Through Dust, Mud, Sand and Marsh
walking a pilgrim path, heeding the thunder-god
Hello my lovely between the moons friends.
Firstly an apology that this posting is hardly between the moons at all; indeed today is the new moon in Leo itself. But while I’ve been away on an adventure on the other side of the British Isles the theme for this piece presented itself to me unbidden, so I am taking it as a sign that now is actually exactly the right time to share it with you.
It’s the story of a staff.
A pilgrim staff, a magical staff or stang, call it what you will, but the staff has always served well those who walk the land. Imagine the reindeer herders following their ancestral tracks and pathways out into what is now the north sea off the coast of Norfolk after the last ice age - and perhaps before it too. Surely they would have measured their tread and found sure footholds with their trusty staff in hand?
Two of my favourite saints as depicted on the ancient walls and rood screens of Norfolk’s many churches are St Christopher and St James. Generally, as St Christopher is a giant he likes to spread himself over a wall while St James fills the arcade of a scratched and faded medieval rood screen with colour and magical favour. St James, as patron of pilgrims, holds his talismanic scallop shell in one hand. His saintly emblem, it’s often larger than life so you might not notice that his other hand holds the staff that will guide his feet through dust, mud, sand and marsh. St Christopher invariably bears a staff too, measuring the depth of the waters as he carries the Christ Child on his shoulder through a river that sometimes flickers with fish. (One St Christopher wall painting I came across in Cornwall even depicts a mermaid playing at his feet).
St Christopher’s staff quite often sprouts greenery at the top and I love this detail linking him with the wild and with natural forces.
An early St Christopher medieval wall painting opposite the south door of Crostwight church, Norfolk (within easy walking distance of Bracken & Wrack HQ!)
I don’t actually know whether medieval people who were about to set out on pilgrimage (or any dangerous journey) would first visit St James and touch the scallop shell for good fortune, murmuring a prayer as they did so. But it does seem likely, and as one of the twelve apostles James features on many, many rood screens. Even where there are only spaces for a few saints on each side of the nave of a tiny village church, he seems to be favoured and I think that is probably not accidental. Here in Norfolk especially, with its long coastline and history of seafaring, the dangers of embarking on a voyage would have been keenly felt. And overland travel from this near-peninsula would have held its perils too.
St James on the rood screen at Edingthorpe church, Norfolk - scallop shell, staff and pilgrim bag (with, I think, a pilgrim badge pinned onto it - what do you think?) 4 August 2024.
But I do know for certain that St Christopher was looked to by those who were about to set off on a journey of any magnitude. I have visited many, maybe most, of the St Christopher wall paintings in Norfolk and every single one is situated opposite the south doorway - the main door - of the medieval church. It’s a fair guess than many more lie hidden behind layers of whitewash.