The Story of the Glittering Plain Read online

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

  THE STORY OF THE GLITTERING PLAIN WHICH HAS BEEN ALSO CALLED THE LAND OFLIVING MEN OR THE ACRE OF THE UNDYING

  WRITTENBY WILLIAM MORRIS

  POCKET EDITION

  LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDONNEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA1913

  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

  First printed in the _English Illustrated Magazine_, Vol. VII, 1890.

  First Edition in book form, 200 copies printed at the Kelmscott Press inthe Golden Type, quarto, April 1891, Reeves and Turner, with six copieson vellum.

  Printed at the Kelmscott Press in the Troy Type, with wood-engravingsfrom designs by Walter Crane, 250 copies and seven on vellum, January1894.

  Printed September 1891, in imperial 16mo.

  Transferred to Longmans, Green and Co., June 1896.

  Reprinted February 1898 and August 1904.

  Included in Volume XIV of the _Collected Works of William Morris_, July1912.

  Included in Longmans' Pocket Library, November 1913.

  CHAPTER I: OF THOSE THREE WHO CAME TO THE HOUSE OF THE RAVEN

  It has been told that there was once a young man of free kindred andwhose name was Hallblithe: he was fair, strong, and not untried inbattle; he was of the House of the Raven of old time.

  This man loved an exceeding fair damsel called the Hostage, who was ofthe House of the Rose, wherein it was right and due that the men of theRaven should wed.

  She loved him no less, and no man of the kindred gainsaid their love, andthey were to be wedded on Midsummer Night.

  But one day of early spring, when the days were yet short and the nightslong, Hallblithe sat before the porch of the house smoothing an ash stavefor his spear, and he heard the sound of horse-hoofs drawing nigh, and helooked up and saw folk riding toward the house, and so presently theyrode through the garth gate; and there was no man but he about the house,so he rose up and went to meet them, and he saw that they were but threein company: they had weapons with them, and their horses were of thebest; but they were no fellowship for a man to be afraid of; for two ofthem were old and feeble, and the third was dark and sad, and drooping ofaspect: it seemed as if they had ridden far and fast, for their spurswere bloody and their horses all a-sweat.

  Hallblithe hailed them kindly and said: "Ye are way-worn, and maybe yehave to ride further; so light down and come into the house, and takebite and sup, and hay and corn also for your horses; and then if ye needsmust ride on your way, depart when ye are rested; or else if ye may, thenabide here night-long, and go your ways to-morrow, and meantime thatwhich is ours shall be yours, and all shall be free to you."

  Then spake the oldest of the elders in a high piping voice and said:"Young man, we thank thee; but though the days of the springtide arewaxing, the hours of our lives are waning; nor may we abide unless thoucanst truly tell us that this is the Land of the Glittering Plain: and ifthat be so, then delay not, lead us to thy lord, and perhaps he will makeus content."

  Spake he who was somewhat less stricken in years than the first: "Thankshave thou! but we need something more than meat and drink, to wit theLand of Living Men. And Oh! but the time presses."

  Spake the sad and sorry carle: "We seek the Land where the days are many:so many that he who hath forgotten how to laugh, may learn the craftagain, and forget the days of Sorrow."

  Then they all three cried aloud and said:

  "Is this the Land? Is this the Land?"

  But Hallblithe wondered, and he laughed and said: "Wayfarers, look underthe sun down the plain which lieth betwixt the mountains and the sea, andye shall behold the meadows all gleaming with the spring lilies; yet dowe not call this the Glittering Plain, but Cleveland by the Sea. Heremen die when their hour comes, nor know I if the days of their life belong enough for the forgetting of sorrow; for I am young and not yet ayokefellow of sorrow; but this I know, that they are long enough for thedoing of deeds that shall not die. And as for Lord, I know not thisword, for here dwell we, the sons of the Raven, in good fellowship, withour wives that we have wedded, and our mothers who have borne us, and oursisters who serve us. Again I bid you light down off your horses, andeat and drink, and be merry; and depart when ye will, to seek what landye will."

  They scarce looked on him, but cried out together mournfully:

  "This is not the Land! This is not the Land!"

  No more than that they said, but turned about their horses and rode outthrough the garth gate, and went clattering up the road that led to thepass of the mountains. But Hallblithe hearkened wondering, till thesound of their horse-hoofs died away, and then turned back to his work:and it was then two hours after high-noon.