CHAPTER XI_The King of Elfland's Daughter

_The Deep of the Woods_

In those days Ziroonderel 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 Ziroonderel.

And stored 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 to find her.

Now in his walks abroad with Ziroonderel through the little hamlet of

Erl, Orion would see the villagers walking by and the smith at his open

forge, and folk in their doorways, and men that came in to 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 lithe limbs; for both of these

would tell him 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 places.

There was an ancient myrtle tree by a well, where Ziroonderel 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. And if it were Oth he

would bow to Ziroonderel 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

Ziroonderel 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 come 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 in 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; for in the misty 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 up to him and said "Show me the woods." And

Ziroonderel 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, "No, my

Master," and looked uneasily at Ziroonderel, 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 Ziroonderel 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 that went from the fire and creep with them all about 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, which in less than an hour would have gone, that

was favourable 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 soft noiseless sandals, and

his brown garments of leather, Orion on his shoulder, wrapped in the

skin of a fawn 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 his 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 solemness 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 heart's desire. And soon he put the boy down on the

brown bracken and went on for a while alone. Orion watched him go with

his bow in his left hand, till he disappeared in the wood, like a shadow

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 round 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 shot arrows

into a tree; but soon he gathered his arrows and took the boy on his

shoulder again and turned homewards. 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 Erl as from new

companions with his mind full of hints that he had from the wise old

trunks, for to him each bole had a meaning. And Ziroonderel 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 in the deep 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; for

there was nothing wonderful told of the woods that Threl thought

unlikely.

And then Ziroonderel 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 on to 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