The Story of the Glittering Plain

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This etext was prepared by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
from the 1913 Longmans, Green and Co. edition.

*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

THE STORY OF THE GLITTERING PLAIN OR THE LAND OF LIVING MEN

by William Morris

CHAPTER I: OF THOSE THREE WHO CAME TO THE HOUSE OF THE RAVEN

It has been told that there was once a young man of free kindred and
whose name was Hallblithe: he was fair, strong, and not untried in
battle; he was of the House of the Raven of old time.

This man loved an exceeding fair damsel called the Hostage, who was
of the House of the Rose, wherein it was right and due that the men
of the Raven should wed.

She loved him no less, and no man of the kindred gainsaid their love,
and they were to be wedded on Midsummer Night.

But one day of early spring, when the days were yet short and the
nights long, Hallblithe sat before the porch of the house smoothing
an ash stave for his spear, and he heard the sound of horse-hoofs
drawing nigh, and he looked up and saw folk riding toward the house,
and so presently they rode through the garth gate; and there was no
man but he about the house, so he rose up and went to meet them, and
he saw that they were but three in company: they had weapons with
them, and their horses were of the best; but they were no fellowship
for a man to be afraid of; for two of them were old and feeble, and
the third was dark and sad, and drooping of aspect: it seemed as if
they had ridden far and fast, for their spurs were bloody and their
horses all a-sweat.

Hallblithe hailed them kindly and said: "Ye are way-worn, and maybe
ye have to ride further; so light down and come into the house, and
take bite and sup, and hay and corn also for your horses; and then if
ye needs must ride on your way, depart when ye are rested; or else if
ye may, then abide here night-long, and go your ways to-morrow, and
meantime that which is ours shall be yours, and all shall be free to
you."

Then spake the oldest of the elders in a high piping voice and said:
"Young man, we thank thee; but though the days of the springtide are
waxing, the hours of our lives are waning; nor may we abide unless
thou canst truly tell us that this is the Land of the Glittering
Plain: and if that be so, then delay not, lead us to thy lord, and
perhaps he will make us content."

Spake he who was somewhat less stricken in years than the first:
"Thanks have thou! but we need something more than meat and drink, to
wit the Land of Living Men. And Oh! but the time presses."

Spake the sad and sorry carle: "We seek the Land where the days are
many: so many that he who hath forgotten how to laugh, may learn the
craft again, and forget the days of Sorrow."

Then they all three cried aloud and said:

"Is this the Land? Is this the Land?"

But Hallblithe wondered, and he laughed and said: "Wayfarers, look
under the sun down the plain which lieth betwixt the mountains and
the sea, and ye shall behold the meadows all gleaming with the spring
lilies; yet do we not call this the Glittering Plain, but Cleveland
by the Sea. Here men die when their hour comes, nor know I if the
days of their life be long enough for the forgetting of sorrow; for I
am young and not yet a yokefellow of sorrow; but this I know, that
they are long enough for the doing of deeds that shall not die. And
as for Lord, I know not this word, for here dwell we, the sons of the
Raven, in good fellowship, with our wives that we have wedded, and
our mothers who have borne us, and our sisters who serve us. Again I
bid you light down off your horses, and eat and drink, and be merry;
and depart when ye will, to seek what land ye will."

They scarce looked on him, but cried out together mournfully:

"This is not the Land! This is not the Land!"

No more than that they said, but turned about their horses and rode
out through the garth gate, and went clattering up the road that led
to the pass of the mountains. But Hallblithe hearkened wondering,
till the sound of their horse-hoofs died away, and then turned back
to his work: and it was then two hours after high-noon.

CHAPTER II: EVIL TIDINGS COME TO HAND AT CLEVELAND

Not long had he worked ere he heard the sound of horsehoofs once
more, and he looked not up, but said to himself, "It is but the lads
bringing back the teams from the acres, and riding fast and driving
hard for joy of heart and in wantonness of youth."

But the sound grew nearer and he looked up and saw over the turf wall
of the garth the flutter of white raiment; and he said:

"Nay, it is the maidens coming back from the seashore and the
gathering of wrack."

So he set himself the harder to his work, and laughed, all alone as
he was, and said: "She is with them: now I will not look up again
till they have ridden into the garth, and she has come from among
them, and leapt off her horse, and cast her arms about my neck as her
wont is; and it will rejoice her then to mock me with hard words and
kind voice and longing heart; and I shall long for her and kiss her,
and sweet shall the coming days seem to us: and the daughters of our
folk shall look on and be kind and blithe with us."

Therewith rode the maidens into the garth, but he heard no sound of
laughter or merriment amongst them, which was contrary to their wont;
and his heart fell, and it was as if instead of the maidens' laughter
the voices of those wayfarers came back upon the wind crying out, "Is
this the Land? Is this the Land?"

Then he looked up hastily, and saw the maidens drawing near, ten of
the House of the Raven, and three of the House of the Rose; and he
beheld them that their faces were pale and woe-begone, and their
raiment rent, and there was no joy in them. Hallblithe stood aghast
while one who had gotten off her horse (and she was the daughter of
his own mother) ran past him into the hall, looking not at him, as if
she durst not: and another rode off swiftly to the horse-stalls.
But the others, leaving their horses, drew round about him, and for a
while none durst utter a word; and he stood gazing at them, with the
spoke-shave in his hand, he also silent; for he saw that the Hostage
was not with them, and he knew that now he was the yokefellow of
sorrow.

At last he spoke gently and in a kind voice, and said: "Tell me,
sisters, what evil hath befallen us, even if it be the death of a
dear friend, and the thing that may not be amended."

Then spoke a fair woman of the Rose, whose name was Brightling, and
said: "Hallblithe, it is not of death that we have to tell, but of
sundering, which may yet be amended. We were on the sand of the sea
nigh the Ship-stead and the Rollers of the Raven, and we were
gathering the wrack and playing together; and we saw a round-ship
nigh to shore lying with her sheet slack, and her sail beating the
mast; but we deemed it to be none other than some bark of the Fish-
biters, and thought no harm thereof, but went on running and playing
amidst the little waves that fell on the sand, and the ripples that
curled around our feet. At last there came a small boat from the
side of the round-ship, and rowed in toward shore, and still we
feared not, though we drew a little aback from the surf and let fall
our gown-hems. But the crew of that boat beached her close to where
we stood, and came hastily wading the surf towards us; and we saw
that they were twelve weaponed men, great, and grim, and all clad in
black raiment. Then indeed were we afraid, and we turned about and
fled up the beach; but now it was too late, for the tide was at more
than half ebb and long was the way over the sand to the place where
we had left our horses tied among the tamarisk-bushes. Nevertheless
we ran, and had gotten up to the pebble-beach before they ran in
amongst us: and they caught us, and cast us down on to the hard
stones.

"Then they made us sit in a row on a ridge of the pebbles; and we
were sore afraid, yet more for defilement at their hands than for
death; for they were evil-looking men exceeding foul of favour. Then
said one of them: 'Which of all you maidens is the Hostage of the
House of the Rose?'

"Then all we kept silence, for we would not betray her. But the evil
man spake again: 'Choose ye then whether we shall take one, or all
of you across the waters in our black ship.' Yet still we others
spake not, till arose thy beloved, O Hallblithe, and said:

"'Let it be one then, and not all; for I am the Hostage.'

"'How shalt thou make us sure thereof?' said the evil carle.

"She looked on him proudly and said: 'Because I say it.'

"'Wilt thou swear it?' said he.

"'Yea,' said she, 'I swear it by the token of the House wherein I
shall wed; by the wings of the Fowl that seeketh the Field of
Slaying.'

"'It is enough,' said the man, 'come thou with us. And ye maidens
sit ye there, and move not till we have made way on our ship, unless
ye would feel the point of the arrow. For ye are within bowshot of
the ship, and we have shot weapons aboard.'

"So the Hostage departed with them, and she unweeping, but we wept
sorely. And we saw the small boat come up to the side of the round-
ship, and the Hostage going over the gunwale along with those evil
men, and we heard the hale and how of the mariners as they drew up
the anchor and sheeted home; and then the sweeps came out and the
ship began to move over the sea. And one of those evil-minded men
bent his bow and shot a shaft at us, but it fell far short of where
we sat, and the laugh of those runagates came over the sands to us.
So we crept up the beach trembling, and then rose to our feet and got
to our horses, and rode hither speedily, and our hearts are broken
for thy sorrow."

At that word came Hallblithe's own sister out from the hall; and she
bore weapons with her, to wit Hallblithe's sword and shield and helm
and hauberk. As for him he turned back silently to his work, and set
the steel of the spear on the new ashen shaft, and took the hammer
and smote the nail in, and laid the weapon on a round pebble that was
thereby, and clenched the nail on the other side. Then he looked
about, and saw that the other damsel had brought him his coal-black
war-horse ready saddled and bridled; then he did on his armour, and
girt his sword to his side and leapt into the saddle, and took his
new-shafted spear in hand and shook the rein. But none of all those
damsels durst say a word to him or ask him whither he went, for they
feared his face, and the sorrow of his heart. So he got him out of
the garth and turned toward the sea-shore, and they saw the glitter
of his spear-point a minute over the turf-wall, and heard the clatter
of his horse-hoofs as he galloped over the hard way; and thus he
departed.

CHAPTER III: THE WARRIORS OF THE RAVEN SEARCH THE SEAS

Then the women bethought them, and they spake a word or two together,
and then they sundered and went one this way and one that, to gather
together the warriors of the Raven who were a-field, or on the way,
nigh unto the house, that they might follow Hallblithe down to the
sea-shore and help him; after a while they came back again by one and
two and three, bringing with them the wrathful young men; and when
there was upward of a score gathered in the garth armed and horsed,
they rode their ways to the sea, being minded to thrust a long-ship
of the Ravens out over the Rollers into the sea, and follow the
strong-thieves of the waters and bring a-back the Hostage, so that
they might end the sorrow at once, and establish joy once more in the
House of the Raven and the House of the Rose. But they had with them
three lads of fifteen winters or thereabouts to lead their horses
back home again, when they should have gone up on to the Horse of the
Brine.

Thus then they departed, and the maidens stood in the garth-gate till
they lost sight of them behind the sandhills, and then turned back
sorrowfully into the house, and sat there talking low of their
sorrow. And many a time they had to tell their tale anew, as folk
came into the hall one after another from field and fell. But the
young men came down to the sea, and found Hallblithe's black horse
straying about amongst the tamarisk-bushes above the beach; and they
looked thence over the sand, and saw neither Hallblithe nor any man:
and they gazed out seaward, and saw neither ship nor sail on the
barren brine. Then they went down on to the sand, and sundered their
fellowship, and went half one way, half the other, betwixt the
sandhills and the surf, where now the tide was flowing, till the
nesses of the east and the west, the horns of the bay, stayed them.
Then they met together again by the Rollers, when the sun was within
an hour of setting. There and then they laid hand to that ship which
is called the Seamew, and they ran her down over the Rollers into the
waves, and leapt aboard and hoisted sail, and ran out the oars and
put to sea; and a little wind was blowing seaward from the gates of
the mountains behind them.

So they quartered the sea-plain, as the kestrel doth the water-
meadows, till the night fell on them, and was cloudy, though whiles
the wading moon shone out; and they had seen nothing, neither sail
nor ship, nor aught else on the barren brine, save the washing of
waves and the hovering of sea-fowl. So they lay-to outside the horns
of the bay and awaited the dawning. And when morning was come they
made way again, and searched the sea, and sailed to the out-skerries,
and searched them with care; then they sailed into the main and fared
hither and thither and up and down: and this they did for eight
days, and in all that time they saw no ship nor sail, save three
barks of the Fish-biters nigh to the Skerry which is called Mew-
stone.

So they fared home to the Raven Bay, and laid their keel on the
Rollers, and so went their ways sadly, home to the House of the
Raven: and they deemed that for this time they could do no more in
seeking their valiant kinsman and his fair damsel. And they were
very sorry; for these two were well-beloved of all men. But since
they might not amend it, they abode in peace, awaiting what the
change of days might bring them.

CHAPTER IV: NOW HALLBLITHE TAKETH THE SEA

Now must it be told of Hallblithe that he rode fiercely down to the
sea-shore, and from the top of the beach he gazed about him, and
there below him was the Ship-stead and Rollers of his kindred,
whereon lay the three long-ships, the Seamew, and the Osprey and the
Erne. Heavy and huge they seemed to him as they lay there, black-
sided, icy-cold with the washing of the March waves, their golden
dragon-heads looking seaward wistfully. But first had he looked out
into the offing, and it was only when he had let his eyes come back
from where the sea and sky met, and they had beheld nothing but the
waste of waters, that he beheld the Ship-stead closely; and therewith
he saw where a little to the west of it lay a skiff, which the low
wave of the tide lifted and let fall from time to time. It had a
mast, and a black sail hoisted thereon and flapping with slackened
sheet. A man sat in the boat clad in black raiment, and the sun
smote a gleam from the helm on his head. Then Hallblithe leapt off
his horse, and strode down the sands shouldering his spear; and when
he came near to the man in the boat he poised his spear and shook it
and cried out: "Man, art thou friend or foe?"

Said the man: "Thou art a fair young man: but there is grief in thy
voice along with wrath. Cast not till thou hast heard me, and mayst
deem whether I may do aught to heal thy grief."

"What mayst thou do?" said Hallblithe; "art thou not a robber of the
sea, a harrier of the folks that dwell in peace?"

The man laughed: "Yea," said he, "my craft is thieving and carrying
off the daughters of folk, so that we may have a ransom for them.
Wilt thou come over the waters with me?"

Hallblithe said wrathfully:

"Nay, rather, come thou ashore here! Thou seemest a big man, and
belike shall be good of thine hands. Come and fight with me; and
then he of us who is vanquished, if he be unslain, shall serve the
other for a year, and then shalt thou do my business in the
ransoming."

The man in the boat laughed again, and that so scornfully that he
angered Hallblithe beyond measure: then he arose in the boat and
stood on his feet swaying from side to side as he laughed. He was
passing big, long-armed and big-headed, and long hair came from under
his helm like the tail of a red horse; his eyes were grey and
gleaming, and his mouth wide.

In a while he stayed his laughter and said: "O Warrior of the Raven,
this were a simple game for thee to play; though it is not far from
my mind, for fighting when I needs must win is no dull work. Look
you, if I slay or vanquish thee, then all is said; and if by some
chance stroke thou slayest me, then is thine only helper in this
matter gone from thee. Now to be short, I bid thee come aboard to me
if thou wouldst ever hear another word of thy damsel betrothed. And
moreover this need not hinder thee to fight with me if thou hast a
mind to it thereafter; for we shall soon come to a land big enough
for two to stand on. Or if thou listest to fight in a boat rocking
on the waves, I see not but there may be manhood in that also."

Now was the hot wrath somewhat run off Hallblithe, nor durst he lose
any chance to hear a word of his beloved; so he said: "Big man, I
will come aboard. But look thou to it, if thou hast a mind to bewray
me; for the sons of the Raven die hard."

"Well," said the big man, "I have heard that their minstrels are of
many words, and think that they have tales to tell. Come aboard and
loiter not." Then Hallblithe waded the surf and lightly strode over
the gunwale of the skiff and sat him down. The big man thrust out
into the deep and haled home the sheet; but there was but little
wind.

Then said Hallblithe: "Wilt thou have me row, for I wot not
whitherward to steer?"

Said the red carle: "Maybe thou art not in a hurry; I am not: do as
thou wilt." So Hallblithe took the oars and rowed mightily, while
the alien steered, and they went swiftly and lightly over the sea,
and the waves were little.

CHAPTER V: THEY COME UNTO THE ISLE OF RANSOM

So the sun grew low, and it set; the stars and the moon shone a while
and then it clouded over. Hallblithe still rowed and rested not,
though he was weary; and the big man sat and steered, and held his
peace. But when the night was grown old and it was not far from the
dawn, the alien said: "Youngling of the Ravens, now shalt thou sleep
and I will row."

Hallblithe was exceeding weary; so he gave the oars to the alien and
lay down in the stern and slept. And in his sleep he dreamed that he
was lying in the House of the Raven, and his sisters came to him and
said, "Rise up now, Hallblithe! wilt thou be a sluggard on the day of
thy wedding? Come thou with us to the House of the Rose that we may
bear away the Hostage." Then he dreamed that they departed, and he
arose and clad himself: but when he would have gone out of the hall,
then was it no longer daylight, but moonlight, and he dreamed that he
had dreamed: nevertheless he would have gone abroad, but might not
find the door; so he said he would go out by a window; but the wall
was high and smooth (quite other than in the House of the Raven,
where were low windows all along one aisle), nor was there any way to
come at them. But he dreamed that he was so abashed thereat, and had
such a weakness on him, that he wept for pity of himself: and he
went to his bed to lie down; and lo! there was no bed and no hall;
nought but a heath, wild and wide, and empty under the moon. And
still he wept in his dream, and his manhood seemed departed from him,
and he heard a voice crying out, "Is this the Land? Is this the
Land?"

Therewithal he awoke, and as his eyes cleared he beheld the big man
rowing and the black sail flapping against the mast; for the wind had
fallen dead and they were faring on over a long smooth swell of the
sea. It was broad daylight, but round about them was a thick mist,
which seemed none the less as if the sun were ready to shine through
it.

As Hallblithe caught the red man's eye, he smiled and nodded on him
and said: "Now has the time come for thee first to eat and then to
row. But tell me what is that upon thy cheeks?"

Hallblithe, reddening somewhat, said: "The night dew hath fallen on
me."

Quoth the sea-rover, "It is no shame for thee a youngling to remember
thy betrothed in thy sleep, and to weep because thou lackest her.
But now bestir thee, for it is later than thou mayest deem."

Therewith the big man drew in the oars and came to the afterpart of
the boat, and drew meat and drink out of a locker thereby; and they
ate and drank together, and Hallblithe grew strong and somewhat less
downcast; and he went forward and gat the oars into his hands.

Then the big red man stood up and looked over his left shoulder and
said: "Soon shall we have a breeze and bright weather."

Then he looked into the midmost of the sail and fell a-whistling such
a tune as the fiddles play to dancing men and maids at Yule-tide, and
his eyes gleamed and glittered therewithal, and exceeding big he
looked. Then Hallblithe felt a little air on his cheek, and the mist
grew thinner, and the sail began to fill with wind till the sheet
tightened: then, lo! the mist rising from the face of the sea, and
the sea's face rippling gaily under a bright sun. Then the wind
increased, and the wall of mist departed and a few light clouds sped
over the sky, and the sail swelled and the boat heeled over, and the
seas fell white from the prow, and they sped fast over the face of
the waters.

Then laughed the red-haired man, and said: "O croaker on the dead
branch, now is the wind such that no rowing of thine may catch up
with it: so in with the oars now, and turn about, and thou shalt see
whitherward we are going."

Then Hallblithe turned about on the thwart and looked across the sea,
and lo! before them the high cliffs and crags and mountains of a new
land which seemed to be an isle, and they were deep blue under the
sun, which now shone aloft in the mid heaven. He said nought at all,
but sat looking and wondering what land it might be; but the big man
said: "O tomb of warriors, is it not as if the blueness of the deep
sea had heaved itself up aloft, and turned from coloured air into
rock and stone, so wondrous blue it is? But that is because those
crags and mountains are so far away, and as we draw nigher to them,
thou shalt see them as they verily are, that they are coal-black; and
yonder land is an isle, and is called the Isle of Ransom. Therein
shall be the market for thee where thou mayst cheapen thy betrothed.
There mayst thou take her by the hand and lead her away thence, when
thou hast dealt with the chapman of maidens and hast pledged thee by
the fowl of battle, and the edge of the fallow blade to pay that
which he will have of thee."

As the big man spoke there was a mocking in his voice and his face
and in his whole huge body, which made the sword of Hallblithe uneasy
in his scabbard; but he refrained his wrath, and said: "Big man, the
longer I look, the less I can think how we are to come up on to
yonder island; for I can see nought but a huge cliff, and great
mountains rising beyond it."

"Thou shalt the more wonder," said the alien, "the nigher thou
drawest thereto; for it is not because we are far away that thou
canst see no beach or strand, or sloping of the land seaward, but
because there is nought of all these things. Yet fear not! am I not
with thee? thou shalt come ashore on the Isle of Ransom."

Then Hallblithe held his peace, and the other spake not for a while,
but gave a short laugh once or twice; and said at last in a big
voice, "Little Carrion-biter, why dost thou not ask me of my name?"

Now Hallblithe was a tall man and a fell fighter; but he said:
"Because I was thinking of other things and not of thee."

"Well," said the big man, in a voice still louder, "when I am at home
men call me the Puny Fox."

Then Hallblithe said: "Art thou a Fox? It may well be that thou
shalt beguile me as such beasts will but look to it, that if thou
dost I shall know how to avenge me."

Then rose up the big man from the helm, and straddled wide in the
boat, and cried out in a great roaring voice: "Crag-nester, I am one
of seven brethren, and the smallest and weakest of them. Art thou
not afraid?"

"No," said Hallblithe, "for the six others are not here. Wilt thou
fight here in boat, O Fox?"

"Nay," said Fox, "rather we will drink a cup of wine together."

So he opened the locker again and drew out thence a great horn of
some huge neat of the outlands, which was girthed and stopped with
silver, and also a golden cup, and he filled the cup from the horn
and gave it into Hallblithe's hand and said: "Drink, O black-fledged
nestling! But call a health over the cup if thou wilt." So
Hallblithe raised the cup aloft and cried: "Health to the House of
the Raven and to them that love it! an ill day to its foemen!" Then
he set his lips to the cup and drank; and that wine seemed to him
better and stronger than any he had ever tasted. But when he had
given the cup back again to Fox, that red one filled it again, and
cried over it, "The Treasure of the Sea! and the King that dieth
not!" Then he drank, and filled again for Hallblithe, and steered
with his knees meanwhile; and thus they drank three cups each, and
Fox smiled and was peaceful and said but little, but Hallblithe sat
wondering how the world was changed for him since yesterday.

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