1. Remains of Elmet was first published by Faber and Faber in 1979. A second edition, with some poem titles changed and with additional poems and photographs, was published in 1994. All references in this text are to the 1979 edition.

2. Hughes, T. Critical Forum Series, Norwich Tapes Ltd, 1978.

3. Faas, E. Ted Hughes: The Unaccommodated Universe , Santa Barbara, Black Sparrow, 1980, Appendix II, p.209.

4. Early Celtic deities are discussed by Nora Chadwick in The Celts, London, Penguin, 1970, p.154.

5. “… the three Mothers… are Aire, Water and Fire:… The Heavens were made of Fire, the Earth was made of Water… and the Ayre proceeded from the middle Spirit”, lines 1457-1467 of Thomas Vaughan’s, Magica Adamica, (pub.1655), in Rudrum, E.(Ed.). The Works of Thomas Vaughan, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1984.

6. Skea, A. Ted Hughes: The Poetic Quest. Armidale NSW: University of New England Press, 1994.

7. Everard, Dr.(trans.1650.) The Divine Pymander of Hermes, San Diego, Wizard Books, 1978, Book 3, pp.18-19. Also, Rudrum,E. The Works of Thomas Vaughan, op.cit. pp.54-58.

8. Porphyry. On the Cave of the Nymphs, (written 3AD), in Lamberton, R.(Trans.). New York, Station Hill Press, 1983, pp.9-10.)

9. Faas, E. Ted Hughes: The Unaccommodated Universe, op.cit. p.139.

10. Hughes confirmed this in a letter to me in November 1984.

11. First published as a limited edition by Rainbow Press in Spring 1979, then in Moortown, London, Faber, 1979.pp.157-170.

12. The Koran, traditional chapter 54:1; the Book of Revelation, 7:21, and Ezekial, 1:4-28.

13. These lines can be found in a poem by Wu Ch’eng which is clearly about alchemy and regeneration, (The Adventures of Monkey translated by Arthur Waley):

The Patriarch Subodhi then recited:
To spare and tend the vital powers, this and nothing else
Is sum and total of all magic, secret and profane.
All is comprised in these three, Spirit, Breath and Soul;
Guard them closely, screen them well; let there be no leak.
Store them within the frame.
That is all that can be learnt, and all that can be taught.
I would have you mark the tortoise and the snake locked in tight embrace.
Locked in tight embrace, the cital powers are strong;
Even in the midst of fierce flames the Golden Lotus may be planted,
The Five Elements compounded and transposed, and put to new use.
When that is done, be which you please, Buddha or Immortal.

14. Ezekial 37.

15. Revelation, 21:1

16. Ezekial 40 and 43: Revelation, 21.

17. Reference numbers used here refer to the original etched plates as indicated by David Erdman(Ed.) in The Illuminated Blake, New York, Anchor Press, 1974.

18. Erdman, D. The Illuminated Blake, op.cit. p.357.