I remember hearing Britain referred to as “Albion” in my youth. It somehow struck a chord in me, and I prefer now to think (perhaps sentimentally) of Britain as Albion rather than the somewhat soulless “Britain”. Great Britain is a term that is no longer appropriate. It implies a condition that no longer applies to this country (that has long since surrendered its “great” epithet in a bathos of self-loathing and apologetic abnegation). The “United Kingdom” is another appellation that no longer seems appropriate since the Northern Irish part has, technically, been abandoned inside the European Union; the Scots intermittently vie for “independence”. The Welsh National portion has been under ultra socialist tyranny for the last 25 years and has forgotten how to be the proud and assertive nation that were the miners, steelmakers and farmers of yesterday. Instead, they have settled for a kind of amorphous existence while they assimilate the incomers that their “government” has asserted are more than welcome in the “valleys”!
Albion has been translated as “white land” (from the latin albus meaning “white”). The Romans explained it as referring to the white chalk cliffs of Dover. For after they had conquered Gaul (France) they would have seen the white cliff as their next target.
The term “Albion” is now used either in poetry or in names - such as streets or football clubs such as West Bromwich Albion. Although the name was first applied to the football team of Brighton and Hove Albion. However, this fact has been disputed (as you might expect when applied to football!).
The expression perfidious Albion was often used by the French at the time of Napoleon, when describing England. It meant that England could not be trusted! Augustine, Marquis de Yimonez (1726- 1817) said ‘let us attack her in her own waters perfidious Albion’! Even our own Earl of Chesterfield, in 1748, declared ‘it must be owned that the Graces do not seem to be natives of Great Britain, and I do not doubt that the best of us here have more of “rough” than “polished diamond’! He sounds exactly like a recent 21st century politician who declared that the English were not a race worth saving!
Some ships were called The Albion which led to some early pubs near the ports to be named after the ships ie Royal Albion.
When the Romans invaded, they originally referred to it as Britannia or Britanniae. They only managed to conquer the southern two thirds of the largest Island. As such, in Roman usage the name Britannia came to mean specifically the Roman province which lay on the island of Albion and so the name Albion became redundant and fell out of use.
However, etymologically speaking, the name Albion comes from the Celtic word meaning “the World” or physical reality. This in turn appears to derive from the proto-Indo-European stem meaning ”white” or “bright”. It is hypothesised that the Celts referred to the World we live in as “The Bright Place as contrasted to the gloomy subterranean underworld, where ghosts and spirits lived which was “The Dark Place”
The conclusion sometimes drawn as to how Britain became known (sometime around 350 BC) as Albion, was that an Ancient Greek traveller asked a group of Britons “what do you call this place”?
They replied “Albion (The World). The Greek, not speaking Porto-Britannic very well wrote that down as the name of the specific island.
In the mythology of William Blake, an incomplete book by the English poet begun in 1797, titled The Vala or the Four Zoas (consisting of nine books referred to as “nights”). The name derives from the ancient and mythological name of Britain. Albion is the primeval man whose fall and division results in the Four Zoa’s: Urizen, Tharmas, Luvah/Orc and Urthona/Los who were created by the fall of Albion.
Blake intended the book to be the summation of his mythic universe, but he abandoned the effort in 1807, leaving the poem in rough draft. Quite frankly, I’ve never been a fan of Blake. For my own taste, he is far too esoteric; arcane.
Chaucer is more to my taste. A far more earthy and alive poet. His poems speak of real people. Their foibles, their faults and their vanities. His capacity for pragmatic and cynical assessment of the human nature resonates with the things we are viewing in the World today. He makes occasional softer voyages into romantic and chivalric poetry such as his eulogy for the Duchess Blanche (first wife of John of Gaunt) whom Chaucer admired as he might admire a goddess, at a distance.
Chaucer, being in the employ of King Edward III, first as an envoy and later as a master of wool customs in the City of London, came often into the household of Duke John of Lancaster. Thus, his poetic soul was inspired by the Duke’s beautiful Duchess. To Chaucer, she embodied the essence of perfect womanhood. Admired from afar and as unobtainable as the moon, the ideal subject for an observant poet.
Albion depicts for me the essence of the greatness that our island nation once enjoyed. It’s great explorers and seamen from the 16th century, the age of Gloriana, Elizabeth I. The defeat of the Spanish Armada. Achieved despite the fact that the navy had been run down during the Queen’s reign. Our shores protected from invasion and desecration by the leadership, skill and seamanship of the small ships that were so ably manoeuvred amongst the larger and more unwieldy galleons. Firing into their hulls, harrying them, dodging their too highly mounted cannon and causing damage and despair. Assisted, by strong winds that drove the galleons far out to the north of the channel, the Spanish were prevented from embarking reinforcements from the Low Countries.
Would that we could have patriotic naval men available to us today, under orders to protect Britain’s borders from incursion by alien people and not bound and tied by the insanity of inclusiveness and woke. An ideology that has been ordered by those who should be protective of the country instead of implementing the destructive “open borders” policy that is destroying our lands!
Great architects who were skilled in creating buildings of beauty, strength and durability. The buildings such as St Paul’s Cathedral built by Wren. Still an object of veneration centuries later. Most of our great cities still boast edifices of stately magnificence. Drawn from the imaginations of our greatest and most visionary minds. Significantly unlike the many outlandish “carbuncles” that appear like blots upon the page, disfiguring our towns and cities.
The great Empire that covered many lands across the World. The Empire that today, for which, we are exhorted to feel we should have nothing but shame and contrition for what we governed there. No consideration is given to the many good legacies that this Albion of ours contrived and bequeathed. So that when we finally retreated from those lands, we left them largely, better off than when we had colonised them. Just as the Romans had left us the legacies of their wisdom, their hygiene and their engineering skills, so too did we leave behind us more good things than bad.
So, I say with feeling ‘Alas poor Albion’. The name that implies so much past greatness and history. She has been cast aside and stifled in the maelstrom of destruction that has been engendered within her walls. The enemy is now within! I believe that this is truly represented in this issue of The Lotus Eaters Podcast. I issue a warning with this. You will find it emotive and sometimes distressing. However, I believe it merits a viewing by all of us who care deeply about the trajectory of our governance at this time.