The Roots of the Mountains quotes

now it seems to me that amidst all this, the dark cold wood, wherein abide but the beasts and the Foes of the Gods, is bidding me to it and drawing me thither.

Narrow is the Dale and the World is wide; I would it were dawn and daylight, that I might be afoot again.

”

She laughed and said: “

Thou art openhanded in thy proffers: he might have asked the like concerning thee but a minute ago.

”

She shook her head and said soberly: “

Nay, thou art too fair for a woman to kiss.

”

He said: “I know not;

I was seeking something, but I knew not what⁠—meseemeth that now I have found it.

”

“Why should I say any word thereof?” said he. “

Dost thou not know the sweetness of such a tale untold?

”

“What thing have I done now that hitherto I had not done?

What manner of man am I today other than the man I was yesterday?

”

Said he: “And if I were slain in the battle, would’st thou lament me?”

“Thou shalt not be slain,” she said.

Again was there silence betwixt them, till at last he said:

“I pray thee turn back at the top of the outgate,” said he, “and be not venturesome.

Thou wottest that the pitcher is not broken the first time it goeth to the well, nor maybe the twentieth, but at last it cometh not back.

”

For night is on us, and the way back is long and toilsome and beset with peril. Sister Bow-may, thou wottest that it would be a sore grief to me if thou camest to any harm, and thou also, fellow Wood-wise.

Daylight is a good faring-fellow over the waste.

”

“

The man is young and untried; yet though he is so near akin to me, I will say that ye will do wisely to take him

; for he is both deft of his hands and brisk; and moreover, of this matter he knoweth more than all we together. Now therefore I declare him your War-leader till the time of the Great Folk-mote.”

“

There is some lie abroad, that windeth about us as the gossamers in the lanes of an autumn morning.

”

Yet hath she not lied when she said that she would bear the burden of the griefs of the people. Even so shall she do; and whether she will, or whether she will not, that shall heal her own griefs.

For tomorrow is a new day.

Therefore, if thou do after my rede, thou wilt not meddle betwixt these twain, but wilt remember all that we have to do, and that war is coming upon us.

So Face-of-god looked and beheld all these poor people; and said to himself, that he might well have dreaded that sight.

For here was he brought face to face with the Sorrow of the Earth, whereof he had known nought heretofore, save it might be as a tale in a minstrel’s song.

And when he thought of the minutes that had made the hours, and the hours that had made the days that these men had passed through, his heart failed him, and he was dumb and might not speak, though he perceived that the men of …

Then they fell to dancing one and all, and so at last to supper on the green grass in great merriment. Nor might you have known from the demeanour of any that any threat of evil overhung the Dale.

Nay, so glad were they, and so friendly, that you might rather have deemed that this was the land whereof tales tell, wherein people die not, but live forever, without growing any older than when they first come thither

, unless they be born into the land itself, and then they grow into fair manhood, and so abide. In sooth, both the land and the folk were fair enough to be that land and the folk thereof.

Furthermore, they have heard of the thralldom that is done on men no great way from their own houses; yea, they have seen it; and they remember the old saw, ‘

Grief in thy neighbour’s hall is grief in thy garth

,’ and sure it is, father, that whether thou or I gainsay them, go they will to deliver the thralls of the Dusky Men, and will leave us alone in the Dale.”

Let us leave Rosedale till we have overcome them of Silverdale. Moreover, my father, thou must not deem of these felons as if they were of like wits to us, to forecast the deeds to come, and weigh the chances nicely, and unravel tangled clues.

Rather they move like to the stares in autumn, or the winter wild-geese, and will all be thrust forward by some sting that entereth into their imaginations.

Therefore, if they have appointed one moon to wear before they fall upon us, they will not stir till then, and we have time enough to do what must be done. Wherefore am I now of one mind with the rest of you.

“

O friend, I mock myself of this: that erst thou deemedst me a God and fearedst me, but now thou seemest to me to be a God, and I fear thee.

Yea, though I have longed so sore to be with thee since the day of Shadowy Vale, and though I have wearied of the slow wearing of the days, and it hath tormented me;

nor flax, nor wool, nor any cloth; nor with sword, nor shield, nor axe, nor ploughshare; nor with horse, nor ox, nor ass; with no saddle-beast nor draught-beast; nor with wain, nor boat, nor way-leading; nor with fire nor water; nor with any world’s wealth.

Thus let him who hath cast out man be cast out by man.

Now is hallowed-in the Folk-mote of the Men of the Dale and the Sheepcotes and the Woodlands.”

“

O war, war! O death! O wounding and grief! O loss of friends and kindred! let all this be rather than the drawing back of meeting hands and the sundering of yearning hearts!

” and he went back hastily to his place. But from the ranks of the Woodlanders ran forth a young man, and cried out:

“O Gold-mane, dost thou see?” and he turned about and beheld her, and saw how her cheeks flamed and her eyes glittered, and he said in a low voice: “

Tomorrow for mirth or silence, for life or death.

”

then swift and steady she draweth home the notches, while the yew bow standeth still as the oak-bole ere the summer storm ariseth, and the twang of the sixteen strings maketh but one fell sound as the feathered bane of men goeth on its way.

There was silence for a moment of time in the Market of Silverstead, as if the bolt of the Gods had fallen there

; and then arose a huge wordless yell from those about the altar, and one of the priests who was left hove up his glaive two-handed to smite the naked slaughter-thralls;

The Sun-beam laughed in his face, though the tears stood in her eyes, as she said:

“Keep up thine heart, brother; for at least the way is shorter betwixt Burgdale and Silverdale than betwixt life and death; and the road we shall learn belike.”

Said Hall-face: “So it is that my brother is no ill woodman, as ye learned last autumn.”

“Let it be happy still,” she said, “now begrudging is gone.

Belike the sundering came because we were so sure, and had no defence against the wearing of the days; even as it fareth with a folk that hath no foes.

”

In like wise spake other of the Burgdalers; and Folk-might was kind and blithe with them, and he said:

“Friends, forget ye not that the way is no longer from you to us than it is from us to you. One half of this matter it is for you to deal with.”

“True is that,” said Red-beard of the Knolls, “but look you, Folk-might, we be but simple husbandmen, and may not often stir from our meadows and acres;

Fare on then, for nought are ye laden with sorrow; The love of this land do ye bear with you still. In two Dales of the earth for today and tomorrow Is waxing the oak-tree of peace and goodwill.

Thus then they departed from Silverdale, even as men who were a portion thereof, and had not utterly left it behind.

And that night they lay in the wildwood not very far from the Dale’s end; for they went softly, faring amongst so many friends.