THE TWO ENCHANTERS
I. MERLIN AND VIVIEN
A great Enchanter indeed was Merlin. He served with his enchantments
the King of the Isle of Britain from the time he was a stripling to
the time when he was two score years of age. Then, when he might have
passed from being a lesser to being a great Enchanter, Merlin vanished
altogether and was seen no more at the court of the King of the Isle
of Britain. All the great works he had planned were left undone, all
the instruments he had gathered were left unused, all the books he had
brought together were left unopened, and the King whom he had served so
long was left to whistle for his Enchanter.
If there were one to blame for that it was the daughter of King Dionas.
She was young, but she was ungentle. What she saw, that she would
have. One day a stranger was passing with her father, and when he
looked on her he said, “A young hawk she is, a young hawk that has
not yet flown at any prey.” That very day the daughter of King Dionas
walked on the plain that was at a distance from her father’s castle.
The stranger who had spoken of her to the King was there, and he looked
long upon her.
“Who art thou who lookest on me so?” said the child.
“Thou art Nimiane, who art also called Vivien,” said the stranger.
“Yea,” said she, “but who art thou, man?”
“I am called Merlin,” he said, “and I am the Enchanter to the King of
the Isle of Britain.”
“Show me thine enchantments,” said Vivien, who feared not to speak to
any man.
Now Merlin had looked on all the ladies who were at the court of
the King of the Isle of Britain, and on the maidens who were in far
countries and distant castles, and besides, the ladies of the times
of old had been shown him in his Magic Glass, but never before had
he seen any one who seemed so lovely to him as this child. She was
bright eyed as a bird. She had a slim body, and pale cheeks, and quick,
quick hands. Her hair was red and in thick tangles. “Show me thine
enchantments,” she cried to him again.
Merlin bade her come with him and she came. He brought her to a high
place, a place that was of rock with rocks piled all about it. On the
ground he made magical figures. Then he said magical words. And all the
time Vivien, slim Vivien with her tangle of red hair, stood upon the
rocks and kept her eyes upon him.
Upon the ground that was all rock Merlin made a garden with roses
blowing and clear waters flowing, with birds singing amongst the leaves
and fishes swimming in the streams. He made trees grow, too, with
honey-tasting fruits upon them.
Vivien went through the garden, plucking the flowers and tasting the
fruits that grew there. She turned to Merlin and looked at him again
with her bright eyes. “Canst thou make a castle for me?” said she.
Then Merlin made his magical figures and said his magical words over
again. The stones that were strewn about everywhere came together and
built themselves up into a castle. When the castle rose before them
Vivien took Merlin by the hand, and they went through its doorway and
up the stairway and into the castle turret. And when they looked from
the turret Vivien said, “Would that no one should know of this garden
and this castle but thou and I!”
He told her that the castle and the garden would be hidden. Then when
they were leaving the garden he put a mist all around, a mist that
those who came that way could not see through and were made fearful of
venturing into.
And so the castle and the garden were all unknown to men. But Vivien
would come, passing through the mist, and going into the garden and up
into the turret. At first she would not have Merlin near her. Afterward
it came to pass that she would summon him. A bugle hung in the turret
of the castle, and she would blow upon it, and he would come and stay
by her.
He was two score years of age, and she was five years less than a
score. Nevertheless he thought it better to watch her dancing with
bright green leaves in her red hair than to know all that would bring
him from being a lesser to being a great Enchanter. Of the maidens and
great ladies he had seen, some, he told her, were like light, and some
were like flowers, and some were like a flame of fire. But she, he
said, was like the wind. And he took thought no more for the King of
the Isle of Britain, nor for the great work he was to do for him, and
he spent his days in watching Vivien, and in listening to Vivien, and
in making magic things for Vivien’s delight.
Her father once took her away from the place near where the hidden
garden and the hidden castle stood. Vivien was in another country now.
And when she went amongst those who were strangers to her she found out
that nothing mattered to her except the looks and the words of Merlin.
The castle and the garden--she did not think of them, nor of the magic
things he had made for her. Her thoughts were only on Merlin, who was
so wise and who could do such wonders.
When she came back, and when she met him in the hidden garden, she
caught hold of his hands, and she would not let go of them. Nor would
she tell Merlin why this change had come over her, and why she would
keep close to him now and not apart. At last she said to him, “What
ladies and what maidens have you known, O my master Merlin?”
Then Merlin took his Magic Glass into his hands, and in it he showed
her all the ladies who were at the court of the King of the Isle of
Britain, and he showed her all the lovely maidens who lived in far
countries and in distant castles whom he knew. Vivien threw herself
on the ground with her face to the rock after she had looked into the
glass.
Then afterward she watched him in a way different from the way she had
watched him before. What he said and what he did she remembered well.
Soon she understood his magic figures and could make them. She came to
understand his magic words and to be able to repeat them. And Merlin
would say to her, “O my little hawk, fly at this--and this--and this.”
One day as they wandered through a forest Vivien asked him to tell her
the mightiest spell that he knew. The Enchanter told it to her. She
stood still, with all her quick mind in her face, while he put aside
the tangles of her red hair and spoke into her ear.
It was a spell that would hold in a place the one whom it was spoken
over. When he had told her he went at her bidding and seated himself
under a forest tree. Vivien, laughing, made a magic circle around him
and repeated the spell that he had given her. When she did this the
Enchanter was enchanted. Merlin stayed under the forest tree, and there
he would stay, for he could not move until the spell that was said over
him was unsaid by Vivien.
And Vivien danced around him, her red hair shaking, her bright eyes
gleaming, her quick hands waving. She called to him, “Merlin, Merlin
Enchanter, come to me.” But Merlin, under the forest tree, could not
move. She ran through the woods and he could not follow after her. In a
while she came back and stood beside him.
Said Merlin to her, “Why have you worked this spell upon me, and why
have you left me here so that I cannot move?” She knelt down on the
ground beside where he sat.
“O Merlin,” said she, “I would leave you here enchanted, for fear you
should leave me and go amongst the maidens and the ladies who are so
lovely.” And when she said that her face was so hard that he knew she
would hold him there.
But Merlin smiled, and he said to her, “I would stay always where you
are, Vivien, blossom of the furze.”
“Nay,” said she, “you would go from me. Why should you not? You have
great works to do for the King of the land. And when you see again the
ladies and the maidens who are the loveliest in the world you will not
come back again to Vivien. I shall hate the castle and the garden that
you made for me, and I shall hate every one who will come near me. I
shall hold you, Merlin, here, even until the wolves come out at night
and devour you and me.”
“I will build a castle for you in an empty country, and no one shall
ever be there but you and me,” said Merlin.
“Nay,” said Vivien, “they will search the world for you, Merlin, and
when they find you, you will have to go with them.”
Then Merlin, as if it were a magic thing that would please her, brought
out his thought about the Island of the White Tower. Away beyond the
Western Island, in a sea that is never sailed on, that island lies.
Only on Midsummer Day does it come near to the Western Island so that
men may see it. There, said Merlin, they might go. Those who would
search for him could never come to him there. He told her more and more
about the Island of the White Tower, and Vivien listened in delight
to all he told her. And when he had sworn he would take her to it she
unsaid the spell with which she had bespelled him, and he rose up from
where he had been held, and he sprang across the magic figure that was
drawn upon the ground. And with Vivien Merlin went through the forest.
* * * * *
The fishermen who cast their nets by the shores of the Western Ocean
have this story of Merlin and Vivien. They tell how in a boat of
crystal twelve creatures sailed to the Island of the White Tower. And
two were Merlin and Vivien, and nine were the nine prime bards of the
Isle of Britain who went with Merlin, and one was the tame wolf that
was Merlin’s servant. They sailed out upon a Midsummer’s Day, and from
that good day to this no hint or hair of the Enchanter has been seen by
King nor clown in all the Isle of Britain.
II. ZABULUN THE ENCHANTER
It was Anluan, the father of Eean, Anluan who had once been a fisherman
by the shores of the Western Ocean, who told this story of the
Enchanter of the Isle of Britain. The fishermen know the story, and
they, more often than any others, have seen the Island of the White
Tower as it shows itself on the rim of the Western Ocean.
The story was told after the white horse and the red horse had
clattered across the stones of the courtyard, bringing Eean and
Bird-of-Gold toward their meeting with Merlin. Candles thicker than a
man’s wrist had been put upon the supper table; fresh torches had been
set in the sconces along the walls; and logs of resinous wood had been
piled upon the hearth. All this was done so that the King and his lords
might drink their last cups of wine before they went into the sleeping
chambers.
And now, in the light of shining candles and blazing torches and
mounting hearth fires, the squires and the servers went amongst the
company filling the wine cups up. Some had already the wine in their
cups, and were waiting for King Manus to raise his in a health. Then
the strangest of strange things happened. No wind came into the hall,
but suddenly the candles upon the table and the torches along the walls
went out. The servers went to relight the torches at the hearth, but
the hearth blaze had died down, and all the logs were black.
And blackness was in the chamber where, a minute before, candles and
torches and hearth fires were blazing. The King and his lords stood
around the table, while the servers and squires ran through every
chamber of the castle to find a spark of light.
But not even a spark could they find; not the light of a rush candle
even was to be found in any hall or chamber in the castle. And on every
stairway the same story was told, how suddenly light and fire had gone
black out.
But now the grooms came in with flints and steel and tow. Every one
tried to strike a spark, but no spark came for all their striking. And
now, all over the castle, there were outbursts of woe: the cooks were
lamenting that they would have no fires, and the women were weeping
because lights could not be brought them. It was then that King Manus
bade his lords stand around laying their hands upon the table.
The next thing was that a figure appeared at the doorway. All saw it,
for there was a line of faint light around it. It was the figure of
a tall man. “Speak,” said King Manus with his hand stretched to the
figure.
“If you will have me speak,” said the man.
“The lights and the fires have been quenched in the castle. How has
this come to be?”
“It is in the power of an Enchanter of the second degree to quench
light and fire,” said the man in the darkness. “Further, King Manus:
the fire and light that is extinguished cannot be brought back until
the Enchanter lifts his ban.”
“Have you come to tell me this?” asked the King.
“I have come to make a request of you, King Manus,” said the man in the
darkness.
Then Anluan, the father of Eean, he whose duty it was to let none that
might have a request come face to face with the King, groped around the
room that he might place himself before his master. But ere he came to
where King Manus stood the man with the line of light around had come
so close that he and the King looked into each other’s eyes.
“O King,” said the stranger, “I have answered what you asked of me. Now
I make my request. It is that the black horse that is in your stable be
given to me.”
There was a stir in the darkened hall, and then there was an outcry. It
was from Anluan, the father of Eean. “O, King Manus, beware of the man
who knows of the powers of Enchanters. He may be the one who would ride
in chase of Eean, my son!”
“He has made a request of me,” said King Manus. “By the open hand of my
father, it will have to be granted him.”
“It is for the one horse that can follow the others,” Anluan cried.
“I have never refused a request! Alas, alas, in one night the three
horses that were my pride are taken from me!”
“Strike now, and light candle and torch and hearth fire,” said the one
who had come amongst them.
Flint was struck upon steel; sparks came and made the tow blaze; candle
and torch and hearth fire were lighted again. Then all looked at the
one who had come amongst them.
Tall he was, with a dark and bony face, and eyes that were like a
hawk’s eyes. His dress was a plain cloak that had a hood that went over
his head. And yet, although he had not the staff nor the robe of an
Enchanter, it did not need Anluan’s cry to tell the company that here
was the one to whom his son had been apprenticed--Zabulun the Enchanter!
“Why do you go in chase of my son?” Anluan cried.
“Harut and Marut laid hands upon me. Am I to have no more mastery
because of that?” said Zabulun. “For forty days I was laid in the cave
that is under the sea, and do men think that all power is gone from me
because of that? I thought all that time that what I worked for would
come to pass, and that the Magic Mirror of Babylon would be lost in the
ruin of the Tower of Babylon and that destruction would come upon the
Babylonians. This would have been if the boy who was my apprentice had
been faithful to me. But he spoke the words that restored the mirror
to the Kings of Babylon. And I, whose name, as I thought, would stand
forever as one who had worked a great destruction, am as naught--my
name is a name to laugh at. And shall he pass from my mastership,
the boy who let this befall me? Not so; he has still to be my aid. I
have paid you, his father, gold for his seven years’ service, and his
service still belongs to me.”
Then, turning to King Manus, Zabulun said, “You have granted my
request. Command now that your grooms go to the stable and bring out
the black horse that I am to ride.”
King Manus gave the commands. Then out of the door of the castle they
all went and into the courtyard. The still light of the dawn, the dawn
of Midsummer’s Day, was coming over the world. The grooms went to the
stable, and in full sight of all unlocked the great stable door and
brought out the black horse whose swiftness was such that he could
overtake the wind of March that was before him, while the wind of
March that was behind could not overtake him. They brought forth the
black horse and they held him while the dark-faced man put himself
astride. Then the hoofs of the last of the King’s horses struck fire
out of the stones of the courtyard, while a cry went up from Anluan,
the one-time fisherman.
And away went Zabulun the Enchanter, away, away in pursuit of Eean and
Bird-of-Gold, and the light of the Midsummer Day came into the world.
III. THE LAST FLIGHT OF EEAN AND BIRD-OF-GOLD
As the first light of the Midsummer Day came over the world the two who
were fleeing before him were speaking of Zabulun the Enchanter. “That
we may baffle him,” one said.
“And what if we cannot baffle him this time?” said the other.
“Then he will take me and make me do terrible services for him”--it was
Eean who said this--“and, worse than all the services he will make me
do, he will separate us.”
“No, no,” said Bird-of-Gold. “If he takes us this time, I shall do
everything to make myself useful to the Enchanter. I have thought out
ways in which I can serve him. He will not separate us and we will be
together still.”
“O, Bird-of-Gold,” said Eean, “I am fearful lest he should slay you for
taking the Magic Mirror off the Tower of Babylon. But I have a sword
and he shall not harm you.”
“I shall escape him,” Bird-of-Gold said, “and as he followed you and me
across the world, so I shall follow him and you, and we shall never be
apart.”
They had learnt in their wanderings all ways of guiding themselves,
and as they galloped on they were heading for the Western Ocean.
Darkness was around them at first. But the sky was wide and clear, and
Bird-of-Gold, when she raised her head, could see and name the bright
planets. There was Mars with his red pulse. Bird-of-Gold likened this
planet to the steed that she bestrode, and as she rode on she sang to
herself the song that the shepherd boys in her own country used to sing
about another star:
That star, I know, is Betelguise;
Yet, as I walk the hills by day,
I hardly know his splendid name--
That star is far away.
But when at night I travel on,
Or watch across an empty land,
Then Betelguise, my star of stars,
No thing is nearer hand.
Then send a ray that I may own
The fortune that is mine:
O Betelguise, my star of stars,
My forehead’s for your sign!
And after all the countries he had wandered through, Eean was now back
on the ground of his own country. He heard the cry of the curlews
overhead. He saw the lakes that looked as if even the birds had
forgotten them, so lonely they were, lonely, but with deep memories.
He saw the cairns of stones above the long dead heroes. Once he saw a
fox upon a cairn, and it seemed to him that this was the very fox he
had chased away from his mother’s coop the day before the Enchanter had
taken him away from the Western Island.
With strong hearts King Manus’s horses galloped on. But the heart of
Eean was strained with the thought of the distance that was still
before them. First, a great mountain that had to be crossed. Then a
wide plain. Then that other mountain from the top of which one could
see the Western Ocean in the daylight. And Zabulun the Enchanter might
come upon them in the hills or on the plain and say a word that might
stop their horses’ gallop.
But they came to the last mountain top, and they saw the waters of
the Western Ocean with gleams of gold coming upon them. Adown the
heather-covered hillside their horses hurried. And as the broad sun
rose over the broad ocean the feet of the white and the red horse were
scattering the foam along the shore.
And as they watched they saw Merlin’s island grow out of the dimness of
the sea. Then the sun became fuller and it lighted up the White Tower,
and Eean and Bird-of-Gold knew they had come to their journey’s end
indeed. They sprang off their horses, and they dipped their hands in
the sea, and they kissed each other.
“Now we must cast over on the island the tokens that the Atlantes gave
us,” Eean said, “the cocks’ combs and the peacocks’ feathers. If they
come to Merlin, he will let us cross to his island, and we can swim our
horses over. But how shall we know if the tokens come to him?”
He raised the bag in which were the cocks’ combs and the four peacocks’
feathers. He cast the bag toward the island. Through the air it went
like a flying bird.
They mounted their horses again, ready to swim them across when they
got some signal from the island. And the signal came. It was the howl
of the wolf that was Merlin’s servant.
Now they were to swim their horses across. As they went into the water,
Bird-of-Gold looked back. Down through the heather of the hillside a
rider was coming. He was on a black horse. They knew him for Zabulun,
the Enchanter from whom they were fleeing.
IV. HOW EEAN WON HIS RELEASE FROM ZABULUN THE ENCHANTER
Merlin, with the tame wolf that was his servant beside him, was
standing by the White Tower on the morning of that Midsummer Day. And
Vivien was upon the tower, singing to her colored birds and looking out
over the sea.
Vivien, who played with her colored birds, had still the look of a
child in her face. Her hair was no longer in tangles; it was softer
than it was once, and it fell softly over her shoulders. Her eyes, for
all the child’s look that was in her face, were as if they had seen
many things come and change and pass.
Like a King, or like one who had been always near a King, was Merlin
the Enchanter. He smiled, and his smile was calm and royal. But one
might have said that his eyes were strangely close to each other and
that his lips were strangely red.
His beard was long and gray. He wore a white robe with a belt of green
leaves around it, and a chaplet of oak leaves was on his head. Vivien
was dressed in green, with a golden belt clasped around her, and with
green leaves in her soft hair.
So they were standing by and on the tower, Merlin, Vivien, and Merlin’s
tame wolf, when the tokens that were from the Atlantes came. Merlin
laid his hand upon the wolf, and the wolf gave the howl that was the
signal for Eean and Bird-of-Gold to come on the Island of the White
Tower. The Enchanter saw them ride their horses into the water. And
then another token came to him--the token that one magician sends to
another, a Bird of Foam it was, and Zabulun sent it.
Deep were the waters, but great-hearted were the horses of King Manus,
the white horse and the red horse, and with Eean and Bird-of-Gold
astride of them they swam to the Island of the White Tower. They came
to the sloping shore, and the riders helped the horses up to the hard
ground. The white and the red horse stood shivering from their plunge
into the ocean. Afterward they threw themselves on the grass and lay as
still as if they were dead.
Not to the horses, but out to the sea did Eean and Bird-of-Gold look.
The black horse with Zabulun astride him was swimming now. Swiftly to
the White Tower where they saw Merlin stand they went.
“O, Merlin,” Eean cried, “to you we have come to save us from the
Enchanter who has pursued us from one end of the world to the other.”
“From whom have you come, you who have sent such tokens?” said Merlin.
“From Hermes Trismegistus in his secret cell. And Hermes bade us say
to you that we have heard from him the answer to the riddle that the
Sphinx asks, and that we crossed the desert to come to you, answering
the Sphinx.”
“Who is the Magician who pursues you?”
“Zabulun, once a Prince in Babylon, O Merlin.”
“Is it he who pursues you?--Zabulun! I shall have a welcome for
Zabulun.”
“Save us, O Merlin, from Zabulun,” Bird-of-Gold cried.
Vivien came down from the tower. “It is Zabulun who comes to our island
in chase of these two, my Vivien,” Merlin said. “Now you shall see me
match my power with Zabulun’s.”
“A match between magicians, how entertaining it will be!” cried Vivien,
clapping her hands.
“O lady, if Zabulun is not baffled it will be death or separation for
us,” said Bird-of-Gold to her.
“Merlin will baffle him--you will find that Merlin will baffle him,”
said Vivien. “You see, he has done nothing to impress me for an age.”
Now Merlin had sent the tame wolf that was his servant upon an errand,
and the wolf at this moment returned leading nine men who wore white
robes and who had chaplets of oak leaves upon their brows. These were
the nine prime bards of the Isle of Britain who had come to the Island
of the White Tower with Merlin, their chief.
They stood as he bade them, four on one side and five on the other,
with the Enchanter of the Isle of Britain between them. Merlin bade
Eean stand with the four bards. He touched them with his staff, and the
row of bards and Eean with them became all as alike as ten peas in a
pea pod. And Merlin went to Bird-of-Gold and touched her also, and she
became like the lady Vivien exactly.
Now the black horse that bore Zabulun came to the sloping bank of the
Island of the White Tower, and Zabulun sprang off his back and drew the
black horse up on the bank. The horse breathed mightily, and then like
the others lay down on the grass.
With great and sure strides Zabulun came to the White Tower where
Merlin stood. “Hail, Merlin,” he cried in a loud voice.
“Hail, Zabulun.”
“You know of an apprentice of mine who has come to your island.”
“Find him, O mighty magician.”
Zabulun looked and saw the ten men who looked exactly alike, and the
two women whom one could not tell one from the other. He turned to
Merlin then and he said, “What a simple trick you would play upon me!
Nine bards you have, and there are ten before us. One of them is Eean,
the boy apprenticed to me.”
“Then you will take him, Zabulun.”
It is certain that Merlin did not think that Zabulun would do what he
did now. He changed himself into a hound. Running amongst the ten that
were there he snuffed at them. By the smell of the horse he had ridden
he would find Eean.
But as he ran amongst them Merlin touched each of the ten bards and
Eean with them with his staff. They all became pigeons and flew up into
the air. One had a feather awry. This was Eean on whom Zabulun had laid
a paw just as he was being transformed.
Instantly Zabulun changed himself into a hawk and strove to rise above
the flock of pigeons. As he did he saw the one that had a feather awry.
Over him he came.
Then Eean, seeing the hawk above him, dropped instantly to the earth.
The others flew down with him, crowding around to hide the ruffled
feather. They came before the door of Merlin’s house. They flew in
and lighted down on the floor while the hawk came sweeping up to the
doorway.
Merlin touched the pigeons with his staff and again transformed them.
They became ten rings of gold that lay upon the floor. As the hawk
flew in and perched on a chair to fix his eyes upon them, the rings of
gold rolled into the fire.
Then Zabulun transformed himself into a tongs, and went hunting through
the fire for the rings. He picked up one ring and flung it out on the
floor, he picked up another ring and flung it out on the floor, and so
on, until the ten rings were out of the fire. Merlin touched the rings
with his staff, and they were transformed into ten grains of corn. Upon
these ten grains Vivien and Bird-of-Gold threw handful after handful of
grains of corn.
But now Zabulun changed himself into a cock with strong legs and
wide claws and a hungry beak. With his claws he scratched through
the heap of grain. With his beak he picked the grains up. Vivien and
Bird-of-Gold kept throwing on the floor handful after handful of corn
to cover the ten grains.
But the beak of the cock went so fiercely and so hungrily amongst them
that only a few grains more than the ten were left upon the floor when
Vivien and Bird-of-Gold found out they had no more handfuls to fling.
Then it seemed as if the cock with his sharp eye would soon pick out
the grain that was Eean.
Then with his staff Merlin touched nine of the grains, leaving one
untouched. The one he left untouched was Eean. The nine were changed
into weasels, and they faced the cock fiercely. Then was Zabulun
startled. Instead of picking at the grain that was Eean he fluttered up
from the ground, and went out of the door of the house.
Merlin touched the grain that was left and Eean stood up. Bird-of-Gold
clapped her hands for joy on seeing him again. But Eean ran out of the
door of the house after the cock that was Zabulun the Enchanter. He
snatched up a strong staff as he ran.
Zabulun had changed back into his own form. But now Eean had no fear
of him. He ran toward him. And Zabulun took up a staff that was lying
there and made to defend himself.
Then began the battle between Eean and Zabulun. Eean struck at Zabulun,
and Zabulun struck at Eean, and each defended himself with the staff
that he had. They fought their way across the island, from one side
to the other. They fought until their staves were broken and until
they were covered with bruises. Then they threw away their staves and
gripped one another. All around the island they wrestled. Strong were
the hands of Zabulun upon Eean, and yet Eean was not thrown by Zabulun.
Eean felt his own hands were strong upon Zabulun, and yet he could not
throw him. Soon Eean lost sense of everything except two gripping and
rocking figures.
They wrestled their way across the island, down to the shore where they
had landed and where the three horses of King Manus were lying. They
wrestled until the sea water came over their feet. Again things became
clear to Eean. He knew that if he could overthrow the Enchanter he
would win his freedom from him.
He fastened upon Zabulun a grip that seemed to be stronger than his own
life. He heaved with a power that seemed to bring up his last breath.
He bent Zabulun over. He brought him down, his head in the water. He
flung himself upon the prone Enchanter.
“What would you have of me?” Zabulun said at last.
“Release. Say you have no more mastership in me.”
“I say it. I have no more mastership in you. You have release from me.”
“I let you rise.”
Then Eean took his grip off Zabulun. The Enchanter rose up and took
himself out of the water.
So Zabulun was defeated, and so release was given to Eean, The Boy
Apprenticed to the Enchanter. Zabulun mounted the black horse that was
King Manus’s and had him swim the water. He rode across the plain and
over one mountain and another mountain until he came to the castle of
King Manus. There he left the horse to neigh for his grooms.
What became of Zabulun afterward is not written in the book that is the
History of the Enchanters. Some say that from that Midsummer’s Day he
ceased to be named with the great Enchanters. The powers he had gained,
they say, shrank from him. Afterward a famous juggler appeared in the
world. He used to go into the halls of Kings on festival nights and do
marvelous feats with balls and rings and knives, and play music on all
manner of instruments, going from King’s castle to King’s castle. That
juggler, they say--but they may be mistaken--was Zabulun, once Prince
of Babylon, and once master of the Inaccessible Island.
Eean and Bird-of-Gold went within the White Tower, and conversed from
noon to dusk with Merlin and the lady Vivien. Before that Midsummer’s
Day had passed into darkness, they mounted the white steed and the
red steed and had them swim across the waters. When they came to the
farther shore they let the horses stand for a while. Then mounting them
again they rode over the mountains and across the plains and came again
to the castle of King Manus.
V. THE RETURN OF KING MANUS’S HORSES
Again Manus, King of the Western Island, sat in his supper hall. The
torches were in their sconces, the candles were lighted on the table,
the hearth fire was blazing on the hearth, and his lords once again
sat to the right and the left of him. But this time they sat without
laughter and without high words.
The harper and the story-teller were at the table too, but they neither
made music nor told stories. They had tried, both, that evening, but no
one had listened to them. Outside, the iron door of the stable gaped
wide, and the grooms and horse boys and watchers stood idly around or
went quarreling amongst themselves. It was very difficult, as you may
imagine, for the harper to play upon his harp when he would hear the
King say into his wine cup, “O, Raven, my black horse, where art thou
now?” And it was equally difficult for the story-teller to get on with
his tale when he would see the King looking at him with unseeing eyes
and hear him say, “O, my white and my red horses, what would I not give
if I saw you back in my courtyard again?”
So you can imagine the silence that was upon the supper board that was
wont to resound with conversation and story-telling, with music and
pledges of the wine cup. “O, Raven, my black horse, where art thou
now?” said the King once again; and then, “What would I not give to
have my white and my red horse in the courtyard again?” And these were
all the words that King Manus could be got to say.
And then, suddenly, a loud neigh was heard outside. Straightway King
Manus ran out of the supper hall. The lords, the minstrel, and the
story-teller, the stewards, servers, and attendants, ran with him. And
when they came as far as the wide door of the castle they ran into the
grooms and the horse boys who were running from the stable. All ran
together. And there, in the middle of the courtyard, without a rider
upon his back, was Raven, the King’s black horse.
They brought him into his stall in the stable, and they combed him and
they groomed him; they gave him the red wheat and the white barley to
eat and the clear spring water to drink. King Manus could hardly be
prevailed upon to leave Raven’s stall and come back into the supper
hall. But at length they got him back into his seat, and then the
supper board resounded with pledges of the wine cup as the King and his
lords drank to each other merrily.
Again there was neighing in the courtyard, this time a double neighing.
Straightway the King ran out and all who were near ran with him. They
ran into the grooms and the horse boys who were running from the
stable. There in the courtyard were the white horse and the red horse.
They were not unmounted, however, for Eean and Bird-of-Gold were upon
them.
This time King Manus grew into such glee that he swore by the open hand
of his father that he would make a duke of every lord who was with him
that night. There were great rejoicings. Some tossed their torches so
high that they frightened the owls out of the cornices on the castle.
The grooms brought the white horse and the red horse into their stalls
in the stable, and they fed them with red wheat and white barley, and
gave them the clear spring water to drink.
Then they went to carry Eean and Bird-of-Gold into the supper hall.
They were not to be found for a while, for Anluan, Eean’s father, had
led them away. He was seen to weep over Eean, and to take the hands of
Bird-of-Gold and kiss her while he called her daughter. And to Anluan
King Manus gave the privilege of bringing them to the supper board.
The King put Eean into the story-teller’s seat, but he had Bird-of-Gold
sit beside him on his left hand. The feast began all over again, and
went on from egg to apple. And when wine had been drunk King Manus
called upon Eean to tell the story of his journey to Merlin’s Island
and the full tale of how he had defeated Zabulun the Enchanter.
When all was told the King gave presents to Eean and Bird-of-Gold and
he swore that for a year and a day he would have them live with him in
his castle. “And,” said he, “this girl, Bird-of-Gold, has been very
loving and faithful to you as you have been to her, and for a further
benefit to you I shall have the old blind sage come down from his attic
in the castle and marry you here and now.” Eean and Bird-of-Gold took
each other’s hands as he said this, and the old blind sage was brought
down from his attic chamber, and he married Bird-of-Gold and Eean by
the rays of the rising sun.
For a year and a day they lived in King Manus’s royal castle. Now Eean
had learnt so much of the arts and crafts and mysteries that belong to
an Enchanter that he was able to do great works for the King. Castles
he built that gave security, and bridges that brought people together,
and mills that ground for the people abundance of corn. He had become
so strong and so sure of himself since his encounter with Zabulun that
all he set out to perform he did well. And his wife, Bird-of-Gold,
loved him so much that her thought never went back to the country she
had come from. Always, they say, she kept a flock of white ducks;
perhaps they reminded her of the thousand ducks that was the fortune
she brought into Babylon.
But the story-teller must not forget to tell you about the question
that Eean asked Merlin the Enchanter on King Manus’s behalf. It was
about a game of chess that King Manus had been playing with his
brother-in-law, King Connal, for half their lifetimes without either
having victory in sight. Moreover, they had inherited the game from
their fathers, and it was now being played for fifty years. Merlin
told Eean what the moves should be, and the day after he came to the
castle, Eean took the chess board and showed them to the King. With
that instruction he played. The game of chess was finished three days
afterwards, and great fame and honor came to King Manus.
[Illustration]
Printed in the United States of America.
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
possible.
The following change was made to the original. The first line is the
original line, the second the corrected one.
Page 119:
you have heard from him to answer to the riddle
you have heard from him the answer to the riddle