 CHAPTER 10 THE EBBING OF ELFLAND Next morning Alvarick came up to the tower to the witch Zerunderel, weary and frantic from searching all night long in strange places for Lirazel. All night he had tried to guess what fancy had beckoned her out and whither it might have led her. He had searched by the stream by which she had prayed to the stones and the pool where she prayed to the stars. He had called her name up every tower and had called it wide in the dark and had had no answer but echo. And so he had come at last to the witch Zerunderel. Whither, he said, saying no more than that, that the boy might not know his fears. Yet Orion knew. And Zerunderel all mournfully shook her head. The way of the leaves, she said, the way of all beauty. But Alvarick did not stay to hear her say more than her first five words, for he went with the restlessness with which he had come, straight from the room and hastily down the stair and out at once into the windy morning to see which way those glorious leaves were gone. And a few leaves that had clung to cold branches longer when the gay company of their comrades had gone were now too on the air going lonely and last. And Alvarick saw they were going southeast towards Elfland. Hurriedly he then donned his magical sword in its wide scabbard of leather and with scanty provisions hastened over the fields after the last of the leaves, whose autumnal glory led him as many a cause in its latter days, all splendid and fallen, leads all manner of men. And so he came to the upland fields with their grass all gray with dew and the air was all sparkling with sunlight and gay with the last of the leaves. But a melancholy seemed to dwell with the sound of the lowing of cattle. In the calm bright morning with the northwest wind roaming through it, Alvarick came by no calm and never gave up the haste of one who has lost something suddenly. He had the swift movements of such and the frantic air. He watched all day over clear wide horizons, southeast where the leaves were leading, and at evening he looked to see the Elfin Mountains, severe and changeless, unlit by any light we know, the color of pale forget-me-nots. He held on restlessly to see their summits, but never they came to view. And then he saw the house of the old leather-worker who had made the scabbard for his sword, and the sight of it brought back to him the years that were gone since the evening when first he had seen it, although he never knew how many they were, and could not know, for no one has ever devised any exact calculation whereby to estimate the action of time in Elfland. Then he looked once more for the pale blue Elfin Mountains, remembering well where they lay in their long grave row past a point of one of the leather-worker's gables, but he saw never a line of them. Then he entered the house, and the old man still was there. The leather-worker was wonderfully aged, even the table on which he worked was much older. He greeted Alvaric, remembering who he was, and Alvaric inquired for the old man's wife. She died long ago, he said, and again Alvaric felt the baffling flight of those years, which added a fear to Elfland whether he went. Yet he neither thought to turn back nor reigned for a moment his impatient haste. He said a few formal things of the old man's loss that had happened so long ago. Then where were the Elfin Mountains, he asked, the pale blue peaks? A look came slowly over the old man's face, as though he had never seen them, as though Alvaric being learned spoke of something that the old leather-worker could not know. No, he did not know, he said, and Alvaric found that today, as all those years ago, this old man still refused to speak of Elfland. Well, the boundary was only a few yards away. He would cross it and ask the way of Elfin creatures if he could not see the mountains to guide him then. The old man offered him food, and he had not eaten all day, but Alvaric, in his haste, only asked him once more of Elfland, and the old man humbly said that of such things he knew nothing. Then Alvaric strode away and came to the field he knew, which he remembered to be divided by the nebulous border of twilight. And indeed he had no sooner come to the field than he saw all the toadstools leaning over one way and that the way he was going. For just as thorn trees all lean away from the sea, so toadstools and every plant that has any touch of mystery, such as fox-gloves, mullins, and certain kinds of orcas, when growing anywhere near it, all lean towards Elfland. By this one may know before one has heard a murmur of waves, or before one has guessed an influence of magical things, that one comes, as the case may be, to the sea or the border of Elfland. And in the air above him Alvaric saw golden birds and guessed that there had been a storm in Elfland, blowing them over the border from the southeast, though a northwest wind blew over the fields we know. He went on, but the boundary was not there, and he crossed the field as any field we know, and still he had not come to the fells of Elfland. Then Alvaric pressed on with the new impatience with the northwest wind behind him, and the earth began to grow bare and shingly and dull, without flowers, without shade, without color, with none of those things that there are in remembered lands, by which we build pictures of them when we are there no more. It was all disenchanted now. Alvaric saw the golden bird high up, rushing away to the southeast, and he followed his flight, hoping soon to see the mountains of Elfland, which he supposed to be merely concealed by some magical mist. But still the autumnal sky was bright and clear, and all the horizon plain, and still there came never a gleam of the Elfin mountains. And not from this did he learn that Elfland had ebbed, but when he saw on that desolate shingly plain, untorn by the northwest wind, but blooming fair in the autumn, a maitry that he remembered a long while since, all white with blossoms that once rejoiced a spring day, far in his childhood, then he knew that Elfland had been there, and must have receded, although he knew not how far. For it is true, and Alvaric knew, that just as the glamour that brightens much of our lives, especially in early years, comes from rumors that reach us from Elfland by various messengers, on whom be blessings and peace. So there returns from our fields to Elfland again, to become a part of its mystery, all manner of little memories that we have lost, and little devoted toys that were treasured once. And this is part of the law of ebbed flow that science may trace in all things. Thus light grew the forest of coal, and the coal gives back light. Thus rivers fill the sea, and the sea sends back to the rivers. Thus all things give that receive even death. Next Alvaric saw lying there on the flat dry ground, a toy that he yet remembered, which years and years ago, how could he say how many, had been a childish joy to him, crudely carved out of wood, and one unlucky day it had been broken, and one unhappy day it had been thrown away. And now he saw it lying there, not merely new and unbroken, but with a wonder about it, a splendor and a romance, the radiant transfigured thing that his young fancy had known. It lay there forsaken of Elfland, as wonderful things of the sea lie sometimes desolate on wastes of sand, when the sea is a far blue bulk with a border of foam. Drury with lost romance was the plane from which Elfland had gone, though here and there Alvaric saw again and again those little forsaken things that had been lost from his childhood, dropping through time to the ageless and hourless region of Elfland to be a part of its glory, and now left for lawn by this immense withdrawal. Old tunes, old songs, old voices hum there too, growing fainter and fainter, as though they could not live long in the fields we know. And when the sun set, a mauve rose glow in the east that Alvaric fancied a little too gorgeous for Earth, led him onward still, for he deemed it to be the reflection cast on the sky by the glow of the splendor of Elfland. So he went on hoping to find it horizon after horizon, and night came on with all Earth's comrade stars, and only then Alvaric put aside at last that frantic restlessness that had driven him since the morning, and wrapping himself in a loose cloak that he wore, ate such food as he had in the satchel, and slept a troubled sleep alone with other forsaken things. At the earliest moment of dawn his impatience awoke him, although one of October's mists hid all glimpses of light, he ate the last of his food, and then pushed on through the greyness. No sound from the things of our fields came to him now, for men never went that way when Elfland was there, and none but Alvaric went now to that desolate plain. He had traveled beyond the sound of cockroach from the comfortable houses of men, and was now marching through a curious silence, broken only now and then by the small dim cries of the lost songs that had been left by the ebb of Elfland, and were fainter now than they had been the day before. And when dawn shone, Alvaric saw again so great a splendor in the sky, glowing all green, low, down in the southeast, that he thought once more he saw a reflection from Elfland and pressed on hoping to find it over the next horizon. And he passed the next horizon, and still that shingly plain, and never a peak of the pale blue Elfin mountains. Whether Elfland always lay over the next horizon, brightening the clouds with its glow, and moved away just as he came, or whether it had gone days or years before he did not know, but still kept on and on. And he came at last to a dry and grassless ridge on which his eyes and his hopes had been set for long. And from it he looked far over the desolate flatness that stretched to the sky and saw never a sign of Elfland, never a slope of the mountains. Even the little treasures of memory that had been left behind by the ebb were withering into things of our every day. Then Alvaric drew his magical sword from its sheath. But though the sword had power against enchantment, it had not been given power to bring again an enchantment that was gone and the desolate land remained the same for all that he waved the sword, stony, deserted, unromantic, and wide. For a little while he went on, but in that flat land the horizon moved imperceptibly with him, and never a peak appeared of the Elfin mountains, and on that dreary plain he soon discovered, as soon or later many a man must, that he had lost Elfland. End of Chapter 10 The Ebbing of Elfland Chapter 11 of The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsaney This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 11 The Deep of the Woods In those days Zerunderel would amuse the boy by charms and by little wonders and he was content for a while and then he began to guess for himself, all in silence, where his mother was. He listened to all things said and thought long about them and days passed thus and he only knew she had gone and still he said never a word of the thing with which his thoughts were busy. And then he came to know from things said or unsaid, or from looks or glances or wagging of heads that there was a wonder about his mother's going. But what the wonder was he could not find for all the marvels that crossed his mind when he guessed and at last one day he asked Zerunderel. And store though her old mind was with ages and ages of wisdom and though she had feared this question yet she did not know it had dwelt in his mind for days and could find no better answer out of her wisdom than that his mother had gone to the woods. When the boy heard this he determined to go to the woods and find her. Now in his broad with Zerunderel through the little hamlet of Earl Orion would see the villagers walking by and the smith at his open forge and folk in their doorways and men that came into the market from distant fields and he knew them all. And most of all he knew Threl with his quiet feet and Oth with his live limbs for both of these would tell tales when they met of the uplands and the deep woods over the hill and Orion on little journeys with his nurse loved to hear tales of far off places. There was an ancient myrtle tree by a well where Zerunderel would sit in the summer evenings while Orion played on the grass and Oth would cross the grass with his curious bow going out in the evening and sometimes Threl would come and every time that one of them came Orion would stop him and ask for a tale of the woods. Oth he would bow to Zerunderel with a look of awe as he bowed and would tell some tale of what the deer did and Orion would ask him why. Then a look would come over Oth's face as though he were carefully remembering things that had happened very long ago and after some moments of silence he would give the ancient cause of whatever the deer did which explained how they came by the custom. If it were Threl that came across the grass he would appear not to see Zerunderel and would tell his tale of the woods more hastily in a low voice and pass on leaving the evening as Orion felt full of mystery behind him. He would tell tales of all manner of creatures and the tales were so strange that he told them only to young Orion because as he explained there were many folk that were unable to believe the truth and he did not wish his tales to the ears of such. Once Orion had gone to his house a dark hut full of skins all kinds of skins hung on the wall, foxes, badgers, and martens and there were smaller ones and heaps in the corners. To Orion Threl's dark hut was more full of wonder than any other house he had ever seen. But now it was autumn and the boy and his nurse saw Oth and Threl more seldom in the evenings with the threat of frost in the air they sat no longer by the myrtle tree. Yet Orion watched on their short walks and one day he saw Threl going away from the village with his face to the uplands and he called to Threl and Threl stood still with a certain air of confusion for he deemed himself of too little account to be clearly seen and noticed by the nurse at the castle be she witch or woman. And Orion ran to him and said, show me the woods! And Zerunderel perceived that the time had come when his thoughts were roaming beyond the lip of the valley and knew that no spell of hers would hold him long from following after them. And Threl said, know my master and looked uneasily at Zerunderel who came after the boy and led him away from Threl. And Threl went on alone to his work in the deep of the woods. And it was not otherwise than the witch had foreseen. For first Orion wept and then he dreamed of the woods and next day he slipped away alone to the house of Oth and asked him to take him with him when he went to hunt the deer. And Oth, standing on a wide deer skin in front of blazing logs spoke much of the woods but did not take him then. Instead he brought Orion back to the castle and Zerunderel regretted too late that she had idly said his mother was gone to the woods. For those words of hers had called up too soon that spirit of roving which was bound to come to him and she saw that her spells could bring content no more. So in the end she let him go to the woods. But not until by lifting of wand and saying of incantation she had called the glamour of the woods down to the nursery hearth and had made it haunt the shadows and creeped with them all over the room till the nursery was all as mysterious as the forest. When this spell would not soothe him and keep his longing at home she let him go to the woods. He stole away once more to the house of Oth over crisp grass one morning and the old witch knew he had gone but did not call him back for she had no spell to curb the love of roving in man whether it came early or late. And she would not hold back his limbs when his heart was gone to the woods for it is ever the way of witches with any two things to care for the more mysterious of the two. So the boy came alone to the house of Oth through his garden where dead flowers hung on brown stalks and the petals turned to slime if he fingered them for November was come and the frosts were abroad all night. And this time Orion just met with a mood in Oth less than an hour would have gone that was favorable to the boy's longing. Oth was taking down his bow from the wall as Orion went in and Oth's heart was gone to the woods and when the boy came yearning to go to the woods too the hunter in that mood could not refuse him. So Oth took Orion on his shoulder and went up out of the valley folk saw them go thus Oth with his bow and his brown garments of leather Orion on his shoulder wrapped in the skin of Oth which Oth had thrown round him and as the village fell behind them Orion rejoiced to see the houses further and further away for he had never been so far from them before and when the uplands opened their distances to the eyes he felt that he was now upon no mere walk but a journey and then he saw the solemn gloom of the wintry woods far off and that filled him at once with a delighted awe to their darkness their mystery and their shelter Oth brought him. So softly Oth entered the wood that the blackbirds that guarded it sitting watchful on branches did not flee at his coming but only uttered slowly their warning notes and listened suspiciously till he passed and were never sure if a man had broken the charm of the wood. Into that charm and the gloom and the deep silence Oth moved gravely and a solemnness came on his face as he entered the wood for to go on quiet feet through the wood was the work of his life and he came to it as men come to their hearts desire and soon he put the boy down on the brown bracket and went on for a while alone. Orion watched him go with his bow in his left hand till he disappeared in the wood going to a gathering of shadows and merging amongst its fellows. And although Orion might not go with him now he had great joy from this for he knew by the way Oth went and the air he had that this was serious hunting and no mere amusement made to please a child and it pleased him more than all the toys he had had and quiet and lonely the great wood loomed around him while he waited for Oth to return and after a long while he heard a sound all in the wonder of the wood that was less loud than the sound that a blackbird made scattering dead leaves to find insects and Oth had come back again. He had not found a deer and for a while he sat by Orion and shut arrows into a tree but soon he gathered his arrows and took the boy on his shoulder again and turned homeward and there were tears in Orion's eyes when they left the great wood for he loved the mystery of the huge grey oaks which we may pass by unnoticed or with but a momentary feeling of something forgotten some message not quite given but to him their spirits were playmates so he came back to Earl as from new companions and with his mind full of hints that he had from the old wise trunks for to him each bowl had a meaning and Zerundrel was waiting at the gateway when Oth brought Orion back and she asked little of his time in the woods and answered little when he told her of it for she was jealous of them whose spell had lured him from hers and all that night his dreams hunted deer in the deeps of the wood next day he stole away again to the house of Oth but Oth was away hunting for he was in need of meat so he went to the house of Threl and there was Threl in his dark house amongst manifold skins take me to the woods said Orion and Threl sat down in a wide wooden chair by his fire to think about it and to talk of the woods he was not like Oth speaking of a few simple things which he knew of the deer of the ways of the deer and of the approach of the seasons but he spoke of the things that he guessed of the wood and in the dark of time the fables of men and of beasts and especially he cared to tell the fables of the foxes and badgers which he had come by from watching their ways at the falling of dusk and as he sat there gazing into the fire telling reminiscently of the ancient ways of the dwellers in Bracken and Bramble Orion forgot his longing to go to the woods and sat there on a small chair warm with skins, content and to Threl he told what he had not said to Oth how he thought that his mother might come one day round the trunk of one of the oak trees for she had gone for a while to the woods and Threl thought that that might be but there was nothing wonderful told of the woods that Threl thought unlikely and then Zerunderel came for Orion and took him back to the castle and the next day she let him go to Oth again and this time Oth took him once more to the wood and a few days later he went again to Threl's dark house in whose cobwebs and corners seemed to lurk the mystery of the forest and heard Threl's curious tales and the branches of the forest grew black and still against the blaze of fierce sunsets and winter began to lay its spell on the uplands and the wiser ones of the village prophesied snow and one day Orion out in the woods with Oth saw the hunter shoot a stag he watched him prepare it and skin it and cut it into two pieces and tie them up in the skin with the head and horns hanging down then Oth fastened up the horns to the rest of the bundle and heaved it onto his shoulder and with his great strength carried it home and the boy rejoiced more than the hunter and that evening Orion went to tell the story to Threl but Threl had more wonderful stories and so the days went by while Orion drew from the forest and from the tales of Threl a love of all things that pertain to a hunter's calling and a spirit grew in him that was well matched with the name he bore and nothing showed in him yet of the magical part of his lineage End of Chapter 11 The Deep of the Woods Chapter 12 of The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsene this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Chapter 12 The Unenchanted Plane When Alvarick understood that he had lost Elfland it was already evening and he had been gone two days and a night from Earl for the second time he lay down for the night on that shingly plane when Elfland had ebbed away and at sunset the eastern horizon showed clear against turquoise sky all black and jagged with rocks without any sign of Elfland and the twilight glimmered but it was Earth's twilight and not that dense barrier for which Alvarick looked which lies between Elfland and Earth and the stars came out and were the stars we know and Alvarick slept below their familiar constellations he awoke in the burglars dawn very cold hearing old voices crying faintly far off as they slowly drifted away like the dreams going back to Dreamland he wondered if they would come to Elfland again or if Elfland had ebbed too far he searched all the horizon eastwards and still saw nothing but the rocks of that desolate land so he turned again toward the fields we know he walked back through the cold with all his impatience gone and gradually some warmth came to him from walking and later a little from the autumnal sun he walked all day and the sun was growing huge and red when he came again to the leather workers cottage he asked for food and the old man made him welcome his pot was already simmering for his own evening meal and it was not long before Alvarick was sitting at the old table before a dish full of squirrels legs, hedgehogs and rabbits meat the old man would not eat till Alvarick had eaten but waited on him with such solicitude that Alvarick felt that the moment of his opportunity was come and turned to the old man as he offered him a piece of the back of a rabbit and approached the subject of Elfland the twilight is further away said Alvarick yes yes said the old man without any meaning in his voice whatever he had in his mind when did it go said Alvarick the twilight master yes said Alvarick ah the twilight the barrier said Alvarick and he lowered his voice although he knew not why between here and Elfland at the word Elfland all comprehension faded out of the old man's eyes ah old man said Alvarick you know where Elfland has gone gone said the old man that innocent surprise thought Alvarick must be real but at least he knew where it had been it used to be only two fields away from his door Elfland was in the next field once said Alvarick and the old man's eyes roved back into the past and he gazed as it were on old days a while then he shook his head and Alvarick fixed him with his eye you knew Elfland he exclaimed still the old man did not answer you knew where the border was said Alvarick I am old said the leather worker and I have no one to ask when he said that Alvarick knew that he was thinking of his old wife and he knew too that had she been alive and standing there at that moment yet he would have had no news of Elfland there seemed little more to say but a certain petulance held him to the subject after he knew it to be hopeless who lives to the east of here to the east master are there not north and south and west that your needs must look to the east there was a look of entreaty in his face but Alvarick did not heed it who lives to the east master no one lives to the east he answered and that indeed was true what used to be there said Alvarick and the old man turned away to see to the stewing of his pot and muttered as he turned and hardly heard him the past he said no more would the old man say nor explain what he had said so Alvarick asked him if he could have a bed for the night and his host showed him the old bed he remembered across that vague number of years and Alvarick accepted the bed without more ado so as to let the old man go to his own supper and very soon Alvarick was deep asleep warm and resting at last while his host turned over slowly in his mind many things of which Alvarick had supposed he knew nothing when the birds of our fields woke Alvarick singing late in the last of October on the morning that reminded them of spring he rose and went out of doors and went to the highest part of the little field that lay on the windowless side of the old man's house towards Elfland there he looked eastward and saw all the way to the curved line of the sky the same barren desolate rocky plain that had been there yesterday and the day before then the leather worker gave him breakfast and afterwards he went out and looked again at the plain and over his dinner which his host timidly shared Alvarick neared once more the subject of Elfland and something in the old man's sayings or silences made Alvarick hopeful that even yet he would have some news of the whereabouts of the pale blue elfin mountains so he brought the old man out and turned to the east to which his companion looked with reluctant eyes and pointing to one particular rock the most noticeable and near said hoping for definite news of a definite thing how long has that rock been there and the answer came to his hopes like hail to apple blossom it is there and we must make the best of it the unexpectedness of the answer dazed Alvarick and when he saw that reasonable questions about definite things brought him no logical answer he despaired of getting practical information to guide his fantastic journey so he walked on the eastward side of the cottage all afternoon watching the dreary plain and it never changed or moved no pale blue mountains appeared no Elfland came flooding back and evening came and the rocks glowed dullly with the low rays of the sun and darkened when it set changing with all earth's changes but with no enchantment of Elfland and Alvarick decided on a great journey he returned to the cottage and told the leather worker that he needed to buy much provisions as much as he could carry and over supper they planned what he should have and the old man promised to go next day among the neighbors telling of all the things he would get from each and somewhat more if God should prosper his snaring for Alvarick had determined to travel eastward till he found the lost land and Alvarick slept early and slept long till the last of his fatigue was gone which came from his pursuit of Elfland and the old man woke him as he came back from his snaring and the creatures that he had snared the old man put in his pot and hung it over his fire while Alvarick ate his breakfast and all the morning the leather worker went from house to house amongst his neighbors dwelling on little farms at the edge of the fields we know and he got salted meats from some bread from one, a cheese from another and came back burdened to his house in time to prepare dinner and all the provender that burdened the old man Alvarick shouldered in a sack and some he put in his wallet and he filled his water bottle and two more besides that his host had made from large skins for he had seen no streams at all in the desolate land and thus equipped he walked some way from the cottage and looked again at the land from which Elfland had ebbed he came back satisfied that he could carry provisions for a fortnight in the evening while the old man prepared pieces of squirrels meat Alvarick stood again on the windowless side of the cottage gazing still across the lonely land hoping always to see emerge from the clouds that were coloring at sunset those serene pale blue mountains and seeing never a peak and the sunset and that was the last of October next morning Alvarick made a good meal in the cottage then took his heavy burden of provisions and paid his host and started the door of the cottage opened toward the west the old man cordially saw him away from his door with God's speed and farewells but he would not move round his house to watch him going eastward nor would he speak of that journey it was as though to him there were only three points of the compass the bright autumnal sun was not yet high when Alvarick went from the fields we know to the land that Elfland had left and that nothing else went near with his big sack over his shoulder and his sword at his side the May trees of memory that he had seen were all withered now and the old songs and voices that had haunted that land were all now faint as sighs and there seemed to be fewer of them as though some had already died or had struggled back to Elfland all that day Alvarick traveled with the vigor that waits at the beginning of journeys which helped him on though he was burdened with so many provisions with a big blanket that he wore like a heavy cloak round his shoulders and he carried besides a bundle of firewood and a stave in his right hand he was an incongruous figure with his stave and his sack and his sword but he followed one idea one inspiration, one hope and so shared something of the strangeness that all men have who do this halting it noon to eat and rest he went slowly on again and walked till evening even then he did not rest as he had intended for when twilight fell and lay heavy along the eastern sky he continually rose from his resting and went a little further to see if it might not be that dense deep twilight that made the frontier of the fields we know shutting them off from Elfland but it was always earthly twilight until the stars came out and all the familiar stars that look on earth then he lay down among those unrounded and mossless rocks and ate bread and cheese and drank water and as the cold of night began to come over the plain he lit a small fire with his scanty bundle of wood and lay close to it with his cloak and his blanket round him and before the embers were black he was sound asleep dawn came without sound of bird or whisper of leaves or grasses dawn came in dead silence and cold and nothing on all that plain gave a welcome back to the light if darkness had lain forever upon those angular rocks it were better, Alvaric thought as he saw their shapeless companies sullenly glowing darkness were better now that Elfland was gone and though the misery of that disenchanted place entered his spirit with the chill of the dawn yet his fiery hope still shone and gave him little time to each by the cold black circle of his lonely fire before it hurried him onward easterly over the rocks and all that morning he traveled on without the comradeship of a blade of grass the golden birds that he had seen before had long since fled back to Elfland and the birds of our fields and all living things we know shunned all that empty waste Alvaric traveled as much alone as a man who goes back in memory to revisit remembered scenes and instead of remembered scenes he was in a place from which every glamour had gone he traveled somewhat lighter than on the day before but he went more wearily for he felt more heavily now the fatigue of the previous day he rested long at midday and then went on the myriad rocks stretched on and slightly jagged the horizon and all day there came no glimpse of the pale blue mountains that evening from his dwindling provision of wood Alvaric made another fire his little flame going up alone in that waste seemed somehow to reveal the monstrous loneliness he sat by his fire and thought of Lerazel and would not give up hope though a glance at those rocks might have warned him not to hope for something in their chaotic look partook of the plain that bred them and they hinted it to be infinite and of Chapter 12 The Unenchanted Plane Chapter 13 of The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsaney this Libra Vox recording is in the public domain Chapter 13 The Reticence of the Leather Worker it was many days before Alvaric learned from the monotony of the rocks that one day's journey was the same as another and that by no number of journeys would he bring any change to his rugged horizons which were all drearily like the ones they replaced and never brought a view of the pale blue mountains he had gone while his fortnight's provisions grew lighter and lighter for ten days over the rocks it was now evening and Alvaric understood at last that if he traveled further and failed soon to see the peaks of the Elven mountains he would starve so he ate his supper sparingly in the darkness his bundle of firewood having long since been used and abandoned the hope that had led him and as soon as there was any light at all to show him where the east was he ate a little of what he had saved from his supper and started his long tramp back to the fields of men over rocks that seemed all the harsher because his back was to Elfland all that day he ate and drank little and by nightfall he still had left full provisions for four more days he had hoped to travel faster during these last days if he should have to turn back because he would travel lighter he had given no thought to the power of those monotonous rocks to weary and to depress with their desolation when the hope that had somewhat illumined their grimness was gone he had thought little of turning back at all till the tenth evening came and no pale blue mountains and he suddenly looked at his provisions and all the monotony of his home where journey was broken only by occasional fears that he might not be able to come to the fields we know the myriad rocks lay larger and thicker than tombstones and not so carefully shaped yet the waist had a look of a graveyard stretching over the world with unrecording stones above nameless heads chilled by the bitter nights guided by blazing sunsets he went on through the morning mists and the empty noons and the weary birdless evenings more than a week went by since he had turned and the last of his water was gone and still he saw no sign of the fields we know or anything more familiar than rocks that he seemed to remember and which would have misled him northward, southward, or eastward were it not for the red November sun that he followed and sometimes some friendly star and then at last the darkness fell blackening that rocky multitude there showed westward over the rocks pale at first against remnants of sunset but growing more and more orange a window under one of the gables of men alveric rose and walked towards it till the rocks in the darkness and weariness overcame him and he lay down and slept and the little yellow window shone into his dreams and made forms of hope and came from Elfland the house that he saw in the morning when he woke seemed impossible to be the one whose tiny light had held out hope and helped him in the loneliness it seemed now too plain and common he recognized it for a house not far from the one of the leather worker soon he came to a pool and drank he came to a garden in which a woman was working early and she asked him whence he had come to the east he said and pointed and she did not understand and so he came again to the cottage from which he had started to ask once more for hospitality from the old man who had housed him twice he was standing in his doorway as alveric came walking wearily and again he made him welcome he gave him milk and then food and alveric ate and then rested all the day it was not till evening he spoke but when he had eaten and rested and he was at the table again and supper was now before him and there was light and warmth he felt all at once the need of human speech and then he poured out the story of that great journey over the land where the things of man ceased and where yet no birds or little beasts had come or even flowers a chronicle of desolation he said nothing making some comments of his own only when alveric spoke of the fields we know he heard with politeness but said never a word of the land from which Elfland had ebbed it was indeed as though all the land to the east were delusion and as though alveric had been restored from it or had awoken from dream and were now among reasonably daily things and there was nothing to say of the things of dream certainly never a word would the old man say in recognition of Elfland or of anything 80 yards east of his cottage door then alveric went to his bed and the old man sat alone till his fire was low thinking of what he had heard and shaking his head and all the next day alveric rested there or walked in the old man's autumn smitten garden and sometimes he tried again to speak with his host of his great journey in the desolate land but God from him no admission that such lands were checked always by his avoidance of the topic as though to speak of these lands might bring them nearer and alveric pondered on many reasons for this had the old man been to Elfland in his youth and seen something he greatly feared perhaps barely escaping from death or an age-long love was Elfland a mystery too great to be troubled by human voices did these folk dwelling there at the edge of our world know well the unearthly beauty of all the glories of Elfland and fear that even to speak of them might be allure to draw them wither their resolution barely perhaps held them back or might a word said of the magical land bring it nearer to make fantastic and elvish the fields we know to all these ponderings of alveric there was no answer and yet one more day alveric rested and after that he set out to return to Earl he set out in the morning and his host came with him out of the doorway saying farewell and speaking of his journey home and of the affairs of Earl which were food for gossip over many farmlands and great was the contrast between the good man's approval that he showed thus for the fields we know over which alveric journeyed now and his disapproval for those other lands wither alveric's hopes still turned and they parted and the old man's farewells dwindled and then he turned back into his house rubbing his hands contentedly as he slowly went for he was glad to see one who had looked toward the fantastic lands turned now to a journey across the fields we know in those fields the frost was master and alveric walked over the crisp grey grass and breathed the clear fresh air thinking little of his home or his son but planning how even yet he might come to Elfland for he thought that further north there might be a way coming round perhaps behind the pale blue mountains that Elfland had ebbed too far for him to overtake it there he felt despairingly sure but scarcely believed it had gone along the entire frontier of twilight where Elfland touches earth as far as poet Hassan further north he might find the frontier unmoved lying sleepy with twilight and come under the pale blue mountains and see his wife again full of these thoughts he went over the misty mellow fields and full of his dreams and plans about that phantasmal land he came in the afternoon to the woods that brood above Earl he entered the wood and deep though he was amongst thoughts that were far from there he soon saw the smoke of a fire a little way off rising gray among the dark oak bowls he went towards it to see who was there and there were his son and Cerunderel warming their hands at the fire where have you been called Orion as soon as he saw him upon a journey said Albaric Arthur's hunting Orion said and he pointed in the direction the wind was fanning the smoke and Cerunderel said nothing for she saw more in Albaric's eyes than any questions of hers would have drawn from his tongue then Orion showed him the deerskin on what he was sitting off shot it he said there seemed to be a magic all around that fire of big logs quietly smoldering in the woods upon Autumn's discarded robe that lay brilliant there with the magic of Elf land nor had Cerunderel called it up with her wand it was only a magic of the woods very own and Albaric stood there for a while in silence watching the boy and the witch by their fire in the woods and understanding that the time was come when he must tell Orion things that were not clear to himself and that were puzzling him even now yet he did not speak of them then but saying something of the affairs of Earl turned and walked on toward his castle while Cerunderel and the boy came back later with Oth and Albaric commanded supper when he came to his gateway and ate it alone in the great hall that there was in the castle of Earl and all the while he was pondering words to say and then he went in the evening up to the nursery and told the boy how his mother was gone for a while to Elf land and the boy replied I hear them blowing at evening end of chapter 13 the waltz the waltz the waltz the waltz the waltz the waltz the waltz the waltz the waltz the waltz the waltz chapter 13 the reticence of the letter worker chapter 14 of the king of Elf lands daughter by Lord Dunsani this Librivox recording is in the public domain chapter 14 the quest for the Elfin mountains winter descended on Earl and gripped the forest holding the small twigs stiff and still in the valley it silenced the stream the grass of the oxen the grass was brittle as earthenware and the breath of the beasts went up like the smoke of encampments and Orion still went to the woods whenever Oth would take him and sometimes he went with Threl when he went with Oth the wood was full of glamour of the beasts that Oth hunted and the splendor of the great stags seemed to haunt the gloom of far hollows but when he went with Threl a mystery haunted the wood to say what creature might not appear nor what hunted and hid by every enormous bowl what beasts there were in the wood even Threl did not know many kinds fell to his subtlety but who knew if these were all and when the boy was late in the wood on happy evenings he would always hear as the sun went blazing down rank on rank of the Elfin horns blowing far away eastwards the chill of the coming dusk very far and faint like a revelry heard in dreams from beyond the woods they sounded all those ringing horns from beyond the downs far over the furthest curve of them and he knew them for the silver horns of Elfland in all other ways he was human but for his power to hear those horns of Elfland whose music rings but a yard beyond human hearing and his knowledge of what they were but for these two things he was as yet not more than a human child and how the horns of Elfland blew over the barrier of twilight to be heard by any ear in the fields we know I cannot understand yet Tennyson speaks of them as heard faintly blowing even in these fields of ours and I believe that by accepting all that the poets say while duly inspired our errors will be fewest so though science may deny or confirm it Tennyson's line shall guide me here Alvarick in those days went through the village of Earl with his thoughts far from there and he stopped at many doors and spoke and planned with his eyes always fixed as it seemed on things no one else could see he was brooding on far horizons and the last over which was Elfland and from house to house he gathered a little band of men it was Alvarick's dream to find the frontier further north to travel on over the fields we know always searching new horizons till he came to some place from which Elfland had not ebbed to this he determined to dedicate his days when Lerazel was with him amongst the fields we know his thoughts had ever been to make her more earthy but now that she was gone the thoughts of his own mind were becoming daily more elvish and folk began to look sideways at his fantastic mean dreaming always of Elfland and of elvish things he gathered horses and a provender and made for his little band so huge a store of provisions that those who saw it wondered many men he asked to be of that curious band and few would go with him to the haunt horizons when they heard where he went and the first that he found of that band was a lad that was crossed in love and then a young shepherd well used to lonely spaces then one that had heard a curious song that someone sang on evening it had set his thoughts roving away to impossible lands and so he was well content to follow his fancies one huge full moon one summer had shown all the warm night long on a lad as he lay in the hay after that he had guessed or seen things that he said the moon showed him whatever they were none else saw any such things in Earl he also joined Alvarex band as soon as he asked him it was many days before Alvarex found these four and more he could not find but a lad that was quite witless and he took him to tend the horses for he understood horses well and they understood him though no human man or woman could come out at all except his mother who wept when Alvarex had his promise to go for she said that he was the prop in support of her age and knew what storms would come and when the swallows would fly and what colors the flowers would come up from seeds she sowed in her garden and where the spiders would build their webs and the ancient fables of flies she wept and said that there would be more things lost by his going than ever folk but Alvarex took him anyway many go thus and one morning six horses hept and hung with provisions all around their saddles waited at Alvarex gateway with the five men that were to roam with him as far as the world's edge he had taken long counsel with Zerundarelle but she said that no magic of hers had power to charm Elfland or to cross the dread will of its king he therefore commended Orion to her care knowing well that though hers was but simple or earthly magic yet no magic likely to cross the fields we know nor curse nor rune directed against his boy would be able to thwart her spell and for himself he trusted to the fortune that waits at the end of long weary journeys to Orion he spoke long not knowing how long that journey might be before he again found Elfland nor how easily he might return across the frontier of twilight he asked the boy what he desired of life to be a hunter said he what will you hunt while I am over the hills stags like oths said Orion Alvarex commended that sport for he himself loved it and someday I will go a long way over the hills and hunt stranger things said the boy what kind of things asked Alvarex but the boy did not know his father suggested different kinds of beasts no stranger than them said Orion but what will they be asked the father magic things said the boy but the horses moved restlessly down below in the cold so that there was no time for more idle talk and Alvarex said farewell to the witch son and strode away thinking little of the future for all was too vague for thought Alvarex mounted his horse over the heaps of provisions and all the band of six men rode away the villagers stood in the street to see them go all knew their curious quest and when all had saluted Alvarex and all had called their farewells to the last of the riders a home of talk arose and in the talk was contempt of Alvarex quest and pity and ridicule and sometimes affection spoke and sometimes scorn yet in the hearts of all there was envy for their reason mocked the lonely roving of that outlandish adventure but their hearts would have gone and away rode Alvarex out of the village of Earl with his company of adventurers behind him a moon struck man a mad man a love sick lad a boy and a poet and Alvarex made van the young shepherd the master of his encampment for he deemed him to be the sanest among his following but there were disputes had once as they rode before they came to make any encampment and Alvarex hearing or feeling the discontent of his men learned that on such a quest as his it was not the sanest but the maddest that should be given authority so he named Niv the witless lad the master of his encampment and Niv served him well till the day that was for offense and the moon struck man stood by Niv and all were content to do the bidding of Niv and all honored Alvarex quest and many men in numerous lands do saner things with less harmony they came to the uplands and rode over the fields and rode till they came to the furthest edges of men and to the houses that they have built at the verge beyond which even their thoughts refused to fare through this line of houses at the edge of those fields four or five in every mile Alvarex went with his queer company the leather workers hut was far to the south now he turned northward to ride past the backs of the houses over fields through which once the barrier of twilight had run till he should find some place where Elfland might seem not to have ebbed so far he explained this to his men and the leading spirits Niv and Zen who was moon struck applauded at once and till the young dreamer of songs said the scheme was a wise one too and van was carried away by the king zeal of these three and it was all one to Renok the lover and they had not gone far along the backs of the houses when the red sun touched the horizon and they hastened to make an encampment by what remained of the light of that short winter's day and Niv said they would build a palace like those of kings and the idea fired Zen to work like three men and Thill helped eagerly and they set up stakes and stretched blankets upon them and made a wall of brushwood where they were but just outside the hedgerows and van helped too with rough hurdles and when all was finished Niv said that it was a palace and Alvarec went in and rested while they lit a fire outside and van cooked a meal for them all which he did every day for himself upon lonely downs and none could have cared for the horses better than Niv and as the gloaming faded away the cold of winter grew and by the time that the first star shone there seemed nothing in all the night but bitter cold yet Alvarec's men laid down by their fire and their leathers and furs and slept all but Renok the lover to Alvarec lying on furs in his shelter watching red embers glowing beyond dark shapes of his men the quest promised well he would go far north watching every horizon for any sign of Elfland he would go by the border of the fields we know and always be near provisions if he got no glimpse of the pale blue mountains he would go on till he found some field from which Elfland had not ebbed and so come around behind them and Niv and Zend and Thyl had all sworn to him this evening that before many days were gone they would surely all find Elfland upon this thought he slept End of Chapter 14 The Quest for the Elven Mountains Read for you by Michelle Fry Baton Rouge, Louisiana in January 2020 Chapter 15 of The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany The Sleeper Vox Recording is in the public domain Chapter 15 The Retreat of the Elf King When Lerazel blew away with the splendid leaves they dropped one by one from their dance in the gleaming air of her fields for a while and then gathered by hedge-rows and rested but earth that pulls all things down had no hold on her for the rune of the King of Elfland had crossed its borders calling her home so she rode carelessly the great northwest wind looking down idly on the fields we know as she swept over them homewards no grip had earth on her any longer at all were gone all her earthly cares she saw without grief old fields wherein she and Alveric walked once they drifted by she saw the houses of men these also passed and deep and dense and heavy with color she saw the border of Elfland A last cry earth called to her with many voices a child shouting Rook's Cowing the dull lowing of cows no cart heaving home then she was into the dense barrier of twilight and all earth's sounds dimmed suddenly she was through it and they ceased like a tired horse falling dead our northwest wind dropped at the frontier for no winds blow in Elfland that roam over the fields we know and Lerazel slanted slowly onward and down till her feet were back again on the magical soil of her home she saw full fair the peaks of the Elfin mountains and dark underneath them the forest that guarded the Elf king's throne above this forest were glimmering even now great spires in the Elfin morning which glows with more sparkling splendor than do our most dewy dawns and never passes away over the Elfin land the Elfin lady passed with her light feet touching the grasses as thistle down touches them when it comes down to them and brushes their crests while the languid wind rolls it slowly over the fields we know and all the elvish and fantastic things and the curious aspect of the land and the odd flowers and the haunted trees and the ominous boating of magic that hung in the air were all so full of memories of her home that she flung her arms about the first gnarled gnome-like trunk and kissed its wrinkled bark and so she came to the enchanted wood and the sinister pines that guarded it with the watchful ivy leaning over their branches bowed to Lirazelle as she passed not a wonder in that wood not a grim hint of magic but brought back the past to her as though it had scarcely gone it was she felt but yesterday morning that she had gone away and it was yesterday morning still as she passed through the wood the gashes of alveric sword were yet fresh and white on the trees and now a light began to glow through the wood then flash upon flash of colors and she knew they shone from the glory and splendor of flowers that girdled the lawns of her father to these she came again and her faint footprints that she had made as she left her father's palace and wondered to see alveric there were not yet gone from the bended grass and the spider's webs and the dew there the great flowers glowed in the elfin light while beyond them they're twinkled and flashed with the portal through which she had left it still open wide to the lawns the palace that may not be told of but only in song thither Lirazelle returned and the elf king feared by magic the tread of her soundless feet was before his door to meet her his great beard almost hid her as they embraced he had sorrowed for her long through that elfin morning he had wondered despite his wisdom he had feared for all his ruins he had yearned for her as human hearts may yearn for all that he was of magic stock dwelling beyond our fields and now she was home again and the elfin morning brightened over leagues of elf land with the old elf king's joy and even a glow was seen upon slopes of the elfin mountains and through the flash and glimmer of the vast doorway they passed into the palace once more the night of the elf king's guards saluted with his sword as they went but dared not turn his head after Lirazelle's beauty they came again to the hall of the elf king's throne in the light of rainbows and ice and the great king seated himself and took Lirazelle on his knee and a calm came down upon elf land and for long through the endless elfin morning nothing troubled that calm Lirazelle rested after the cares of earth the elf king sat there keeping the deep content in his heart the night of the guard remained at the salute his swords point downward still the palace glowed and shone it was like a scene in some deep pool beyond the sound of a city with green reeds and gleaming fishes and myriads of tiny shells all shining in the twilight on deep water which nothing has disturbed through all the long summer's day and thus they rested beyond the fret of time and the hours rested around them as the little leaping waves of a cataract rest when the ice calms the stream the serene blue peaks of the elfin mountains above them stood like unchanging dreams then like the noise of some city heard amongst birds in woods like a sub heard amongst children that are all met to rejoice like laughter amongst a company that weep like a shrill wind in orchards amongst the early blossom like a wolf coming over the downs where the sheep are asleep there came a feeling in the elf king's mood that one was coming towards them across the fields of earth it was alveric with his sword of thunderbolt iron which somehow the old king sensed by its flavor of magic then the elf king rose and he put his left arm about his daughter and raised his right to make a mighty enchantment standing up before his shining throne which was the very center of elf land and with clear resonance deep down in his throat he chanted a rhythmic spell all made of words that Lerazel never had heard before some age old incantation calling elf land away drawing it further from earth and the marvelous flowers heard as their petals drank in the music and the deep notes flooded the lawns and all the palace thrilled and quivered with brighter colors and a charm went over the plain as far as the frontier of twilight and a trembling went through the enchanted wood still the elf king chanted on the ringing ominous notes came now to the elfin mountains and all their line of peaks quivered as hills in haze when the heat of summer beats up from the moors and visibly dances in air all elf land heard all elf land obeyed that spell and now the king and his daughter drifted away as the smoke of the nomads drifts over Sahara away from their camel's hair tense as dreams drift away at dawn as clouds over the sunset and like the wind with the smoke night with the dreams warmth with the sunset all elf land drifted with them and left the desolate plain the dreary deserted region the unenchanted land so swiftly that spell was uttered so suddenly elf land obeyed that many a little song old memory garden or matri of remembered years was swept but a little way by the drift and heave of elf land swaying too slowly eastwards till the elfin lawns were gone and the barrier of twilight heaved over them and left them among the rocks and whither elf land went I cannot say nor even whether it followed the curve of the earth or drifted beyond our rocks out into twilight there had been an enchantment near to our fields and now there was none wherever it went it was far then the elf king ceased to chant and all was accomplished as silently as in a moment that none can determine the long layers over the sunset turned from gold to pink or from a glowing pink to a listless unlit color all elf land left the edges of those fields by which its wonder had lurked for long ages of men and was away now whither I know not and the elf king seated himself again on his throne of mist and ice in which charmed rainbows were and took Lirazel his daughter again on his knee and the calm that his chanting had broken came back heavy and deep over elf land heavy and deep it fell on the lawns heavy and deep on the flowers each dazzling blade of grass was still in its little curve as though nature in a moment of mourning said hush at the sudden end of the world and the flowers dreamed on in their beauty immune from or wind far over the moors of the trolls slept the calm of the king of elf land where the smoke from their queer habitations hung stilled in the air and in a forest wherein it quieted the trembling of myriads of petals on roses it stilled the pools where the great lilies towered till they and their reflections slept on in one gorgeous dream and there below the fronds of dream-gripped trees on the still water dreaming of the still air where the huge lily leaves floated green in the calm was the troll Lorlu sitting upon a leaf for thus they named in elf land the troll that had gone to Earl he sat there gazing into the water at a certain impudent look that he had on he gazed and gazed and gazed and he stirred nothing changed all things were still reposing in the deep content of the king the night of the guard brought his sword back to the carry and afterwards stood as still at his perpetual post as some suit of armor whose owner is centuries dead and still the king sat silent with his daughter upon his knee his blue eyes unmoving wide windows shown from the Elfin mountains and the elf king stirred not nor changed but held to that moment in which he had found content and laid its influence over all his dominions for the good and welfare of elf land for he had what all our troubled world with all its changes seeks and finds so rarely and must at once cast it away he had found content and held it and in that calm that settled down upon Elfin land there passed ten years over the fields we know end of chapter 15 the retreat of the elf king chapter 16 of the king of Elfin land's daughter by Lord Dunseney this LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 16 Orion hunts the stag there passed ten years over the fields we know and Orion grew and learned the art of oath and had the cunning of thrill and knew the woods and the slopes and veils of the downs as many another boy knows how to multiply figures by other figures or to draw the thoughts from a language not his own and to set them down again in words of his own tongue and little he knew of the things that ink may do how it can mark a dead man's blood for the wonder of later years and tale of happenings that are gone clean away and be a voice for us out of the dark of time and save many a fragile thing from the pounding of heavy ages or carry to us over the rolling centuries even a song from lips long dead on forgotten hills little knew he of ink but the touch of a rowed deer's feet on dry ground gone three hours was a clear path and nothing went through the woods but Orion read its story and all the sounds of the wood were as full of clear meaning to him as are to the mathematician the signs and figures he makes when he divides his millions by tens and eleven and twelve he knew by sun and moon and wind what birds would enter the wood he knew of the coming seasons whether they would be mild or severe only a little later than the beasts of the wood themselves which have not human reason or soul and that know so much more than we and so he grew to know the very mood of the woods and could enter their shadowy shelter like one of the woodland beasts and this he could do when he was barely fourteen years and many a man lives all his years and can never enter a wood without changing the whole mood of its shadowy ways for men enter a wood perhaps with the wind behind them they brush against branches step on twigs speak smoke or tread heavily and jays cry out against them pigeons leave the trees rabbits pad off to safety and far more beasts than they know slip on soft feet away from their coming but Orion moved like threl in shoes of deer skin with the tread of a hunter and none of the beasts of the wood knew when he was come and he came to have a pile of skins like us that he won with his bow in the wood and he hung great horns of stags in the hall of the castle high up among old horns where the spider had lived for ages and this was one of the signs whereby the people of Earl came to know him now for their lord for no news came of Alvaric and all the old lords of Earl had been hunters of deer and another sign was the departing of the witch when she went back to her hill and Orion lived in the castle now by himself and she dwelt in her cottage again where her cabbages grew on the high land near to the thunder and all that wonder Orion hunted the stags in the wood but when spring came he put his bow away yet all through the season of song his thoughts were still with the chase and he went from house to house where ever a man had one of the long thin dogs that hunt and sometimes he bought the dog and sometimes the man would promise to lend it on days of hunting thus Orion formed a pack of brown long haired hounds and yearned for the spring and summer to go by and one spring evening when Orion was tending his hounds when villagers were mostly at their doors to notice the length of the evening there came a man up the street whom nobody knew he came from the uplands wrapped in the most aged of clothes which clung to him as though they had clung forever and were somehow a part of him and yet part of the earth for they were mellowed by the clay of the high fields to its own deep brown and folk noticed the easy stride of the mighty walker and in his eyes and none knew who he was and then a woman said it is Vand that was only a lad and they all crowded about him then for it was indeed Vand who had left the sheep more than ten years ago to ride with Alveric no one in Earl knew Hither how fair is our master they said and a look of weariness came in the eyes of Vand he follows the quest he said Hither they asked to the north he said he seeks for Elf land still why have you loved him they asked I lost the hope he said they questioned him no more then for all men knew that to seek for Elf land one needed a strong hope and without it one saw no gleam of the Elfin mountains serene with unchanging blue and then the mother of Niv came running up is it indeed Vand she said and they all said yes it is Vand and while they murmured together about Vand and of how years and wondering had changed him she said to him tell me of my son and Vand replied he leads the quest there is none whom my master trusts more and they all wondered and yet they had no cause for wonder for it was a mad quest but Niv's mother alone did not wonder I knew he would she said I knew he would and she was filled with a great content there are events and seasons to suit the mood of every man though few indeed could have suited the crazed mood of Niv yet there came Alvarex quest of Elf land and so Niv found his work and talking in the late evening with Vand the folk of Earl heard tales of many camps many marches a tale of prophetless wondering where Alvarex haunted horizons year after year like a ghost and sometimes out of Vand sadness that had come from those prophetless years a smile would shine as he told of some foolish happening that had taken place in the camp but all was told by one that had lost hope in the quest this was not the way to tell of it not with doubts not with smiles for such a quest may only be told of those who are fired by its glory from the mad brain of Niv or the moon-struck wits of Zend we might have news of that quest which could light our minds with some gleam of its meaning but never from the story be it made out of facts or scoffs told by one whom the quest itself was able to lure no longer the stars stole out and still Vand was telling his stories and one by one the people went back to their houses to hear no more of the hopeless quest had the tale been told by one who clung yet to the faith that still was leading Albaric's wanderers on the stars would have weakened before those folks left the teller the sky would have brightened so widely before they left him that one would have said at last why it is morning not till then would they have gone and the next day Vand went back to the Downs and the sheep and troubled himself with romantic quests no more and during that spring Vand spoke of Albaric again wondering a while at his quest speaking a while of Lyricell and guessing where she had gone and guessing why and where they could not guess telling some tale to explain all which went forth mouth to mouth till they came to believe it and spring went by and they forgot Albaric and obeyed the will of Orion and then one day as Orion was waiting for the summer to go by with his heart on frosty days and his dreams with his hands on the uplands Rhanuk the lover came over the Downs by the path by which Vand had come and walked down into Earl Rhanuk with his heart free at last with all his melancholy gone Rhanuk without woe careless, carefree, content looking only for rest after his long wandering sighing no more and nothing but this would have made Vairia care to have him the girl he had sought once so the end of this was that she married him and he too went roaming no more on fantastic quests and though some looked to the uplands through many an evening till the long days wore away and a strange wind touched the leaves and some peered over the further curves of the Downs yet they saw none more of the followers of Alvaric's quest coming back by the path that Vand and Rhanuk had trod and by the time that the leaves were a wonder of scarlet and gold men spoke no more of Alvaric but obeyed Orion his son and in this season Orion arose one day before Dawn and took his horn and his bow and went to his hounds who wondered to hear his step before light was come they heard it all in their sleep and awoke and clamored to him and he loosed them and calm them and led them away to the Downs and to the lonely magnificence of the Downs they came when the stags are feeding on dewy grasses before men are awake. All in the wild wet morning they ran over the gleaming slopes Orion and his hounds all rejoicing together and the scent of the thym came heavy with the air that Orion breathed as he trod its wide patches blooming lake in the year to the hounds there came all the wandering scents of the morning and what wild creatures had met on the hill in the dark and what had crossed it going upon their journeys and whither all had gone when the day grew bright bringing the threat of man Orion guessed and wondered but to the hounds all was clear and some of the scents they noted with careful noses and some they scorned and for one they sought in vain for the great red deer were not on the Downs that morning and Orion led them far from the veil of Earl but saw no stag that day and never a wind brought the scent that the anxious hounds were seeking nor could they find it hidden in any grass or leaves and evening came on him bringing his hounds home calling on stragglers with his horn while the sun turned huge and scarlet and fainter than echoes of his horn and far beyond Downs and Mist but clear each silver note he heard the elfin horns that called him always at evening with the great comradeship of a common weariness he and his hounds came home dark in the starlight the windows of Earl at last flashed to them the glow of their welcome hounds came to their kennels and ate and lay down to contented sleep Orion went to his castle he too ate and afterwards set thinking of the Downs and his hounds and the day his mind lulled by fatigue to that point at which it rests beyond care and many a day passed thus and then one dewy morning coming over a ridge of the Downs they saw a stag below them feeding late when all the rest were gone the hounds all broke into one joyous cry the heavy stag moved rimbly over the grass Orion shot an arrow and missed all these things happened in a moment and then the hounds streamed away and the wind went over the backs of them with a ripple and the stag went away as though every one of his feet were on little dancing springs and at first the hounds were swifter than Orion but he was as tireless as they and by taking sometimes shorter ways than theirs he stayed near them till they came to a stream and faltered and began to need the help of human reason and such help as human reason can give in such a matter Orion gave them and soon they were on again and the morning passed as they went from hill to hill and they had not seen the stag a second time and the afternoon wore away and still the hounds followed every step of the stag with a skill as strange as magic and towards evening Orion saw him going slowly along the slope of a hill over coarse grass that was shining in the rays of the low sun he cheered on his hounds and they ran him over three more small valleys but down at the bottom of the third he turned round amongst the pebbles of a stream and waited there for the hounds and they came baying around him watching his brow antlers and there they tore him down and killed him at sunset and Orion wound his horn with joy in his heart he wanted no more than this and with a note like that of joy as though they also rejoiced or mocked his rejoicing over hills that he knew not perhaps from the far side of the sunset the horns of Elfland answered end of chapter 16 Orion hunts the stag chapter 17 of the king of Elfland's daughter by Lord Dunsany is in the public domain chapter 17 the unicorn comes in the starlight the winter came and whitened the roofs of Earl and all the forests and uplands and when Orion took his hounds afield in the morning the world lay like a book that was newly written by life for all the story of the night before lay in long lines in the snow here the fox had gone and there the badger the red deer had gone out of the wood the tracks led over the downs and disappeared from sight as the deeds of statesmen, soldiers courtiers and politicians appear and disappear on the pages of history even the birds had their record on those white downs where the eye could follow each step of their treble claws till suddenly on each side of the track would appear three little scars where the tips of their longest feathers had flicked the snow where the track faded utterly they were like some popular cry some vehement fancy that comes down on a page of history for a day and passes leaving no other record at all except those lines on one page and amongst all these records left of the story of night Orion would choose the track of some great stag not too long gone and would follow it with his hands away over the downs until even the sound of his horn could be heard no longer in Earl and over a ridge with his hounds he and they all black against red remnants of sunset the folk of Earl would see him coming home and often it was not until all the stars were glowing through the frost often the skin of a red deer hung over his shoulders and the huge horns bobbed and knotted above his head and at this time there met one day in the forage of Narl all unknown to Orion the men of the parliament of Earl they met after sunset when all were home from their work and gravely Narl handed to each the mead that was brewed from the clover honey and when all were come they sat silent and then Narl broke the silence saying that Alvarec ruled over Earl no more and his son was Lord of Earl and telling again how once they had hoped for a magic lord to rule over the valley and to make it famous and saying that this should be he and where now he said is the magic for which we hoped for he hunts the deer as all his forefathers hunted and nothing of magic has touched him from over there and there is no new thing and Oth stood up to defend him he is as fleet as his hounds he said and hunts from dawn to sunset and crosses the furthest downs and comes home untired it is but youth said Guhik and so said Alvarec and Threl stood up and said he has a knowledge of the ways of the woods and the lore of the beasts beyond the learning of man you taught him said Guhik there is no magic here nothing of this said Narl is from over there thus they argued a while lamenting the loss of the magic for which they had hoped for never a valley but history touches it once never a village but once its name is a while in the lips of men only the village of Earl was utterly unrecorded never a century knew it beyond the round of its downs and now all their plans seemed lost which they made so long ago and they saw no hope except in the mead that was brewed from the clover honey to this they turned in silence now it was a goodly true and in a while new plans flashed clear in their minds new schemes and new devices and debates in the parliament of Earl flowed proudly on and they would have made a plan and a policy but Oth arose from his seat there was in a flint built house of the village of Earl an ancient chronicle a volume bound in leather and in it at certain seasons folk wrote all manner of things the wisdom of farmers concerning the time to sow the wisdom of hunters concerning the tracking of stags and the wisdom of prophets that told of the way of earth from this Oth quoted now two lines that he remembered on one of the aged pages and all the rest of that page told of hoeing these lines he said to the parliament of Earl as they sat with the mead before them at their table hooded and veiled with their night like tresses the fates shall bring what no prophet guesses and then they planned no more for either their minds were calmed by a certain awe that they seemed to find in the lines or it may be the mead was stronger than anything written in books however it be they sat silent over their mead and in early starlight while the west still glowed they passed away from Narl's house back to their own homes grumbling as they went that they had no magic afford to rule over Earl and yearning for magic to save from oblivion the village and valley they loved they parted one by one as they came to their houses and three or four that dwelt near the end of the village on the side that was under the downs were not yet come to their doors when white and clear in the starlight and what remained of the gloomy they saw a hard pressed and wearied a hunted unicorn coming across the downs they stopped and gazed and shaded their eyes and stroked their beards and wondered and still it was a white unicorn galloping wearily and then they heard drawing nearer the cry of Orion's hounds end of chapter 17 the unicorn comes in the starlight chapter 18 of the king of Elfland's daughter by Lord Dunseney this LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 18 the great tent in the evening on the day that the hunted unicorn crossed the valley of Earl Alveric had wandered for over 11 years for more than 10 years a company of six they went by the backs of the houses by the edges of the fields we know and camped at evenings with their queer material hung grayly on poles and whether or not the strange romance of their quest mirrored itself in all the things about them those camps of theirs seemed always the strangest thing in the landscape and as evening grew grayer around them their romance and mystery grew and for all the vehemence of Alveric's ambition they traveled leisurely and lazily sometimes in a pleasant camp they stayed for three days then they went strolling on 10 miles they would march and then they would camp again some day Alveric felt sure in his heart they would see the border of twilight some day they would enter Elfland and in Elfland he knew that time was not as here unaged in Elfland with never one smile lost to the raging years never a furrow worn by the ruin of time this was his hope and it led his queer company on from camp to camp and cheered them round the fire in the lonely evenings and brought them far to the north traveling all along the edges of the fields we know where all men's faces turned the other way and the six wanderers went unseen and unheeded only the mind of Vand hung back from their hope and more and more every year his reason denied the lure that was leading the rest and then one day he lost his faith after that he only followed until a day when the wind was full of rain and all were cold and wet and the horses weary he left them then and Ranook followed because he had no hope in his heart and wished to wander from sorrow until one day when all the blackbirds were singing in trees of the fields we know and his hopelessness left him in the glittering sunshine and he thought of the cozy homes and the haunts of men and then he too passed out of the camp one evening and set off for the pleasant lands and now the four that were left were all of one mind and under the wet coarse cloth that they hung on poles there was a deep content in the evenings for Alveric clung to his hope with all the strength of his race that had once won Earl in old battles and held it for centuries long and in the vacant minds of Niv and Zend strong and big like some rare flower that a gardener may plant by chance in a wild, untended place and Thill sung of the hope and all his wild fancies that roamed after song decked Alveric's quest with more and more of glamour so all were of one mind and greater quests whether mad or sane have prospered when this was so and greater quests have failed when it was otherwise they had gone northwards for years along the backs of those houses and then one day they would turn eastward wherever a certain look in the sky or a touch of weirdness at evening or a mere prophecy of Niv's seemed to suggest a proximity of Elfland upon such occasions they would travel over the rocks that for all those years lay bordering the fields we know until Alveric saw that provisions for men and horses would barely bring them back to the houses of men then they would turn again but Niv would have led them still onward over the rocks for his enthusiasm grew as they went and Thill sang to them prophesying success and Zend would say that he saw the peaks and the spars of Elfland only Alveric was wise and so they would come to the houses of men again and buy more provisions and Niv and Zend and Thill would babble of the quest pouring out the enthusiasm that burned in their hearts but Alveric did not speak of it for he had learned that men in those fields neither speak of nor look towards Elfland although he had not learned why soon they were on again and the folk that had sold them the produce of fields we know gazed curiously after them as they went as though they thought that from madness alone or from dreams inspired by the moon came all the talk they had heard from Niv and Zend and Thill thus they always traveled on always seeking new points from which to discover Elfland and on the left of them blew scents from the fields we know the scent of lilac from cottage gardens in May and then the scent of the white thorn and then of roses till all the air was heavy with new moon hay they heard the low of the cattle left heard human voices heard partages calling heard all the sounds that go up from happy farms and on their right was always the desolate land always the rocks and never grass nor a flower they had the companionship of men no more and yet they could not find Elfland in such a case they needed the songs of Thill and the sure hope of Niv and the talk of Alveric's quest spread through the land and overtook his wanderings till all men that he passed by knew his story and from some he had the contempt that some men give to those who dedicate all their days to a quest and from others he had honor but all he asked for was Provinder and this he bought when they brought it so they went on like legendary things they passed along the backs of the houses tent in the gray evenings they came as quietly as rain and went away like mist drifting there were jests about them and songs and the songs outlasted the jests at last they became a legend which haunted those farms forever they were spoken of when men told of hopeless quests and held up to laughter or glory whichever men had to give and all the while of Elfland watched for he knew by magic when Alveric's sword drew near it had troubled his kingdom once and the king of Elfland knew well the flavor of thunderbolt iron when he felt it loom on the air from this he had withdrawn his frontiers far leaving all that ragged land deserted of Elfland and though he knew not the length of human journeys he had left a space that to cross would weary the comet and rightly deemed himself safe but when Alveric with his sword was far to the north the Elf king loosened the grip with which he had withdrawn Elfland as the moon that withdraws the tide lets it flow back again and Elfland came racing back as the tide over flat sands with a long ribbon of twilight at its edge it floated back over the waste of rocks with old songs it came with old dreams and with old voices and in a while the frontier of twilight lay flashing and glimmering near the fields we know like an endless summer evening that lingered on out of the golden age but bleak and far to the north where Alveric wandered the limitless rocks still heaped the desolate land only to fields from which he and his sword and his adventurous band were remotely gone that mighty inlet of Elfland came lapping back so that close again to the leather workers cottage and to the farms of his neighbors a bear three fields away lay the land that was heaped and piled with all the wonder for which poets seek so hard the very treasury of all romantic things and the Elfin mountains gazed over the border serenely as though their pale blue peaks had never moved and here the unicorns fed along the border as it was their custom to do feeding sometimes in Elfland which is the home of all fabulous things cropping lilies below the slopes of the Elfin mountains and sometimes slipping through the border of twilight at evening when all our fields are still to feed upon earthly grass it is because of this craving for earthly grass that comes on them now and then as the red deer in Highland mountains gave once a year for the sea that fabulous though they are on account of their birth in Elfland their existence is nevertheless known among men the fox which is born in our fields also crosses the frontier going into the border of twilight at certain seasons it is thence that he gets the romance with which he comes back to our fields he also is fabulous but only in Elfland as the unicorns are fabulous here and seldom the folks on those farms saw the unicorns even dim in the gloomy for their faces were turned forever away from Elfland the wonder the beauty the glamour the story of Elfland were for minds that had leisure to care for such things as these but the crops needed these men and the beasts that were not fabulous and the thatch and the hedges and the thousand things barely at the end of each year fight against winter they knew well that if they let a thought of theirs turn but for a moment towards Elfland its glory would grip them soon and take all their leisure away and there would be no time left to mend thatch or hedge or to plow the fields we know but Orion lured by the sound of the horn is that blue from Elfland at evening and that some elivish attuning of his ears to magical things caused him alone in all those fields to hear came with his hands to a field across which ran the frontier of twilight and found the unicorns there late on an evening and slipping along a hedge of the little field with his hands patting behind him he came between a unicorn and the frontier and cut it off from Elfland this was the unicorn that with flashing neck covered with flecks of foam that shone silvery in the starlight panting harried and weary came across the valley of Earl like an inspiration like a new dynasty to a custom weary land like news of a happier continent found far off by suddenly returning seafaring men end of chapter 18 the gray tent in the evening