Who Is Palomides? Closer Look at the Character in Charles Williams’s Taliessin Cycle

Abstract

This articles examines the character arc of Palomides in Charles Williams’s Taliessin poems to see how it brings together several key themes in Williams’s work: Romantic Theology, the relationship of spirit and matter, and the problem of evil. It examines Palomides’s struggle to overcome his own internal antagonisms and allow himself to accept his own limitations, as a model that is salutary to readers of the poems. The article uncovers some of the abstract symbolism that appears in ‘The Death of Palomides’ and demonstrates the coherence of Williams’s use of disparate images in that poem. Lastly, the article asks what the progression of Palomides’s character reveals about Williams’s philosophical and theological attitudes, especially how Williams understood the nature of conversion.