxon, but the name of that Queen I have never heard, save that they say that long ago there was a Queen of that name over the very ancient Britons, who was the wife of King Herla; and he, the old story says, disappeared in company with a pygmy at this very cliff , and was never seen on earth again, and it is now two hundred years since the Saxons took possession of this kingdom, and drove out the old inhabitants.
On hearing that, some of the company dismount, but the moment they touch the ground, they fall into dust. Herla, with the bloodhound on his lap, continues his wan-derings, “without stop or stay” until one day, in the fi rst year of the coronation of king Henry II, he plunges with his band into the river Wye in Hereford, never to be seen again. The story fi nishes with a bitter remark that Herla and his crew transmitted their hectic wanderings to king Henry Plantagenet and his court, who are now, like Herla, forced to wander “without stop or stay” on horseback.
The story of Herla, although seemingly simple in structure and content, illustrates various complexities embedded in the process of recording history. It draws attention to one of characteristic features of English medieval historical writing, namely to its emphasis on the spatial component in history. This feature was noticed by Sir Richard Southern, who described English historiography as “anchored in the countryside,” and focused on the local and the regional [Southern 1973: 256] . In the 12th century most of historical writing was still done in monasteries and in eff ect the perspective of scribes was usually narrowed to their local interests. Antonia Gransden, in her essay
Realistic Observation in Twelfth-Century England, further elaborates on this topic,
referring to works of “humanists” of that period, such as Walter Map, Gerald of Wales, or Ralph of Diceto. She proves that twelfth century writers show a new delight in de-scribing the world around them. Encouraged by the study of the classics, they describe local “antiquities”, such as archeological remains of Roman Britain, and express their interest in the topography of towns, cities and English countryside [Gransden 1972: 29–51]. The importance of topographical detail and its ethical function was pointed out by Erich Auerbach in his discussion of mimesis in Arthurian romance [Auerbach 1974: 128–131]. Finally, this overview would not be complete without mentioning the name of Michail Bakhtin and his defi nition of the “chronotope” in literature as the in-terrelation between time and space, with both elements of equal importance [Bakhtin 1981: 84–258]. If we adopt this concept to historical writing, it appears that its spatial element takes on new signifi cance and cannot be disregarded. In this context Monika Otter reminds the name of the 12th century leading theologian, Hugh of Saint Victor
(c. 1096–1141), who identifi es “three major circumstances of history”: place, time and persons, out of which place seems to be the most durable component, unchangeable over time [Otter 1996: 4]. These three categories and the interaction between them seem to be particularly useful in the discussion of Walter Map’s narrative.
Geographical detail in the tale Of King Herla appears to be as signifi cant as its tem-poral component. At the beginning, the story is set in the area governed by the ancient Britons, probably not far from Hereford. At the end, the geographical setting is more specifi c, as Herla’s band plunge into the river Wye, which is referred to as “the river of Hereford.”5 Thus, it can be safely assumed that the plot of the story takes place in what in the twelfth century was the border territory between England and Wales, or “in the march of Wales and Hereford,”6 as it is referred to in the text. It seems that placing the plot in that location was by no means accidental. That region was particularly close to Walter Map himself, who was Welsh-Norman by descent and who spent most of his life in the Welsh Marches.7 He was born there and in 1199 he was a candidate for the bishopric of Hereford, but eventually he was not nominated [Rigg 1992: 88; Brooke, Mynors 2002: xviii–ix]. Walter’s attachment to the Welsh Marches is refl ected in the content of his book. The most of Distinction 2 of the De Nugis Curialium is devoted to Wales, to Welsh customs, legends and heroes, but the writer’s preoccupation with Welsh history and folklore can be detected also in other anecdotes scattered across the book, the tale of Herla being one of the most interesting examples.
Setting this tale in the vicinity of Hereford and imbuing the text with a wealth of topographical information is in tune with Sir Southern’s assessment of English historiography and Antonia Gransden’s observations about twelfth century writing. Indeed, this narrative is “anchored” in well-defi ned locality and this fact seems to tie this text to outside reality. History is supposed to record facts and therefore its refer-ential function is one of its most important traits. Credibility of historical texts rests upon this feature.
At this point, however, it appears that our sense of stability of topography is chal-lenged. Its reassuring function is undermined, as Herla and his men follow the pygmy king to the side of a cliff , and enter the subterranean, supernatural realm isolated from the world of humans and under normal conditions inaccessible for them. It is a fairyland from Celtic folklore similar in many aspects to the underground kingdom described by Walter Map’s friend, Gerald of Wales, in his work Itinerarium Kambriae [Gerald of Wales 1868: 75–77; 1978: 133–136]. Separation of this realm from the ordinary world is emphasized by the “interval of darkness”8 which surrounds it. In fact, the place is totally devoid of any natural source of light and the mansion of the pygmy is illuminated only with lamps. Artifi cial light from “a multitude of lamps”9
5 Walter Map, De Nugis [i, 12], 30, 31: “Waiam Herefordie fl umen.”
6 Walter Map, De Nugis [iv, 13], 370, 371: “in marchia Walliarum et Herefordie.”
7 Walter Map, [ii, 23], 194, 195: “[I] am a dweller on the marches of Wales”; “marchio sum
Walensibus.”
8 Walter Map, [i, 11], 28, 29: “aliquantas tenebras.” 9 Walter Map, 28, 29: “lampadarum multarum.”
serves to show the wealth and splendor of that kingdom, but, on the other hand, it points to its otherworldly and uncanny character. Since there is no place for the Sun, which in Christian typology stands for Christ, or “the light of the world” [Jn 8:12],10 and “the light [which] shines in the darkness” [Jn 1: 5], it seems that Herla is led to a pre-Christian or anti-Christian world which might or might not be a dev-ilish territory. Jean-Claude Schmitt argues that the underworld King Herla entered was the abode of the dead, the hereafter, with the pygmy as the king of the dead [Schmitt 1998: 111]. Such an interpretation cannot be excluded, since after entering into a pact with the pygmy and the subsequent descent into the underworld, Herla is transformed into a phantom leader of a ghostly company of wanderers always on the verge of dissipating into dust.
Although the real sun with its life-giving warmth and brightness is absent from that subterranean, mysterious kingdom, one cannot forget about the textual refer-ence to the magnifi cent palace of the Sun from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, to which the pygmy’s mansion is compared [Ovid 2008: 1–30].11 This link leads us to another feature of that place, namely its richness and unimaginable splendor, associated with the fi nery of workmanship of the best artists and craftsmen of Antiquity. That fantastic realm could be identifi ed as locus amoenus, a delightful land of plenty and immense riches [Curtius 1953: 183–202]. The pygmies, while on Herla’s wedding, bring vessels of precious stone, plates of gold and jewels, and lavish most exquisite food and drink on the guests. The wealth of the pygmy king is demonstrated also by the number and quality of gifts he presents to Herla after his own wedding is cele-brated. The king of ancient Britons is literally “laden with gifts and presents”12 and he is not at ease riding his horse because one of hunting dogs is seated on his lap.13
The otherness of that realm and its fantastic quality stands in contrast with its proximity to the real world. When Herla decides to return home, only “a short space”14 separates him from his kingdom and from “the light of the sun.”15 Once again he can see the familiar landmarks: the cliff with the cave and the River Wye. In eff ect, there is a pervasive feeling that those two worlds exist side-by-side, although the supernatural one is isolated and inaccessible. What is more, it seems that not only do those realities coexist, but also converge, up to the point when they become one.
Thus, the spatial component of the narrative seems to be brought to the fore-ground, occupying a privileged position in the text. The reason of adopting such a narrative strategy is explained by Monika Otter, who interprets a series of
un-10 The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by
Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers [Jn 8: 12].
11 Walter Map [i, 11], 28, 29: “This was as comely in every part as the palace of the Sun described
by Naso;” [“mansionem quidem honestam per omnia qualem Naso regiam describit Solis.”
12 Walter Map, 28, 29: “recedit Herla muneribus onustus et xenniis…”
13 The abundance of the pygmy’s kingdom brings to mind similar descriptions of a Celtic fairyland
by other university-educated clerics like Gerald of Wales or William of Malmesbury [William of Malmesbury 1968: 176–181].
14 Walter Map, 28, 29: “modicum.” 15 Map, 28, 29: “in lumine solis.”
derground episodes included in English historical writing of the twelfth century as a method of exploring the British past. She argues convincingly that the under-ground explorer is a stand-in for the historian, who “unearths” the past world and undertakes a complicated process of historical transmission. In her opinion, layers of soil are synonymous with the layers of time which separate a historian from the object of his research [Otter 1996: 4–6]. According to such an interpretation, recording history resembles excavation works, when the archeologist digs up and exposes remains of the world which is irrevocably lost. Massimo Oldoni draws at-tention to another characteristics of the underground reality when he notices that it is a frozen world which does not change [Oldoni 1980: 604]. This remark is in tune with Otter’s observation that the underground explorer fi nds the past world whole and intact, as if the fl ow of time and its destructive infl uence had no power over it [Otter 1996: 108–10]. If we follow that train of thought, it appears that in this way the spatial element of history which Hugh of St Victor singled out, becomes con-ceptualized, as it is turned into a visual representation of time. In eff ect, space takes both, the historian and his readers, backwards in time. Time and space overlap and become indistinguishable.
Walter Map, by reading in the landscape adopts a very old topos of liber
mun-di, or the book of nature [Curtius 1953: 319–326], as a principle organizing and
structuring his narrative. English countryside and specifi c locations constituting it are allegorized and acquire a metaphoric meaning. Space becomes a metaphor of historical time and in Walter Map’s work it signifi es his nostalgia for pastness. In fact, one of the main themes of the De Nugis Curialium is the diffi culty of living in
nostra modernitas. Map complains about being a modernus in the world, in which
only the ancients are appreciated and the moderns are looked upon with disdain: My only fault is this, that I am alive, but I have no intention of amending it by my death […]. All ages have been displeased with their own modernity, and every age since the fi rst has preferred the past to itself.16
Thus, Walter Map looks back at the history of his native land and projects his own vision of Celtic Britain. His presentation of the history of Britain rests to a huge extent on his own imagination, inspired by oral, Celtic folklore that he was so well acquaint-ed with. Walter Map seems to follow in the footsteps of Geoff rey of Monmouth and his highly imaginative The History of the Kings of Britain. Both writers attempt to fi ll in the gap in British history in a creative and original way. In eff ect, local landmarks mentioned in the narrative refer the reader more to the topography of the mind, or to the geography of imagination than to real places. Map imagines the kingdom of “most ancient Britons”17 and their noble ruler, Herla, who visits the fairy king. Map’s vision abounds in elements taken from Celtic folklore. The small stature of the
pyg-16 Walter Map, De Nugis [iv,5]: 312, 313: “Hoc solum deliqui, quod vivo. Verumptamen hoc morte
mea corrigere consilium non habeo.” See also: [i,2], [iii,3] and [v,1].
my king and his folk,18 his foreknowledge of future events,19 attaching importance to agreements and promise-keeping,20 sudden, mysterious departure,21 as well as the underground realm characterized by the otherworldly passage of time and darkness,22 they all point to traditional Celtic motifs [Wood 1985: 93–94].23 The set of allusions to Welsh folklore is complemented by almost symmetrical references to classical tra-dition, the emblem of Walter Map’s Latin training. The pygmy king is compared to the classical demigod Pan. In fact, his “fi ery red” face, huge head, “long, red beard reaching to his chest” and legs declining “into goats’ hoofs” [Map 2002: 26–27] place him closer to classical deities than to insular traditions [Newstead 1970: 105–106; Schwieterman 2010: 23–25]. As a result, what we get is a literary projection of the past by the learned cleric of the 12th century, in which his Latin training intermingles with his Welsh descent.
King Herla and his people can be categorized as the human element in history according to the classifi cation of Hugh of Saint Victor. According to Schwieterman, it appears that within the text a set of symmetries is built up between the supposedly historical fi gure of Herla and the pygmy king [Schwieterman 2010: 27]. The king of Britons enjoys a glowing reputation, which places him above other monarchs of his time. Both kings are “closely connected […] in place and descent,”24 as well as in the renown they glory in. Thus, at the very outset of the narrative, the reader is informed about family ties connecting both monarchs. Another parallel between the two rulers concerns their wedding ceremonies: the pygmy gets married exactly one year after Herla celebrates his own marriage. Each of them participates in the other’s wedding feast, bringing splendid gifts and a lavish provision of food. Finally, by the end of the story, they seem to merge into one and Herla acquires the supernatural, uncanny peculiarity of the fairy king. His body remains unchanged despite the passage of time as if he existed outside the temporal dimension of life. Finally, he suddenly disappears and vanishes from the surface of earth, just like the fairy king who swiftly “vanishes from view.”25
The fi gure of Herla serves as a link between the two worlds and as a force bridging temporal and spatial distances. Thanks to him access to the otherwise inaccessible
18 Small fairies appear also the story of Eliodorus by Gerald of Wales, where they are referred to
as “pygmaei” [Gerald of Wales 1868: 76].
19 See also [Marie de France 2003], especially The Lay of Gugemar [3–23], and The Lay of Sir
Launfal [61–76].
20 See also [Marie de France 2003], especially The Lay of Sir Launfal; and [Map 2002], especially:
Of Illusory Apparitions [150–151] and Again of Such Apparitions [156–159].
21 Walter Map, 150–151; 156–159.
22 See also: Gerald of Wales’s story of Elidorus in Itinerium Kambriae [75]; Marie de France’s
The Lay of Yonec in Medieval Lays and Legends of Marie de France [125–136]; or William of
Newburg’s story about the green children in The History of English Aff airs, Book I [116–117].
23 Jullitte Wood believes that the amount of Welsh folklore material, most probably taken from oral
tradition, makes Walter Map “a tradition bearer.”
24 Walter Map, “loco mihi proximus et sanguine.” 25 “se rapuit ab oculis eius.”
realm of the past is made possible. The motif of his quest is used as the unifying principle which joins all elements of the story into a coherent whole. Herla under-takes a journey to the underworld, which could be either the abode of the dead, or a Celtic fairyland. His high social status and spotless reputation single him out as a man worthy of such an adventure. Entering the cave, he descends underground and simultaneously travels back in time to ancient Celtic Britain, to the world of beauty, refi nement and abundance, in which the king of Britons can be related to the most distinguished monarchs of the time and to a part-fairy, part-demigod king. In eff ect, during his adventure not only spatial, but also temporal relationships are violated. One can observe sharp contrast between real time and time of adventure, as in both reali-ties time fl ows diff erently. In the otherworld, Herla falls out of the normal course of time, as three days in the pygmy’s kingdom appear to be over two hundred years in the world above. When he fi nally returns home, he is forced to continue his travel, which changes into endless roaming and search without apparent purpose or direction. If he had been granted access to the afterworld, it would mean that he became a phantom himself, and came back to earth as the leader of the ghostly Wild Hunt,26 a company of restless spirits of the dead haunting English and Welsh countryside. If we adopted that interpretation, Herla’s destination would be to fall into dust and disappear forever. It seems however, that Herla’s journey has a greater interpretative potential. In fact, the place he visited appears to be “the frozen world” of the Celtic past, with its myths, legends and rich folklore: driven underground by subsequent invasions, yet still existing beyond time, in common consciousness and in longings of Welsh inhab-itants of the fringes of the Angevin Empire. The king of ancient Britons, though trans-formed into a phantom, provides a sense of continuity with the English past. Within two hundred years which passed since Herla’s disappearance, the Britons who used to occupy almost the whole island, were driven away by the Anglo-Saxon invaders, rep-resented in the story by the fi gure of the old Saxon shepherd. The Anglo-Saxons were then subjugated by the Normans, who began their conquest of Britain with the battle of Hastings in 1066, causing another brutal break in English tradition. Relative stabil-ity of life under the Norman rule was shaken again during the reign of king Stephen which brought about a violent civil war with the forces of Empress Matilda. Herla re-appears in Herefordshire as late as in 1154, that is in the fi rst year of the coronation of Henry II Plantagenet from the new, Angevin dynasty. His return may signify the con-tinuation of broken tradition, and linking the pre-Saxon past with the Angevin present. Throughout British history, fraught with dangers, political upheavals and migrations
26 The Wild Hunt was a popular folklore motif well known in medieval northern and western
Europe. The fi rst written record of the Hunt comes from Orderic Vitalis’s (1075–1142) tale of Walechin, recorded in his Ecclessiastical History, under the year 1091 [Orderic Vitalis 1973: 236–251, esp. 242]. Orderic calls the ghostly troop the familia Herlechini. Another account of the nocturnal procession of ghostly black hunters appears in The Peterborough Chronicle, under the year 1127. [The Peterborough Chronicle: 1070–1154, 1970: 50]. Walter Map’s tale of the wanderings of the familia Herlethingi appears in De Nugis Curialium [pp. 370–373]. Finally, the same motif, but this time with King Arthur as the leader of the Hunt, is recorded by Gervase of Tilbury in Otia Imperialia [Gervase of Tilbury 2002: 336–337].
of peoples, only royalty ensured a sense of stability. King Herla, accompanied by his royal household, visits the court of the pygmy king, and then plunges into the river Wye after Henry II’s succession to the English throne. The people, the Welsh, the English or the Anglo-Normans, who experienced the pervasive sense of displacement and the need to adapt to new political and cultural conditions, may fi nd reassurance and security in the institution of kingship and its courtly entourage. In this way they may try to cope with chaos and restlessness of their lives and search stability in the instability which encroaches upon them.
Choosing the imaginary king of the ancient Britons for the main protagonist of his tale may be a conscious strategy adopted by Walter Map, the university-educated cleric and active member of the Plantagenet court. Belonging to the closest milieu of Henry II, he realized his policy of providing cultural and historical legitimation of the Angevin rule. As Martin Aurell observes, Plantagenet kings were using lit-erary patronage for propaganda purposes [Aurell 2007: 365–394]. They supported poets and historians who were inspired by the matter of Britain, and especially by the Arthurian legend. In eff ect, by the end of the 12th century, the image of king Ar-thur was transformed and depoliticized. He was no longer perceived as a strong re-sistance leader who was to return one day from the Underground to fi ght against the Normans, but on the contrary, as the noble ancestor of the Plantagenets, in whose glory they could share.
Both, Schmitt and Schwieterman argue that Walter Map, a loyal courtier of Hen-ry II, was careful to defend and support the new Angevin dynasty against any attempts of questioning its authority [Schmitt 1984: 503–504; Schwieterman 2010: 28–31]. They see a clear connection between the legend of king Herla and the legend of king Arthur. The tale of Herla was supposed to serve a double purpose: fi rst of all, to ground the Plantagenet king fi rmly in British history by stressing his connection with the British antiquity, and secondly to eliminate the subversive potential of the Arthu-rian legend. Herla seems to be a parody of king Arthur, as he is no longer a valiant king returning from the Underground with his armed men ready for battle, but an ephemeral ghost, coming back from a wedding feast, prepared for hunting, with his people dissipating the moment they touch the ground. Discarding Walter’s irony, one fact is obvious: it is Henry II that Herla recognizes as his successor. Thus, the Angevin dynasty is to continue that journey throughout British history, across centuries and generations. Walter Map is very straightforward when he comments on the scene of king Herla’s fi nal disappearance: “From that hour the phantom journeying has ceased as if they had transmitted their wanderings to us, and betaken themselves to repose.”27 In the shorter version of the story he is even more explicit:
From that day that troop was nowhere to be seen; they seem to have handed over their wanderings to us poor fools […]. We rush on at a furious pace; the present we treat with negligence and folly, the future we entrust to chance; and since we are knowingly and
27 Walter Map, De Nugis [i,12], 30f: “Quieuit autem ab illa hora fantasticus ille circuitus, tanquam
with open eyes always wending to our destruction, wandering timid waifs, we are more than any man lost and depressed.28
The mood of overpowering sadness, images of “sick souls” and “sorrowful hearts” of courtiers who are losing energy on aimless wanderings, brings us back to the image of hell to which the Angevin court is compared at the very beginning of the book. In this aspect, the royal court shares with the darkness of the Underground Herla visited. The courtiers who are “borne on in mad course” resemble restless spirits of the dead from “the nocturnal companies and squadrons” of the Wild Hunt, or the “household of Herlethingus,”29 as Herla’s party is called in the shorter version of the tale.
To sum up, the royal court, which serves as a bridge across generations and pro-vides continuity throughout times of unrest, is anchored in the past. By providing a system of links and affi liations between the milieu of Henry II and British antiquity, Walter Map expresses his yearning for the dignity of antiquitas. In eff ect, the splendor of the dead monarchs from the distant British past penetrates to nostra modernitas of the late 12th century. Modernity acquires the appeal and allure of antiquity. The dead fi nd their way to travel in time, through English countryside, to tell their story. They tread Welsh and English roads and roadless tracts as carriers of the past, endangered tradition. Through them, history, concealed in local landscape, is salvaged from obliv-ion and preserved for posterity.
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Summary
The Interplay of Time and Space in Walter Map’s Otherworldly Stories
The purpose of this paper is to prove that in Walter Map’s “otherworldly stories” constant interaction between time and space is used to convey a signifi cant cultural and political message. In the tale Of King Herla, a legendary ruler of ancient Britons, geographical detail seems to be as important as its temporal component. The story, set in the border territory between England and Wales, in the vicinity of Hereford, is “anchored in the countryside,” showing that the English past is deeply rooted in the insular landscape. Herla’s three-day-journey to the underworld and his return to earth after two hundred years proves that in his quest he crossed both, spatial and temporal boundaries, in order to provide the people inhabiting the British Isles with a sense of cultural and historical continuity. Plunging into the river Wye in the fi rst year of the coronation of Henry II Plantagenet, he seems to recognize the new king as his legitimate successor and carrier of tradition broken throughout centuries by various conquests, social unrest and political change. Thus, Walter Map, belonging to the closest milieu of Henry II, uses the story of Herla to provide cultural and historical legitimation of the Angevin rule in England.
