Transcript

021 - Chapter 19 · Pirate

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Speaker 1: Chapter nineteen of the Pirate by Sir Walter Scott. The
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Dion
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Speaker 1: Jine's Salt Lake City, Utah. I pass like night from
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Speaker 1: land to land. I have strange power of speech. So
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Speaker 1: soon as ever his face I see, I know the
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Speaker 1: man that must hear me to him my tale I
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Speaker 1: teach Coleridge's rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. The daughters of
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Speaker 1: Magnus Troyal shared the same bed in a chamber which
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Speaker 1: had been that of their parents before the death of
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Speaker 1: their mother. Magnus, who suffered grievously under that dispensation of providence,
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Speaker 1: had become disgusted with the apartment. The nuptial chamber was
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Speaker 1: abandoned to the pledges of his bereaved. Affection, of whom
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Speaker 1: the oldest was at that period only four years old
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Speaker 1: or thereabouts, and having been their nursery in infancy, continued,
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Speaker 1: though now tricked and adorned, according to the best fashion
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Speaker 1: of the islands and the taste of the lovely sisters themselves,
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Speaker 1: to be their sleeping room, or in the old Norse dialect,
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Speaker 1: their bower. It had been for many years the scene
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Speaker 1: of the most intimate confidence, if that could be called confidence,
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Speaker 1: where in truth there was nothing to be confided, where
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Speaker 1: neither sister had a secret, and where every thought that
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Speaker 1: had birth in the bosom of the one was, without
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Speaker 1: either hesitation or doubt, confided to the other as spontaneously
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Speaker 1: as it had arisen. But since Cleveland abode in the
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Speaker 1: mansion of Burgwestra, each of the lovely sisters had entertained
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Speaker 1: thoughts which are not lightly or easily communicated, unless she
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Speaker 1: who listens to them has previously assured herself that the
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Speaker 1: confidence will be kindly received. Minna had noticed what other
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Speaker 1: and less interested observers had been unable to perceive, that
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Speaker 1: Cleveland namely held a lower rank in Brenda's opinion than
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Speaker 1: in her own. And Brenda, on her side, thought that
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Speaker 1: Minna had hastily and unjustly joined in the prejudices which
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Speaker 1: had been excited against Mordaunt Mertown. In the mind of
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Speaker 1: their father, each was sensible that she was no longer
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Speaker 1: the same to her sister, and this conviction was a
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Speaker 1: painful addition to other painful apprehensions which they supposed they
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Speaker 1: had to struggle. With Their manner towards each other was
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Speaker 1: in outward appearances, and in all the little care by
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Speaker 1: which affection can be expressed, even more assiduously kind than before,
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Speaker 1: as if both conscious that their internal reserve was a
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Speaker 1: breach of their sisterly union, strove to atone for it
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Speaker 1: by double assiduity in those external marks of affection which,
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Speaker 1: at other times, when there was nothing to hide, might
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Speaker 1: be omitted without inferring any consequences. On the night referred to,
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Speaker 1: in particular, the sisters felt more especially the decay of
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Speaker 1: the confidence which used to exist betwixt them the proposed
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Speaker 1: voyage to Kirkwall, and that at the time of the fair,
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Speaker 1: when persons of every degree in these islands repair thither,
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Speaker 1: either for business or amusement, was likely to be an
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Speaker 1: important incident in lives usually so simple and uniform as theirs,
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Speaker 1: And a few months ago, Minna and Brenda would have
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Speaker 1: been awake half the night anticipating in their talk with
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Speaker 1: each other all that was likely to happen on so
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Speaker 1: momentous an occasion. But now the subject was just mentioned
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Speaker 1: and suffered to drop, as if the topic was likely
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Speaker 1: to produce a difference betwixt them, or to call forth
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Speaker 1: a more open display of their several opinions than either
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Speaker 1: was willing to make to the other. Yet such was
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Speaker 1: their natural openness and gentleness of disposition, that each sister
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Speaker 1: imputed to herself the fault that there was aught like
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Speaker 1: estrangement existing between them. And when having finished their devotions
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Speaker 1: and betaken themselves to their common couch, they folded each
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Speaker 1: other in their arms and exchanged a sisterly kiss and
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Speaker 1: a sister uterly good night. They seemed mutually to ask
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Speaker 1: pardon and to exchange forgiveness, although neither said a word
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Speaker 1: of offense, either offered or received, and both were soon
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Speaker 1: plunged in that light and yet profound repose which is
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Speaker 1: only enjoyed when sleep sinks down on the eyes of
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Speaker 1: youth and innocence. On the night to which the story relates,
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Speaker 1: both sisters were visited by dreams, which, though varied by
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Speaker 1: the moods and habits of the sleepers, bore yet a
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Speaker 1: strange general resemblance to each other. Menna dreamed that she
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Speaker 1: was in one of the most lonely recesses of the
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Speaker 1: beach called Swordtster, where the incessant operation of the waves
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Speaker 1: indenting a calcareous rock, has formed a deep hallure which
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Speaker 1: in the language of the island means a subterranean cavern
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Speaker 1: into which the tide ebbs and flows. Many of these
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Speaker 1: run to an extraordinary and unascertained depth underground, and are
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Speaker 1: the secure retreat of cormorants and seals, which it is
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Speaker 1: neither easy nor safe to pursue to their extreme recesses.
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Speaker 1: Amongst these, this holure of sword Tester was accounted peculiarly
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Speaker 1: inaccessible and shunned both by fowlers and by seamen, on
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Speaker 1: account of sharp angles and turnings in the cave itself,
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Speaker 1: as well as the sunken rocks, which rendered it very
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Speaker 1: dangerous for skiffs or boats to advance far into it,
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Speaker 1: especially if there was the usual swell of an island
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Speaker 1: tide from the dark browed mouth of this cavern. It
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Speaker 1: seemed to Minna in her dream that she beheld a mermaid,
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Speaker 1: issue not in the classical dress of a nereid, as
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Speaker 1: in Claude Holcrow's mask of the preceding evening, but with
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Speaker 1: comb and glass in hand, according to popular belief, and
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Speaker 1: lashing the waves with that long scaly train which in
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Speaker 1: the traditions of the country forms so frightful. A contrast
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Speaker 1: with the fair face, long tresses, and displayed bosom of
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Speaker 1: a human and earthly female of surpassing beauty. She seemed
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Speaker 1: to beckon to Menna, while her wild nodes rang sadly
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Speaker 1: in her ear and denounced in prophetic sounds calamity and woe.
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Speaker 1: The vision of Brenda was of a different description, yet
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Speaker 1: equally melancholy. She sat, as she thought, in her favorite bower,
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Speaker 1: surrounded by her father and a party of his most
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Speaker 1: beloved friends, amongst whom Mordaunt Mertown was not forgotten. She
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Speaker 1: was required to sing, and she strove to entertain them
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Speaker 1: with a lively ditty in which she was accounted eminently successful,
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Speaker 1: and which she sung with such simple yet natural humor
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Speaker 1: as seldom filled to produce shouts of laughter and applause,
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Speaker 1: while all who could or who would not sing, were
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Speaker 1: irresistibly compelled to lend their voices to the chorus. But
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Speaker 1: on this occasion it seemed as if her own voice
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Speaker 1: refused all its usual duty, and as if, while she
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Speaker 1: felt herself unable to express the words of the well
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Speaker 1: known air, it assumed in her own despite the deep
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Speaker 1: tones and wild and melancholy notes of Norna of fitful head,
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Speaker 1: for the purpose of chanting some wild runic rhyme resembling
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Speaker 1: those sung by the heathen priests of old, when the victim,
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Speaker 1: too often human, was bound to the fatal altar of
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Speaker 1: Odin or of Thor. At length. The two sisters at
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Speaker 1: once started from sleep, and, uttering a low scream of fear,
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Speaker 1: clasped themselves in each other's arms. For their fancy had
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Speaker 1: not altogether played them false. The sounds which had suggested
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Speaker 1: their dreams were real and sung within their apartment. They
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Speaker 1: knew the voice well, indeed, and yet knowing to whom
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Speaker 1: it belonged, their surprise and fear were scarce the less
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Speaker 1: when they saw the well known Norna of fitful head,
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Speaker 1: seated by the chimney of the apartment, which during the
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Speaker 1: summer season contained an iron lamp well trimmed and in
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Speaker 1: winter a fire of wood or of turf. She was
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Speaker 1: wrapped in her long and ample garment of wadmill, and
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Speaker 1: moved her body slowly to and fro over the pale
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Speaker 1: flame of the lamp as she sung lines to the
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Speaker 1: following purport in a slow, sad and almost an unearthly accent.
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Speaker 1: Four leagues along the watery way through gulf and stream.
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Speaker 1: My course has been. The billows know my runic lay,
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Speaker 1: and smooth their crest to silent green. The billows know
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Speaker 1: my runic lay. The gulf grows smooth, the stream is still,
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Speaker 1: but human hearts more wild than they know. But the
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Speaker 1: rule of wayward will when hour is mine in all
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Speaker 1: the year to tell my woes, and one alone, when
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Speaker 1: gleams this magic lamp tis here. When dies the mystic
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Speaker 1: light tis gone. Daughters of Northern Magnus, hail, the lamp
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Speaker 1: is lit, the flame is clear to you. I come
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Speaker 1: to tell my tail. Awake, arise, my tale to hear.
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Speaker 1: Norna was well known to the daughters of Troyl, but
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Speaker 1: it was not without emotion. Although varied by their respective
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Speaker 1: dispositions that they beheld her so unexpectedly and at such
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Speaker 1: an hour, their opinions with respect to the supernatural attributes
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Speaker 1: to which she pretended were extremely different. Menna, with an
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Speaker 1: unusual intensity of imagination, although superior in talent to her sister,
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Speaker 1: was more apt to listen to and delight in every
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Speaker 1: tale of wonder, and was at all times more willing
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Speaker 1: to admit impressions which gave her fancy scope and exercise
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Speaker 1: without minutely examining their reality. Brenda, on the other hand,
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Speaker 1: had in her gaiety a slight propensity to satire, and
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Speaker 1: was often tempted to laugh at the very circumstances upon
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Speaker 1: which Minna founded her imaginative dreams. And like all who
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Speaker 1: loved the ludicrous, she did not readily suffer herself to
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Speaker 1: be imposed upon or overawed by pompous pretensions of any
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Speaker 1: kind whatever. But as her nerves were weaker and more
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Speaker 1: irritable than those of her sister, she often paid involuntary
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Speaker 1: homage by her fears to ideas which her reason disowned,
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Speaker 1: And hence Claude Hulcro used to say, in reference to
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Speaker 1: many of the traditionary superstitions around Burgwestra, that Minna believed
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Speaker 1: them without trembling, and that Brenda trembled without believing them.
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Speaker 1: In our own, more enlightened days, there are few whose
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Speaker 1: undoubting mind and native courage have not felt Menna's high,
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Speaker 1: wrought tone of enthusiasm, and perhaps still fewer who have not,
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Speaker 1: at one time or other felt like Brenda. Their nerves
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Speaker 1: confess the influence of terrors which their reason disowned and despised.
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Speaker 1: Under the power of such different feelings. Minna, when the
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Speaker 1: first moment of surprise, was over, prepared to spring from
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Speaker 1: her bed and go to Great Norna, who she doubted
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Speaker 1: not had come on some errand fraught with fate. While Brenda,
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Speaker 1: who only beheld in her a woman partially deranged in
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Speaker 1: her understanding, and who yet from the extravagance of her claims,
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Speaker 1: regarded her as an undefined object of awe or rather terror,
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Speaker 1: detained her sister by an eager and terrified grasp, while
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Speaker 1: she whispered in her ear an anxious entreaty that she
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Speaker 1: would call for assistance. But the soul of Minna was
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Speaker 1: too highly wrought up by the crisis at which her
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Speaker 1: seemed to have arrived to permit her to follow the
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Speaker 1: dictates of her sister's fears, and extricating herself from Brenda's hold,
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Speaker 1: she hastily threw on a loose nightgown, and stepping boldly
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Speaker 1: across the apartment, while her heart throbbed rather with high
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Speaker 1: excitement than with fear. She thus addressed her singular visitor, Noarna,
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Speaker 1: if your mission regards us as your words seem to express,
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Speaker 1: there is one of us at least who will receive
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Speaker 1: its import with reverence, but without fear. Norna, Dear Norna,
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Speaker 1: said the tremulous voice of Brenda, who, feeling no safety
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Speaker 1: in the bed after Mena quitted it, had followed her
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Speaker 1: as fugitive's crowd into the rear of an advancing army,
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Speaker 1: because they dare not remain behind, and who now stood
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Speaker 1: half concealed by her sister and holding fast by the
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Speaker 1: skirts of her gown. Norna, dear Norna, said she, whatever
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Speaker 1: you are to say, let it be tomorrow. I will
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Speaker 1: call euphony Fey the housekeeper, and she will find you
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Speaker 1: a bed for the night. No bed for me, said
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Speaker 1: their nocturnal visitor, now closing of the eyes for me.
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Speaker 1: They have watched as shelf and stack appeared and disappeared
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Speaker 1: betwixt Burgwestra and Orkney. They have seen the man of
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Speaker 1: Hoy sink into the sea, and the peak of Hencliff
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Speaker 1: arise from it. And yet they have not tasted of slumber,
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Speaker 1: Nor must they slumber now till my task is ended.
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Speaker 1: Sit down, then, Minna, and thou silly trembler, sit down
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Speaker 1: while I trim my lamp. Down your clothes, for the
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Speaker 1: tail is long, and ere tis done. Ye will shiver
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Speaker 1: with worse than cold. For Heaven's sake, then put it
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Speaker 1: off till daylight. Dear Norna, said Brenda. The dawn cannot
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Speaker 1: be far distant. And if you are to tell us
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Speaker 1: of anything frightful, let it be by daylight, and not
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Speaker 1: by the dim glimmer of that blue lamp. Patience fool,
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Speaker 1: said their uninvited guest. Not by daylight should Norna tell
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Speaker 1: a tale that might blot the sun out of heaven
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Speaker 1: and blight the hopes of the hundred boats that will
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Speaker 1: leave this shore ere noon to commence their deep sea fishing. Aye,
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Speaker 1: and of the hundred families that will await their return.
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Speaker 1: The daemon, whom the sounds will not fail to awaken,
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Speaker 1: must shake his dark wings over a shipless and a
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Speaker 1: boatless sea, as he rushes from his mountain to drink
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Speaker 1: the accents of horror. He loves so well to live,
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Speaker 1: to have pity on Brenda's fears, Good, Norna, said the
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Speaker 1: elder sister, And at least postpone this frightful communication to
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Speaker 1: another place. And our maiden, No, replied Norna, sternly, it
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Speaker 1: must be told while that lamp yet burns mine is
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Speaker 1: no daylight tail by that lamp, it must be told,
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Speaker 1: which is framed out of the gibbet irons of the
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Speaker 1: cruel lord of Wodensvoe, who murdered his brother, and has
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Speaker 1: for its nourishment. But be that nameless enough that its
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Speaker 1: food never came either from the fish or from the fruit.
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Speaker 1: See it waxes dim and dimmer. Nor must my tail
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Speaker 1: last longer than its flame endureth Sit ye down there,
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Speaker 1: while I sit here opposite to you, and place the
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Speaker 1: lamp betwixt us, For within the sphere of its light
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Speaker 1: the demon dares not venture. The sisters obeyed Manna, casting
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Speaker 1: a slow, awestruck yet determined look all around, as if
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Speaker 1: to see the being who, according to the doubtful words
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Speaker 1: of Norna, hovered in their neighborhood. While Brenda's fears were
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Speaker 1: mingled with some share both of anger and of impatience,
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Speaker 1: Norna paid no attention to either, but began her story
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Speaker 1: in the following words. Ye know, my daughters, that your
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Speaker 1: blood is allied to mine, But in what degree ye
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Speaker 1: know not, For there was early hostility betwixt your grandsire
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Speaker 1: and him who had the misfortune to call me daughter
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Speaker 1: let me term him by his Christian name of Erland.
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Speaker 1: For that which marks our relation, I dare not bestow
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Speaker 1: your grandsire. Olaf was the brother of Erland. But when
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Speaker 1: the wide ud all possessions of their father, Ralph Troil,
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Speaker 1: the most rich and wealth, as stated of any who
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Speaker 1: descended from the old Norse stock, were divided betwixt the brothers,
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Speaker 1: the foud gave to Erland his father's lands in Orkney,
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Speaker 1: and reserved for Olaf those of Hatland. Discord arose between
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Speaker 1: the brethren, for Erland held that he was wronged, And
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Speaker 1: when the lotting with the red men and law right
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Speaker 1: men confirmed the division, he went in wrath to Orkney,
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Speaker 1: cursing Hatland and its inhabitants, cursing his brother and his blood.
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Speaker 1: But the love of the rock and of the mountain
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Speaker 1: still wrought on Erland's mind, and he fixed his dwelling
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Speaker 1: not on the soft hills of Ophur or the green
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Speaker 1: plains of Gramacy, but in the wild and mountainous isle
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Speaker 1: of Hoy, whose summit rises to the sky like the
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Speaker 1: cliffs of Fulah and of Pharaoh. He knew that unhappy Erland,
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Speaker 1: whatever of legendary lore, scaled and barred had left behind them.
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Speaker 1: And to teach me that knowledge, which was to cost
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Speaker 1: us both so dear, was the chief occupation of his
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Speaker 1: old age. I learned to visit each lonely barrow, each
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Speaker 1: lofty cairn, to tell its appropriate tale, and to soothe
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Speaker 1: with rhymes in his praise the spirit of the stern
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Speaker 1: warrior who dwelt within. I knew where the sacrifices were
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Speaker 1: made of yore, to thor and to odin, on what
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Speaker 1: stones the blood of the victims flowed. Where stood the
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Speaker 1: dark browed priest, Where the crested chiefs who consulted the
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Speaker 1: will of the idol, Where the more distant crowd of
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Speaker 1: inferior worshipers, who looked on in awe or in terror.
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Speaker 1: The places most shunned by the timid peasants had no terrors.
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Speaker 1: For me, I dared walk in the faery circle and
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Speaker 1: sleep by the magic spring. But for my misfortune I
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Speaker 1: was chiefly fond to linger about the dwarfy stone, as
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Speaker 1: it is called a relic of antiquity, which strangers look
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Speaker 1: on with curiosity and the natives with awe. It is
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Speaker 1: a huge fragment of rock which lies in a broken
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Speaker 1: and rude valley full of stones and precipices in the
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Speaker 1: recesses of the ward hill of Hoy. The inside of
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Speaker 1: the rock has two couches, hewn by no earthly hand,
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Speaker 1: and having a small passage between them. The doorway is
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Speaker 1: now open to the weather, but beside it lies a
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Speaker 1: large stone, which adapted to grooves still visible in the entrance.
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Speaker 1: Ones had served to open and to close this extraordinary dwelling,
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Speaker 1: which trolled. A dwarf famous in the Northern Sagas, is
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Speaker 1: said to have framed for his own favorite residence. The
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Speaker 1: lonely shepherd avoids the place for at sunrise, high noon,
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Speaker 1: or sunset, the misshape and form of the nechromatic owner
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Speaker 1: may sometimes still be seen sitting by the dwarfy stone.
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Speaker 1: I feared not the apparition for Minna. My heart was
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Speaker 1: as bold, and my hand was as innocent as yours.
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Speaker 1: In my childish courage, I was even but too presumptuous,
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Speaker 1: and the thirst after things unattainable led me, like our
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Speaker 1: primitive mother, to desire increase of knowledge, even by prohibited means.
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Speaker 1: I longed to possess the power of the voluspae and
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Speaker 1: divining women of our ancient race to wield like them,
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Speaker 1: command over the elements, and to summon the ghosts of
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Speaker 1: deceased heroes from their caverns, that they might recite their
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Speaker 1: daring deeds, and in part to me their hidden treasures. Often,
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Speaker 1: when watching by the Dwarfy Stone, with mine eyes fixed
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Speaker 1: on the ward hill which rises above that gloomy valley,
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Speaker 1: I have distinguished among the dark rocks that wonderful carbuncle,
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Speaker 1: which gleams ready as a furnace to them who view
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Speaker 1: it from beneath, but has ever become invisible to him
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Speaker 1: whose daring foot has scaled the precipices from which it
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Speaker 1: darts its splendor. My vain and youthful bosom burned to
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Speaker 1: investigate these and an hundred other mysteries, which the sog
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Speaker 1: is that I perused or learned from Erland, rather indicated
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Speaker 1: than explained, And in my daring mood, I called on
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Speaker 1: the Lord of the Dwarfy Stone to aid me in
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Speaker 1: attaining knowledge inaccessible to mere mortals. And the evil spirit
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Speaker 1: heard your summons, said Minna, her blood curdling as she listened. Hush,
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Speaker 1: said Norna, lowering her voice. Vex him not with reproach.
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Speaker 1: He is with us. He hears us even now. Brenda
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Speaker 1: started from her seat. I will to euphany Faye's chamber,
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Speaker 1: she said, and leave you Minna and Norna to finish
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Speaker 1: your stories of hobgoblins and of dwarfs at your own leisure.
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Speaker 1: I care not for them at any time, but I
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Speaker 1: will not endure them at midnight and by this pale lamplight.
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Speaker 1: She was accordingly in the act of leaving the room
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Speaker 1: when her sister detained her. Is this the courage, she said,
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Speaker 1: of her, that disbelieves whatever the history of our fathers
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Speaker 1: tells us of supernatural prodigy, what Norna has to tell
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Speaker 1: concerns the fate perhaps of our father and his house.
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Speaker 1: If I can listen to it, trusting that God and
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Speaker 1: my innocence will protect me from all that is malignant. You, Brenda,
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Speaker 1: who believe not in such influence, have surely no cause
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Speaker 1: to tremble credit me that for the guiltless there is
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Speaker 1: no fear. There may be no danger, said Brenda, and
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Speaker 1: able to suppress her natural turn for humor. But as
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Speaker 1: the oldest book says, there is much fear. However, Menna,
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Speaker 1: I will stay with you the rather, she added in
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Speaker 1: a whisper, that I am loath to leave you alone
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Speaker 1: with this frightful woman, and that I have a dark
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Speaker 1: staircase and long passage betwixt and you, Fani fay else
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Speaker 1: I would have her here I were five minutes older.
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Speaker 1: Call no one hither, maiden, upon peril of thy life,
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Speaker 1: said Norna, and interrupt not my tail again, for it
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Speaker 1: cannot and must not be told. After that charmed light
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Speaker 1: has ceased to burn, and I think heaven, said Brenda
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Speaker 1: to herself, that the oil burns low in the cruise.
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Speaker 1: I am sorely tempted to lend it a puff, But
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Speaker 1: then Norna would be alone with us in the dark,
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Speaker 1: and that would be worse. So saying, she submitted to
26:35
Speaker 1: her fate and sat down, determined to listen with all
26:39
Speaker 1: the equanimity which she could command to the remaining part
26:43
Speaker 1: of Norna's tail, which went on as follows. It happened
26:48
Speaker 1: on a hot summer day, and just about the hour
26:52
Speaker 1: of noon, continued Norna, as I sat by the dwarfy stone,
26:56
Speaker 1: with my eyes fixed on the ward hill, when the
27:00
Speaker 1: mysterious and ever burning carbuncle shed its rays more brightly
27:05
Speaker 1: than usual, and repined in my heart at the restricted
27:10
Speaker 1: bounds of human knowledge that at length I could not
27:14
Speaker 1: help exclaiming, in the words of an ancient saga, dwellers
27:18
Speaker 1: of the mountain rise, troll, the powerful hams, the wise
27:24
Speaker 1: ye who taught weak woman's tongue words that sway, the
27:28
Speaker 1: wise and strong ye who taught weak woman's hand how
27:33
Speaker 1: to wield the magic wand and wake the gales on
27:37
Speaker 1: Fulah's steep, or low wild some Burg's waves to sleep?
27:43
Speaker 1: Still are ye yet not yours? The power ye knew
27:47
Speaker 1: in Odin's mightier hour? What are ye now? That empty names, powerful,
27:53
Speaker 1: trolled sagacious hams, that lightly spoken, lightly heard, flow on
28:00
Speaker 1: the air like thistles veered I had scarce uttered. These
28:04
Speaker 1: words proceeded norna ere. The sky, which had been till
28:09
Speaker 1: then unusually clear, grew so suddenly dark around me that
28:14
Speaker 1: it seemed more like midnight than noon. A single flash
28:18
Speaker 1: of lightning showed me at once the desolate landscape of heath, Morass,
28:24
Speaker 1: mountain and precipice which lay around a single clap of
28:28
Speaker 1: thunder wakened all the echoes of the ward hill, which
28:32
Speaker 1: continued so long to repeat the sound that it seemed
28:37
Speaker 1: some rock rent by the thunderbolt from the summit was
28:41
Speaker 1: rolling over cliff and precipice into the valley. Immediately after
28:46
Speaker 1: fell a burst of rain so violent that I was
28:50
Speaker 1: fain to shun its pelting. By creeping into the interior
28:55
Speaker 1: of the mysterious stone. I seated myself on the larger stone,
29:00
Speaker 1: which is cut at the farther end of the cavity,
29:03
Speaker 1: and with my eyes fixed on this smaller bed, wearied
29:07
Speaker 1: myself with conjectures respecting the origin and purpose of my
29:12
Speaker 1: singular place of refuge. Had it been really the work
29:17
Speaker 1: of that powerful troll to whom the poetry of the
29:20
Speaker 1: Skulls referred it, Or was it the tomb of some
29:24
Speaker 1: Scandinavian chief, interred with his arms and his wealth, perhaps
29:29
Speaker 1: also with his immolated wife, that what he loved best
29:34
Speaker 1: in life might not in death be divided from him.
29:38
Speaker 1: Or was it the abode of penance chosen by some
29:41
Speaker 1: devoted anchorite of later days? Or the idle work of
29:46
Speaker 1: some wandering mechanic whom chance and whim and leisure had
29:51
Speaker 1: thrust upon such an undertaking. I tell you the thoughts
29:56
Speaker 1: that then floated through my brain, that ye may know
30:00
Speaker 1: that what ensued was not the vision of a prejudiced
30:04
Speaker 1: or prepossessed imagination, but an apparition as certain as it
30:10
Speaker 1: was awful. Sleep had gradually crept on me amidst my lucubrations,
30:16
Speaker 1: And I was startled from my slumbers by a second
30:20
Speaker 1: clap of thunder. And when I awoke, I saw, through
30:24
Speaker 1: the dim light which the upper aperture admitted, the unshapely
30:29
Speaker 1: and indistinct form of trolled the dwarf seated opposite to
30:34
Speaker 1: me on the lesser couch, which his square and misshapen
30:38
Speaker 1: bulk seemed absolutely to fill up. I was startled, but
30:43
Speaker 1: not affrighted, for the blood of the ancient race of
30:46
Speaker 1: Lachlan was warm in my veins. He spoke, and his
30:51
Speaker 1: words were of Norse, so old that few save my
30:55
Speaker 1: father or I myself could have comprehended their such language
31:01
Speaker 1: as was spoken in these islands. Ere Olaf planted the
31:05
Speaker 1: cross on the ruins of Heathenism. His meaning was dark
31:10
Speaker 1: also and obscure, like that which the pagan priests were
31:15
Speaker 1: wont to deliver in the name of their idols to
31:18
Speaker 1: the tribes that assembled at the Helgafels. This was the
31:22
Speaker 1: import A thousand winters dark have flown, since over the
31:27
Speaker 1: threshold of my stone, a voterests passed my power to
31:32
Speaker 1: own visitor Bold of the mansion of trolled maiden, haughty
31:38
Speaker 1: of heart, who hast hither presumed, ungifted, undoomed, Thou shalt
31:44
Speaker 1: not depart the power thou dost covet over tempest and
31:49
Speaker 1: wave shall be thine, thou proud maiden, by beach and
31:53
Speaker 1: by cave, by stack, and by scarry, by noop, and
31:58
Speaker 1: by vaux, by air and by wick, and by hellure
32:02
Speaker 1: and geo, and by every wild shore which the northern
32:07
Speaker 1: winds know and the northern tides lave. But though this
32:11
Speaker 1: shall be given thee thou desperately brave, I doom thee
32:16
Speaker 1: that never the gift thou shalt have till thou reave
32:20
Speaker 1: thy life's giver of the gift which he gave. I
32:25
Speaker 1: answered him in nearly the same strain, For the spirit
32:28
Speaker 1: of the ancient skulls of our race was upon me. And,
32:33
Speaker 1: far from fearing the phantom with whom I sat cooped
32:37
Speaker 1: within so narrow a space, I felt the impulse of
32:41
Speaker 1: that high courage which thrust the ancient champions and druidesses
32:47
Speaker 1: upon contests with the invisible world when they thought that
32:51
Speaker 1: the earth no longer contained enemies, were they to be
32:55
Speaker 1: subdued by them? Therefore did I answer him. Thus dark
33:00
Speaker 1: are thy words, and severe thou dweller in the stone,
33:04
Speaker 1: But trembling and fear to her are unknown. Who hath
33:09
Speaker 1: sought thee here in thy dwelling lone come? What comes soever?
33:14
Speaker 1: The worst I can endure? Life is but a short fever,
33:19
Speaker 1: and death is the cure. The demon scowled at me
33:23
Speaker 1: as if at once incensed and over awed, and then,
33:27
Speaker 1: coiling himself up in a thick and sulfurous vapor, he
33:32
Speaker 1: disappeared from his place. I did not till that moment
33:36
Speaker 1: fill the influence of fright, but then it seized me.
33:40
Speaker 1: I rushed into the open air, where the tempest had
33:44
Speaker 1: passed away, and all was pure and serene. After a
33:48
Speaker 1: moment's breathless pause, I hasted home, musing by the way
33:53
Speaker 1: on the words of the phantom, which I could not,
33:56
Speaker 1: as often happens, recall so distinctly to memory at the time,
34:01
Speaker 1: as I have been able to do. Since it may
34:05
Speaker 1: seem strange that such an apparition should, in time have
34:09
Speaker 1: glided from my mind like a vision of the night.
34:13
Speaker 1: But so it was I brought myself to believe it
34:17
Speaker 1: the work of fancy. I thought I had lived too
34:21
Speaker 1: much in solitude, and had given way too much to
34:24
Speaker 1: the feelings inspired by my favorite studies. I abandoned them
34:29
Speaker 1: for a time, and I mixed with the youth of
34:32
Speaker 1: my age. I was upon a visit at Kirkwall when
34:36
Speaker 1: I learned to know your father, whom business had brought thither.
34:41
Speaker 1: He easily found access to the relation with whom I lived,
34:45
Speaker 1: who was anxious to compose, if possible, the feud which
34:49
Speaker 1: divided our families. Your father, Maidens, has been rather hardened
34:54
Speaker 1: than changed by years. He had the same manly form,
34:59
Speaker 1: the same o Norse frankness of manner and of heart,
35:03
Speaker 1: the same upright courage and honesty of disposition, with more
35:08
Speaker 1: of the gentle ingenuousness of youth, an eager desire to please,
35:13
Speaker 1: a willingness to be pleased, and a vivacity of spirits
35:18
Speaker 1: which survives not our early years. That though he was
35:22
Speaker 1: thus worthy of love, and though Erland wrote to me
35:26
Speaker 1: authorizing his attachment, there was another, a stranger Manna, a
35:31
Speaker 1: fatal stranger full of arts unknown to us, and graces
35:36
Speaker 1: which to the plain manners of your father were unknown. Yes,
35:40
Speaker 1: he walked indeed among us, like a being of another
35:45
Speaker 1: and of a superior race. Ye look on me as
35:49
Speaker 1: if it were strange that I should have attractions for
35:52
Speaker 1: such a lover. That I present nothing that can remind
35:56
Speaker 1: you that Norna of the fitful head was one admired
36:00
Speaker 1: and loved as oolah troil. The change betwixt the animated
36:06
Speaker 1: body and the corpse after disease is scarce, more awful
36:10
Speaker 1: and absolute than I have sustained while I yet linger
36:15
Speaker 1: on earth. Look on me, maidens, look on me by
36:19
Speaker 1: this glimmering light. Can ye believe that these haggard and
36:23
Speaker 1: weather wasted features, these eyes which have been almost converted
36:28
Speaker 1: to stone by looking upon sights of terror, These locks
36:34
Speaker 1: that mingled with gray now stream out the shattered pennons
36:39
Speaker 1: of a sinking vessel, That these and she to whom
36:42
Speaker 1: they belong could once be the objects of fond affection.
36:47
Speaker 1: But the wanting lamp sinks fast, and let it sink
36:51
Speaker 1: while I tell my infamy. We loved in secret, We
36:56
Speaker 1: met in secret, till I gave the last proof of
36:59
Speaker 1: fatal and of guilty, passion, and now beam out thou
37:04
Speaker 1: magic glimmer, shine out a little space, Thou flame, so
37:09
Speaker 1: powerful even in thy feebleness. Bid him who hovers near
37:14
Speaker 1: us keep his dark pinions aloof from the circle. Thou
37:18
Speaker 1: dost illuminate, live but a little till the worst be told,
37:23
Speaker 1: And then sink when thou wilt into darkness as black
37:28
Speaker 1: as my guilt and sorrow. While she spoke, thus she
37:32
Speaker 1: drew together the remaining nutriment of the lamp and trimmed
37:36
Speaker 1: its decaying flame. Then again, with a hollow voice, and
37:40
Speaker 1: in broken sentences, pursued her narrative, I must waste little
37:45
Speaker 1: time in words. My love was discovered, but not my guilt.
37:50
Speaker 1: Erlund came to Pomona in anger and transported me to
37:54
Speaker 1: our solitary dwelling in Hoy. He commanded me to see
37:59
Speaker 1: my lover know more and to receive Magnus, in whom
38:03
Speaker 1: he was willing to forgive the offenses of his father
38:07
Speaker 1: as my future husband. Alas I no longer deserved his attachment.
38:12
Speaker 1: My only wish was to escape from my father's dwelling,
38:16
Speaker 1: to conceal my shame in my lover's arms. Let me
38:20
Speaker 1: do him justice. He was faithful, too, too faithful. His
38:25
Speaker 1: perfidy would have bereft me of my senses. But the
38:29
Speaker 1: fatal consequences of his fidelity have done me a tenfold injury.
38:35
Speaker 1: She paused, and then resumed with the wild tone of insanity.
38:40
Speaker 1: It has made me the powerful and the despairing sovereign
38:44
Speaker 1: of the seas and winds. She paused a second time
38:49
Speaker 1: after this wild exclamation, and resumed her narrative in a
38:53
Speaker 1: more composed manner. My lover came in secret to Hoy
38:58
Speaker 1: to concert measures for my flight, and I agreed to
39:01
Speaker 1: meet him that we might fix the time when his
39:05
Speaker 1: vessel should come into the sound. I left the house
39:09
Speaker 1: at midnight. Here she appeared to gasp with agony, and
39:13
Speaker 1: went on with her tail by broken and interrupted sentences.
39:18
Speaker 1: I left the house at midnight. I had to pass
39:21
Speaker 1: my father's door, and I perceived it was open. I
39:25
Speaker 1: thought he watched us, and that the sound of my
39:28
Speaker 1: steps might not break his slumbers. I closed the fatal door,
39:33
Speaker 1: a light and trivial action that God in heaven, what
39:37
Speaker 1: were the consequences? At morn the room was full of
39:42
Speaker 1: suffocating vapor. My father was dead, dead through my act,
39:47
Speaker 1: dead through my disobedience, dead through my infamy, All that
39:52
Speaker 1: follows is mist and darkness, a choking, suffocating, stifling mist
39:58
Speaker 1: envelops all that I said and did, all that was
40:02
Speaker 1: said and done, until I became assured that my doom
40:07
Speaker 1: was accomplished, and walked forth the calm and terrible being.
40:12
Speaker 1: You now behold me, the queen of the elements, the
40:16
Speaker 1: sharer in the power of those beings to whom man
40:20
Speaker 1: and his passions give such sport as the tortures of
40:24
Speaker 1: the dogfish, a for the fisherman when he pierces his
40:28
Speaker 1: eyes with thorns and turns him once more into his
40:32
Speaker 1: native element, to traverse the waves in blindness and agony. No, Maidens,
40:39
Speaker 1: she whom you see before you, is impassive to the
40:43
Speaker 1: follies of which your minds are the sport. I am
40:47
Speaker 1: she that have made the offering. I am she that
40:51
Speaker 1: bereaved the giver of the gift of life, which he
40:55
Speaker 1: gave me. The dark saying has been interpreted by my deed,
41:00
Speaker 1: and I am taken from humanity to be something pre
41:04
Speaker 1: eminently powerful, pre eminently wretched. As she spoke, thus the light,
41:10
Speaker 1: which had been long quivering, leaped high for an instant
41:15
Speaker 1: and seemed about to expire, when Norna, interrupting herself, said hastily,
41:21
Speaker 1: no more. Now he comes. He comes enough that ye
41:26
Speaker 1: know me, and the right I have to advise and command.
41:30
Speaker 1: You approach now, proud spirit, if thou wilt so. Saying,
41:35
Speaker 1: she extinguished the lamp and passed out of the apartment
41:39
Speaker 1: with her usual loftiness of step, as Minna could observe
41:44
Speaker 1: from its measured cadence. End of Chapter nineteen