The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the land of Flanders Part 28

"I will take him," said Nele.

Whereupon Katheline took a crystal goblet and poured into it a certain mixture of a greyish colour, and she gave it to them both to drink, and rubbed their temples with this mixture, and their nostrils likewise, and the palms of their hands, and their wrists, and she also caused them to eat a pinch of white powder, and then she told them to gaze the one at the other in such manner that their two souls might become one.

Ulenspiegel looked at Nele, and straightway the sweet eyes of the girl illumined in him a mighty flame, and because of the mixture he had taken he felt as it were a thousand crabs nipping his skin all over him.

After that Nele and Ulenspiegel undressed, and very beautiful they looked in the lamplight, he in the pride of his manly strength, and she in all her youthful grace and sweetness. But they were not able to see one another, for already it was as though they were asleep. Then Katheline rested the neck of Nele upon the arm of Ulenspiegel, and taking his hand she placed it upon the young girl's heart. And there they stayed, all naked, lying side by side. And to both of them it seemed that their bodies, where they touched, were made of tender fire, like the sun itself in the month of roses.

Then, as they afterwards related, they climbed together on to the window-sill, whence they threw themselves out into s.p.a.ce, and felt the air all round them, buoying them up as the waters buoy up the s.h.i.+ps at sea.

Thereafter they lost all consciousness, seeing naught of earth where slept poor mortals, nor yet of heaven whose clouds were rolling now beneath their feet; for now they had set their feet upon Sirius, the frozen star, and from thence again they were flung upon the Pole.

There it was that a fearful sight awaited them, a giant all naked, the Giant Winter. His hair was wild and tawny, and he was seated on an ice-floe, with his back resting against a wall of ice. Near by in the pools of water there disported a host of bears and seals, bellowing all round him. In a hoa.r.s.e voice the giant summoned to his presence the hail-storms and the snow-storms and the icy showers; also there came at his behest the grey clouds and brown odorous mists, and the winds among whom is the sharp north wind, he that blows the strongest of all. Such were the terrors that raged together in that place of bane.

But smiling in the midst, the giant reclined on a bed of flowers that had been withered by his own hand, and of leaves dried by his very breath. Then, leaning down and scratching the ground with his finger-nails, and biting it with his teeth, the giant began to burrow a great pit. For he wanted to discover the heart of the earth to devour it, and to put the blackened coal where once there had been shady forests, and chaff where once had been corn, and barren sand in place of fruitful soil. But old earth's heart was made of fire, so that he dared not touch it but recoiled therefrom in dread.

There he sat like a king upon his throne, draining his horn of oil. All round him were his bears and seals, and the skeletons of those whom he had killed on the high seas or on the dry land or in the cottages of the poor. He listened joyfully to the roaring of the bears, to the braying of the seals, and to the sound made by the skeletons of men and animals as the bones clicked together beneath the claws of the crows and vultures that came for the last remaining piece of flesh that might still adhere to them. And sweet also to his ears was the noise the ice-floes made as they were driven one against another by the waves of that dreary sea.

And when he spoke, the voice of the giant was even as the roaring of a hurricane or as the noise of winter storms, or as the wind howling in the chimneys.

"I am cold and afraid," said Ulenspiegel.

"He is powerless against immortal souls," said Nele.

Even as she spoke a great commotion arose among the seals, who began to rush back into the sea with all haste. And it was apparent that the bears also were afraid for they lay back their ears and began to bellow most piteously. As for the crows and ravens, they cawed as though they were in terror of their lives, and started off to hide themselves among the clouds.

And now it was that Nele and Ulenspiegel first began to hear a sound as of a mighty battering-ram beating upon the farther side of that gla.s.sy wall against which Giant Winter had been reclining. And the wall cracked visibly and shook to its foundations. But of all this Giant Winter heard nothing at all, for he went on baying and bellowing most joyfully, filling and emptying again and again his bowl of oil, and continuing his search for the heart of the earth, that he might freeze it to nothing, although, forsooth, whenever he found that fiery centre he always lacked the courage so much as to take it in his hand!

Meanwhile the blows of the battering-ram resounded heavier and louder, and the crack in the wall of ice grew broader every second, and all around the giant, the rain of icicles ceased not to fall in myriad fragments. And the bears roared ceaselessly and piteously, and the seals sent up their plaintive cries from the dreary waste of water.

Suddenly the wall gave way, and from the bright sky beyond it a man descended. Naked he was, most beautiful of aspect, holding in one of his hands a hatchet of pure gold. This was Lucifer, the light-bringer, Lord of the Spring.

When Giant Winter saw him he immediately cast away his bowl of oil and entreated the new-comer to spare at least his life. But at the first warm breath of Spring, Giant Winter lost all his strength, and Lucifer was able to bind him with a chain of diamonds, and tie him securely to the Pole.

Then, standing still, the Lord of the Spring most tenderly and amorously cried aloud, and from the heavens there descended a woman, naked also, and most fair, most beautiful. She stood beside her lord, and spake to him:

"You are my conqueror, strong man."

And thus he answered her:

"If you are hungry, eat; if you are thirsty, drink; if you are afraid, come near to me. I am your mate."

"I have no hunger, no thirst, but for thee alone," she said.

Then the Lord of the Spring called out yet seven times and again. Most tremendous was his voice, and there was a mighty din of thunder and lightning, and behind him there came into being a kind of dais all made of suns and stars. And the lord and his lady sat them down on two thrones.

Then these twain, their countenances remaining still and motionless, and without the least tremor to spoil the calmness of their majesty and their power, both together cried aloud. And at that sound there was a movement in the earth like that of a countless mult.i.tude of worms, and not in the earth only but in the hard stone and in the ice-floes also. And Nele and Ulenspiegel heard a sound like that which might be made by gigantic birds trying to crack with their beaks the great imprisoning egg-sh.e.l.ls wherein they were concealed. And amid this great commotion of the earth, heaving and subsiding like the waves of the sea, there appeared forms like those of eggs.

And suddenly, on all sides, trees emerged, their bare branches all entangled together, and their stems shaking and tottering together like drunken men, which began to separate themselves the one from the other, leaving empty s.p.a.ces of earth between. And now from the ever restless soil there emerged the Spirits of Earth, and from the depths of the forest the Spirits of the Woods, and from the neighbouring sea, now cleared of ice, the Spirits of the Water.

And Nele and Ulenspiegel could discern the guardian spirits of all these wonders. Dwarfs there were, men of the woods that lived like trees and carried, instead of mouths and stomachs, little cl.u.s.ters of roots sprouting from below the face to the end that they might suck their nourishment from the bosom of mother earth. Lords of the mines there were as well, they that know no speech, and are dest.i.tute of heart or entrails, and move about like glittering automatons. There came also the dwarfs of flesh and bone, little fellows with lizards'

tails and the heads of toads, and a lantern on their head for head-gear. These are they that leap by night upon the shoulder of the drunken wayfarer or the tired traveller, and then jump down again, waving their lanterns the while so as to lead into marsh or ditch that hapless wight who thinks the light he sees is a candle set to beacon his way home.

There came too the Girl-Flower spirits, blossoms they of womanly health and strength. Naked they were and unashamed, glorying in their beauty, and having nothing to cover them but their hair. The eyes of these maids shone liquid like mother-of-pearl seen through water; the flesh of their bodies was firm, white, and glittering in the suns.h.i.+ne; and from half-opened ruby lips their breath wafted down more balmy than jasmine.

These are the maids that wander at eventide in the parks or gardens of the world, or belike in the shady paths of some woodland glade. Amorous they are, searching ever for some soul of man to possess it for themselves. And whenever some mortal lad and la.s.s come walking their way, they try to kill the girl, but failing in this they breathe a breath of love upon the doubting damsel, so that she fears no longer to abandon herself to the delights of love, but gives herself to her lover. For then the Girl-Flower is permitted to take her share of the kisses.

Besides all this, Nele and Ulenspiegel could see descending now far from heaven the Guardian Spirits of the Stars, the Spirits of the Winds, of the Breezes, and of the Rain: young, winged men that fertilize the earth. And there appeared from every point in the heavens the soul-birds, the dear swallows. At their coming the light itself seemed to grow brighter, and the girl-flowers, the lords of the rocks, the princes of the mines, the men of the woods, the spirits of water, fire, and earth, all cried out with one voice, "O Light, O sap of Spring, Glory to the Spirit of Spring!" And though the sound of all this shouting was more powerful than the noise of a raging sea, or of a thunder-storm, or of a hurricane let loose, yet it seemed most solemn music to the ears of Nele and Ulenspiegel, who stood, motionless and dumb, curled up behind the gnarled and wrinkled stem of a mighty oak.

But sights more terrible yet awaited them, for now the spirits took their places by thousands upon the backs of gigantic spiders, and toads with trunks like those of elephants, and serpents all intertwined, and crocodiles that stood upright on their tails and held a whole bevy of spirits in their mouths. Snakes, too, there were that carried more than thirty dwarfs at a time, both male and female, sitting astride on their writhing bodies; and thousands upon thousands of insects, more huge than Goliath himself, armed with swords, lances, jagged scythes, seven-p.r.o.nged forks, and every other kind of murderous and horrifying implement. Great was the uproar, and stern the battle which they fought amongst themselves, the strong eating up the weak and getting fat thereon, thus demonstrating how death is ever born from life, and life from death.

And out of all this throng of spirits, confused and serried, there came a sound as of a deep rumbling of thunder, or of a hundred looms, of weavers, fullers, and locksmiths, all working together in full swing.

And suddenly the Spirits of the Sap made their appearance on the scene. Short they were, and squat, and their loins were as large as the great barrel of Heidelberg itself. And their thighs were fat like hogsheads of wine, and their muscles so strangely strong and powerful that one would have said that their bodies were made of naught but eggs, eggs big and little, joined up to one another, and covered over with a kind of ruddy skin, strong and glistening like their scanty beards and tawny hair. And they carried great tankards or goblets that were filled with a strange liquor.

When the other spirits saw them coming, there at once arose among them a great flutter of joy. The trees and the plants became the victims of a strange restlessness, and the thirsty earth opened in a thousand fissures that it might drink of the liquor.

And the Spirits of the Sap poured out their wine, and at the same moment everything began to bud, and to grow green, and to come into flower; and the sward was alive with buzzing insects, and the sky was filled with birds and b.u.t.terflies. The spirits, meanwhile, continued pouring out their sap, and those below them received the wine as they best were able: the girl-flowers opening their mouths and leaping upon the tawny cup-bearers and kissing them for more; others clasping their hands in prayer; yet others, in their delight, allowing the precious liquid to rain upon them as it would; but all alike, hungry and thirsty, flying, standing still, running, or motionless, all greedy for the wine, and more alive for every drop they were able to get. And none was there so old, whether he were plain or handsome, but he was filled with fresh force and with new and l.u.s.ty youth.

And with great shouting and laughing they pursued each other among the trees like squirrels, or in the air like birds, each male seeking his female, and acting out beneath G.o.d's open sky the sacred task of nature.

And the Spirits of the Sap brought to the King and Queen a mighty bowl br.i.m.m.i.n.g with their wine. And the King and the Queen drank thereof, and embraced one another. And the King, holding the Queen fast in his arms, threw the dregs of that bowl far away upon the trees and flowers and all the other spirits that were there. And loud did he raise his voice, crying:

"Glory to Life! Glory to the free air! Glory to Force!"

And all with one voice cried aloud: "Glory to Nature! Glory to Life!"

And Ulenspiegel took Nele in his arms. And thus entwined, a dance began, an eddying dance like that of leaves in a whirlwind; and in that vortex everything was swinging together, both trees and plants, and insects, the b.u.t.terflies, heaven and earth itself, the King and his Queen, the girl-flowers and the lords of the mines, spirits of the water, hunchbacked dwarfs, lords of the rocks, men of the woods, will-o'-the-wisps, guardian spirits of the stars, and the thousand thousand terrible insects all commingled with their lances, their jagged swords, their seven-p.r.o.nged forks. A giddy dance it was, rolling in the s.p.a.ce which it filled, a dance wherein the very sun and moon took part, and the stars and planets, the clouds, and the winds.

And in that whirlwind the oak to which Nele and Ulenspiegel were clinging rolled over on its side, and Ulenspiegel said to Nele:

"We are going to die, little one...."

These words of Ulenspiegel one of the spirits overheard, and seeing that they were mortals:

"Men!" he cried. "Men, here?"

And he dragged them from the tree to which they clung, and cast them into the very midst of the crowd. But they fell softly on the backs of the spirits, who pa.s.sed them on one to another, bidding them welcome in such terms as these:

"All hail to man! All hail, worms of the earth! Who is there now would like to see a young mortal, a boy or a little girl? Poor wights that are come to pay us a visit!"

Nele and Ulenspiegel flew from one to the other, crying "Mercy!" But the spirits payed no attention to them, and they were suffered to go on flying about, legs in air, heads downwards, whirling about like feathers in a winter wind. And all the time the spirits were saying:

"Hail to the little men and little women! Come dance like us!" Now the girl-flowers desired to separate Nele from Ulenspiegel, and they would have beaten her to death had not the King of the Spring stopped the dance suddenly with a single gesture.

"Bring them to me," he cried; "bring before me these two lice!" So they were separated the one from the other, each girl-flower doing all she could to tear Ulenspiegel from her rival, saying:

"Tyl, Tyl, wouldst not die to have me?"