The Wisdom Of The King

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    <strong>The Wisdom Of The King</strong>

    THE High-Queen of the Island of

    Woods had died in child-birth, and her

    child ut to nurse, with a woman who

    lived in a hut of mud and wicker, within

    the border of the wood. One night the

    woman sat rog the cradle, and p

    over the beauty of the child, and praying

    that the gods might grant him wisdom

    equal to his beauty. There came a knock

    at the door, and she got up, not a little

    w, for the  neighbours were

    in the dun of the High-King a mile away;

    and the night was now late. Who is

    knog? she cried, and a thin voice

    answered, ` Open! for I am a e of the

    grey hawk, and I e from the darkness

    of the great wood. In terror she drew

    back the bolt, and a grey-clad woman, of

    a great age, and of a height more than

    human, came in and stood by the head of

    the cradle. The nurse shrank back against

    the wall, uo take her eyes from the

    woman, for she saw by the gleaming of the

    firelight that the feathers of the grey hawk

    were upon her head instead of hair. But

    the child slept, and the fire danced, for the

    one was too ignorant and the other too full

    of gaiety to know what a dreadful being

    stood there.  Open !  cried another voice,

    ~ for I am a e of the grey hawk, and I

    watch over his ncst in the darkness of the

    great wood. The nurse opehe door

    again, though her fingers could scarce hold

    the bolts for trembling, and anrey

    woman, not less old thaher, and

    with like feathers instead of hair, came in

    and stood by the first. In a little, came a

    third grey woman, and after her a fourth,

    and then another and another and another,

    until the hut was full of their immense

    forms. They stood a long time in

    perfect silend stillness, for they were

    of those whom the dropping of the sand

    has roubled, but at last otered

    in a low thin voice:  Sisters, I knew him

    far away by the redness of his heart under

    his silver skin; and then another spoke:

    Sisters, I knew him because his heart

    fluttered like a bird under a  of silver

    cords; and then aook up the

    word:  Sisters, I knew him because his

    heart sang like a bird that had fotten

    the silver cords. And after that they Bang

    together, those who wearest rog

    the cradle with long wrinkled fingers; and

    their voices were now tender and caressing,

    now like the wind blowing in the

    great wood, and this was their song:

    Out of sight is out of mind:

    Long have man and woman-kind

    Heavy of will and light of mood,

    Taken away our wheaten food,

    Taken away our Altar stone;

    Hail and rain and thunder alone,

    And red hearts we turn to grey,

    Are true till Time gutter away.

    When the song had died out, the e

    who had first spoken, said, ~ Nothing now

    remains but that a drop of our blood be

    mixed into his blood. And she Scratched

    her arm with the sharp point of a spindle,

    which she had made the nurse bring to

    her, a a drop of blood, grey as the

    mist, fall upon the lips of the child; and

    passed out into the darkness. Then the

    others passed out in silene by one;

    and all the while the child had not opened

    his pink eyelids or the firc ceascd to dance,

    for the one was too ignorant, and the other

    too full of gaiety to know how great the

    beings were that had bent over a cradle.

    When the es were gohe nurse

    came to her ce again, and hurried to

    the dun of the High-King, and cried out

    in the midst of the assembly hall that the

    Shee, whether food or evil she knew

    not, had bent over the child that night;

    and the king and his poets and men of law,

    and his hunts men, and his cook, and his

    chief warriors went with her to the hut and

    gathered about the cradle, and were as

    noisy as magpies, and the child sat up and

    looked at them.

    Two years passed over, and the king

    died fighting against the People of the Bag;

    and the poets and the men of law ruled in

    the name of the <var></var>Child, but looked to see

    him bee the master himself before

    long, for no one had seen so wise a

    child, and tales of his endless questions

    about the household of the gods and the

    making of the world went hither and

    thither among the wicl;er houses of the

    poor. I~vcrythillg had be well, but

    for a miracle that began to trouble all

    men; and all women, who, ialked

    of it without ceasing. The feathers of the

    grey hawk had begun to grow in the childs

    hair, and though his  them -

    tinually, it needed but a little while and

    they were more numerous thahis

    had not been a matter of great moment,

    for miracles were a little thing in those

    days, but for an a law of Eri that

    none who had any blemish of body could

    sit upohrone; and as a grey hawk

    was a wild thing of the air which had

    never sat at the board, or listeo the

    songs of the poets in the light of the fire,

    it was not possible to think of one in whose

    hair its feathers grew as other than marred

    and blaste<u>藏书网</u>d; nor could the people separate

    from their admiration of the wisdom that

    grew in him a horror as at one of unhuman

    blood. Yet all were resolved that he

    should reign, for they had suffered much

    from foolish kings and their own disorders,

    and moreover they desired to watch out

    the spectacle of his days; and no one had

    any other fear but that his great wisdom

    might bid him obey the law, and call Eocha

    of the Plain of Towers, who had but a

    ind, tn in his stead.

    When the child was seven years old

    the poets and the men of law were called

    together by the chief poet, and all these

    matters weighed and sidered. The

    child had already seen that those about

    him had hair only, and, though they had

    told him that they too had had feathers

    but had lost them because of a sin -

    mitted by their forefathers, they khat

    he would learruth when he began

    to wander into the try round about.

    After much sideration they decreed a

    new law anding every one upon pain

    of death to mingle by a subtlety of art the

    feathers of the grey hawk into his hair;

    and they sent men with s and slings,

    for as yet the bow was not ied, into

    the tries round about to gather a suf-

    ficy of feathers. They decreed also

    that any who told the truth to the child

    should be flung from a cliff into the sea.

    The years passed, and the child grew

    from childhood into boyhood and from

    boyhood into manhood, and from being

    curious about all things he became busy

    with strange and subtle thoughts which

    came to him in dreams, and with dis-

    tins between things lohe

    same and with the resemblance of things

    long held different. Multitudes came from

    other lands to sec him and to ask his

    sel~ but there were guards set at the

    frontiers~ who pelled all that came,

    to wear the feathers of the grey hawk

    in their hair. While they listeo him

    his words seemed to make all darkness

    light and filled their hearts like music;

    but, alas, when they returo their own

    lands his words seemed far off, and what

    they could remember toe and

    subtle to help thcm to live out their hasty

    days. A number indeed did live differ-

    ently afterwards, but their new life was

    less excellent than the old: some among

    them had long served a good cause, but

    when they heard him praise it and their

    labour, they returo their own lands

    to find what they had loved less lovable

    and their arm lighter itle, for

    he had taught them how little a hair

    divides the false and true; ain,

    who had served no cause, but wrought in

    peace the welfare of their own households,

    when he had expouhe meaning of

    their purpose found their bones softer and

    their will less ready for toil, for he had

    shown them greater purposes; and numbers

    of the young, when they had heard him

    upon all these things, remembered certain

    words that became like a fire in their

    hearts, and made all kindly joys and traffic

    between man and man as nothing, a

    different ways, but all into vague regret.

    When any asked him ing the

    on things of life; disputes about the

    mear of a territory, or about the straying

    of cattle, or about the palty of blood;

    he would turn to those  him for

    advice; but this was held to be from

    courtesy, for none khat these matters

    were hidden from him, by thoughts and

    dreams that filled his mind like the

    marg and ter-marg of armies.

    Far less could any know that his heart

    wandered lost amid throngs of<cite></cite> overing

    thoughts and dreams, shuddering at its

    own ing solitude.

    among those who came to look at him

    and to listen to him was the daughter of a

    little king who lived a great way off; and

    when he saw her he loved, for shc was

    beautiful~ with a strange and pale beauty

    uhe women of his land; but Dana,

    the great mother, had decreed her a heart

    that was b<bdo></bdo>ut as the heart of others, and

    when she sidered the mystery of the

    hawk feathers she was troubled with a

    great horror. He called her to him when

    the assembly was over and told her of

    her beauty, and praised her simply and

    frankly as though she were a fablc of the

    bards; and he asked her humbly to give

    him her love, for he was only subtle in his

    dreams. Overwhelmed with his greatness,

    she half sented, a half refused,

    for she loo marry some warrior who

    could carry her over a mountain in his

    arms. Day by day the king gave her

    gifts; cups with ears of gold and find-

    rinny wrought by the craftsmen of distant

    lands; cloth from over sea, which, though

    woven with curious figures, seemed to her

    less beautiful than the bright cloth woven

    in the Island of Woods; and still she was

    ever between a smile and a frowween

    yielding and withholding. He laid down

    his wisdom at her feet, and told how the

    heroes when they die return to the world

    and begin their labour anew; how the

    kind and mirthful Children of Dana drove

    out the huge and gloomy and misshapen

    People from uhe Sea; and how the

    great Moods arc alonc immortal, and the;

    creators of mortal things; and how every

    Mood is a being that wcars, to mortal eyes,

    the shape of Fair-brows, who dwells, as a

    salmon, in the floods; or of the Dagda,

    whose cauldron is never empty; or of Lir,

    whose children wail upoers; or

    of Angus, whose kisses were ged into

    birds; or of Len, the goldsmith, from

    whose furnace break rainbows and fiery

    dew; or of some other of the children of

    ~)ana: and still she half refused, and still

    he hoped, for he could not believe that a

    beauty so much like wisdom could hide a

    o.

    ~ There was a tall young man in the

    dun who had yellow hair, and was skilled

    iling and iraining of horses;

    and one day when the king walked in

    the orchard, which was between the foss

    and the forest, he heard his voice among

    the salley bushes which hid the waters

    of the foss. ~ My blossom, it said,  I

    hate them for making you weave these

    dingy feathers into your beautiful hair, and

    all that the bird of prey upohrone

    may sleep easy o nights; and then the

    low, musical voice he loved answered:

    My hair is not beautiful like yours; and

    now that I have plucked away the feathers

    I will put my hands through it, thus, and

    thus, and thus; for it casts no shadow of

    terror and darkness upon my heart. Then

    the king remembered many things that

    he had fotten without uanding

    them, doubtful words of his poets and his

    men of law, doubts that he had reasoned

    away, his own tinual solitude; and he

    called the lovers to him in a trembling

    voice. They came from among the salley

    bushes and threw themselves at his feet

    and prayed for pardon, aooped

    dolucked the feathers out of the

    hair of the woman and then turned away

    towards the dun without a word. He

    strode into the hall of assembly, and

    having gathered his poets and his men

    of law about him, stood upon the dais

    and spoke in a loud, clear voice:  Men

    of law, why did you make me sin against

    the laws of Eri ? Men of verse, why did

    you make me sin against the sccrecy

    of wisdom, for law was made by man

    for the welfare of man, but wisdom the

    gods have made, and no man shall live by

    its light, for it and the hail and the rain

    and the thunder follow a way that is deadly

    to mortal things. Men of law and men of

    verse, live acc to your kind, and call

    Eocha of the Plain of Towers tn

    over you, for I set out to find my kindred.

    He then came down among them, and

    drew out of the hair of first one and then

    ahe feathers of the grey hawk,

    and, having scattered them over the rushes

    upon the floor, passed out, and none dared

    to follow him, for his eyes gleamed like

    the eyes of the birds of prey; and no man

    saw him again or heard his voice. Some

    believed that he found his eternal abode

    among the demons, and some that he dwelt

    heh with the dark and dreadful god-

    desses, who sit all night about the pools

    in the forest watg the stellations

    rising aing in those desolate

    mirrors.

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