_The Cursing of Elfin Things_
As the parliament of Erl ran down the hill they ran into the dusk of
evening. Greyly it lay in the valley above the mist from the stream. But
with more than the mystery of dusk the air was heavy. Lights blinking
early from houses showed that all the folk were home, and the street was
deserted by everything that was human; save when with hushed air and
almost furtive step they saw their lord Orion like a tall shadow go by,
with will-o'-the-wisps behind him, towards the house of the trolls,
thinking no earthly thoughts. And the strangeness that had been growing
day by day made all the village eerie. So that with short and troubled
breath the twelve old men hurried on.
And so they came to the holy place of the Freer, which lay on the side
of the village that was towards the witch's hill. And it was the hour at
which he was wont to celebrate after-bird-song, as they named the
singing that they sang in the holy place when all the birds were home.
But the Freer was not within his holy place; he stood in the cold night
air on the upper step without it, his face turned towards Elfland. He
had on his sacred robe with its border of purple, and the emblem of
gold round his neck; but the door of his holy place was shut and his
back was towards it. They wondered to see him stand thus.
And as they wondered the Freer began to intone, clear in the evening
with his eyes away to the East, where already a few of the earliest
stars were showing. With his head held high he spoke as though his voice
might pass over the frontier of twilight and be heard by the people of
Elfland.
"Curst be all wandering things," he said, "whose place is not upon
Earth. Curst be all lights that dwell in fens and in marish places.
Their homes are in deeps of the marshes. Let them by no means stir from
there until the Last Day. Let them abide in their place and there await
damnation.
"Cursed be gnomes, trolls, elves and goblins on land, and all sprites of
the water. And fauns be accursed and such as follow Pan. And all that
dwell on the heath, being other than beasts or men. Cursed be fairies
and all tales told of them, and whatever enchants the meadows before the
sun is up, and all fables of doubtful authority, and the legends that
men hand down from unhallowed times.
"Cursed be brooms that leave their place by the hearth. Cursed be
witches and all manner of witcheries.
"Cursed be toadstool rings and whatever dances within them. And all
strange lights, strange songs, strange shadows, or rumours that hint of
them, and all doubtful things of the dusk, and the things that
ill-instructed children fear, and old wives' tales and things done o'
midsummer nights; all these be accursed with all that leaneth toward
Elfland and all that cometh thence."
Never a lane of that village, never a barn, but a will-o'-the-wisp was
dancing nimbly above it; the night was gilded with them. But as the good
Freer spoke they backed away from his curses, floating further off as
though a light wind blew them, and danced again after drifting a little
way. This they did both before and behind him and upon either hand, as
he stood there upon the steps of his holy place. So that there was a
circle of darkness all round him, and beyond that circle shone the
lights of the marshes and Elfland.
And within the dark circle in which the Freer stood making his curses
were no unhallowed things, nor were there strangenesses such as come of
night, nor whispers from unknown voices, nor sounds of any music blowing
here from no haunts of men; but all was orderly and seemly there and no
mysteries troubled the quiet except such as have been justly allowed to
man.
And beyond that circle whence so much was beaten back by the bright
vehemence of the good man's curses, the will-o'-the-wisps rioted, and
many a strangeness that poured in that night from Elfland, and goblins
held high holiday. For word was gone forth in Elfland that pleasant folk
had now their dwelling in Erl; and many a thing of fable, many a monster
of myth, had crept through that border of twilight and had come into Erl
to see. And the light and false but friendly will-o'-the-wisps danced in
the haunted air and made them welcome.
And not only the trolls and the will-o'-the-wisps had lured these folk
from their fabled land through the seldom-traversed border, but the
longings and thoughts of Orion, which by half his lineage were akin to
the things of myth and of one race with the monsters of Elfland, were
calling to them now. Ever since that day by the frontier when he had
hovered between Earth and Elfland he had yearned more and more for his
mother; and now, whether he willed it or no, his elfin thoughts were
calling their kin that dwelt in the elvish fells; and at that hour when
the sound of the horns blew through the frontier of twilight they had
come tumbling after it. For elfin thoughts are as much akin to the
creatures that dwell in Elfland as goblins are to trolls.
Within the calm and the dark of the good man's curses the twelve old men
stood silent listening to every word. And the words seemed good to them
and soothing and right, for they were over-weary of magic.
But beyond the circle of darkness, amidst the glare of the
will-o'-the-wisps with which all the night flickered, amidst goblin
laughter and the unbridled mirth of the trolls, where old legends seemed
alive and the fearfullest fables true; amongst all manner of mysteries,
queer sounds, queer shapes, and queer shadows; Orion passed with his
hounds, eastwards towards Elfland.