''In the form of a woman she is tall, and robed in green; but at times she takes other shapes. Some there are who have seen her standing like a tree under heaven, crowned with the Sun; and from all its branches there spilled a golden dew upon the barren earth, and it grew green with corn; but the roots of the tree were in the waters of Ulmo, and the winds of Manwë spoke in its leaves. Kementári, Queen of the Earth, she is surnamed in the Eldarin tongue.'' (J.R.R Tolkien, The Silmarillion, Valaquenta, p.18).
Photo courtesy of Fr Allan Barton: St Cecilia, on a Rood Screen in North Elmham, Norfolk. She reminds me very much of Yavanna in this image, more keen, closer to Earth, very wholesome, where else we might conceive of St Cecilia as more lofty than all that, more angelic, musical, beautiful beyond enduring - almost like the difference between Goldberry and Galadriel. Feast your eyes on it! She's beautiful isn't she?
Sancta Cecilia, ora pro nobis.
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