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"New Myths of the Feminine Divine"
THE DISCOVERY OF
THE VILLANELLE CHARGE
One of the most important of liturgical pieces in modern Pagan Witchcraft is the Charge of the Goddess. The most famous is the beautiful one written by Doreen Valiente; however, there are other versions. During this new milenium year of 2000, I received a version of the Charge that had been kept in an oral tradition. The origins of the piece are completely obscure.
When I read the piece, it struck me as quite poetical but a little bit “off.” The piece did not seem to end properly, and another section just bothered me, so I decided to see if I could write it out in lines to see if it might be a poem that had lost a little from being handed down orally. I did so, and then got out an old college text I have to see if it followed any known form of poem structure. To me it seemed the piece did. It seems to me to follow the villanelle form, except instead of finishing with a quatrain it ends with a couplet. Fascinated and excited, I naturally tried to trace the piece back through those who had memorized it to find if there was someone who knew the rest of it . I could not trace it back very far. The farthest I could get was a man who had memorized it and then when he wanted to teach it to a woman, he could not remember all of it. He was hypnotized, more being extracted from him in that way. The woman to whom he taught it sent it along to me, and she has given me the go ahead to go public with my discoveries since this version of the Charge is "already Out."
As a result of my investigation into the history of the villanelle, the history of modern Pagan Witchcraft, as well as my analysis of the piece which I received, I have come to a few startling conclusions. The most salient of which is that the version of the Charge I was sent is a fragmented villanelle orginally composed by William Butler Yeats.
I present in these passages:
My original analysis of the fragment through which I determined that the fragment is a villanelle.
A research paper on the history of villanelle with speculations on its relation to witchcraft.
An analysis of the fragment to support the conclusion that it was originally composed by W. B. Yeats.
Acknowledgements and References.
A chronology of events which are related to the facts and speculations in the research paper.
A contrary view and my rebuttle.
And the completed version of the poem--
by
William Butler Yeats
and
Cynthia Joyce Clay
Also, there is a link to a description of the villanelle as a dance, thanks to Joseph Casazza who sent the following:
"There is a choreography for a "balletto" called "La Villanella" on leaf 12of the so-called "Il Papa" manuscript (New York Public Library Performing Arts Research Center Dance Collection (S) *MGZMB-Res. 72-255Manoscritto di balletti composti da Giovannino e Il Lanzino e Il Papa; scritto da Cosimo Ticcio. [155-?] [27] p. (26-31 lines) 29 cm. (f.) Cia Fornaroli Collection. NN 72-7014766) of the mid 16th century (though its dances come mostly from the late 15th century tradition). Atranscription of the Italian instructions is available at http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/dan/ilpapa.htm but we have not yet done our own reconstruction or translation."
It is my hope to add links to villanella music.
Please feel free to email me with any thoughts or relavent information.
Please support these pages by purchasing my scifi novel,
Zollocco: A Novel of Another
Universe and my collection of sf, fantasy, and myth
"New Myths of the Feminine Divine"
"Truth Against the World"
copyright 2000, Cynthia Joyce Clay, all
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