Elviva (The Feast of Saint William)

Today is the feast-day of St. William of Norwich, a young boy who, so the story goes, was murdered in 1144 by some of the Jews who lived in the city. The incident was the first recorded case of Blood Libel, where the blood of a gentile was used in a ritualistic murder. The boy's mother, Elviva, supposedly had a prophetic (and somewhat Freudian) dream about about her son's life and death, and in the years afterwards a shrine was set up to him which proved to be a very popular tourist attraction.

She’s dreaming,

and this is where it all begins.

Her eyes are dancing in the dark,

dancing to the beat of the electrical impulses in her brain,

and this is where it all begins.

Random images,

edited, spliced together,

saturated colour –

and this is where it all begins.

She walks through the streets,

walks through the city

and onto the heath,

then climbs up to the ridge above the tanglewood.

She turns around,

looks down at the vista beneath her feet –

the cathedral, the castle, the churches

(one for every Sunday of the year)

and in the houses

the lights are going out

one by one by one by one.

Decent people are in their beds

sleeping the sleep of the just

behind their locked doors,

shuttered windows,

closed minds –

and this is where it all begins.

A point of view shot –

she is standing in the middle of the road

and a fish is lying at her feet.

What sort of fish is it?

It’s the strangest thing she’s ever seen;

it has twelve fins on each side

and each fin is red,

as if dabbed with blood.

How did the fish get there?

How can it live in so dry a spot?

Pick up the fish.

She picks up the fish, and holds it to her bosom.

She cradles it in her arms, rocking it to and fro,

and as she strokes its head

it begins to move and grow

larger and larger at an alarming rate.

It grows so fast, so large and so fast,

that she can no longer hold it

and it slips from her grasp.

But instead of flopping to the ground,

it suddenly grows wings and takes to the air,

and flies away.

It circles above her, circles above the city,

and then

it passes through the clouds,

disappears from view

and this is where it all begins.