Vallum Aelium

Artist and poet Bruce Rimell brings yet another poetic travelogue, this time walking the Hadrian’s Wall Path to explore the human landscapes, archaeologies of hurt, and imagined ancient voices, from the human to the otherworldly, among the stones and crags of Northumberland. “…shiver these god-abandoned / frozen wastes into my bones…” ‘Vallum Aelium’ takes in the sights and sounds of the wall, wild flights of fancy, mythologies and chance discoveries at milecastles and forts, to conjure multi-ethnic voices of an empire, evocations of the sacred, and personal reflections recast as prayers to forgotten gods. “…I write your name upon this / silent altar, as I tread your peripheries / with a flame of respect…” Subtly interweaving stories rise to a crescendo with ‘Deo Mithrae’, written live at the Temple of Mithras at Carrawburgh, and an archaeological meditation on the skull of a nameless young man found at Vindolanda. “…skull, young male, died in / Vindolanda’s churn: how did your teenage skull / get so battered? we’ll never know…” Folding mournful reflections on the destruction of the Sycamore Gap tree with queer Roman voices, and quietly post-colonialist perspectives on the paradoxical savagery and civilisation of Rome, this rich collection brings Hadrian’s Wall alive with vivid colour.