- Hardcover: 496 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; 3rd Revised edition edition (1 Jan 1973)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571023622
- ISBN-13: 978-0571023622
- Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 15 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,864,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
This labyrinthine and extraordinary book, first published more than fifty years ago, was the outcome of Graves's vast reading and curious research into strange territories of folklore, mythology, religion and magic. Erudite and impassioned, it is a scholar-poet's quest for the meaning of European myths, a polemic about the relations between man and woman, and also an intensely personal document in which Graves explored the sources of his own inspiration and, as he believed, all true poetry.
This new edition has been prepared by Grevel Lindop, who has written an illuminating introduction. The text of the book incorporates all Graves's final revisions, as well as his replies totwo of the original reviewers, and a long essay in which he describes the months of inspiration in which The White Goddess was written.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.About the Author
Robert Graves (1895-1985) was a poet, novelist and critic. His first volume of poems, Over the Brazier (1916), reflected his experiences in the trenches, and was followed by many works of poetry, non-fiction and fiction. He is best known for his novel, I, Claudius (1934), which won the Hawthornden and James Tait Black memorial prizes and for his influential The White Goddess (1948).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
67 of 73 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The White Goddess by Robert Graves A new edition edited by Grevel Lindop
Three things that enrich the poet: Myths, poetic power, a store of ancient verse.
Graves first published "The White Goddess" in 1948, and he published revised and expanded editions in 1952 (1958 USA) and 1961. Now a fourth edition has been published by Carcanet in England as part of the Robert Graves Programme, and Faber and Faber has published a paperback edition. So far this edition is not published in the USA.
The editor Grevel Lindop has written a good introduction to the book. He calls the book "a historical grammar of poetic myth" (Graves's subtitle), "an adventure in historical detective work, a headlong quest through the forests of half the world's mythologies, a poet's introduction to poetry, a critique of western civilisation, a polemic about the relationship between man and woman, and a disguised autobiography." (Page vii.) What he does not call the book is a miscellany of poems by Graves and others. That's too bad, because what is permanently valuable about the book is not Graves's theories, but rather the poems that are included. Graves included about 15 of his own poems in the book, and they are some of his best. Most of Grave's poems that were included here were first published in his Collected Poems 1914-1947. Here we get not only the poems but the explanations of them. It is as if Graves is his own scholaist. An example of this is found in Chapter XX "A Conversation at Paphos--43 AD" where Graves writes the first three lines of the poem "Nuns and Fish," and then 14 pages later he gives the final two lines.
That's not to say that I am entirely happy with Lindop's editing. One of Graves's annoying habits was that he did not always indentifying his quotations. If you are not familar with his poetry then you will have no way of identifying "On Portents" as the poem Graves quotes on page 334. On the next page Graves misdates and misquotes his poem "The Fallen Tower of Siloam." Lindop gives the date of the poem in the introduction (p. xxii) but does not give the line as it appears in Graves' Collect Poems. By the way the line runs "Should the building totter, run [not spring'] for an archway!" On page 435 Graves quotes a poem by Laura Riding but does not name it. Only those familar with Riding's poetry know that he is quoting stanza 17 of her poem "Echoes." Another deficency is the lack of a bibliography of the books Graves referenced. Also the index leaves much to be desired. Shakespeare and Lewis Carrol are mentioned but other poets, Keats, Shelly, etc., are not to be found. These annoyences could have easily been remedied with aggressive editing.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The central idea is that there exists a single fundamental story, an essential motif in mythology and in all "true" poetry;
TWO MEN CONTEND FOR THE LOVE OF A POWERFUL WOMAN.
The woman is the White Goddess of the title. The men are the demigods of Summer and Winter, and their battle is an allegory of the changing of the seasons. Every other story, fictional or otherwise, is a part of or a retelling of or a distortion of this central truth. The wealth of examples used by Graves is astonishing; even the Gospels can be interpreted in the light of it.
Graves assembles his argument by cracking the code of two ancient Welsh poems. "The Battle of the Trees" (Cad Goddeu) and "The History of Taliesin" (Hanes Taliesin) are found to conceal two mystical alphabet-cum-calendar charms, Celtic equivalents of the Norse Runes. These charms are the means by which the story of the eternal love triangle is preserved, and they also hide the names of two Celtic gods, theoretically in conflict in the fourth century BC. The process by which the decoding is made is brilliant, erudite, and academically outrageous- no University would sanction it. And yet, Graves is certainly on to something.
Even if you disagree, it's worth reading this book and making your mind up yourself. No knowledge of Welsh is required (Graves himself proceeds from English translations). On the way you'll learn more about mythology, religion and anthropology than from any officially sanctioned source- only Frazer's "The Golden Bough" comes close to it.
TWO MEN CONTEND FOR THE LOVE OF A POWERFUL WOMAN.
The woman is the White Goddess of the title. The men are the demigods of Summer and Winter, and their battle is an allegory of the changing of the seasons. Every other story, fictional or otherwise, is a part of or a retelling of or a distortion of this central truth. The wealth of examples used by Graves is astonishing; even the Gospels can be interpreted in the light of it.
Graves assembles his argument by cracking the code of two ancient Welsh poems. "The Battle of the Trees" (Cad Goddeu) and "The History of Taliesin" (Hanes Taliesin) are found to conceal two mystical alphabet-cum-calendar charms, Celtic equivalents of the Norse Runes. These charms are the means by which the story of the eternal love triangle is preserved, and they also hide the names of two Celtic gods, theoretically in conflict in the fourth century BC. The process by which the decoding is made is brilliant, erudite, and academically outrageous- no University would sanction it. And yet, Graves is certainly on to something.
Even if you disagree, it's worth reading this book and making your mind up yourself. No knowledge of Welsh is required (Graves himself proceeds from English translations). On the way you'll learn more about mythology, religion and anthropology than from any officially sanctioned source- only Frazer's "The Golden Bough" comes close to it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is not an easy work to read and will take some time to fully understand. There is an underlying theme of 'The White Goddess', which is directly linked to the Great Goddess hypothesis popularised by the archaeologist Marija Gimbutas. This hypothesis asserts that in Europe (and parts of the middle-east) during the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods of prehistory, there was a prevalant venerated monotheistic deity - a mother goddess of fertility and the earth. Scholars today are split on this hypothesis. Most interestingly the renowned archaeologist Arthur Evans converted to the Great Goddess hypothesis after he discovered all the female Minoan fresco's and figurines at Knossos. Robert Grave's however was never an archaeologist, but he specialised in mythology. Several chapters in 'The White Goddess' are therefore adequately dedicated to tracing the 'Great Goddess' (named the 'White Goddess') through various mythologies, especially British, but also Greek. Sadly however Grave's underlying theme is completely buried by a lot of ideosyncratic poetic (and myth) identifications, many which are poorly justified. Furthermore there are numerous chapters which have absolutely nothing to do with the White Goddess theme, and i found them incredibly hard to understand. The work is certianly not coherent and i'm surprised no previous reviewer has noted of this. I only bought this since i am familiar with the literature of Marija Gimbutas and i found several of the chapters on the Great Goddess hypothesis useful.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent
Even though this is a book on medieval chivraldic poetry it is more than this. I have learnt about Pagan deity across the world as well as some Judaic and mathematical principles... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ang
An insight into inspiration
Robert Graves comes to his subject as a poet first and foremost; he seeks the wellspring of poetic inspiration from which poetry originated, and links it to the forces which move... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Peasant
Graves' "White Goddess"
I first encountered this book as an undergraduate, thrust into my hands by an enthusiastic follower who had journeyed through Ted Hughes to discover Robert Graves. Read more
Published 8 months ago by RR Waller
Poetic myth explained
Robert Graves himself says that poetic myth is an instinctive retelling of the old stories that never basically change. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mrs. Penelope J. Jaquet
Race Memories
I have borrowed The White Goddess from the Public Library twice but couldn't get through it in the allotted times. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Delver
The White Goddess:An Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth
The slow careful absorbtion of this most excellent book could be the pathway to your understanding of the ancient beliefs of our forbears and the devious concoctions of modern... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Tigwig
White Goddess
My copy of this book arrived very promptly and in good condition, especially considering that it was published some years ago. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mrs. H. P. Martin
References for Celtic Researchers
We should all be taught this at school .... Britain has a pre-Christian heritage which is so important that the Christians themselves adopted many of the ideologies and customs ... Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2010 by Audrey Evermore
Tosh
This book contains a lot of ancient Celtic poems. That's it's good side. Unfortunately it also contains a lot of theorising by Robert Graves, who sees himself as Odin, intuiting... Read more
Published on 20 Sep 2009 by Ms. L. R. Fisher
Indispensable
"The White Goddess" is an essential textbook and source of inspiration for any serious writer in the English language. Read more
Published on 3 Jun 2009 by Ligia Luckhurst
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