Lord Dunsany - Time and the Gods

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Time and the Gods

by Lord Dunsany [Edward J. M. D. Plunkett]

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Title: Time and the Gods

Author: Lord Dunsany [Edward J. M. D. Plunkett]

Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8183]

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIME AND THE GODS ***

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[Transcriber’s note: In the print book, the word Pegana is spelled with a

macron (long vowel symbol) over the first “a”. In this e-book, the macron

has been omitted.]

TIME AND THE GODS

LORD DUNSANY

1905

CONTENTS

Preface

Part I:

Time and the Gods

The Coming of the Sea

A Legend of the Dawn

The Vengeance of Men

When the Gods Slept

The King That Was Not

The Cave of Kai

The Sorrow of Search

The Men of Yarnith

For the Honour of the Gods

Night and Morning

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Usury

Mlideen

The Secret of the Gods

The South Wind

In the Land of Time

The Relenting of Sarnidac

The Jest of the Gods

The Dreams of the Prophet

Part II:

The Journey of the King

PREFACE

These tales are of the things that befell gods and men in Yarnith,

Averon, and Zarkandhu, and in the other countries of my dreams.

PART I.

TIME AND THE GODS

Once when the gods were young and only Their swarthy servant Time was without age, the gods lay

sleeping by a broad river upon earth. There in a valley that from all the earth the gods had set apart for

Their repose the gods dreamed marble dreams. And with domes and pinnacles the dreams arose and

stood up proudly between the river and the sky, all shimmering white to the morning. In the city’s midst

the gleaming marble of a thousand steps climbed to the citadel where arose four pinnacles beckoning to

heaven, and midmost between the pinnacles there stood the dome, vast, as the gods had dreamed it. All

around, terrace by terrace, there went marble lawns well guarded by onyx lions and carved with effigies

of all the gods striding amid the symbols of the worlds. With a sound like tinkling bells, far off in a land of

shepherds hidden by some hill, the waters of many fountains turned again home. Then the gods awoke

and there stood Sardathrion. Not to common men have the gods given to walk Sardathrion’s streets,

and not to common eyes to see her fountains. Only to those to whom in lonely passes in the night the

gods have spoken, leaning through the stars, to those that have heard the voices of the gods above the

morning or seen Their faces bending above the sea, only to those hath it been given to see Sardathrion, to

stand where her pinnacles gathered together in the night fresh from the dreams of gods. For round the

valley a great desert lies through which no common traveller may come, but those whom the gods have

chosen feel suddenly a great longing at heart, and crossing the mountains that divide the desert from the

world, set out across it driven by the gods, till hidden in the desert’s midst they find the valley at last and

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look with eyes upon Sardathrion.

In the desert beyond the valley grow a myriad thorns, and all pointing towards Sardathrion. So may

many that the gods have loved come to the marble city, but none can return, for other cities are no fitting

home for men whose feet have touched Sardathrion’s marble streets, where even the gods have not been

ashamed to come in the guise of men with Their cloaks wrapped about their faces. Therefore no city

shall ever hear the songs that are sung in the marble citadel by those in whose ears have rung the voices

of the gods. No report shall ever come to other lands of the music of the fall of Sardathrion’s fountains,

when the waters which went heavenward return again into the lake where the gods cool Their brows

sometimes in the guise of men. None may ever hear the speech of the poets of that city, to whom the

gods have spoken.

It stands a city aloof. There hath been no rumour of it—-I alone have dreamed of it, and I may not be

sure that my dreams are true.

* * * * *

Above the Twilight the gods were seated in the after years, ruling the worlds. No longer now They

walked at evening in the Marble City hearing the fountains splash, or listening to the singing of the men

they loved, because it was in the after years and the work of the gods was to be done.

But often as they rested a moment from doing the work of the gods, from hearing the prayers of men or

sending here the Pestilence or there Mercy, They would speak awhile with one another of the olden

years saying, “Rememberest thou not Sardathrion?” and another would answer “Ah! Sardathrion, and all

Sardathrion’s mist-draped marble lawns whereon we walk not now.”

Then the gods turned to do the work of the gods, answering the prayers of men or smiting them, and

ever They sent Their swarthy servant Time to heal or overwhelm. And Time went forth into the worlds

to obey the commands of the gods, yet he cast furtive glances at his masters, and the gods distrusted

Time because he had known the worlds or ever the gods became.

One day when furtive Time had gone into the worlds to nimbly smite some city whereof the gods were

weary, the gods above the twilight speaking to one another said:

“Surely we are the lords of Time and gods of the worlds besides. See how our city Sardathrion lifts

over other cities. Others arise and perish but Sardathrion standeth yet, the first and the last of cities.

Rivers are lost in the sea and streams forsake the hills, but ever Sardathrion’s fountains arise in our dream

city. As was Sardathrion when the gods were young, so are her streets to-day as a sign that we are the

gods.”

Suddenly the swart figure of Time stood up before the gods, with both hands dripping with blood and a

red sword dangling idly from his fingers, and said:

“Sardathrion is gone! I have overthrown it!”

And the gods said:

“Sardathrion? Sardathrion, the marble city? Thou, thou hast overthrown it? Thou, the slave of the

gods?”

And the oldest of the gods said:

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“Sardathrion, Sardathrion, and is Sardathrion gone?”

And furtively Time looked him in the face and edged towards him fingering with his dripping fingers the

hilt of his nimble sword.

Then the gods feared with a new fear that he that had overthrown Their city would one day slay the

gods. And a new cry went wailing through the Twilight, the lament of the gods for Their dream city,

crying:

“Tears may not bring again Sardathrion.

“But this the gods may do who have seen, and seen with unrelenting eyes, the sorrows of ten thousand

worlds—-thy gods may weep for thee.

“Tears may not bring again Sardathrion.

“Believe it not, Sardathrion, that ever thy gods sent this doom to thee; he that hath overthrown thee shall

overthrow thy gods.

“How oft when Night came suddenly on Morning playing in the fields of Twilight did we watch thy

pinnacles emerging from the darkness, Sardathrion, Sardathrion, dream city of the gods, and thine onyx

lions looming limb by limb from the dusk.

“How often have we sent our child the Dawn to play with thy fountain tops; how often hath Evening,

loveliest of our goddesses, strayed long upon thy balconies.

“Let one fragment of thy marbles stand up above the dust for thine old gods to caress, as a man when all

else is lost treasures one lock of the hair of his beloved.

“Sardathrion, the gods must kiss once more the place where thy streets were once.

“There were wonderful marbles in thy streets, Sardathrion.”

“Sardathrion, Sardathrion, the gods weep for thee.”

THE COMING OF THE SEA

Once there was no sea, and the gods went walking over the green plains of earth.

Upon an evening of the forgotten years the gods were seated on the hills, and all the little rivers of the

world lay coiled at Their feet asleep, when Slid, the new god, striding through the stars, came suddenly

upon earth lying in a corner of space. And behind Slid there marched a million waves, all following Slid

and tramping up the twilight; and Slid touched Earth in one of her great green valleys that divide the

south, and here he encamped for the night with all his waves about him. But to the gods as They sat

upon Their hilltops a new cry came crying over the green spaces that lay below the hills, and the gods

said:

“This is neither the cry of life nor yet the whisper of death. What is this new cry that the gods have never

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commanded, yet which comes to the ears of the gods?”

And the gods together shouting made the cry of the south, calling the south wind to them. And again the

gods shouted all together making the cry of the north, calling the north wind to Them; and thus They

gathered to Them all Their winds and sent these four down into the low plains to find what thing it was

that called with the new cry, and to drive it away from the gods.

Then all the winds harnessed up their clouds and drave forth till they came to the great green valley that

divides the south in twain, and there found Slid with all his waves about him. Then for a space Slid and

the four winds struggled with one another till the strength of the winds was gone, and they limped back to

the gods, their masters, and said:

“We have met this new thing that has come upon the earth and have striven against its armies, but could

not drive them forth; and the new thing is beautiful but very angry, and is creeping towards the gods.”

But Slid advanced and led his armies up the valley, and inch by inch and mile by mile he conquered the

lands of the gods. Then from Their hills the gods sent down a great array of cliffs against hard, red rocks,

and bade them march against Slid. And the cliffs marched down till they came and stood before Slid and

leaned their heads forward and frowned and stood staunch to guard the lands of the gods against the

might of the sea, shutting Slid off from the world. Then Slid sent some of his smaller waves to search out

what stood against him, and the cliffs shattered them. But Slid went back and gathered together a hoard

of his greatest waves and hurled them against the cliffs, and the cliffs shattered them. And again Slid

called up out of his deep a mighty array of waves and sent them roaring against the guardians of the gods,

and the red rocks frowned and smote them. And once again Slid gathered his greater waves and hurled

them against the cliffs; and when the waves were scattered like those before them the feet of the cliffs

were no longer standing firm, and their faces were scarred and battered. Then into every cleft that stood

in the rocks Slid sent his hugest wave and others followed behind it, and Slid himself seized hold of huge

rocks with his claws and tore them down and stamped them under his feet. And when the tumult was

over the sea had won, and over the broken remnants of those red cliffs the armies of Slid marched on

and up the long green valley.

Then the gods heard Slid exulting far away and singing songs of triumph over Their battered cliffs, and

ever the tramp of his armies sounded nearer and nearer in the listening ears of the gods.

Then the gods called to Their downlands to save Their world from Slid, and the downlands gathered

themselves and marched away, a great white line of gleaming cliffs, and halted before Slid. Then Slid

advanced no more and lulled his legions, and while his waves were low he softly crooned a song such as

once long ago had troubled the stars and brought down tears out of the twilight.

Sternly the white cliffs stood on guard to save the world of the gods, but the song that once had troubled

the stars went moaning on awaking pent desires, till full at the feet of the gods the melody fell. Then the

blue rivers that lay curled asleep opened their gleaming eyes, uncurled themselves and shook their rushes,

and, making a stir among the hills, crept down to find the sea. And passing across the world they came

at last to where the white cliffs stood, and, coming behind them, split them here and there and went

through their broken ranks to Slid at last. And the gods were angry with Their traitorous streams.

Then Slid ceased from singing the song that 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.

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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 is now no longer a great green valley in the south, but all that Tintaggon

had guarded against Slid he gave back to the gods. Very calm the sea lies now about Tintaggon’s feet,

where he stands all black amid crumbled cliffs of white, with red rocks piled about his feet. And often

the sea retreats far out along the shore, and often wave by wave comes marching in with the sound of the

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tramping of armies, that all may still remember the great fight that surged about Tintaggon once, when he

guarded the gods and the green earth against Slid.

Sometimes in their dreams the war-scarred warriors of Slid still lift their heads and cry their battle cry;

then do dark clouds gather about Tintaggon’s swarthy brow and he stands out menacing, seen afar by

ships, where once he conquered Slid. And the gods know well that while Tintaggon stands They and

Their world are safe; and whether Slid shall one day smite Tintaggon is hidden among the secrets of the

sea.

A LEGEND OF THE DAWN

When the worlds and All began the gods were stern and old and They saw the Beginning from under

eyebrows hoar with years, all but Inzana, Their child, who played with the golden ball. Inzana was the

child of all the gods. And the law before the Beginning and thereafter was that all should obey the gods,

yet hither and thither went all Pegana’s gods to obey the Dawnchild because she loved to be obeyed.

It was dark all over the world and even in Pegana, where dwell the gods, it was dark when the child

Inzana, the Dawn, first found her golden ball. Then running down the stairway of the gods with tripping

feet, chalcedony, onyx, chalcedony, onyx, step by step, she cast her golden ball across the sky. The

golden ball went bounding up the sky, and the Dawnchild with her flaring hair stood laughing upon the

stairway of the gods, and it was day. So gleaming fields below saw the first of all the days that the gods

have destined. But towards evening certain mountains, afar and aloof, conspired together to stand

between the world and the golden ball and to wrap their crags about it and to shut it from the world, and

all the world was darkened with their plot. And the Dawnchild up in Pegana cried for her golden ball.

Then all the gods came down the stairway right to Pegana’s gate to see what ailed the Dawnchild and to

ask her why she cried. Then Inzana said that her golden ball had been taken away and hidden by

mountains black and ugly, far away from Pegana, all in a world of rocks under the rim of the sky, and she

wanted her golden ball and could not love the dark.

Thereat Umborodom, whose hound was the thunder, took his hound in leash, and strode away across

the sky after the golden ball until he came to the mountains afar and aloof. There did the thunder put his

nose to the rocks and bay along the valleys, and fast at his heels followed Umborodom. And the nearer

the hound, the thunder, came to the golden ball the louder did he bay, but haughty and silent stood the

mountains whose plot had darkened the world. All in the dark among the crags in a mighty cavern,

guarded by two twin peaks, at last they found the golden ball for which the Dawnchild wept. Then under

the world went Umborodom with his thunder panting behind him, and came in the dark before the

morning from underneath the world and gave the Dawnchild back her golden ball. And Inzana laughed

and took it in her hands, and Umborodom went back into Pegana, and at its threshold the thunder went

to sleep.

Again the Dawnchild tossed the golden ball far up into the blue across the sky, and the second morning

shone upon the world, on lakes and oceans, and on drops of dew. But as the ball went bounding on its

way, the prowling mists and the rain conspired together and took it and wrapped it in their tattered

cloaks and carried it away. And through the rents in their garments gleamed the golden ball, but they

held it fast and carried it right away and underneath the world. Then on an onyx step Inzana sat down

and wept, who could no more be happy without her golden ball. And again the gods were sorry, and the

South Wind came to tell her tales of most enchanted islands, to whom she listened not, nor yet to the

tales of temples in lone lands that the East Wind told her, who had stood beside her when she flung her

golden ball. But from far away the West Wind came with news of three grey travellers wrapt round with

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battered cloaks that carried away between them a golden ball.

Then up leapt the North Wind, he who guards the pole, and drew his sword of ice out of his scabbard

of snow and sped away along the road that leads across the blue. And in the darkness underneath the

world he met the three grey travellers and rushed upon them and drove them far before him, smiting them

with his sword till their grey cloaks streamed with blood. And out of the midst of them, as they fled with

flapping cloaks all red and grey and tattered, he leapt up with the golden ball and gave it to the

Dawnchild.

Again Inzana tossed the ball into the sky, making the third day, and up and up it went and fell towards

the fields, and as Inzana stooped to pick it up she suddenly heard the singing of all the birds that were.

All the birds in the world were singing all together and also all the streams, and Inzana sat and listened

and thought of no golden ball, nor ever of chalcedony and onyx, nor of all her fathers the gods, but only

of all the birds. Then in the woods and meadows where they had all suddenly sung, they suddenly

ceased. And Inzana, looking up, found that her ball was lost, and all alone in the stillness one owl

laughed. When the gods heard Inzana crying for her ball They clustered together on the threshold and

peered into the dark, but saw no golden ball. And leaning forward They cried out to the bat as he

passed up and down: “Bat that seest all things, where is the golden ball?”

And though the bat answered none heard. And none of the winds had seen it nor any of the birds, and

there were only the eyes of the gods in the darkness peering for the golden ball. Then said the gods:

“Thou hast lost thy golden ball,” and They made her a moon of silver to roll about the sky. And the child

cried and threw it upon the stairway and chipped and broke its edges and asked for the golden ball. And

Limpang Tung, the Lord of Music, who was least of all the gods, because the child cried still for her

golden ball, stole out of Pegana and crept across the sky, and found the birds of all the world sitting in

trees and ivy, and whispering in the dark. He asked them one by one for news of the golden ball. Some

had last seen it on a neighbouring hill and others in trees, though none knew where it was. A heron had

seen it lying in a pond, but a wild duck in some reeds had seen it last as she came home across the hills,

and then it was rolling very far away.

At last the cock cried out that he had seen it lying beneath the world. There Limpang Tung sought it and

the cock called to him through the darkness as he went, until at last he found the golden ball. Then

Limpang Tung went up into Pegana and gave it to the Dawnchild, who played with the moon no more.

And the cock and all his tribe cried out: “We found it. We found the golden ball.”

Again Inzana tossed the ball afar, laughing with joy to see it, her hands stretched upwards, her golden

hair afloat, and carefully she watched it as it fell. But alas! it fell with a splash into the great sea and

gleamed and shimmered as it fell till the waters became dark above it and could be seen no more. And

men on the world said: “How the dew has fallen, and how the mists set in with breezes from the

streams.”

But the dew was the tears of the Dawnchild, and the mists were her sighs when she said: “There will no

more come a time when I play with my ball again, for now it is lost for ever.”

And the gods tried to comfort Inzana as she played with her silver moon, but she would not hear Them,

and went in tears to Slid, where he played with gleaming sails, and in his mighty treasury turned over

gems and pearls and lorded it over the sea. And she said: “O Slid, whose soul is in the sea, bring back

my golden ball.”

And Slid stood up, swarthy, and clad in seaweed, and mightily dived from the last chalcedony step out

of Pegana’s threshold straight into ocean. There on the sand, among the battered navies of the nautilus

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and broken weapons of the swordfish, hidden by dark water, he found the golden ball. And coming up

in the night, all green and dripping, he carried it gleaming to the stairway of the gods and brought it back

to Inzana from the sea; and out of the hands of Slid she took it and tossed it far and wide over his sails

and sea, and far away it shone on lands that knew not Slid, till it came to its zenith and dropped towards

the world.

But ere it fell the Eclipse dashed out from his hiding, and rushed at the golden ball and seized it in his

jaws. When Inzana saw the Eclipse bearing her plaything away she cried aloud to the thunder, who burst

from Pegana and fell howling upon the throat of the Eclipse, who dropped the golden ball and let it fall

towards earth. But the black mountains disguised themselves with snow, and as the golden ball fell down

towards them they turned their peaks to ruby crimson and their lakes to sapphires gleaming amongst

silver, and Inzana saw a jewelled casket into which her plaything fell. But when she stooped to pick it up

again she found no jewelled casket with rubies, silver or sapphires, but only wicked mountains disguised

in snow that had trapped her golden ball. And then she cried because there was none to find it, for the

thunder was far away chasing the Eclipse, and all the gods lamented when They saw her sorrow. And

Limpang Tung, who was least of all the gods, was yet the saddest at the Dawnchild’s grief, and when the

gods said: “Play with your silver moon,” he stepped lightly from the rest, and coming down the stairway

of the gods, playing an instrument of music, went out towards the world to find the golden ball because

Inzana wept.

And into the world he went till he came to the nether cliffs that stand by the inner mountains in the soul

and heart of the earth where the Earthquake dwelleth alone, asleep but astir as he sleeps, breathing and

moving his legs, and grunting aloud in the dark. Then in the ear of the Earthquake Limpang Tung said a

word that only the gods may say, and the Earthquake started to his feet and flung the cave away, the

cave wherein he slept between the cliffs, and shook himself and went galloping abroad and overturned

the mountains that hid the golden ball, and bit the earth beneath them and hurled their crags about and

covered himself with rocks and fallen hills, and went back ravening and growling into the soul of the

earth, and there lay down and slept again for a hundred years. And the golden ball rolled free, passing

under the shattered earth, and so rolled back to Pegana; and Limpang Tung came home to the onyx step

and took the Dawnchild by the hand and told not what he had done but said it was the Earthquake, and

went away to sit at the feet of the gods. But Inzana went and patted the Earthquake on the head, for she

said it was dark and lonely in the soul of the earth. Thereafter, returning step by step, chalcedony, onyx,

chalcedony, onyx, up the stairway of the gods, she cast again her golden ball from the Threshold afar into

the blue to gladden the world and the sky, and laughed to see it go.

And far away Trogool upon the utter Rim turned a page that was numbered six in a cipher that none

might read. And as the golden ball went through the sky to gleam on lands and cities, there came the Fog

towards it, stooping as he walked with his dark brown cloak about him, and behind him slunk the Night.

And as the golden ball rolled past the Fog suddenly Night snarled and sprang upon it and carried it

away. Hastily Inzana gathered the gods and said: “The Night hath seized my golden ball and no god

alone can find it now, for none can say how far the Night may roam, who prowls all round us and out

beyond the worlds.”

At the entreaty of Their Dawnchild all the gods made Themselves stars for torches, and far away through

all the sky followed the tracks of Night as far as he prowled abroad. And at one time Slid, with the

Pleiades in his hand, came nigh to the golden ball, and at another Yoharneth-Lahai, holding Orion for a

torch, but lastly Limpang Tung, bearing the morning star, found the golden ball far away under the world

near to the lair of Night.

And all the gods together seized the ball, and Night turning smote out the torches of the gods and

thereafter slunk away; and all the gods in triumph marched up the gleaming stairway of the gods, all

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Lord Dunsany - Time and the Gods

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