The Worm Ouroboros - E. R. Eddison (best books to read non fiction txt) 📗

The Worm Ouroboros

By E. R. Eddison.

Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Dedication Epigraph The Worm Ouroboros The Induction I: The Castle of Lord Juss II: The Wrastling for Demonland III: The Red Foliot IV: Conjuring in the Iron Tower V: King Gorice’s Sending VI: The Claws of Witchland VII: Guests of the King in Carcë VIII: The First Expedition to Impland IX: Salapanta Hills X: The Marchlands of the Moruna XI: The Burg of Eshgrar Ogo XII: Koshtra Pivrarcha XIII: Koshtra Belorn XIV: The Lake of Ravary XV: Queen Prezmyra XVI: The Lady Sriva’s Embassage XVII: The King Flies His Haggard XVIII: The Murther of Gallandus by Corsus XIX: Thremnir’s Heugh XX: King Corinius XXI: The Parley Before Krothering XXII: Aurwath and Switchwater XXIII: The Weird Begun of Ishnain Nemartra XXIV: A King in Krothering XXV: Lord Gro and the Lady Mevrian XXVI: The Battle of Krothering Side XXVII: The Second Expedition to Impland XXVIII: Zora Rach Nam Psarrion XXIX: The Fleet at Muelva XXX: Tidings of Melikaphkhaz XXXI: The Demons Before Carcë XXXII: The Latter End of All the Lords of Witchland XXXIII: Queen Sophonisba in Galing Argument: With Dates Bibliographical Note on the Verses Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

This ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.

This particular ebook is based on a transcription produced for Project Gutenberg and on digital scans available at the Internet Archive.

The writing and artwork within are believed to be in the U.S. public domain, and Standard Ebooks releases this ebook edition under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. For full license information, see the Uncopyright at the end of this ebook.

Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces ebook editions of public domain literature using modern typography, technology, and editorial standards, and distributes them free of cost. You can download this and other ebooks carefully produced for true book lovers at standardebooks.org.

To W. G. E. and to my friends K. H.
and G. C. L. M. I dedicate this book

It is neither allegory nor fable but a Story to be read for its own sake.

The proper names I have tried to spell simply. The e in Carcë is long, like that in Phryne, the o in Krothering short and the accent on that syllable: Corund is accented on the first syllable, Prezmyra on the second, Brandoch Daha on the first and fourth, Gorice on the last syllable, rhyming with thrice: Corinius rhymes with Flaminius, Galing with sailing, La Fireez with desire ease: ch is always guttural, as in loch.

E. R. E.

9th January 1922

True Thomas lay on Huntlie bank,
A ferlie he spied wi his ee;
And there he saw a Lady bright
Come riding down by the Eildon Tree.

Her skirt was o the grass-green silk,
Her mantle o the velvet fyne,
At ilka tett of her horse’s mane
Hung fifty siller bells and nine.

True Thomas he pulld aff his cap,
And louted low down on his knee:
“Hail to thee, Mary, Queen of Heaven!
For thy peer on earth could never be.”

“O no, O no, Thomas,” she says,
“That name does not belang to me;
I’m but the Queen of fair Elfland,
That am hither come to visit thee.

“Harp and carp, Thomas,” she says,
“Harp and carp alang wi me.
And if ye dare to kiss my lips,
Sure of your bodie I will be.”

“Betide me weal, betide me woe,
That weird shall never daunton me.”
Syne he has kissed her rosy lips,
All underneath the Eildon Tree.

—⁠Thomas the Rhymer The Worm Ouroboros A Romance The Induction

There was a man named Lessingham dwelt in an old low house in Wastdale, set in a gray old garden where yew-trees flourished that had seen Vikings in Copeland in their seedling time. Lily and rose and larkspur bloomed in the borders, and begonias with blossoms big as saucers, red and white and pink and lemon-colour, in the beds before the porch. Climbing roses, honeysuckle, clematis, and the scarlet flame-flower scrambled up the walls. Thick woods were on every side without the garden, with a gap northeastward opening on the desolate lake and the great fells beyond it: Gable rearing his crag-bound head against the sky from behind the straight clean outline of the Screes.

Cool long shadows stole across the tennis lawn. The air was golden. Doves murmured in the trees; two chaffinches played on the near post of the net; a little water-wagtail scurried along the path. A French window stood open to the garden, showing darkly a dining-room panelled with old oak, its Jacobean table bright with flowers and silver and cut glass and Wedgwood dishes heaped with fruit: greengages, peaches, and green muscat grapes. Lessingham lay back in a hammock-chair watching through the blue smoke of an after-dinner cigar the warm light on the Gloire de Dijon roses that clustered about the bedroom window overhead. He had her hand in his. This was their House.

“Should we finish that chapter of Njal?” she said.

She took the heavy volume with its faded green cover, and read: “He went out on the night of the Lord’s day, when nine weeks were still to winter; he heard a great crash, so that he thought both heaven and earth shook. Then he looked into the west airt, and he thought he saw thereabouts a ring of fiery hue, and within the ring a man on a gray horse. He passed quickly by him, and rode hard.