‘. . . A wise man will perceive how mysterious will be the time when the wealth of all this age will lie waste, just as now in diverse places throughout the earth walls are standing beaten by the wind and covered with rime. The bulwarks are dismantled, the banqueting halls are ruinous…’
‘…He then who in a spirit of meditation has pondered over this ruin, and who with an understanding heart probes the mystery of our life down to its depth, will call to mind many slaughters of long ago, and give voice to such words as these: What has become of the steed, of the squire?…’
‘…What has become of the banqueting houses? Where are the joys of the hall? O shining goblet! O mailed warriorl O glory of the prince! How has that time passed away, grown shadowy under the canopy of night as though it had never been! There remains now of the beloved knights no trace save the wall wondrously high, decorated with serpent forms…’
Text from an early medieval Saxon poem The Wanderer
Images of an abandoned house in County Meath
loved this post and accompanying poem
Beautiful poem and such a melancholy house
https://oldenglishpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/the-wanderer/
Sad that they’re overgrown but I enjoyed these photos – a memorial to bygone times. My Lloyd ancestors of Tipperary lived in castles and grand houses, some now crumbled and overgrown as these are. One which was photographed in 1990 is now completely gone. So it is good to photograph them before the disappear.