The Beginning (England’s Dark Dreaming № 1)
The two figures depicted in this first drawing are the two main characters that are depicted periodically across the series of twenty-four drawings.
The pose of the two figures is a distorted echo of the Long Man of Wilmington chalk hill figure in Sussex. The hill carving of a single figure holding two staffs transformed into two figures holding a staff each. It’s not certain when this hill figure was cut into the landscape, but recent archaeological work has suggested it is relatively modern (16th or 17th century) rather than being an ancient hill figure like others in Britain. The parallel staffs also form an entrance way, the outline of a door, through which the figures are stepping into the series of drawings.
The two figures are at the start of their journey across England’s myth-landscape. They are presented as “Guardians of a loveless isle” and “gloomy browed”, as in David Bowie’s 1970 song The Supermen.
The figures, drawn from slightly below eye-level so that they look down on the viewer, also reference the legends of the island of Albion as a land of giants.