1. Benedictus Figulus, ‘Philosophical Rules or Canons’, A Golden Casket, p.285.

2. Burckhardt, p.161

3. Grossinger, p.78.

4. Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Opus Aureum.

5. Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Opus Aureum.

6. W.N. Perry, A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom, George Allen & Unwin, 1971, p.361.

7. Grossinger, p.236.>

8. Grossinger, p.237.

9. Hughes’ introductory note for the Ilkley Literature Festival programme.

10. Grossinger, p.73.

11. Benedictus Figulus, A Golden Casket, p.287.

12. Grossinger, p.237, quoting from Klossowsky, The Secret Art of Alchemy, Bounty Books, N.Y., 1973.

13. Sagar, The Art of Ted Hughes, p.243.

14. Sagar, The Art of Ted Hughes, p.243.

14a. Lavibius, 16th century alchemist, quoted in A. Roob (ed.), Alchemy and Mysticism, Taschen, 1997.

15. Encyclopedia of Mythology, p.139.

16. M. Eliade. Shamanism, p.62.

17. M. Eliade, Shamanism, p.63.

18. W.C. Beane and W. G. Doty (eds), A Mircea Eliade Reader, Harper Colophon Books,1976, p.177.

19. Faas, ‘Ted Hughes and Crow’, The Unaccommodated Universe, p.17.

20. Hughes, ‘Leonard Baskin’, programme for an exhibition of Baskin’s work at the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, London (May 1962), partly reprinted by Faas, p166–7. Also T. Hughes, ‘The Hanged Man and the Dragonfly’, WP, 84–102.

21. WP, 91.

22. WP, p.100.

23. New Larousse Encyclopedia of Myth, p.231.

24. W.R.J. Barron (ed. and trans.), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Manchester University Press, 1979, lines 2160-2211, pp.142–4.

25. Eliot, ‘What the Thunder Said’, The Waste Land, lines 386–390.

26. Grossinger, p.147.

27. Ad de Vries, p.292.

28. SP indicates the title of Hughes’ poem or Baskin’s illustration in the Scolar Press Limited Edition of Cave Birds (1975).

29. T.S. Eliot, ‘Burnt Norton III’, Four Quartets, lines 117–121.

30. Sagar, The Art of Ted Hughes, p.244.

31. Hughes’ letter to author, 3 November 1984.

32. Hughes’ letter to author, 3 November 1984.

33. Ad de Vries, pp.275–6.

34. M. Eliade, ‘Rites and Symbols of Initiation’, quoted by Beane and Doty in A Mircea Eliade Reader, pp.413–14.

35. Jonah inside the whale is also suggested by one alternative title.

36. Wright, Blake’s Job: A Commentary, p.37.