Transcribed from the 1913 Longmans, Green and Co. edition by David Price,
email ccx074@pglaf.org
THE STORY OF THE GLITTERING PLAIN WHICH HAS BEEN ALSO CALLED THE LAND OF
LIVING MEN OR THE ACRE OF THE UNDYING
WRITTEN
BY WILLIAM MORRIS
POCKET EDITION
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
1913
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
First printed in the _English Illustrated Magazine_, Vol. VII, 1890.
First Edition in book form, 200 copies printed at the Kelmscott Press in
the Golden Type, quarto, April 1891, Reeves and Turner, with six copies
on vellum.
Printed at the Kelmscott Press in the Troy Type, with wood-engravings
from designs by Walter Crane, 250 copies and seven on vellum, January
1894.
Printed September 1891, in imperial 16mo.
Transferred to Longmans, Green and Co., June 1896.
Reprinted February 1898 and August 1904.
Included in Volume XIV of the _Collected Works of William Morris_, July
1912.
Included in Longmans' Pocket Library, November 1913.
CHAPTER I: OF THOSE THREE WHO CAME TO THE HOUSE OF THE RAVEN
It has been told that there was once a young man of free kindred and
whose name was Hallblithe: he was fair, strong, and not untried in
battle; he was of the House of the Raven of old time.
This man loved an exceeding fair damsel called the Hostage, who was of
the House of the Rose, wherein it was right and due that the men of the
Raven should wed.
She loved him no less, and no man of the kindred gainsaid their love, and
they were to be wedded on Midsummer Night.
But one day of early spring, when the days were yet short and the nights
long, Hallblithe sat before the porch of the house smoothing an ash stave
for his spear, and he heard the sound of horse-hoofs drawing nigh, and he
looked up and saw folk riding toward the house, and so presently they
rode through the garth gate; and there was no man but he about the house,
so he rose up and went to meet them, and he saw that they were but three
in company: they had weapons with them, and their horses were of the
best; but they were no fellowship for a man to be afraid of; for two of
them were old and feeble, and the third was dark and sad, and drooping of
aspect: it seemed as if they had ridden far and fast, for their spurs
were bloody and their horses all a-sweat.
Hallblithe hailed them kindly and said: "Ye are way-worn, and maybe ye
have to ride further; so light down and come into the house, and take
bite and sup, and hay and corn also for your horses; and then if ye needs
must ride on your way, depart when ye are rested; or else if ye may, then
abide here night-long, and go your ways to-morrow, and meantime that
which is ours shall be yours, and all shall be free to you."
Then spake the oldest of the elders in a high piping voice and said:
"Young man, we thank thee; but though the days of the springtide are
waxing, the hours of our lives are waning; nor may we abide unless thou
canst truly tell us that this is the Land of the Glittering Plain: and if
that be so, then delay not, lead us to thy lord, and perhaps he will make
us content."
Spake he who was somewhat less stricken in years than the first: "Thanks
have thou! but we need something more than meat and drink, to wit the
Land of Living Men. And Oh! but the time presses."
Spake the sad and sorry carle: "We seek the Land where the days are many:
so many that he who hath forgotten how to laugh, may learn the craft
again, and forget the days of Sorrow."
Then they all three cried aloud and said:
"Is this the Land? Is this the Land?"
But Hallblithe wondered, and he laughed and said: "Wayfarers, look under
the sun down the plain which lieth betwixt the mountains and the sea, and
ye shall behold the meadows all gleaming with the spring lilies; yet do
we not call this the Glittering Plain, but Cleveland by the Sea. Here
men die when their hour comes, nor know I if the days of their life be
long enough for the forgetting of sorrow; for I am young and not yet a
yokefellow of sorrow; but this I know, that they are long enough for the
doing of deeds that shall not die. And as for Lord, I know not this
word, for here dwell we, the sons of the Raven, in good fellowship, with
our wives that we have wedded, and our mothers who have borne us, and our
sisters who serve us. Again I bid you light down off your horses, and
eat and drink, and be merry; and depart when ye will, to seek what land
ye will."
They scarce looked on him, but cried out together mournfully:
"This is not the Land! This is not the Land!"
No more than that they said, but turned about their horses and rode out
through the garth gate, and went clattering up the road that led to the
pass of the mountains. But Hallblithe hearkened wondering, till the
sound of their horse-hoofs died away, and then turned back to his work:
and it was then two hours after high-noon.