The Poetical Works of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. M.P Part 70

13.--Page 358, stanza lx.x.xi.

_which certain Norway hags Had squeezed from heaven and bottled up in bags._

A well-known popular superst.i.tion, not, perhaps, quite extinct at this day, amongst the Baltic mariners.

14.--Page 360, stanza xciv.

"_I was shot Into a ridge of what they call a_ floe.

The smaller kind of ice-field is called by the northern whale-fishers "a floe,"--the name is probably of very ancient date.

15.--Page 361, stanza cii.

_"The dwarfs, deliver'd, kneel, and pull their noses._

A salutation still in vogue among certain tribes of the Esquimaux.

BOOK X.

ARGUMENT.

The Polar Spring--The Boreal Lights and apparition of a double sun--The Rocky Isle--The Bears--The mysterious Shadow from the Crater of the extinct Volcano--The Bears scent the steps of Man: their movements described--Arthur's approach--The Bears emerge from their coverts--The Shadow takes form and life--The Demon Dwarf described--His parley with Arthur--The King follows the Dwarf into the interior of the volcanic rock--The Antediluvian Skeletons--The Troll-Fiends and their tasks-- Arthur arrives at the Cave of Lok--The Corpses of the armed Giants--The Valkyrs at their loom--The Wars that they weave--The Dwarf addresses Arthur--The King's fear--He approaches the sleeping Fiend, and the curtains close around him--Meanwhile Gawaine and the Norwegians have tracked Arthur's steps on the snow, and arrive at the Isle--Are attacked by the Bears--The noises and eruption from the Volcano--The re-appearance of Arthur--The change in him--Freedom and its characteristics--Arthur and his band renew their way along the coast; s.h.i.+ps are seen--How Arthur obtains a bark from the Rugen Chieftain; and how Gawaine stores it--The Dove now leads homeward--Arthur reaches England; and, sailing up a river, enters the Mercian territory--He follows the Dove through a forest to the ruins built by the earliest Cimmerians--The wisdom and civilization of the ancestral Druidical races, as compared with their idolatrous successors at the time of the Roman Conquerors, whose remains alone are left to our age--Arthur lies down to rest amidst the moonlit ruins--The Dove vanishes--The nameless horror that seizes the King.

Spring on the Polar Seas!--not violet-crown'd 1 By dewy Hours, nor to cerulean halls Melodious hymn'd, yet Light itself around Her stately path, sheds starry coronals.

Sublime she comes, as when, from Dis set free, Came, through the flash of Jove, Persephone:

She comes--that grand Aurora of the North! 2 By steeds of fire her glorious chariot borne, From Boreal courts the meteors flaming forth, Ope heav'n on heav'n, before the mighty Morn: And round the rebel giants of the night On earth's last confines bursts the storm of light.

Wonder and awe! lo, where against the Sun 3 A second Sun[1] his lurid front uprears!

As if the first-born lost Hyperion, Hurl'd down of old, from his Uranian spheres, Rose from the h.e.l.l-rocks on his writhings pil'd, And glared defiance on his t.i.tan child.

Now life, the polar life, returns once more, 4 The reindeer roots his mosses from the snows; The whirring sea-gulls shriek along the sh.o.r.e; Through oozing rills the cygnet gleaming goes; And, where the ice some happier verdure frees, Laugh into light frank-eyed anemones.

Out from the seas still solid, frown'd a lone 5 Chaos of chasm and precipice and rock, There, while the meteors on their revels shone, Growling hoa.r.s.e glee, in many a grauly flock, With their huge young, the sea-bears sprawling play'd Near the charr'd crater some mute Hecla made.

Sullen before that cavern's vast repose, 6 Like the lorn wrecks of a despairing race Chased to their last hold by triumphant foes, Darkness and Horror stood! But from the s.p.a.ce Within the cave, and o'er the ice-ground wan, Quivers a Shadow vaguely mocking man.

Like man's the Shadow falls, yet falling loses 7 The shape it took, each moment changefully; As when the wind on Runic waves confuses The weird boughs toss'd from some prophetic tree.

Fantastic, goblin-like, and fitful thrown, Comes the strange Shadow from the drear Unknown.

It is _not_ man's--for they, man's savage foes, 8 Whose sense ne'er fails them when the scent is blood, Sport in the shadow the Unseen One throws, Nor hush their young to sniff the human food; But, undisturbed as if their home were there, Pa.s.s to and fro the light-defying lair.

So the bears gamboll'd, so the Shadow play'd, 9 When sudden halts the uncouth merriment.

Now man, in truth, draws near, man's steps invade The men-devourers!--Snorting to the scent, Lo, where they stretch dread necks of s.h.a.ggy snow, Grin with white fangs, and greed the blood to flow!

Grotesquely undulating, moves the flock, 10 Low grumbling as the grisly ranks divide; Some heave their slow bulk peering up the rock, Some stand erect, and s.h.i.+ft from side to side The keen quick ear, the red dilating eye, And steam the hard air with a hungry sigh.

At length unquiet and amazed--as rings 11 On to their haunt direct, the dauntless stride, With the sharp instinct of all savage things That doubt a prey by which they are defied, They send from each to each a troubled stare; And huddle close, suspicious of the snare.

Then a huge leader, with concerted wile, 12 Creeps lumbering on, and, to his guidance slow The s.h.a.gged armies move, in cautious file; Till one by one, in ambush for the foe, Drops into chasm and cleft,--and vanis.h.i.+ng With stealthy murther girds the coming King!

He comes,--the Conqueror in the Halls of Time, 13 Known by his silver herald in the Dove, By his imperial tread, and front sublime With power as tranquil as the lids of Jove,-- All shapes of death the realms around afford:-- From Fiends G.o.d guard him!--from all else his sword

For he, with spring the huts of ice had left 14 And the small People of the world of snows: Their food the seal, their camp, at night, the cleft, His bold Norwegians follow where he goes; Now in the rear afar, their chief they miss, And grudge the danger which they deem a bliss.

Ere yet the meteors from the morning sky 15 Chased large Orion,--in the hour when sleep Reflects its ghost-land stillest on the eye, Had stol'n the lonely King; and o'er the deep Sought, by the clue the dwarfmen-legends yield, And the Dove's wing--the demon-guarded s.h.i.+eld.

The Desert of the Desolate is won. 16 Still lurks, unseen, the ambush horrible-- Nought stirs around beneath the twofold sun Save that strange Shadow, where before it fell, Still falling;--varying, quivering to and fro, From the black cavern on the glaring snow.

Slow the devourers rise, and peer around: 17 Now crag and cliff move dire with savage life, And rolling downward,--all the dismal ground Shakes with the roar and bristles with the strife: Not unprepared--(when ever are the brave?) Stands the firm King, and bares the diamond glaive.

Distinct through all the meteors, streams the brand, 18 Light'ning along the air, the sea, the rock, Bright as the arrow in that heavenly hand Which slew the Python! Blinded halt the flock, And the great roar, but now so rough and high, Sinks into terror wailing timidly.

Yet the fierce instinct and the rabid sting 19 Of famine goad again the check'd array; And close and closer in tumultuous ring, Reels on the death-ma.s.s crus.h.i.+ng towards its prey.

A dull groan tells where first the falchion sweeps-- When into shape the cave-born Shadow leaps!

Out from the dark it leapt--the awful form! 20 Manlike, but sure not human! on its hair The ice-barbs bristled: like a coming storm The breath smote lifeless every wind in air; Dread form deform'd, as ere the birth of Light, Some son of Chaos and the Antique Night!

At once a dwarf and giant--trunk and limb 21 Knit in gnarl'd strength as by a monstrous chance, Never chimera more grotesque and grim, Paled aegypt's priesthood with its own romance, When, from each dire delirium Fancy knows, Some Typhon-type of Powers destroying rose.

At the dread presence, ice a double cold 22 Conceived; the meteors from their dazzling play Paused; and appall'd into their azure hold Shrunk back with all their banners; not a ray Broke o'er the dead sea and the doleful sh.o.r.e, Winter's steel grasp lock'd the dumb world once more.

Halted the war--as the wild mult.i.tude 23 Left the King scatheless, and their leaders slain; And round the giant dwarf the baleful brood Came with low howls of terror, wrath, and pain, As children round their father. _They_ depart, But strife remains; Fear and the Human Heart;

For Fear was on the bold! Then spoke aloud 24 The horrent Image: "Child of hateful Day, What madness snares thee to the glooms that shroud The realms abandon'd to my secret sway?

Why on mine air first breathes the human breath?

Hath thy far world no fairer path to Death?"

"All ways to Death, but one to Glory leads, 25 That which alike through earth, or air, or wave, Bears a bold thought to goals in n.o.ble deeds,"

Said the pale King. "And this, methinks, the cave Which hides the s.h.i.+eld that rock'd the sleep of one By whom ev'n Fable shows what deeds were done!

"I seek the talisman which guards the free, 26 And tread where erst the Sire of freemen trod."[2]

"Ho!" laugh'd the dwarf, "Walhalla's child was He!

_Man_ gluts the fiend when he a.s.sumes the G.o.d."-- "No G.o.d, Deceiver, though man's erring creeds Make G.o.ds of men when G.o.dlike are their deeds;

"And if the Only and Eternal One 27 Hath, ere his last illuminate Word Reveal'd, Left some grand Memory on its airy throne, Nor smote the nations when to names they kneel'd-- It is that each false G.o.d was some great truth!-- To races Heroes are as Bards to youth!"

Thus spoke the King, to whom the Enchanted Lake, 28 Where from all sources Wisdom ever springs, Had given unknown the subtle powers that wake Our intuitions into cloudiest things, Won but by those, who, after pa.s.sionate dreams, Taste the sharp herb and dare the solemn streams.

The Demon heard; and as a moon that s.h.i.+nes, 29 Rising behind Arcturus, cold and still O'er Baltic headlands black with rigid pines,-- So on his knit and ominous brows a chill And livid smile, revealed the gloomy night, To leave the terror sterner for the light.

Thus spoke the Dwarf, "Thou wouldst survive to tell 30 Of trophies wrested from the halls of Lok, Yet wherefore singly face the hosts of h.e.l.l?

Return, and lead thy comrades to the rock; Never to one, on earth's less dreadful field, The prize of chiefs do War's fierce Valkyrs yield."