A Review of The White Goddess by Robert Graves - Oak and Willow

A Review of The White Goddess by Robert Graves
Graves’ poetic explorations of obscure topics of old are both noble and intriguing. While his
work, by his own admission, doesn’t stand up to the ordinary scrutiny of a historical research paper it
does provide both divine inspiration and gnoetic comprehension to those with minds open enough and
hearts free enough to experience his work as I believe he intended it to be experienced. He states
clearly in the beginning of the book that he is above all a poet and that this work would not likely be
accepted by his scholarly counterparts yet he delves into a nimbus of information surrounding myth,
puzzles, histories and personas of old with little hesitation. His work should be commended as taking on
far more then could ever feasibly be achieved but should be examine and scrutinized with both an eye
for factual accuracy and an ear for the poetic majesty that it contains. There is not a paragraph in this
book that is not packed with information, either the solidified sort or a more ephemeral type. The latter
of which has just as much value, if in a completely different way. In this conflagration of information
and inspiration, one can find many answers and many puzzles worth pondering. None of these results
will be ends unto themselves, but simply entries into a way of thought and means of exploration that is
rarely encouraged in any sort of literature today. This journey of information begins in the annals of
time. Only the tiniest fragments of written history remain from this period and this is where we will
begin.
Graves begins the book by delving back into the deepest recesses of recorded time, in to the
shadows of myth and legend. He looks at the origins of the poet and even the times before literature or
literacy was common. He ventures back into the time of Druids before the roman invasion and before
many of the myths he relies on are written down. He jumps from region to region discussing the
similarities and differences of the of the various Gods and their forms of archetypal existence in an
attempt to show by example the connected threads of societies far removed from each other. His
examples clearly demonstrate that though a society may have been separated by miles, oceans or seas
they had common threads of heroism, Goddess worship and cunning oration. With this introduction
inducing the reader to see the invisible threads binding cultures together, even cultures at war, he
introduces the persona which does the weaving; the Gleeman and the Bard. He discusses the fine
differences and the varied artistic nuance but mostly lets the reader know that a Gleeman was coarse
and the Bard had impeccable standards. A major difference that arose overtime was the ability for the
Gleeman to create while the Bard was simply creative. In Graves’ view the Bard was a well learned and
powerful orator able to conjure up the most fanciful tale or inspiring ballad on a whim and in doing so
give each syllable the nuance required for the purpose at hand. This was his creative art, not in making
the tale for in this time the tales were sacred and immutable by the Bard less he be cast out from his
craft. His art was in the manner of the telling. When given the power, a magical power, of the chant, the
rhythm and the rhyme these tellings could sweep a listener away into another world or raise them to
inspired heights. This limitation of pallet is what gave them the harder, yet more powerful art. The
Gleeman on the other hand was, in the earlier times, a follower of the same rules but far less capable,
often an outcast of the Bardic education and untrained in the mysteries of the highest level of the Bardic
art. In later times he fell to crassness and blasphemed on the art through the creation of new tales, or

modification of old tales. In doing so the Gleeman, and later the Bard, began a chain of events that led
to the loss of the mysteries and the dissolving of the true magic of the early Bardic art. This tragedy
unfolded over hundreds of years through many cultural interactions and linguistic shifts but eventually it
left a majestic art in its final throws. A decidedly final stroke occurred, according to Graves, when the
last Bard gave up the classical pay of wine and the art fell into the pursuit of money making.
While detaleing the descent, as Graves’ does throughout the book, he takes several tangential
paths to discuss and explore various lore, poems and capabilities of the Bardic class. Some of these are
discovered in historic dialogs, some are hidden in ancient poems and others are simply hinted at and
reconstructed by Graves’ own dream, mind or research, and often several at once. One such feature of
the Bardic path was the secret language. This language apparently has its roots with the Druids, though
the wheres and hows are all hidden in the mists of time. The description begins with the trees of the
area which Graves focuses on, namely Europe and specifically Northern and North-West Europe where
the Druids existence was most prominent. Again, as very little of this is recorded in any historically
acceptable means, much of it is derived or deduced through deep exploration of snippets of poems and
myth and allegory. A wise reader wouldn’t easily discount the results. They may not be historically
proven to the letter but there is much value in the wisdom uncovered through this means of
exploration, this ‘poetic thought’. This language, that takes several chapters to unveil, is both a hidden
and open language of the Druids that was utilized by the Master Bards. The exploration deals with
several poetic verses that have lasted through the ages, and one in particular referred to as ‘The Battle
of the Trees’. In this writing Graves feels the poem demonstrates the use of the tree language in a
Bardic battle to determine the winner of the highest honor and political standing of the Bards, a Bardic
Chair. He finds quips and torments hidden in plain sight meant to illuminate how one eventual Master
Bard of legend, Gwyion, overcomes another through use of correct language, proper prose and more so
the hidden understanding of the trees, or secret alphabet. His ability to overcome his foe by mocking
him while he did not understand the mockery was what eventually won the honor for Gwyion. This
power, Graves believes, was found through the tale of the legendary Taliesin.
In the exploration of this tree language we are given clear examination of each letter, its poem
of wit and how it connects to its tree name. During this examination we are introduced to the myth of a
tree and why its letter is connected to it. This explanation is very lengthy but shows the depths to which
Graves’ was willing to delve in order to find an answer to this puzzle of the battle. Whether you believe
his explanation or not there is great inspiration to be found in this journey. One such part is the
discussion of the language’s numeric aspects and secret knuckle language. With each letter there is a
corresponding sequential value. Each value aligns, according to Graves, with a knuckle of the hand.
Knowing this, a Bard could speak in mixed company while telling a wholly different tale to fellow
Masters through the silent spelling occurring on his hand. This ability he believes is one of the arts that
allowed the mythos of the Gods to travel far and wide. It would allow a brotherhood which glued
cultures together much more so then was openly known. This doesn’t seem completely unreasonable
considering the vast similarities shared between cultures of the time when it comes to Gods, Goddess,
and heroes of legend, the standard territory of these very Bardic Masters. With members in every high
council, court or company, as the case would have been for inspirational story weavers, the ability to
pass information quickly and bind the many factions to a cause, ideal, or cultural value, would be
unassailable and invaluable throughout the various times in which the Masters operated. As Graves

explores the various possible alphabets for this language, and the puzzles which requiring poetic
thought to unravel, he gives us a glimpse of his mental process. He credits Hanes Taliesin or ‘Taliesin’s
Tale’ with providing him the necessary inspiration to complete the journey through the puzzle of the
trees.
Taliesin, which Graves equates to Merlin or a Merlin like character, is a mysterious persona with
very little historical documentation. He lives as a legend in the far distant past and is attributed with
various magical, mystical or amazing feats and capabilities. In this examination of poetic history Graves
finds clues to the enigmas shrouding each of the trees in ‘The Battle of the Trees’ by examining Taliesin’s
Tale. He believes by piecing together some aspects of poetic thought in Taliesin’s Tale that he is able to
come up with the correct conclusion to the secret alphabet hidden in ‘The Battle of the Trees’. He
believes it was exactly this deep understanding which Gwyion used to win his battle and take his rightful
place. He explains this understanding through example of prose and cross referencing various other
snippets of poetic information. These examples will serve to guide a very educated individual but may
be too opaque for a standard reader. It is certainly difficult to following his threads of logic and poetic
thought to the final conclusion, but as always with this work the journey is worth the effort.
As the book progresses Graves demonstrates how later periods which moved more and more
towards a Christian centric view point did not abandon all historic alliance to these notions. He gives
great examples of Christian Aged poetry and verse which has many of the same hints, puzzles and clues
hidden in them. Some even reference the same trees and symbols that were used in ancient pre-
Christian times. But as with all things the marching of the ages leaves the once shimmering examples of
poetic excellence fading away to cobbled pieces of prose and varied levels of understanding. Many of
the layers, once present in every poetic work, got stripped away and are only carry forward through
precedence, instead of depth of understanding, until in more modern times we are left with a hollow
remnant. All hope is not lost in this evolution. In one of the final chapters Graves demonstrates how
modern parables have picked up the challenge of layered poetic meaning and envisioned them as a War
in Heaven using many of the time honored themes. As he succinctly put in the beginning of his chapter
on the War in Heaven:
“Must poetry necessarily be original? According to the Apollonian or Classical, theory it need
not be, since the test of a good poet is his ability to express time-proved sentiments in timehonoured
forms with greater fluency , charm, sonorousness and learning than his rivals; these,
at least, are the qualities that win a man a Bardic Chair”.
He goes on to describe a Romantic Revival which gave new energy to the poetic charms of old.
This is an interesting evolution but certainly lacks some of the moral or honorable foundations of the
older art in his view. In his final chapter he questions the role of religion in modern society and the
obsession by even the religious with material existence. This obviously influences and infects the poetic
thought with shallower understanding. He states it thus:
“As a result, all but a very few have discarded their religious idealism, Roman Catholics as well as
Protestants, and come to the private conclusion that money, though the root of all evil, is the
sole practical means of expressing value or of determining social precedence; that science is
the only accurate means of describing phenomena; and that a morality of common honesty is

not relevant either to love, war, business or politics. Yet they feel guilty about their
backsliding, send their children to Sunday School, maintain the Churches, and look with alarm
toward the East, where a younger and more fanatic faith threatens.”
This very description of Western society and religion are all the more poignant in today’s
political climate and it leaves one wondering if the loss of something has led the West astray. We have
forsaken honor and the sacred in everyday occurrences. Where once we spoke volumes on levels about
a single tree and incorporated it into our deepest understandings of the world through poetic thought
and loving mystery, we now hold everything to be self-evident and without deeper meaning. This is
truly a remarkable perspective to have lost, and the loss will continue to haunt us until we once again
honor our daily existence and that which is all around us. This begins with every individual, with every
thought of thanks for the world around us, and with every daily reflection. That which is lost may yet
return, and the seeds of that return seem to be pushing to the surface after a long, cold winter of sterile
minds and hearts.