A Book of Silence (48 page)

1 Quoted in Sabina Flanagan,
Hildegard of Bingen, 1098–1179: A
Visionary Life
(Routledge, 1998), p. 97.

2 Thomas Merton’s autobiography,
The Seven Storey Mountain
(Harcourt, 1948), made him famous, but it was followed by a long string of publications, covering a wide range of subjects and genres.

3 Thomas Merton,
Journals, Vol. 1, 1939–41
(HarperCollins, 1995), p. 118.

4 Barbara Erakko Taylor,
Silent Dwellers
(Continuum, 1999), p. 32.

5 Camadolesian short rule,
Catholic Encyclopaedia
, 1913.

6 See Will Anderson,
The Diary of an Ecobuilder
(Green Books, 2007).

7 Adam Nicolson’s description of his islands in
Sea Room.

8 Mackenzie,
Cave in the Snow
, pp. 197–8.

9 Waddell,
Desert Fathers
, p. 160.

10 Ludwig Wittgenstein,
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
(Kegan Paul, 1922).

11 Thoreau,
Journal
, 17.6 1853.

12 Cousteau,
Silent World
, p. 16.

13 Ibid.

14 Picard,
World of Silence
, p. 22.

15 Claude Levi-Strauss,
The Raw and the Cooked
(Cape, 1970), P. 18.

‘A slumber did my spirit seal’ (Wordsworth),
1

Abraham and Sarah,
1
,
2

accidie,
1
,
2

Achilles,
1

Adam,
1
,
2
,
3

adventure writing,
1

Aeneid,
1

Aeolian harps,
1

affect, lack of,
1

Africa,
1
,
2
,
3

aggression,
1

agoraphobia,
1

Alaska,
1

alcohol,
1
,
2

Alexander, Mrs C. F.,
1

Alexandria,
1
,
2

Alfonce, Jean,
1

Ali, Tariq,
1

alienation,
1

Allt Dearg,
1
,
2

Alps,
1
,
2
,
3

Ambrose, Bishop of Milan,
1

Anatomy of Melancholy, The
(Burton),
1

Ancren Riwle,
1

Anderson, Will,
1

Andes,
1

Anglo-Catholicism,
1
,
2

anorexia,
1

Antarctica,
1
,
2

anti-imperialism,
1

antimatter,
1

Apennines,
1

aphasia,
1

applause,
1

archaeopteryx,
1

Arctic,
1
,
2
,
3
,
4

Arezzo,
1

Arfderydd, battle of,
1

Arianism,
1
,
2

Aristotle,
1

Armistice Day,
1

Arthur, King,
1

asceticism,
1
,
2
,
3
,
4
,
5
,
6
,
7

and desert tradition,
1
,
2
,
3
,
4

and romanticism,
1

astronomy, Chinese,
1

athletes,
1
,
2

Atlantic Ocean,
1
,
2
,
3
,
4

Attwater, Donald,
1

Atum,
1

auditory hallucinations (hearing voices),
1
,
2
,
3
,
4
,
5
,
6

and
Other Voices
radio drama,
1

aural overstimulation,
1

Austen, Jane,
1

Australia,
1
,
2
,
3

aboriginal mythology,
1

Authumla,
1

autism,
1

Ayrshire,
1
,
2
,
3

Aztecs,
1

Bacon, Francis,
1

Baghdad,
1

Baldur the Beautiful,
1

Balmat, Jacques,
1

banishment and exile,
1

Barrhill,
1

Barthes, Roland,
1
,
2

bathing,
1

Batsleer, Janet,
1
,
2
,
3

Batt, Mike,
1

Bell, Gertrude,
1
,
2

Bell, Rudolf,
1

bells,
1

Beltane,
1

Benedictines,
1
,
2

Benyallery,
1

Bernini, Gian Lorenzo,
1
,
2

Beslan school siege,
1

Bettelheim, Bruno,
1

Bewick, Thomas,
1

Bible,
1
,
2
,
3

Apocalypse,
1

creation story,
1
,
2

and silent prayer,
1

Big Bang,
1
,
2
,
3
,
4

birds, bones of,
1

Black Holes,
1
,
2

blue-tits,
1

Blyton, Enid,
1

boarding schools,
1

Bodhidharma,
1

body temperature,
1

Boethius,
1

bones,
1

boundary confusions,
1
,
2
,
3
,
4
,
5
,
6
,
7
,
8

brain

and language,
1
,
2

and silence,
1

and sound,
1

subcortical functions,
1

Brazil,
1

British Sign Languag,
1
,
2

Brontë, Charlotte,
1

Brontë, Emily,
1

Bronze Age,
1
,
2
,
3

Brown, Peter,
1

Buber, Martin,
1

Buckley, Martin,
1

Buddhism,
1
,
2
,
3

and hagiography,
1

see also
Zen Buddhism

Buddhists,
1
,
2

hermits,
1

and vows of silence,
1
,
2

Bunyan, John,
1

Burton, Richard,
1

Bush, George W.,
1

buzzards,
1
,
2

Byrd, Richard,
1
,
2
,
3
,
4
,
5
,
6
,
7
,
8
,
9

Byron, Lord,
1

Cage, John,
1
,
2
,
3

Caithness,
1

Camadolese Fathers,
1

Cambridge,
1
,
2

camels,
1

Canaanites,
1

Canada,
1
,
2
,
3

Candida Casa,
1

cannibalism,
1

Cantor, Georg,
1

Cape Horn,
1
,
2
,
3

Cape of Good Hope,
1
,
2

Caribbean,
1

Carmelites,
1
,
2

Carthusians,
1

Cartier, Jacques,
1

Cato,
1

chastity,
1
,
2

Cherokee,
1

Cheviots,
1
,
2

Chichester, Francis,
1

childhood,
1
,
2

children, feral,
1

Children of the Book,
1
,
2
,
3

Chile,
1

China,
1
,
2

Chinese,
1
,
2
,
3

Christianity,
1
,
2
,
3
,
4
,
5

and creation story,
1
,
2

early,
1
,
2

and imagination,
1

and reading,
1

in Scotland,
1

churches,
1
,
2

Cicero,
1

Cinderella,
1
,
2

claustrophobia,
1

Clinton, Bill,
1

clochans (beehive huts),
1

clocks,
1

‘cloud of unknowing’,
1

clouds,
1

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor,
1
,
2

Common Law,
1

computers,
1
,
2
,
3

constellations,
1

convalescence,
1

Counter-Reformation,
1

County Durham,
1
,
2
,
3

County of Wigtown,
1

Courtauld, Augustine,
1
,
2
,
3
,
4

Cousteau, Jacques,
1
,
2
,
3

Cowper, William,
1

creation stories,
1

creativity,
1
,
2
,
3
,
4
,
5
,
6
,
7

Crete,
1

Crosby,
1

Crow’s flight,
1

Crowhurst, Donald,
1
,
2
,
3
,
4
,
5
,
6

Cuban missile crisis,
1

cuckoos,
1

Cuillin, the,
1
,
2

curlews,
1

Cyril of Jerusalem,
1

Cyrillic,
1