The Story of the Glittering Plain

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The three seekers seemed glad thereat, and the second one said:
"Though death is pursuing, and life lieth ahead, yet will we not
hasten thee unduly. Time was when I was Captain of the Host, and
learned how battles were lost by lack of rest. Therefore have thy
sleep now, that thou mayst wax in strength for our helping."

Said Hallblithe: "I need not rest; I may not rest; I will not rest."

Said the sad man: "It is lawful for thee to rest. So say I, who was
once a master of law."

Said the long-hoary elder: "And I command thee to rest; I who was
once the king of a mighty folk."

In sooth Hallblithe was now exceeding weary; so he laid him down and
slept sweetly in the stony wilderness amidst those three seekers, the
old, the sad, and the very old.

When he awoke he felt well and strong again, and he leapt to his feet
and looked about him, and saw the three seekers stirring, and he
deemed by the sun that it was early morning. The sad man brought
forth bread and water and wine, and they broke their fast; and when
they had done he spake and said: "Abideth now in wallet and bottle
but one more full meal for us, and then no more save a few crumbs and
a drop or two of wine if we husband it well."

Said the second elder: "Get we to the road, then, and make haste. I
have been seeking, and meseemeth, though the way be long, it is not
utterly blind for us. Or look thou, Raven-son, is there not a path
yonder that leadeth onward up to the brow of the ghyll again? and as
I have seen, it leadeth on again down from the said brow."

Forsooth there was a track that led through the stony tangle of the
wilderness; so they took to the road with a good heart, and went all
day, and saw no living thing, and not a blade of grass or a trickle
of water: nought save the wan rocks under the sun; and though they
trusted in their road that it led them aright, they saw no other
glimpse of the Glittering Plain, because there rose a great ridge
like a wall on the north side, and they went as it were down along a
trench of the rocks, albeit it was whiles broken across by ghylls,
and knolls, and reefs.

So at sunset they rested and ate their victual, for they were very
weary; and thereafter they lay down, and slept as soundly as if they
were in the best of the halls of men. On the morrow betimes they
arose soberly and went their ways with few words, and, as they
deemed, the path still led them onward. And now the great ridge on
the north rose steeper and steeper, and their crossing it seemed not
to be thought of; but their half-blind track failed them not. They
rested at even, and ate and drank what little they had left, save a
mouthful or two of wine, and then went on again by the light of the
moon, which was so bright that they still saw their way. And it
happened to Hallblithe, as mostly it does with men very travel-worn,
that he went on and on scarce remembering where he was, or who his
fellows were, or that he had any fellows.

So at midnight they lay down in the wilderness again, hungry and
weary. They rose at dawn and went forward with waning hope: for now
the mountain ridge on the north was close to their path, rising up
along a sheer wall of pale stone over which nothing might go save the
fowl flying; so that at first on that morning they looked for nothing
save to lay their bones in that grievous desert where no man should
find them.

But, as beset with famine, they fared on heavily down the narrow
track, there came a hoarse cry from Hallblithe's dry throat and it
was as if his cry had been answered by another like to his; and the
seekers turned and beheld him pointing to the cliff-side, and lo!
half-way up the pale sun-litten crag stood two ravens in a cranny of
the stone, flapping their wings and croaking, with thrusting forth
and twisting of their heads; and presently they came floating on the
thin pure air high up over the heads of the wayfarers, croaking for
the pleasure of the meeting, as though they laughed thereat.

Then rose the heart of Hallblithe, and he smote his palms together,
and fell to singing an old song of his people, amidst the rocks
whereas few men had sung aforetime.

Whence are ye and whither, O fowl of our fathers?
What field have ye looked on, what acres unshorn?
What land have ye left where the battle-folk gathers,
And the war-helms are white o'er the paths of the corn?

What tale do ye bear of the people uncraven,
Where amidst the long hall-shadow sparkle the spears;
Where aloft on the hall-ridge now flappeth the raven,
And singeth the song of the nourishing years?

There gather the lads in the first of the morning,
While white lies the battle-day's dew on the grass,
And the kind steeds trot up to the horn's voice of warning,
And the winds wake and whine in the dusk of the pass.

O fowl of our fathers, why now are ye resting?
Come over the mountains and look on the foe.
Full fair after fight won shall yet be your nesting;
And your fledglings the sons of the kindred shall know.

Therewith he strode with his head upraised, and above him flew the
ravens, croaking as if they answered his song in friendly fashion.

It was but a little after this that the path turned aside sharp
toward the cliffs, and the seekers were abashed thereof, till
Hallblithe running forward beheld a great cavern in the face of the
cliff at the path's ending: so he turned and cried on his fellows,
and they hastened up, and presently stood before that cavern's mouth
with doubt and joy mingled in their minds; for now, mayhappen, they
had reached the gate of the Glittering Plain, or mayhappen the gate
of death.

The sad man hung his head and spake: "Doth not some new trap abide
us? What do we here? is this aught save death?"

Spake the Elder of Elders: "Was not death on either hand e'en now,
even as treason besetteth the king upon his throne?"

And the second said: "Yea, we were as the host which hath no road
save through the multitude of foe-men."

But Hallblithe laughed and said: "Why do ye hang back, then? As for
me, if death be here, soon is mine errand sped." Therewith he led
the way into the dark of the cave, and the ravens hung about the crag
overhead croaking, as the men left the light.

So was their way swallowed up in the cavern, and day and its time
became nought to them; they went on and on, and became exceeding
faint and weary, but rested not, for death was behind them. Whiles
they deemed they heard waters running, and whiles the singing of
fowl; and to Hallblithe it seemed that he heard his name called, so
that he shouted back in answer; but all was still when the sound of
his voice had died out.

At last, when they were pressing on again after a short while of
resting, Hallblithe cried out that the cave was lightening: so they
hastened onward, and the light grew till they could dimly see each
other, and dimly they beheld the cave that it was both wide and high.
Yet a little further, and their faces showed white to one another,
and they could see the crannies of the rocks, and the bats hanging
garlanded from the roof. So then they came to where the day streamed
down bright on them from a break overhead, and lo! the sky and green
leaves waving against it.

To those way-worn men it seemed hard to clamber out that way, and
especially to the elders: so they went on a little further to see if
there were aught better abiding them, but when they found the
daylight failing them again, they turned back to the place of the
break in the roof, lest they should waste their strength and perish
in the bowels of the mountain. So with much ado they hove up
Hallblithe till he got him first on to a ledge of the rocky wall, and
so, what by strength, what by cunning, into the daylight through the
rent in the roof. So when he was without he made a rope of his
girdle and strips from his raiment, for he was ever a deft craftsman,
and made a shift to heave up therewith the sad man, who was light and
lithe of body; and then the two together dealt with the elders one
after another, till they were all four on the face of the earth
again.

The place whereto they had gotten was the side of a huge mountain,
stony and steep, but set about with bushes, which seemed full fair to
those wanderers amongst the rocks. This mountain-slope went down
towards a fair green plain, which Hallblithe made no doubt was the
outlying waste of the Glittering Plain: nay, he deemed that he could
see afar off thereon the white walls of the Uttermost House. So much
he told the seekers in few words; and then while they grovelled on
the earth and wept for pure joy, whereas the sun was down and it was
beginning to grow dusk, he went and looked around soberly to see if
he might find water and any kind of victual; and presently a little
down the hillside he came upon a place where a spring came gushing up
out of the earth and ran down toward the plain; and about it was
green grass growing plentifully, and a little thicket of bramble and
wilding fruit-trees. So he drank of the water, and plucked him a few
wilding apples somewhat better than crabs, and then went up the hill
again and fetched the seekers to that mountain hostelry; and while
they drank of the stream he plucked them apples and bramble-berries.
For indeed they were as men out of their wits, and were dazed by the
extremity of their jog, and as men long shut up in prison, to whom
the world of men-folk hath become strange. Simple as the victual
was, they were somewhat strengthened by it and by the plentiful
water, and as night was now upon them, it was of no avail for them to
go further: so they slept beneath the boughs of the thorn-bushes.

CHAPTER XVIII: HALLBLITHE DWELLETH IN THE WOOD ALONE

But on the morrow they arose betimes, and broke their fast on that
woodland victual, and then went speedily down the mountain-side; and
Hallblithe saw by the clear morning light that it was indeed the
Uttermost House which he had seen across the green waste. So he told
the seekers; but they were silent and heeded nought, because of a
fear that had come upon them, lest they should die before they came
into that good land. At the foot of the mountain they came upon a
river, deep but not wide, with low grassy banks, and Hallblithe, who
was an exceeding strong swimmer, helped the seekers over without much
ado; and there they stood upon the grass of that goodly waste.

Hallblithe looked on them to note if any change should come over
them, and he deemed that already they were become stronger and of
more avail. But he spake nought thereof, and strode on toward the
Uttermost House, even as that other day he had stridden away from it.

Such diligence they made, that it was but little after noon when they
came to the door thereof. Then Hallblithe took the horn and blew
upon it, while his fellows stood by murmuring, "It is the Land! It
is the Land!"

So came the Warden to the door, clad in red scarlet, and the elder
went up to him and said: "Is this the Land?"

"What land?" said the Warden.

"Is it the Glittering Plain?" said the second of the seekers.

"Yea, forsooth," said the Warden. Said the sad man: "Will ye lead
us to the King?

"Ye shall come to the King," said the Warden.

"When, oh when?" cried they out all three.

"The morrow of to-morrow, maybe," said the Warden.

"Oh! if to-morrow were but come!" they cried.

"It will come," said the red man; "enter ye the house, and eat and
drink and rest you."

So they entered, and the Warden heeded Hallblithe nothing. They ate
and drank and then went to their rest, and Hallblithe lay in a shut-
bed off from the hall, but the Warden brought the seekers otherwhere,
so that Hallblithe saw them not after he had gone to bed; but as for
him he slept and forgot that aught was.

In the morning when he awoke he felt very strong and well-liking; and
he beheld his limbs that they were clear of skin and sleek and fair;
and he heard one hard by in the hall carolling and singing joyously.
So he sprang from his bed with the wonder of sleep yet in him, and
drew the curtains of the shut-bed and looked forth into the hall; and
lo on the high-seat a man of thirty winters by seeming, tall, fair of
fashion, with golden hair and eyes as grey as glass, proud and noble
of aspect; and anigh him sat another man of like age to look on, a
man strong and burly, with short curling brown hair and a red beard,
and ruddy countenance, and the mien of a warrior. Also, up and down
the hall, paced a man younger of aspect than these two, tall and
slender, black-haired and dark-eyed, amorous of countenance; he it
was who was singing a snatch of song as he went lightly on the hall
pavement: a snatch like to this

Fair is the world, now autumn's wearing,
And the sluggard sun lies long abed;
Sweet are the days, now winter's nearing,
And all winds feign that the wind is dead.

Dumb is the hedge where the crabs hang yellow,
Bright as the blossoms of the spring;
Dumb is the close where the pears grow mellow,
And none but the dauntless redbreasts sing.

Fair was the spring, but amidst his greening
Grey were the days of the hidden sun;
Fair was the summer, but overweening,
So soon his o'er-sweet days were done.

Come then, love, for peace is upon us,
Far off is failing, and far is fear,
Here where the rest in the end hath won us,
In the garnering tide of the happy year.

Come from the grey old house by the water,
Where, far from the lips of the hungry sea,
Green groweth the grass o'er the field of the slaughter,
And all is a tale for thee and me.

So Hallblithe did on his raiment and went into the hall; and when
those three saw him they smiled upon him kindly and greeted him; and
the noble man at the board said: "Thanks have thou, O Warrior of the
Raven, for thy help in our need: thy reward from us shall not be
lacking."

Then the brown-haired man came up to him, and clapped him on the back
and said to him: "Brisk man of the Raven, good is thy help at need;
even so shall be mine to thee henceforward."

But the young man stepped up to him lightly, and cast his arms about
him, and kissed him, and said: "O friend and fellow, who knoweth but
I may one day help thee as thou hast holpen me? though thou art one
who by seeming mayst well help thyself. And now mayst thou be as
merry as I am to-day!"

Then they all three cried out joyously: "It is the Land! It is the
Land!"

So Hallblithe knew that these men were the two elders and the sad man
of yesterday, and that they had renewed their youth.

Joyously now did those men break their fast: nor did Hallblithe make
any grim countenance, for he thought: "That which these dotards and
drivellers have been mighty enough to find, shall I not be mighty
enough to flee from?" Breakfast done, the seekers made little delay,
so eager as they were to behold the King, and to have handsel of
their new sweet life. So they got them ready to depart, and the
once-captain said: "Art thou able to lead us to the King, O Raven-
son, or must we seek another man to do so much for us?"

Said Hallblithe: "I am able to lead you so nigh unto Wood-end
(where, as I deem, the King abideth) that ye shall not miss him."

Therewith they went to the door, and the Warden unlocked to them, and
spake no word to them when they departed, though they thanked him
kindly for the guesting.

When they were without the garth, the young man fell to running about
the meadow plucking great handfuls of the rich flowers that grew
about, singing and carolling the while. But he who had been king
looked up and down and round about, and said at last: "Where be the
horses and the men?"

But his fellow with the red beard said: "Raven-son, in this land
when they journey, what do they as to riding or going afoot?"

Said Hallblithe: "Fair fellows, ye shall wot that in this land folk
go afoot for the most part, both men and women; whereas they weary
but little, and are in no haste."

Then the once-captain clapped the once-king on the shoulder, and
said: "Hearken, lord, and delay no longer, but gird up thy gown,
since here is no mare's son to help thee: for fair is to-day that
lies before us, with many a new fair day beyond it."

So Hallblithe led the way inward, thinking of many things, yet but
little of his fellows. Albeit they, and the younger man especially,
were of many words; for this black-haired man had many questions to
ask, chiefly concerning the women, what they were like to look on,
and of what mood they were. Hallblithe answered thereto as long as
he might, but at last he laughed and said: "Friend, forbear thy
questions now; for meseemeth in a few hours thou shalt be as wise
hereon as is the God of Love himself."

So they made diligence along the road, and all was tidingless till on
the second day at even they came to the first house off the waste.
There had they good welcome, and slept. But on the morrow when they
arose, Hallblithe spake to the Seekers, and said: "Now are things
much changed betwixt us since the time when we first met: for then I
had all my desire, as I thought, and ye had but one desire, and well
nigh lacked hope of its fulfilment. Whereas now the lack hath left
you and come to me. Wherefore even as time agone ye might not abide
even one night at the House of the Raven, so hard as your desire lay
on you; even so it fareth with me to-day, that I am consumed with my
desire, and I may not abide with you; lest that befall which
befalleth betwixt the full man and the fasting. Wherefore now I
bless you and depart."

They abounded in words of good-will to him, and the once-king said:
"Abide with us, and we shall see to it that thou have all the
dignities that a man may think of."

And the once-captain said: "Lo, here is mine hand that hath been
mighty; never shalt thou lack it for the accomplishment of thine
uttermost desire. Abide with us."

Lastly said the young man: "Abide with us, Son of the Raven! Set
thine heart on a fair woman, yea even were it the fairest; and I will
get her for thee, even were my desire set on her."

But he smiled on them, and shook his head, and said: "All hail to
you! but mine errand is yet undone." And therewith he departed.

He skirted Wood-end and came not to it, but got him down to the side
of the sea, not far from where he first came aland, but somewhat
south of it. A fair oak-wood came down close to the beach of the
sea; it was some four miles end-long and over-thwart. Thither
Hallblithe betook him, and in a day or two got him wood-wright's
tools from a house of men a little outside the wood, three miles from
the sea-shore. Then he set to work and built him a little frame-
house on a lawn of the wood beside a clear stream; for he was a very
deft wood-wright. Withal he made him a bow and arrows, and shot what
he would of the fowl and the deer for his livelihood; and folk from
that house and otherwhence came to see him, and brought him bread and
wine and spicery and other matters which he needed. And the days
wore, and men got used to him, and loved him as if he had been a rare
image which had been brought to that land for its adornment; and now
they no longer called him the Spearman, but the Wood-lover. And as
for him, he took all in patience, abiding what the lapse of days
should bring forth.

CHAPTER XIX: HALLBLITHE BUILDS HIM A SKIFF

After Hallblithe had been housed a little while, and the time was
again drawing nigh to the twelfth moon since he had come to the
Glittering Plain, he went in the wood one day; and, pondering many
things without fixing on any one, he stood before a very great oak-
tree and looked at the tall straight bole thereof, and there came
into his head the words of an old song which was written round a
scroll of the carving over the shut-bed, wherein he was wont to lie
when he was at home in the House of the Raven: and thus it said:

I am the oak-tree, and forsooth
Men deal by me with little ruth;
My boughs they shred, my life they slay,
And speed me o'er the watery way.

He looked up into that leafy world for a little and then turned back
toward his house; but all day long, whether he were at work or at
rest, that posy ran in his head, and he kept on saying it over, aloud
or not aloud, till the day was done and he went to sleep.

Then in his sleep he dreamed that an exceeding fair woman stood by
his bedside, and at first she seemed to him to be an image of the
Hostage. But presently her face changed, and her body and her
raiment; and, lo! it was the lovely woman, the King's daughter whom
he had seen wasting her heart for the love of him. Then even in his
dream shame thereof overtook him, and because of that shame he awoke,
and lay awake a little, hearkening the wind going through the
woodland boughs, and the singing of the owl who had her dwelling in
the hollow oak nigh to his house. Slumber overcame him in a little
while, and again the image of the King's daughter came to him in his
dream, and again when he looked upon her, shame and pity rose so
hotly in his heart that he awoke weeping, and lay a while hearkening
to the noises of the night. The third time he slept and dreamed; and
once more that image came to him. And now he looked, and saw that
she had in her hand a book covered outside with gold and gems, even
as he saw it in the orchard-close aforetime: and he beheld her face
that it was no longer the face of one sick with sorrow; but glad and
clear, and most beauteous.

Now she opened the book and held it before Hallblithe and turned the
leaves so that he might see them clearly; and therein were woods and
castles painted, and burning mountains, and the wall of the world,
and kings upon their thrones, and fair women and warriors, all most
lovely to behold, even as he had seen it aforetime in the orchard
when he lay lurking amidst the leaves of the bay-tree.

So at last she came to the place in the book wherein was painted
Hallblithe's own image over against the image of the Hostage; and he
looked thereon and longed. But she turned the leaf, and, lo! on one
side the Hostage again, standing in a fair garden of the spring with
the lilies all about her feet, and behind her the walls of a house,
grey, ancient, and lovely: and on the other leaf over against her
was painted a sea rippled by a little wind and a boat thereon sailing
swiftly, and one man alone in the boat sitting and steering with a
cheerful countenance; and he, who but Hallblithe himself. Hallblithe
looked thereon for a while and then the King's daughter shut the
book, and the dream flowed into other imaginings of no import.

In the grey dawn Hallblithe awoke, and called to mind his dream, and
he leapt from his bed and washed the night from off him in the
stream, and clad himself and went the shortest way through the wood
to that House of folk aforesaid: and as he went his face was bright
and he sang the second part of the carven posy; to wit:

Along the grass I lie forlorn
That when a while of time is worn,
I may be filled with war and peace
And bridge the sundering of the seas.

He came out of the wood and hastened over the flowery meads of the
Glittering Plain, and came to that same house when it was yet very
early. At the door he came across a damsel bearing water from the
well, and she spake to him and said: "Welcome, Wood-lover! Seldom
art thou seen in our garth; and that is a pity of thee. And now I
look on thy face I see that gladness hath come into thine heart, and
that thou art most fair and lovely. Here then is a token for thee of
the increase of gladness." Therewith she set her buckets on the
earth, and stood before him, and took him by the ears, and drew down
his face to hers and kissed him sweetly. He smiled on her and said:
"I thank thee, sister, for the kiss and the greeting; but I come here
having a lack."

"Tell us," she said, "that we may do thee a pleasure."

He said: "I would ask the folk to give me timber, both beams and
battens and boards; for if I hew in the wood it will take long to
season."

"All this is free for thee to take from our wood-store when thou hast
broken thy fast with us," said the damsel. "Come thou in and rest
thee."

She took him by the hand and they went in together, and she gave him
to eat and drink, and went up and down the house, saying to every
one: "Here is come the Wood-lover, and he is glad again; come and
see him."

So the folk gathered about him, and made much of him. And when they
had made an end of breakfast, the head man of the House said to him:
"The beasts are in the wain, and the timber abideth thy choosing;
come and see."

So he brought Hallblithe to the timber-bower, where he chose for
himself all that he needed of oak-timber of the best; and they loaded
the wain therewith, and gave him what he would moreover of nails and
treenails and other matters; and he thanked them; and they said to
him: "Whither now shall we lead thy timber?"

"Down to the sea-side," quoth he, "nighest to my dwelling."

So did they, and more than a score, men and women, went with him,
some in the wain, and some afoot. Thus they came down to the sea-
shore, and laid the timber on the strand just above high-water mark;
and straightway Hallblithe fell to work shaping him a boat, for well
he knew the whole craft thereof; and the folk looked on wondering,
till the tide had ebbed the little it was wont to ebb, and left the
moist sand firm and smooth; then the women left watching Hallblithe's
work, and fell to paddling barefoot in the clear water, for there was
scarce a ripple on the sea; and the carles came and played with them
so that Hallblithe was left alone a while; for this kind of play was
new to that folk, since they seldom came down to the sea-side.
Thereafter they needs must dance together, and would have had
Hallblithe dance with them; and when he naysaid them because he was
fain of his work, in all playfulness they fell to taking the adze out
of his hand, whereat he became somewhat wroth, and they were afraid
and went and had their dance out without him.

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