
In the
mythology
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
of
William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...
, Albion is the primeval man whose fall and division results in the Four Zoas:
Urizen,
Tharmas,
Luvah/
Orc
An orc (sometimes spelt ork; ), in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy fiction, is a race of humanoid monsters, which he also calls "goblin".
In Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'', orcs appear as a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevol ...
and
Urthona/
Los. The name derives from the ancient and mythological name of Britain,
Albion
Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than "Britain" today. The name for Scot ...
.
Sources
In the mythical story of the founding of
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales
* The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
,
Albion
Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than "Britain" today. The name for Scot ...
was a
giant
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''wiktionary:gigas, gigas'', cognate wiktionary:giga-, giga-) are beings of humanoid appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''gia ...
and a son of
Poseidon
Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cit ...
, the
Greek god
In ancient Greece, deities were regarded as immortal, anthropomorphic, and powerful. They were conceived of as individual persons, rather than abstract concepts or notions, and were described as being similar to humans in appearance, albeit larg ...
of the sea. He was a contemporary of
Heracles
Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...
, who killed him. Albion founded a country on the island and ruled there. Britain, then called Albion after its founder, was inhabited by his Giant descendants until about 1100 years before
Julius Cæsar's invasion of Britain, when
Brutus of Troy
Brutus, also called Brute of Troy, is a mythical British king. He is described as a legendary descendant of the Trojan hero Aeneas, known in medieval British legend as the eponymous founder and first king of Britain. This legend first appears ...
came and defeated the small number of Giants that remained (as a group of the Giants had killed all the others).
According to another account,
Noah
Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...
's son
Japhet
Japheth ( ''Yép̄eṯ'', in pausa ''Yā́p̄eṯ''; '; ; ') is one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis, in which he plays a role in the story of Noah's drunkenness and the curse of Ham, and subsequently in the Table of Nations ...
had a son named
Histion, who had four sons. Their names were
Francus,
Romanus,
Brittos and
Alemannus, and the French, Roman, British and German people are descended from them.
Brittos divided Britain into three kingdoms and gave each to one of his sons. They were Loegria (a Latinization of the Welsh
Lloegyr
Lloegyr is the medieval Welsh language, Welsh name for a region of Great Britain, Britain (''Prydain''). The exact borders are unknown, but some modern scholars hypothesize it ran south and east of a line extending from the Humber Estuary to t ...
),
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
and
Cambria
Cambria is a name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name for the country, . The term was not in use during the Roman period (when Wales had not come into existence as a distinct entity) or the early medieval period. After the ...
.
The division of the primordial man is found in many mythic and mystic systems throughout the world, including
Adam Kadmon
In Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon (, ''ʾāḏām qaḏmōn'', "Primordial Man") also called Adam Elyon (, ''ʾāḏām ʿelyōn'', "Most High Man"), or Adam Ila'ah (, ''ʾāḏām ʿīllāʾā'' "Most High Adam" in Aramaic), sometimes abbreviated as A ...
in
Kabbalah
Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ...
and
Prajapati
Prajapati (, ) is a Vedas, Vedic deity of Hinduism. He is later identified with Brahma, the creator god.
Prajapati is a form of the creator-god Brahma, but the name is also the name of many different gods, in many Hindu scriptures, ranging f ...
in the
Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...
.
Usage
The long, unfinished poem properly called ''
Vala, or The Four Zoas'' expands the significance of the Zoas, but they are integral to all of Blake's prophetic books.
Blake's painting of a naked figure raising his arms, loosely based on ''
Vitruvian Man
The ''Vitruvian Man'' (; ) is a drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to . Inspired by the writings of the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, the drawing depicts a nude man in two superimposed positions ...
'', is now identified as a portrayal of Albion, following the discovery of a printed version with an inscription identifying the figure. It was formerly known as "Glad Day", since it was assumed by
Alexander Gilchrist
Alexander Gilchrist (182830 November 1861), an English author, is known mainly as a biographer of William Etty and of William Blake. Gilchrist's biography of Blake is still a standard reference work about the poet.
Gilchrist was born at Newingt ...
to illustrate a quotation from
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
.
Blake also uses the name
Albion
Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than "Britain" today. The name for Scot ...
in its traditional meaning, as an ancient synonym for Britain, in his poem "A Little Boy Lost" in ''
Songs of Experience
''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. Originally, Blake illuminated and bound ''Songs of Innocence'' and ''Songs of Experience'' separately. It was only in 1794 that Blake combined the t ...
''. The poem tells about a young boy who, using reason, realizes that humans are selfish, and that "naught loves another as itself". He asks the priest: "Father, how can I love you / or any of my brothers more? / I love you like the little bird / That picks up crumbs around the door". The priest accuses the boy of blasphemy, and burns him "in a holy place / where many had been burned before". Blake concludes the poem by asking: "Are such things done on Albion's shore?"
Children
The Sons of Albion feature in the poem ''
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
''. They are 12, and are named as Hand, Hyle, Coban, Guantok, Peachey, Brereton, Slayd, Hutton, Scofield, Kox, Kotope, Bowen. These names are mostly drawn from figures from Blake's 1803 sedition trial.
The Daughters of Albion feature in ''
Visions of the Daughters of Albion'', and other
prophetic books. They are named, not consistently though, in ''The Four Zoas'' and in ''Jerusalem'':
#
Gwendolen
Gwendolen () is a feminine given name, in general use only since the 19th century.
It has come to be the standard English form of Latin '' Guendoloena'', which was first used by Geoffrey of Monmouth as the name of a legendary British queen in hi ...
#
Ragan
#
Sabrina
Sabrina may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Sabrina (given name), a feminine given name, including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name
* Hafren, known in English as Sabrina, a British princess in Welsh mythology ...
#
Gonorill
# Mehetabel
#
Cordella
#
Boadicea/
Gwiniverra
# Conwenna
#
Estrild
# Gwinefrid
#
Ignoge
# Cambel
Gwiniverra has replaced Boadicea, who is later equated with Cambel. They are mostly drawn from
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth (; ; ) was a Catholic cleric from Monmouth, Wales, and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle '' The History of ...
's ''
Historia Regum Britanniae
(''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a fictitious account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the List of legendary kings o ...
'' and
John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...
's ''
The History of Britain''.
[Damon, S. Foster. A Blake Dictionary. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1988, p. 14.]
See also
*
* , minor planet
Sources
{{William Blake, myth
William Blake characters
Male characters in literature