The Story of the Glittering Plain | Page 8

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