It is with no small sense of meekness,
inspired by a keen awareness of the broad shoulders of scholarship upon which
any present-day commentator stands, that one commences writing an introduction
to a new edition of the Butler Codex.
One must, indeed, begin by asking why the world needs another
edition of this timeless work. It has
been reprinted more times than Harry Potter, studied at more universities than
Shakespeare, and is exceeded in familiarity in the Western World by only the
Christian Bible itself. The answer lies
in the very ubiquitousness of the work: all are familiar with sections of it,
and all have an opinion on the better-known excerpts, but few have read it from
beginning to end. After centuries of
debate and speculation, so much has accumulated around the work itself that it
is at times difficult to remember that the Butler Codex is, at heart, an
inspired and inspiring text that belongs on every bookshelf.
The purpose of this
volume, therefore, is to strip away as much as possible of the accumulated
debris and expose the gold beneath.
That gold is, after all, what the bards intended us to see.
So let us pull back from
the details for a moment—back from the quirks and mysteries, from the questions
surrounding the authors and their intentions, from the uses to which the text
has been put to down the ages, to ask: What is the Butler Codex to us,
in the broadest of terms?
It is a collection of
freeform poems divided into three sections or classes. They are the Cantos (forty of which are
generally recognised), the Ephemera (similarly forty in number), and the Grand
Chansons (seven in total). These
numbers (three, forty, seven) are not believed to be accidental; they are
significant in many cultures, ancient and modern. A sense of the sublime is inscribed in the Codex's very bones.
On a finer scale, the
three sections are defined as follow.
Ephemera consist of fragments typically four lines or less. Cantos range in length, but consist of
single works, rising without break or pause.
Grand Chansons naturally divide into chapters denoted by abrupt line
truncations. Various techniques have
evolved to notate and demarcate the various sections and subsections perceived
within this over-arcing structure, but they are largely for aesthetic purposes
only. Without intimate knowledge of the
bards' intent, we can only speculate upon the existence of such finer
structural complexity.
This volume is presented
in the style that has become popular since its introduction in the 17th
Century. Each Grand Chanson chapter and
Canto has a title. Listed in the
commonly accepted order (as they are at the beginning of each section), these
titles imply a narrative thread that may or may not have been intended. The Ephemera, on the other hand, once
regarded as individual pieces that, when placed together in the correct order,
would lead to greater understanding of the rest of the text, are presented in
no particular order. They are scattered
throughout the book in a fashion not dissimilar to that in which they were
found: scrawled on scraps, passed down from ear to mouth for generations before
being accepted as canon. One cannot
help but hope that, one day, an attentive reader might see a link that has
eluded the scholars and lead us all to a deeper understanding of the enigmas
before us.
To the reader, the Butler
Codex is a work of strange rhythms and unfamiliar words, a relic of a time that
seems dark and strange to us now, but calls nonetheless with emotions we
instinctively recognise. Beyond the odd
rhymes and disturbing meter—or perhaps because of them—lurks the
undeniable power of the words themselves.
Simple phrases begin many of the longer works, gathering momentum until
a threshold is reached and meaning explodes out of the page. Some scholars of the Codex have speculated
that these works were originally intended to be chanted, perhaps preparatory to
achieving religious ecstasy. This may
be true, although corroborating evidence is absent.
All we have are the
words, and they reveal exuberance, existential angst, joy, sadness, anger,
hatred, love. Characters come and go,
gracing us with their wisdom (Flaubert, Proust, Nietzsche, Poe, Magrait,
Mabuse, Basil Fawlty) or providing us with vernacular relief (Jacqui, Trudi,
Alf, Mark, Aunt Polly), like those great imitators Chaucer and Shakespeare
attempted in their own oeuvres. There
are creatures of myth (wombles, muggles, Smaug, Boojums, Wodin, James Bond),
mysterious beings (impis, idjits, howzas, bovvers, Grinches, buggles,
Croatians) and obscure deities (Ancient Ashur, the Grody One, Crowned Loulou, Hugh
Meistersinger, the Big Chook). References to
lost, great works litter the text, providing further enigmas for scholars to
study. Who was "Re", to whom
so many of these lines are expressed?
What was the significance of "Oopsa Day"? Was it a religious festival or something
else entirely? We may never know the
answers to these and many other questions.
The matter of authorship
cannot be ignored entirely, although generations of readers have taken solace
from these wise words despite never questioning their origin. Debate has raged for centuries, from simple
hearths to the hallowed halls of academia.
Is the Butler Codex the work of one bard or two? Or more?
Were they to be chanted, or were they actually intended as poetry, verse
history, or dramatic presentation? They
are frequently compared to the Psalms.
Each line can be interpreted as a Zen koan. Their perhaps deliberately jumbled meanings evoke Nostradamus,
Joyce, Pound, Bowie. The work as a
whole is sometimes credited as being a tribute to Homer—but which
Homer? Of the Greeks or of the
Simpsons?
We may never know for
sure what the Codex was intended to be, despite centuries of debate among
historians, linguists and philosophers.
Like many ancient texts, these words have passed from hand to hand for
generations, undergoing repetition, reinterpretation, reorganization. Ascertaining the primacy of the many sources
claiming originality is a painstaking task.
All we can do is gaze in amazement at the beauty that has endured from a
period that is often regarded as being a dark, empty age.
An apocryphal line
ascribed to the two bards has survived to us from that age. When asked if their great work would be
remembered or understood, one of the bards quipped: "It's certainly not as catchy as
post-modernism." To which the
other responded: "But
probably as catching."
In that sprit, the
editors present to you in this volume the collected fragments of the Butler
Codex. We leave it to your imagination
to interpret their ambiguities and find what wisdom there is in the words of
the great bards. We are confident, to
quote from the text itself, that "truth varies never" and
"yields ferocious dreams."
CANTOS
1:
"Song of Sleep and
Joy"
2:
"Song of Rumours"
3:
"Bodies Mangled"
4:
"Mighty Opus"
5:
"Those Merry Old
Dudes"
6:
"Laugh Well!"
7:
"From the West"
8:
"Lust Crowned"
9:
"Fishmonger's
Heaven"/"The Favoured"
10: "The Traveller's Prayer"
11: "Song of Warnings"
12: "Transformations"
13: "Minor Skirmish"
14: "On the
Moors"
15: "Nightly Showers"
16: "Song of Burden"
17: "Ethereal Designs"
18: "A Sage Lacking"
19: "A View of Hell"
20: "Ferocious Dreams"/"Two Bards 1"
21: "Dare We Sing?"
22: "The Rabble of Sinners"
23: "At the Deity's Behest"
24: "A Kind Teacher"
25: "Three Gods"
26: "Fell Singing"
27: "Headed For Death"/"Clemency Avails"
28: "Song of Leave-Taking"
29: "The Burning Sward"
30: "The Culling"
31: "You Who Fall..."
32: "Delirious Grief"
33: "A Mouse Pursues"
34: "A Letter From Home"
35: "Longing For Home"
36: "Sinners Roaming"
37: "On Frugality"/"Two Bards 2"
38: "Flour and Pennies"
39: "Run Aground"
40: "Song of Confusion"
GRAND CHANSONS
1.
"Flagging Armies"
"Heartbreaking Wars"
2.
"Be Joyous Who Is Dirt"
"Shallow Seas Hold No Terrors"
3.
"Song of Fasting"
"Why Bards Eulogise..."
"When Is The Sunniest Day?"
4.
"Fever-addled"
"Forty Sails"
5.
"Roguish Heroes"
"Vampires and Witches"
"Living in Privies"
"Where Hell Is"
6.
"Three Edicts"
"Your Sorry Leaving Is Like A Lonely Dream"
"Deficient Hearts Ache"
"Fallen Angels"
"Farewells"
7.
"In Disguise"
"Nary a Bough"
"The Floating Harbour"
"Three Hikers Sit"/"I Was Clothed..."
"Hymn to Farming and Dotage"
© Sean Williams