_The Quest for the Elfin Mountains_
Winter descended on Erl and gripped the forest, holding the small twigs
stiff and still: in the valley it silenced the stream; and in the fields
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 the glamour of the beasts
that Oth hunted, and the splendour of the great stags seemed to haunt
the gloom of far hollows; but when he went with Threl a mystery haunted
the wood, so that one could not say what creature might not appear, nor
what haunted and hid by every enormous bole. 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 in the chill of the coming dusk, very
far and faint, like reveillé 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, and 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.
Alveric in those days went through the village of Erl, with his thoughts
far from there, moodily; 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 Alveric'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 Lirazel was with him amongst the fields we know, his thoughts had
ever been to make her more earthly; 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 mien. Dreaming always of Elfland and
of elvish things he gathered horses and 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 haunt horizons, when they heard whither he went. And the
first that he found to be 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 one 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 shone all a
warm night long on a lad as he lay in the hay, and 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 Erl: he also joined Alveric's band
as soon as he asked him. It was many days before Alveric 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 make him out at all,
except his mother, who wept when Alveric had his promise to go; for she
said that he was the prop and support of her age, and knew what storms
would come and when the swallows would fly, and what colours 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
guessed in Erl. But Alveric took him away: many go thus.
And one morning six horses heaped and hung with provisions all round
their saddles waited at Alveric's gateway, with the five men that were
to roam with him as far as the world's edge. He had taken long counsel
with Ziroonderel, 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?" said his father.
"Stags, like Oth," said Orion.
Alveric commended that sport, for he himself loved it.
"And some day I will go a long way over the hills and hunt stranger
things," said the boy.
"What kind of things," asked Alveric. But the boy did not know.
His father suggested different kinds of beasts.
"No, stranger than them," said Orion. "Stranger even than bears."
"But what will they be?" asked his 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 Alveric said farewell to the witch
and his son and strode away thinking little of the future, for all was
too vague for thought.
Alveric 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 Alveric and
all had called their farewells to the last of the riders, a hum of talk
arose. And in the talk was contempt of Alveric's 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 Alveric out of the village of Erl with his company of
adventurers behind him; a moonstruck man, a madman, a lovesick lad, a
shepherd boy and a poet. And Alveric made Vand, the young shepherd, the
master of his encampment, for he deemed him to be the sanest amongst his
following; but there were disputes at once as they rode, before they
came to make any encampment; and Alveric, 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 a day that was far thence, and the moonstruck man stood by
Niv, and all were content to do the bidding of Niv, and all honoured
Alveric's 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 hedges of men, and to the houses that they have
built at the verge, beyond which even their thoughts refuse to fare.
Through this line of houses at the edge of those fields, four or five in
every mile, Alveric went with his queer company. The leather-worker's
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 Zend who was moonstruck, applauded at once;
and Thyl, the young dreamer of songs, said the scheme was a wise one
too; and Vand was carried away by the keen zeal of these three; and it
was all one to Rannok 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 Zend to work like three men, and Thyl helped
eagerly; and they set up stakes and stretched blankets upon them and
made a wall of brushwood, for they were but just outside the hedgerows,
and Vand helped too with rough hurdles and Rannok toiled on wearily; and
when all was finished Niv said that it was a palace. And Alveric went in
and rested, while they lit a fire outside. And Vand 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 Alveric's men lay down by their fire in their leathers
and furs and slept, all but Rannok the lover.
To Alveric 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: and 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 round behind
them. And Niv and Zend and Thyl had all sworn to him that evening that
before many days were gone they would surely all find Elfland. Upon this
thought he slept.