The Wood Beyond the World

The Wood Beyond the World, by
William Morris

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William Morris
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Title: The Wood Beyond the World
Author: William Morris

Release Date: May 1, 2007 [eBook #3055]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOOD
BEYOND THE WORLD***

Transcribed from the 1913 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David
Price, email [email protected]

THE WOOD BEYOND THE WORLD
BY WILLIAM MORRIS
POCKET EDITION
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW,
LONDON NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 1913
CHAPTER I
: OF GOLDEN WALTER AND HIS FATHER
Awhile ago there was a young man dwelling in a great and goodly city
by the sea which had to name Langton on Holm. He was but of five and
twenty winters, a fair-faced man, yellow-haired, tall and strong; rather
wiser than foolisher than young men are mostly wont; a valiant youth,
and a kind; not of many words but courteous of speech; no roisterer,
nought masterful, but peaceable and knowing how to forbear: in a fray
a perilous foe, and a trusty war-fellow. His father, with whom he was
dwelling when this tale begins, was a great merchant, richer than a
baron of the land, a head-man of the greatest of the Lineages of
Langton, and a captain of the Porte; he was of the Lineage of the
Goldings, therefore was he called Bartholomew Golden, and his son
Golden Walter.
Now ye may well deem that such a youngling as this was looked upon
by all as a lucky man without a lack; but there was this flaw in his lot,
whereas he had fallen into the toils of love of a woman exceeding fair,
and had taken her to wife, she nought unwilling as it seemed. But when
they had been wedded some six months he found by manifest tokens,
that his fairness was not so much to her but that she must seek to the
foulness of one worser than he in all ways; wherefore his rest departed
from him, whereas he hated her for her untruth and her hatred of him;
yet would the sound of her voice, as she came and went in the house,
make his heart beat; and the sight of her stirred desire within him, so

that he longed for her to be sweet and kind with him, and deemed that,
might it be so, he should forget all the evil gone by. But it was not so;
for ever when she saw him, her face changed, and her hatred of him
became manifest, and howsoever she were sweet with others, with him
she was hard and sour.
So this went on a while till the chambers of his father's house, yea the
very streets of the city, became loathsome to him; and yet he called to
mind that the world was wide and he but a young man. So on a day as
he sat with his father alone, he spake to him and said: "Father, I was on
the quays even now, and I looked on the ships that were nigh boun, and
thy sign I saw on a tall ship that seemed to me nighest boun. Will it be
long ere she sail?"
"Nay," said his father, "that ship, which hight the Katherine, will they
warp out of the haven in two days' time. But why askest thou of her?"
"The shortest word is best, father," said Walter, "and this it is, that I
would depart in the said ship and see other lands."
"Yea and whither, son?" said the merchant.
"Whither she goeth," said Walter, "for I am ill at ease at home, as thou
wottest, father."
The merchant held his peace awhile, and looked hard on his son, for
there was strong love between them; but at last he said: "Well, son,
maybe it were best for thee; but maybe also we shall not meet again."
"Yet if we do meet, father, then shalt thou see a new man in me."
"Well," said Bartholomew, "at least I know on whom to lay the loss of
thee, and when thou art gone, for thou shalt have thine own way herein,
she shall no longer abide in my house. Nay, but it were for the strife
that should arise thenceforth betwixt her kindred and ours, it should go
somewhat worse with her than that."
Said Walter: "I pray thee shame her not more than needs must be, lest,

so doing, thou shame both