The Wisdom Of The King

THE High-Queen of the Island of

Woods had died in child-birth, and her

child was put to nurse, with a woman who

lived in a hut of mud and wicker, within

the border of the wood. One night the

woman sat rocking the cradle, and pondering

over the beauty of the child, and praying

that the gods might grant him wisdom

equal to his beauty. There came a knock

at the door, and she got up, not a little

wondering, for the nearest neighbours were

in the dun of the High-King a mile away;

and the night was now late. Who is

knocking? she cried, and a thin voice

answered, ` Open! for I am a crone of the

grey hawk, and I come from the darkness

of the great wood. In terror she drew

back the bolt, and a grey-clad woman, of

a great age, and of a height more than

human, came in and stood by the head of

the cradle. The nurse shrank back against

the wall, unable to take her eyes from the

woman, for she saw by the gleaming of the

firelight that the feathers of the grey hawk

were upon her head instead of hair. But

the child slept, and the fire danced, for the

one was too ignorant and the other too full

of gaiety to know what a dreadful being

stood there. Open ! cried another voice,

~ for I am a crone of the grey hawk, and I

watch over his ncst in the darkness of the

great wood. The nurse opened the door

again, though her fingers could scarce hold

the bolts for trembling, and another grey

woman, not less old than the other, and

with like feathers instead of hair, came in

and stood by the first. In a little, came a

third grey woman, and after her a fourth,

and then another and another and another,

until the hut was full of their immense

forms. They stood a long time in

perfect silence and stillness, for they were

of those whom the dropping of the sand

has never troubled, but at last one muttered

in a low thin voice: Sisters, I knew him

far away by the redness of his heart under

his silver skin; and then another spoke:

Sisters, I knew him because his heart

fluttered like a bird under a net of silver

cords; and then another took up the

word: Sisters, I knew him because his

heart sang like a bird that had forgotten

the silver cords. And after that they Bang

together, those who wcrc nearest rocking

the cradle with long wrinkled fingers; and

their voices were now tender and caressing,

now like the wind blowing in the

great wood, and this was their song:

Out of sight is out of mind:

Long have man and woman-kind

Heavy of will and light of mood,

Taken away our wheaten food,

Taken away our Altar stone;

Hail and rain and thunder alone,

And red hearts we turn to grey,

Are true till Time gutter away.

When the song had died out, the crone

who had first spoken, said, ~ Nothing now

remains but that a drop of our blood be

mixed into his blood. And she Scratched

her arm with the sharp point of a spindle,

which she had made the nurse bring to

her, and let a drop of blood, grey as the

mist, fall upon the lips of the child; and

passed out into the darkness. Then the

others passed out in silence one by one;

and all the while the child had not opened

his pink eyelids or the firc ceascd to dance,

for the one was too ignorant, and the other

too full of gaiety to know how great the

beings were that had bent over a cradle.

When the crones were gone, the nurse

came to her courage again, and hurried to

the dun of the High-King, and cried out

in the midst of the assembly hall that the

Shee, whether for good or evil she knew

not, had bent over the child that night;

and the king and his poets and men of law,

and his hunts men, and his cook, and his

chief warriors went with her to the hut and

gathered about the cradle, and were as

noisy as magpies, and the child sat up and

looked at them.

Two years passed over, and the king

died fighting against the People of the Bag;

and the poets and the men of law ruled in

the name of the Child, but looked to see

him become the master himself before

long, for no one had seen so wise a

child, and tales of his endless questions

about the household of the gods and the

making of the world went hither and

thither among the wicl;er houses of the

poor. I~vcrythillg had becn well, but

for a miracle that began to trouble all

men; and all women, who, indeed, talked

of it without ceasing. The feathers of the

grey hawk had begun to grow in the childs

hair, and though his nurse cut them con-

tinually, it needed but a little while and

they were more numerous than ever. This

had not been a matter of great moment,

for miracles were a little thing in those

days, but for an ancient law of Eri that

none who had any blemish of body could

sit upon the throne; and as a grey hawk

was a wild thing of the air which had

never sat at the board, or listened to the

songs of the poets in the light of the fire,

it was not possible to think of one in whose

hair its feathers grew as other than marred

and blasted; nor could the people separate

from their admiration of the wisdom that

grew in him a horror as at one of unhuman

blood. Yet all were resolved that he

should reign, for they had suffered much

from foolish kings and their own disorders,

and moreover they desired to watch out

the spectacle of his days; and no one had

any other fear but that his great wisdom

might bid him obey the law, and call Eocha

of the Plain of Towers, who had but a

common mind, to reign in his stead.

When the child was seven years old

the poets and the men of law were called

together by the chief poet, and all these

matters weighed and considered. The

child had already seen that those about

him had hair only, and, though they had

told him that they too had had feathers

but had lost them because of a sin com-

mitted by their forefathers, they knew that

he would learn the truth when he began

to wander into the country round about.

After much consideration they decreed a

new law commanding every one upon pain

of death to mingle by a subtlety of art the

feathers of the grey hawk into his hair;

and they sent men with nets and slings,

for as yet the bow was not invented, into

the countries round about to gather a suf-

ficiency of feathers. They decreed also

that any who told the truth to the child

should be flung from a cliff into the sea.

The years passed, and the child grew

from childhood into boyhood and from

boyhood into manhood, and from being

curious about all things he became busy

with strange and subtle thoughts which

came to him in dreams, and with dis-

tinctions between things long held the

same and with the resemblance of things

long held different. Multitudes came from

other lands to sec him and to ask his

counsel~ but there were guards set at the

frontiers~ who compelled all that came,

to wear the feathers of the grey hawk

in their hair. While they listened to him

his words seemed to make all darkness

light and filled their hearts like music;

but, alas, when they returned to their own

lands his words seemed far off, and what

they could remember too strange and

subtle to help thcm to live out their hasty

days. A number indeed did live differ-

ently afterwards, but their new life was

less excellent than the old: some among

them had long served a good cause, but

when they heard him praise it and their

labour, they returned to their own lands

to find what they had loved less lovable

and their arm lighter in the battle, for

he had taught them how little a hair

divides the false and true; others again,

who had served no cause, but wrought in

peace the welfare of their own households,

when he had expounded the meaning of

their purpose found their bones softer and

their will less ready for toil, for he had

shown them greater purposes; and numbers

of the young, when they had heard him

upon all these things, remembered certain

words that became like a fire in their

hearts, and made all kindly joys and traffic

between man and man as nothing, and went

different ways, but all into vague regret.

When any asked him concerning the

common things of life; disputes about the

mear of a territory, or about the straying

of cattle, or about the pcnalty of blood;

he would turn to those nearest him for

advice; but this was held to be from

courtesy, for none knew that these matters

were hidden from him, by thoughts and

dreams that filled his mind like the

marching and counter-marching of armies.

Far less could any know that his heart

wandered lost amid throngs of overcoming

thoughts and dreams, shuddering at its

own consuming solitude.

among those who came to look at him

and to listen to him was the daughter of a

little king who lived a great way off; and

when he saw her he loved, for shc was

beautiful~ with a strange and pale beauty

unlike the women of his land; but Dana,

the great mother, had decreed her a heart

that was but as the heart of others, and

when she considered the mystery of the

hawk feathers she was troubled with a

great horror. He called her to him when

the assembly was over and told her of

her beauty, and praised her simply and

frankly as though she were a fablc of the

bards; and he asked her humbly to give

him her love, for he was only subtle in his

dreams. Overwhelmed with his greatness,

she half consented, and yet half refused,

for she longed to marry some warrior who

could carry her over a mountain in his

arms. Day by day the king gave her

gifts; cups with ears of gold and find-

rinny wrought by the craftsmen of distant

lands; cloth from over sea, which, though

woven with curious figures, seemed to her

less beautiful than the bright cloth woven

in the Island of Woods; and still she was

ever between a smile and a frown; between

yielding and withholding. He laid down

his wisdom at her feet, and told how the

heroes when they die return to the world

and begin their labour anew; how the

kind and mirthful Children of Dana drove

out the huge and gloomy and misshapen

People from under the Sea; and how the

great Moods arc alonc immortal, and the;

creators of mortal things; and how every

Mood is a being that wcars, to mortal eyes,

the shape of Fair-brows, who dwells, as a

salmon, in the floods; or of the Dagda,

whose cauldron is never empty; or of Lir,

whose children wail upon the waters; or

of Angus, whose kisses were changed into

birds; or of Len, the goldsmith, from

whose furnace break rainbows and fiery

dew; or of some other of the children of

~)ana: and still she half refused, and still

he hoped, for he could not believe that a

beauty so much like wisdom could hide a

common heart.

~ There was a tall young man in the

dun who had yellow hair, and was skilled

in wrestling and in the training of horses;

and one day when the king walked in

the orchard, which was between the foss

and the forest, he heard his voice among

the salley bushes which hid the waters

of the foss. ~ My blossom, it said, I

hate them for making you weave these

dingy feathers into your beautiful hair, and

all that the bird of prey upon the throne

may sleep easy o nights; and then the

low, musical voice he loved answered:

My hair is not beautiful like yours; and

now that I have plucked away the feathers

I will put my hands through it, thus, and

thus, and thus; for it casts no shadow of

terror and darkness upon my heart. Then

the king remembered many things that

he had forgotten without understanding

them, doubtful words of his poets and his

men of law, doubts that he had reasoned

away, his own continual solitude; and he

called the lovers to him in a trembling

voice. They came from among the salley

bushes and threw themselves at his feet

and prayed for pardon, and he stooped

down and plucked the feathers out of the

hair of the woman and then turned away

towards the dun without a word. He

strode into the hall of assembly, and

having gathered his poets and his men

of law about him, stood upon the dais

and spoke in a loud, clear voice: Men

of law, why did you make me sin against

the laws of Eri ? Men of verse, why did

you make me sin against the sccrecy

of wisdom, for law was made by man

for the welfare of man, but wisdom the

gods have made, and no man shall live by

its light, for it and the hail and the rain

and the thunder follow a way that is deadly

to mortal things. Men of law and men of

verse, live according to your kind, and call

Eocha of the Plain of Towers to reign

over you, for I set out to find my kindred.

He then came down among them, and

drew out of the hair of first one and then

another the feathers of the grey hawk,

and, having scattered them over the rushes

upon the floor, passed out, and none dared

to follow him, for his eyes gleamed like

the eyes of the birds of prey; and no man

saw him again or heard his voice. Some

believed that he found his eternal abode

among the demons, and some that he dwelt

henceforth with the dark and dreadful god-

desses, who sit all night about the pools

in the forest watching the constellations

rising and setting in those desolate

mirrors.