Time and the Gods | Page 4

lures the world, and
gathered up his legions, and the rivers lifted up their heads with the
waves, and all went marching on to assail the cliffs of the gods. And
wherever the rivers had broken the ranks of the cliffs, Slid's armies
went surging in and broke them up into islands and shattered the
islands away. And the gods on Their hill-tops heard once more the
voice of Slid exulting over Their cliffs.
Already more than half the world lay subject to Slid, and still his
armies advanced; and the people of Slid, the fishes and the long eels,
went in and out of arbours that once were dear to the gods. Then the
gods feared for Their dominion, and to the innermost sacred recesses of
the mountains, to the very heart of the hills, the gods trooped off
together and there found Tintaggon, a mountain of black marble,
staring far over the earth, and spake thus to him with the voices of the
gods:
"O eldest born of our mountains, when first we devised the earth we
made thee, and thereafter fashioned fields and hollows, valleys and
other hills, to lie about thy feet. And now, Tintaggon, thine ancient
lords, the gods, are facing a new thing which overthrows the old. Go
therefore, thou, Tintaggon, and stand up against Slid, that the gods be
still the gods and the earth still green."
And hearing the voices of his sires, the elder gods, Tintaggon strode
down through the evening, leaving a wake of twilight broad behind him
as he strode: and going across the green earth came down to Ambrady
at the valley's edge, and there met the foremost of Slid's fierce armies
conquering the world.
And against him Slid hurled the force of a whole bay, which lashed
itself high over Tintaggon's knees and streamed around his flanks and
then fell and was lost. Tintaggon still stood firm for the honour and

dominion of his lords, the elder gods. Then Slid went to Tintaggon and
said: "Let us now make a truce. Stand thou back from Ambrady and let
me pass through thy ranks that mine armies may now pass up the valley
which opens on the world, that the green earth that dreams around the
feet of older gods shall know the new god Slid. Then shall mine armies
strive with thee no more, and thou and I shall be the equal lords of the
whole earth when all the world is singing the chaunt of Slid, and thy
head alone shall be lifted above mine armies when rival hills are dead.
And I will deck thee with all the robes of the sea, and all the plunder
that I have taken in rare cities shall be piled before thy feet. Tintaggon,
I have conquered all the stars, my song swells through all the space
besides, I come victorious from Mahn and Khanagat on the furthest
edge of the worlds, and thou and I are to be equal lords when the old
gods are gone and the green earth knoweth Slid. Behold me gleaming
azure and fair with a thousand smiles, and swayed by a thousand
moods." And Tintaggon answered: "I am staunch and black and have
one mood, and this--to defend my masters and their green earth."
Then Slid went backward growling and summoned together the waves
of a whole sea and sent them singing full in Tintaggon's face. Then
from Tintaggon's marble front the sea fell backwards crying on to a
broken shore, and ripple by ripple straggled back to Slid saying:
"Tintaggon stands."
Far out beyond the battered shore that lay at Tintaggon's feet Slid rested
long and sent the nautilus to drift up and down before Tintaggon's eyes,
and he and his armies sat singing idle songs of dreamy islands far away
to the south, and of the still stars whence they had stolen forth, of
twilight evenings and of long ago. Still Tintaggon stood with his feet
planted fair upon the valley's edge defending the gods and Their green
earth against the sea.
And all the while that Slid sang his songs and played with the nautilus
that sailed up and down he gathered his oceans together. One morning
as Slid sang of old outrageous wars and of most enchanting peace and
of dreamy islands and the south wind and the sun, he suddenly
launched five oceans out of the deep all to attack Tintaggon. And the

five oceans sprang upon Tintaggon and passed above his head. One by
one the grip of the oceans loosened, one by one they fell back into the
deep and still Tintaggon stood, and on that morning the might of all
five oceans lay dead at Tintaggon's feet. That which Slid had conquered
he still held, and there