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0:51

Mccain. On the Headland by

0:53

Robert the Howard. Sponsored.

0:55

By Joke Rocket. And

0:58

the next instant this great read loon

1:00

was shaking me like a dog shaking

1:02

a rat. Whereas. May

1:04

have mcdonnell he was screaming. By.

1:07

The Saints. It's a grizzly thing to

1:09

hear a madman in a lonely place

1:11

at midnight screaming the name of a

1:13

woman dead three hundred years. Belongs.

1:16

Romanced. Whoa. This.

1:19

Is the can you seek I said

1:21

laying my and gingerly on one of

1:23

the roof stones which composed strangely symmetrical

1:26

heap. An. avid

1:28

interest burned and or tallies

1:30

dark eyes. He's. Gay swept

1:32

the landscape and came back to rest

1:34

on the great pile of massive whether

1:36

one boulders. What? A

1:38

wild, weird, desolate place, he

1:40

said. Who. Would have thought

1:42

to find such a spot in this vicinity? Except

1:45

for the smoke rising yonder. One.

1:48

Would scarcely dream that beyond that

1:50

headlands lies a great city. Here.

1:54

There. Is scarcely even a fisherman's hot

1:56

with inside. The. people

1:58

shun the can as they have shunned it

2:00

for centuries I replied. "'Why?

2:03

You've asked me that before,' I

2:05

replied impatiently. I can only

2:08

answer that they now avoid by habit what

2:10

their ancestors avoided through

2:12

knowledge." "'Knowledge!' he

2:15

laughed derisively. "'Superstition!'

2:19

I looked at him sombrely with unveiled

2:21

hate. Two men could

2:23

scarcely have been of more opposite types.

2:26

He was slender, self-possessed,

2:28

unmistakably Latin with his

2:30

dark eyes and sophisticated

2:32

hair. I am

2:35

massive, clumsy, and bear-like, with

2:37

cold blue eyes and tousled red hair.

2:40

We were countrymen in that we were born

2:43

in the same land, but the

2:45

homelands of our ancestors are as

2:47

far apart as south from north."

2:50

"'Nordic superstition!' he repeated. I

2:53

cannot imagine a Latin people allowing such

2:55

a mystery as this to go unexplored

2:57

all these years. The Latins

3:00

are too practical, too prosaic, if

3:02

you will. Are you sure

3:04

of the date of this pile?' I

3:06

find no mention of it in any manuscript

3:08

prior to 1014 A.D., I growled. And

3:12

I've read all such manuscripts extant

3:14

in the original. Ochlieg,

3:17

King Brian Baruch's poet, speaks of

3:19

the rearing of the cairn immediately

3:22

after the battle, and there

3:24

can be little doubt that this is the pile

3:26

referred to. It is

3:28

mentioned briefly in the later chronicles of the

3:30

Four Masters, also in the

3:32

Book of Leinster compiled in the late 1150s,

3:36

and again in the Book of

3:38

Lecan compiled by the Macfirbris about

3:42

1416, all connected with the Battle of Clontaf

3:44

without mentioning why it was built.

3:47

"'Well, what is the mystery

3:49

about it?' he queried. What more natural than

3:52

the defeated Norsemen should rear a cairn above

3:54

the body of some great chief who had

3:56

fallen in the battle. In

3:58

the first place,' I answer. There is

4:01

a mystery concerning the existence of it. The

4:04

building of cairns above the dead was a

4:06

Norse, not an Irish custom. Yet

4:08

according to the chroniclers, it was not

4:10

Norsemen who reared this heap. How

4:13

could they have built it immediately after

4:15

the battle, in which they had been

4:17

cut to pieces and driven in headlong

4:19

flight through the gates of Dublin? Their

4:23

chieftains lay where they had fallen, and

4:25

the ravens picked their bones. It

4:27

was Irish hands that heaped these stones. Well,

4:31

was that so strange, persisted or

4:33

tally? In old times the Irish

4:35

heaped up stones before they went into battle,

4:38

each man putting a stone in place. After

4:41

the battle the living removed their stones,

4:43

leaving in that manner a simple tally

4:45

of the slain, for any who wished

4:47

to counter the remaining stones. I

4:49

shook my head. That was in

4:51

more ancient times not in the Battle of Contarth.

4:54

In the first place there were more

4:56

than twenty thousand warriors and four thousand

4:58

fell here. This cairn is not

5:01

large enough to have served as a tally of the

5:03

men killed in battle. And it

5:05

is too symmetrically built. Hardly

5:07

a stone has fallen away in all these

5:09

centuries. No. It

5:12

was reared to cover something. Nordic

5:15

superstitions! The man sneered

5:17

again. Aye, superstitions,

5:19

if you will. Made

5:22

by his scorn, I exclaimed so

5:24

savagely that he involuntarily stepped back,

5:26

his hands slipping inside his coat.

5:29

We of North Europe had gods

5:32

and demons before which the pallid

5:34

mythologies of the South fade to

5:36

childishness. At a time

5:39

when your ancestors were lolling on

5:41

silken cushions among the

5:43

crumbling marble pillars of a

5:45

decaying civilization, my

5:47

ancestors were building their

5:49

own civilization in hardships

5:51

and gigantic battles against

5:54

foes human and

5:56

inhuman. Here, on

5:59

this very plain. the Dark Ages came

6:01

to an end, and the light

6:03

of a new era dawned on the world

6:05

of hate and anarchy. Here,

6:08

as even you know, in

6:10

the year 1014, Brian

6:12

Barrou and his Daltacian

6:14

axe-wielders broke the power

6:17

of the heathen Northmen forever, those

6:19

grim and artistic plunderers who

6:22

had held back the progress

6:24

of civilization for centuries.

6:27

It was more than a struggle between Gail

6:29

and Dane for the crown of Ireland. It

6:32

was a war between the white Christ

6:34

and Odin, between Christian and

6:36

pagan. It was the last

6:39

stand of the heathen, of

6:41

the people of the old grim ways.

6:44

For three hundred years the world

6:46

had risen beneath the heel of

6:49

the Viking, and here, on

6:52

Klontath, that scourge

6:54

was lifted forever.

6:57

Then, as now, the

7:00

importance of that battle was

7:02

underestimated by polite Latin and

7:04

Latinized writers and historians. The

7:07

polished sophisticates of the civilized

7:10

cities of the South were

7:12

not interested in the battles of

7:14

barbarians in the remote northwestern corner

7:16

of the world, a

7:19

place and peoples of whose very

7:21

names they were only vaguely aware.

7:24

They only knew that suddenly

7:27

the terrible raids of the Sea

7:29

Kings ceased to sweep along their

7:31

coasts, and in another

7:33

century the wild age of plunder

7:35

and slaughter had almost been forgotten,

7:38

all because a rude,

7:41

half-civilized people who scantily

7:44

covered their nakedness with

7:46

wolf-hides rose up against

7:49

the conquerors. Here

7:52

was Ragnarök, the

7:54

fall of the gods. Fear

7:57

in very truth Odin fell for

7:59

his religion was given its

8:01

death-blow. He was

8:04

the last of all the heathen gods

8:06

to stand before Christianity, and

8:08

it looked for a time as if his

8:10

children might prevail and plunge the

8:12

world back into darkness and savagery.

8:16

Before Klontaaf legends say, he

8:18

often appeared on earth to his worshippers,

8:21

dimly seen in the smoke of

8:23

the sacrifices where human

8:25

victims died screaming, or

8:28

riding the wind-torn clouds, his

8:31

wild locks flying in the gale,

8:33

or a parrot like a

8:35

Norse warrior dealing thunderous blows

8:38

in the forefront of nameless

8:40

battles. But after

8:43

Klontaaf, he was

8:45

seen no more. His

8:47

worshippers called on him in

8:50

vain with wild chants and

8:52

grim sacrifices. They lost faith

8:54

in him who had failed them

8:56

in their wildest hour. His

8:59

altars crumbled, his priests

9:01

turned gray and dyed,

9:04

and men turned to his

9:06

conqueror, the White Christ. The

9:09

rain of blood and iron was forgotten,

9:12

the age of the red-handed

9:15

sea-kings passed. The

9:17

rising sun slowly, dimly,

9:20

lighted the night of the dark ages,

9:23

and men forgot Odin,

9:26

who came no more on earth.

9:30

I laugh if you will! But

9:33

who knows what shapes of horror have

9:36

had birth in the darkness, the

9:38

cold gloom, and the whistling

9:41

black gulfs of the north? In

9:44

southern lands the sun shines and

9:46

flowers bloom, under the

9:48

soft skies men laugh at demons,

9:51

but in the north, who

9:54

can say what elemental spirits

9:56

of evil dwell in

9:58

the fierce storms and the darkness? Well,

10:00

may it be that from such fiends

10:03

of the night men evolved the worship

10:05

of the grim ones, Odin

10:07

and Thor and their

10:10

terrible kin." Autali

10:13

was silent, for an instant, as if

10:16

taken aback by my vehemence. Then

10:18

he laughed. "'Who else said my

10:20

northern philosopher? We will

10:23

argue these questions another time. You'd

10:25

hardly expect the descendant of Nordic

10:27

barbarians to escape some trace of

10:29

the dreams and mysticism of his

10:32

race. But you cannot

10:34

expect me to be moved by your imaginings

10:36

either. I still believe

10:38

that this caren covers no grimest

10:40

secret than a Norse chief

10:43

who fell in the beetle, and

10:45

really your ravings concerning Nordic

10:48

devils have no bearing in

10:50

the matter. Will you

10:52

help me tear into this care?" "'No,'

10:55

I answered shortly. A few

10:57

hours' work will suffice to lay bare whatever it

11:00

may hide," he continued, as if he had not

11:02

heard. "'By the way,

11:04

speaking of superstitions, is

11:06

there not some wild tale concerning

11:08

Holly connected with this heap?' "'An

11:12

old legend says that all trees

11:14

bearing Holly were cut down for

11:16

a league in all directions for

11:18

some mysterious reason,' I answered sullenly.

11:21

"'That's another mystery. Holly

11:23

was an important part of Norse magic-making.

11:26

The four masters tell of a Norseman,

11:28

a white bearded ancient of wild

11:31

aspects, and apparently priest

11:33

of Odin, who was

11:35

slain by the natives while attempting to lay

11:37

a branch of Holly on the cairn a

11:40

year after the battle.' "'Well,'

11:42

he laughed, "'I have procured a

11:44

sprig of Holly, see. And

11:47

she'll wear it in my lapel. Perhaps

11:49

it will protect me against your Nordic

11:51

devils.' "'I feel

11:53

more certain than ever that the cairn

11:55

covers a sea-king, and they were

11:57

always laid to rest with all their riches.' Golden

12:00

cups, and dual set

12:03

sword-hilts, and silver coarserlets.

12:06

I feel that this can holds wealth,

12:08

wealth over which clumsy-footed Irish

12:11

peasants have been stumbling for

12:13

centuries living in want and

12:16

dying in hunger. Bah!

12:19

We shall return here at midnight, when

12:21

we may be fairly certain that we

12:24

will not be interrupted, and you will

12:27

aid me at the excavations."

12:30

The last sentence was wrapped out in

12:32

a tone that sent a red surge

12:34

of bloodlust through my brain. Autali

12:37

turned and began examining the cairn as

12:39

he spoke, and almost

12:41

involuntarily my hand reached

12:44

out stealthily and closed on a

12:46

wicked bit of jagged stone that

12:48

had become detached from one of the boulders. In

12:52

that instant I, who

12:54

was a potential murderer if ever one

12:56

walked the earth, one blow

12:58

quick, silent

13:00

and savage, and I

13:02

would be free forever from a

13:04

slavery bitter as my Celtic ancestors

13:07

knew beneath the heels of the

13:09

Vikings. As

13:11

if sensing my thoughts, Autali wheeled

13:13

to face me. I

13:16

quickly slipped the stone into my pocket,

13:18

not knowing whether he noted the action. But

13:21

he must have seen the red-killing

13:24

instinct burning in my eyes, for

13:27

again he recoiled, and

13:29

again his hand sought the

13:31

hidden revolver. But

13:33

he only said, I have changed my mind. We

13:36

will not uncover the cairn tonight. Tomorrow

13:39

night, perhaps, we may be spied upon.

13:42

Just now I am going back to the hotel. I

13:45

made no reply but turned my back upon

13:47

him and stalked moodily away in the direction

13:50

of the shore. He

13:52

started up the slope of the headland

13:54

beyond which lay the city, and

13:56

when I turned to look at him he

13:59

was just crossing the road. the ridge etched

14:01

clearly against the hazy sky.

14:04

If hate could kill, he would

14:07

have dropped dead. I

14:09

saw him in the red-tinged haze, and

14:12

the pulses in my temples throbbed like

14:14

hammers. I turned

14:16

back towards the shore and stopped

14:18

suddenly. Engrossed with

14:20

my own dark thoughts, I had

14:22

approached within a few feet of a woman

14:25

before seeing her. She

14:27

was tall and strongly made, with

14:29

a strong stern face, deeply

14:32

lined and weather-worn as the hills.

14:35

She was dressed in a manner strange to me,

14:37

but I felt little of it, knowing

14:39

the curious styles of clothing

14:42

worn by certain backward

14:44

types of our people. "'What

14:47

would you be doing at the cairn?' she

14:50

asked in a deep, powerful

14:52

voice. I looked at

14:54

her in surprise. She spoke in Gaelic, which

14:56

was not strange of itself, but the

14:59

Gaelic she used, I had supposed,

15:01

was extinct as a spoken language.

15:04

It was the Gaelic of scholars,

15:06

pure and with a distinctly archaic

15:08

flavour. A woman

15:10

from some secluded hill country, I

15:12

thought, where the people still

15:14

spoke the unadulterated tongue of their

15:17

ancestors. We were

15:19

speculating on its mystery," I answered in

15:21

the same tone. Hesitantly, however,

15:23

were those skilled in the more modern

15:26

form taught in the schools, to

15:28

match her use of the language with the strain

15:30

on my knowledge of it. She

15:32

shook her head slowly. "'I

15:35

like not the dark man who

15:37

was witcher,' she said, sombily. "'Who

15:39

are you?' "'I'm an

15:41

American, though born and raised here,' I

15:44

answered. "'My name's

15:46

Jams O'Brien.' A

15:49

strange light gleamed in her cold

15:51

eyes. "'O'Brien, you are of my

15:53

clan.' I was born an

15:55

O'Brien. I married a man

15:57

of the McDonald's, but my heart was ever."

16:00

with the folk of my blood. "'You

16:03

live hereabouts,' I queried, my mind

16:05

on her unusual accent.

16:09

"'I live here upon a time,'

16:11

she answered, but I have

16:13

been far away for a long time. All

16:16

is changed, changed. I

16:19

would not have returned, but I was

16:21

drawn back by a call you would

16:23

not understand. Tell me, would

16:26

you open the cairn?' I

16:29

started and gazed at her closely,

16:31

deciding that she had somehow overheard

16:33

our conversation. "'It's not

16:36

mine to say,' I answered bitterly.

16:38

"'Otali, my companion, he

16:40

will doubtless open it, and I am

16:42

constrained to aid him of my

16:45

own will. I would not

16:47

molest it.' A cold

16:49

eyes bored into my soul.

16:52

"'Falls rush blind to their

16:54

dome,' she said sombily. "'What

16:57

does this man know of the mysteries of

16:59

this ancient land? These

17:01

have been done here whereof the world

17:03

re-echoed, yonder, in

17:05

the long ago when Tomar's wood

17:08

rose dark and rustling against

17:10

the plain of Clantarff, and

17:12

the Danish walls of Dublin loomed south of

17:14

the River Liffey. The ravens

17:16

fed on the slain, and the

17:18

set in sun lighted lakes of crimson.

17:21

Their king Brian, your

17:23

ancestor and mine, broke

17:25

the spears of the north. From

17:28

all lands they came, and from

17:30

the isles of the sea they

17:32

came in gleaming mail, and they

17:34

horned helmets cast long shadows across

17:36

the land. Their

17:39

dragon-pros thronged the waves,

17:41

and the sound of their oars was the

17:43

beat of a storm. On

17:46

the under-plain the heroes fell

17:48

like ripe wheat before the

17:51

reaper. There fell

17:53

Jarl Sigurd of the Orkneys, and

17:55

brother of man, Dast of the

17:57

Sea Kings, and all their chiefs."

18:01

There fell too, Prince

18:03

Murakh, and his son Charlach,

18:05

and many chieftains of the

18:07

gale and King Brian Burrough

18:09

himself, Aaron's mightiest

18:12

monarch. Too!

18:15

My imagination was always fired by the epic

18:17

tales of the land of my birth. Blood

18:20

of mine was spilled here, and though I

18:22

have passed the best part of my life

18:24

in a far land, there are

18:27

ties of blood to bind my soul

18:29

to this shore. She

18:31

nodded slowly, and from beneath

18:33

her robes drew forth something that

18:36

sparkled dully in the setting sun.

18:40

She said, As a token of blood,

18:42

Ty, I give it to you. I

18:45

feel strange and monstrous happenings, but this will

18:47

keep you safe from evil that the people

18:49

of the night, beyond reckoning

18:51

of man it as holy. I

18:54

took it, wonderingly. It

18:57

was a crucifix of curiously

18:59

worked gold set with

19:01

tiny jewels. The

19:03

workmanship was extremely archaic and

19:06

unmistakably Celtic, and

19:08

vaguely within me stirred a memory

19:11

of a long-lost relic described

19:13

by forgotten monks in

19:15

dim manuscripts. Good heavens! I

19:17

exclaimed. This is! This must

19:20

be! This can be

19:22

nothing less than the lost crucifix

19:24

of St. Brandon the Blessed! I,

19:28

she inclined her grim head, St. Brandon's

19:30

Cross, fashioned by the hands

19:33

of the holy man long ago, before

19:35

the Norse barbarians made her in a red

19:37

hell, in the days when

19:40

a golden peace and holiness rolled the

19:42

land. But, woman! I

19:45

exclaimed wildly. I cannot accept this gift

19:47

from you. You cannot

19:49

know its value. Its intrinsic worth

19:51

alone is equal to a fortune as a

19:53

relic it is priceless. Enough! The

19:57

deep voice struck me suddenly silent.

20:00

I have done with such talk which is sacrilege.

20:02

The craft of St. Brandon is beyond price.

20:05

It was never stained with gold, only

20:07

as a free gift has it ever

20:09

changed hands. I give it

20:11

to you to shield you against the powers

20:13

of evil. Say no more." But

20:16

it has been lost for three hundred

20:18

years," I exclaimed. How? Where?

20:22

A holy man give it to me

20:24

long ago, she answered. I hid

20:26

it in my bosom. Long it lay in my

20:28

bosom. But now I give it to ye.

20:31

I have come from afar country to give it

20:33

to ye, for there are monstrous happenings in

20:35

the wind, and it is sword and

20:38

shield against the people of the night. An

20:41

ancient evil stirs in its prison,

20:44

which blind hands of folly may

20:46

break open. But stronger

20:49

than any evil is the craft of

20:51

St. Brandon, which has gathered

20:53

power and strength to the

20:55

long, long ages since that

20:57

forgotten evil fell to the

20:59

earth. But

21:01

who are you? I exclaimed. I

21:04

am Maeve McDonald, she answered.

21:07

Then turning without a word, she

21:09

strode away in the deepening twilight, while

21:12

I stood bewildered and

21:15

watched across the headland and

21:17

pass from sight. Turning inland

21:19

as she topped the ridge. And

21:22

I, too, shaking myself like a man

21:24

waking from a dream, went

21:26

slowly up the slope and across the

21:28

headland. When I crossed

21:31

the ridge, it was as

21:33

if I had passed out of one world

21:35

into another. Behind

21:37

me lay the wilderness and desolation

21:39

of a weird, medieval age. Before

21:43

me pulsed the lights and roar of

21:45

modern Dublin. Only

21:47

one archaic touch was lent to the

21:49

scene before me. Some

21:52

distance inland loomed the

21:54

straggling and broken lines of an

21:56

ancient graveyard, long deserted

21:58

and grown. grown up in

22:01

weeds, barely discernible in the dusk.

22:04

As I looked, I saw

22:06

a tall figure moving ghostly among

22:08

the crumbling tombs. I

22:10

shook my head bewilderedly. Surely

22:13

Maeve McDonald was touched with madness,

22:15

living in the past like one

22:18

seeking to stir to flame the

22:20

ashes of dead yesterday. I

22:23

set out toward where, in the near

22:25

distance, began the straggling widow, gleams

22:27

that grew into the swarming oceans of

22:29

light that was Dublin. Back

22:33

at the suburban hotel, where Otali and I

22:35

had our rooms, I did not

22:37

speak to him of the cross the woman had given me.

22:40

In that, at least, he should not share.

22:43

I intended keeping it until she

22:45

requested its return, which I felt

22:47

sure she would do. Now,

22:50

as I recalled her appearance, the

22:52

strangeness of her costume returned to

22:55

me, with one item which

22:57

had impressed itself on my subconscious mind

22:59

at the time, but which I had

23:01

not consciously realized. Maeve

23:04

McDonald had been

23:06

wearing sandals of a type

23:08

not worn in Ireland for centuries. Ooh!

23:12

It was perhaps natural that with

23:15

her retrospective nature she should imitate

23:17

the apparel of the past ages

23:19

which seemed to claim all her

23:21

thoughts. I turned

23:23

across reverently in my hands. There

23:26

was no doubt that it was the

23:28

very cross for which antiquarians had searched

23:30

so long in vain, and

23:32

at last in despair had denied the existence

23:35

of. Priestly scholar

23:37

Michael O'Rourke, in a treatise written about

23:39

1690, described the relictive

23:41

length, chronicled its history exhaustively,

23:43

but maintained that it was

23:46

last heard of in the

23:48

possession of Bishop Liam O'Brien,

23:50

who, dying in 1595, gave it into the keeping of a

23:54

kinswoman, but who this woman

23:56

was, it was never known, and

23:58

O'Rourke maintained that she kept her position. possession

24:00

of the cross a secret, and that

24:02

it was laid away with her in her tomb. At

24:05

another time my elation at discovering the

24:07

relic would have been extreme, but at

24:10

the time my mind was too filled with hate

24:12

and smoldering fury. Replacing

24:15

the cross in my pocket, I

24:17

fell moodily to reviewing my connections

24:20

with Autali, connections which puzzled my

24:22

friends, but which were

24:24

simple enough. Some

24:26

years before I had been

24:29

connected with a certain large university in

24:31

a humble way. One

24:33

of the professors with whom

24:35

I worked, a man named

24:37

Reynolds, was of intolerably overbearing

24:39

disposition towards those whom he

24:41

considered his inferiors. I

24:44

was a poverty-ridden student striving for

24:47

life in a system which makes

24:49

the very existence of a scholar

24:51

precarious. I bore

24:53

Professor Reynolds' abuse as long as I could,

24:55

but one day we clashed.

24:59

The reason does not matter. It was trivial

25:01

enough in itself. Because I

25:04

dared reply to his insults, Reynolds

25:06

struck me, and I knocked

25:09

him senseless. That

25:12

very day he caused my dismissal from

25:14

the university. Facing

25:16

not only an abrupt termination of

25:18

my work and studies, but actual

25:20

starvation, I was reduced

25:22

to desperation, and I went

25:25

to Reynolds' study late that night

25:27

intending to thrash him within an

25:29

inch of his life. I

25:32

found him alone in his study, but

25:35

the moment I entered he sprang up and rushed

25:37

at me like a wild beast with a dagger

25:39

he used for a paperweight. I

25:41

did not strike him. I did not even touch him.

25:44

As I stepped aside to avoid his

25:46

rush, a small rug

25:48

slipped beneath his charging feet. He

25:50

fell headlong, and to my horror,

25:53

in his fall the dagger in his hand was

25:55

driven into his heart. He

25:58

died instantly. I

26:00

was at once aware of my position. I

26:03

was known to have quarreled and even exchanged

26:05

blows with the man. I

26:07

had every reason to hate him. If

26:10

I were found in the study with the

26:12

dead man, no jury in the world would

26:14

believe that I had not murdered him. I

26:17

hurriedly left by the way I had

26:19

come thinking that I had been unobserved.

26:22

But, or tally, the

26:26

dead man's secretary had

26:28

seen me. Returning

26:30

from a dance, he had observed me

26:32

entering the premises, and, following me, had

26:35

seen the whole affair through the window. But

26:38

this I did not know until later. The

26:42

body was found by the professor's

26:44

housekeeper, and naturally there was

26:46

a great stir. Suspicion

26:48

pointed to me, but lack of evidence

26:50

kept me from being indicted, and this

26:53

same lack of evidence brought about a verdict

26:55

of suicide. All

26:58

this time O'Tally had kept

27:00

quiet. Now he came

27:03

to me and disclosed what he knew.

27:06

He knew, of course, that I had

27:08

not killed Reynolds, but he could

27:10

prove that I was in the study when the professor

27:12

met his death, and I knew

27:14

O'Tally was capable of carrying out

27:17

his threat of swearing that he

27:19

had seen me murder Reynolds in

27:21

cold blood, and thus began

27:23

a systematic

27:26

blackmail. I

27:29

ventured to say that a stranger blackmail

27:31

was never levied. I

27:33

had no money then, or Tally was

27:35

gambling on my future, for he was

27:37

a suid of my abilities. He advanced

27:40

me money, and by clever

27:42

wire-pulling got me an appointment in a

27:44

large college. There he

27:46

sat back to reap the benefits

27:48

of his scheming, and

27:50

he reaped full fold of the seed he

27:52

sowed. In my line

27:54

I became eminently successful. I

27:57

soon commanded an enormous salary in my

27:59

regular work. work, and I

28:01

received rich prizes and awards

28:03

for researches of various difficult

28:05

natures, and of these

28:07

autarly took the lion's share, in

28:09

money at least. I

28:11

seemed to have the Midas touch,

28:14

yet of the wine of my success. I

28:17

tasted only the dregs. I

28:20

scarcely had assent to my name, the

28:22

money that had flowed through my hands

28:24

had gone to enrich my slaver unknown

28:26

to the world. A man of remarkable gifts,

28:29

he could have gone to the heights in

28:31

any line, but for a queer streak in

28:33

him, which coupled with

28:35

an inordinately avaricious nature,

28:37

made him a parasite,

28:39

a blood-sucking leech. This

28:42

trip to Dublin had been in the nature of

28:44

a vacation for me. I

28:47

was worn out with study and labor, but

28:49

he had somehow heard of Grimin's care,

28:52

as it was called, and

28:54

like a vulture that sensed dead flesh,

28:56

he conceived himself on the track of

28:58

hidden gold. A golden

29:00

wine cup would have been to him sufficient

29:03

reward for the labor of tearing into the

29:05

pile, and reason enough

29:07

for desecrating, or even

29:09

destroying the ancient landmark. He

29:13

was a swine, whose only

29:15

God was called. Well,

29:19

I thought grimly as I disrobed for

29:21

bed, all things end, both good

29:23

and bad. Such a life

29:26

as I had lived was unbearable.

29:29

Autali had dangled the gallows before my

29:31

eyes until it had lost its terrors.

29:34

I had staggered beneath the load I carried because

29:37

of my love for my work, but

29:39

all human endurance has its

29:41

limits. My hands turned

29:43

to iron as I thought of

29:45

Autali, working beside me at midnight

29:47

at the lonely can, one

29:50

stroke with such a stone

29:52

as I had caught up that day, and

29:55

my agony would be ended that

29:57

life and hopes and career and ambition

29:59

would be ended as well, could

30:02

not be helped. Ah,

30:04

what a sorry, sorry

30:06

end to all my

30:08

high dreams, when

30:10

a rope and the long

30:12

drop through the black trap

30:15

should cut short an honourable

30:17

career and a useful

30:19

life. And

30:22

all because of a

30:25

human vampire who feasted

30:27

his rotten lust on

30:29

my soul and drove

30:31

me to murder and

30:34

ruin. But

30:36

I knew my fate was

30:38

written in the iron books

30:40

of doom. Sooner

30:43

or later I would

30:45

turn on Orthalie and

30:47

kill him, be the

30:49

consequences what they might. And

30:52

I had reached the end of

30:54

my road, continual torture had rendered

30:57

me, I believe, partly

30:59

insane. I knew

31:01

that it grimin's cairn when we toiled

31:04

at midnight, Orthalie's life would

31:06

end beneath my hands and my

31:08

own life be cast away.

31:12

Something fell out of my pocket and I picked it up.

31:15

It was the piece of sharp stone I

31:17

had caught up off the cairn. Looking

31:20

at it moodily, I wondered

31:22

what strange hands had touched it in

31:24

the old terms, and what

31:26

grim secret it helped to hide on

31:28

the bare headland of Grimin. I

31:31

switched out the light and lay

31:34

in the darkness, the stone still

31:36

in my hand, forgotten, occupied with

31:38

my own dark broodings, and

31:41

I glided gradually into

31:43

deep slumber. At

31:47

first I was aware that I was dreaming,

31:49

as people often are. All

31:51

was dim and vague and connected in

31:53

some strange way I realized with the

31:56

bit of stone still grasped in my

31:58

sleeping hand. I

32:00

can seek chaotic scenes and landscapes

32:02

and events shifted before me like

32:04

clouds. It rolled and tumbled before

32:06

a gale. Slowly.

32:09

These settled and crystallized

32:11

into one distinct landscape.

32:13

Familiar. And yet wildly

32:15

strange. I. Saw a

32:17

bear plane a fringe by the

32:19

Grace see on one side. And.

32:22

A dark rustling forest on the other.

32:25

This. Plane was cut by a winding

32:27

river and beyond this river I saw

32:29

a city. Such. City is

32:31

my waking I had never seen. Stock.

32:34

Massive with the grim

32:36

architecture of an earlier

32:38

wilder age. On

32:41

the plane I saw as in the midst

32:43

a mighty battle. Serried. Ranks

32:45

road backward and forward. Steel

32:47

flash like a sunlit see.

32:50

And. Men sale at like ripe

32:52

fleets beneath the blades. I

32:54

saw main in Will Skins

32:57

Wild and shock headed. Wielding.

32:59

Dripping axes, And Toll

33:02

Main in haunted helmets and glittering

33:04

mail whose eyes were cold and

33:06

blue as the sea. And.

33:09

I saw my son. In

33:12

my dream I saw and recognized

33:14

in a semi detached weigh. Myself.

33:18

I. Was tall and arrange really

33:20

powerful. I was shock, hated and

33:22

naked it. But for the wolf I

33:24

did a good about my loins. I

33:26

ran among the ranks, yelling and

33:29

smiting with a red acts and

33:31

blood ran down my flanks from

33:33

wounds I scarcely. My.

33:35

Eyes were cold blue and my

33:37

shaggy hair and beard well read.

33:41

Now. For an instant I was

33:43

cognisant of my dual personality, aware that

33:45

I was at once the wild man

33:47

who ran and smoked with the goatee

33:50

acts. And. The man who

33:52

slumbered and dreamed across the centuries. But.

33:55

This sensation quickly faded. I.

33:57

was no longer aware of any person

34:00

other than that of the barbarian who

34:02

ran and smote. James

34:04

O'Brien had no existence. I

34:07

was Red Kumal, Kern of

34:09

Brian Boru, and my axe was

34:11

dripping with the blood of my clothes. The

34:14

roar of conflict was dying away, though

34:16

here and there struggling clumps of warriors

34:18

still dotted the plain. Down

34:21

along the river half-naked tribesmen,

34:23

waist-deep in reddening waters, tore

34:25

and slashed with helmeted warriors

34:27

whose mail could not save

34:29

them from the stroke of

34:32

the Dalcathian Ac. Across

34:35

the river a bloody disorderly horde

34:37

was staggering through the gates of

34:39

Dublin. The sun was sinking

34:41

low toward the horizon. All day

34:43

I had fought beside the chiefs. I

34:45

had seen Yal Sigurd fall beneath

34:48

Prince Murakh's sword. I had

34:50

seen Murakh himself die in the moment of

34:52

victory by the hand of a grim male

34:54

giant whose name none knew. I

34:57

had seen in the flight of the

34:59

enemy Brodeir and King Brian fall together

35:01

at the door of the great king's

35:03

tent. I—it had

35:06

been a feasting of ravens, a red

35:09

flood of slaughter, and

35:11

I knew that no more would

35:14

the dragon-proud fleet sweep from the

35:16

blue north with torch and destruction.

35:20

Far and wide the Vikings lay in

35:22

their glittering mail, as

35:24

the ripe wheat lies after the

35:26

reaping. Among them

35:28

lay thousands of bodies clad in the

35:30

wolf-hides of the tribes, but the

35:32

dead of the northern people far outnumbered

35:35

the dead of Eryn. I

35:37

was weary and sick of the stench of

35:39

raw blood. I had

35:41

gluttied my soul with slaughter. Now

35:43

I sought plunder, and

35:45

I found it. On the

35:48

corpse of a richly clad Norse

35:50

chief which lay close to the

35:52

seashore, I tore off the silver-scaled

35:54

corset, the horned helmet. They

35:56

fitted as if made for me, and

35:59

I swaggered. it among the dead calling

36:01

on my wild comrades to admire my

36:03

appearance, though the harness felt strange

36:06

to me, for the gales scorned

36:08

armour and fought, half naked.

36:12

In my search for loot I

36:14

had wandered far out on the plain away

36:16

from the river, but still

36:18

the male-clad bodies lay thickly

36:20

strewn, for the bursting of

36:23

the ranks had scattered fugitives and

36:25

pursuers all over the

36:27

countryside, from the dark waving

36:29

wood of Tomar to the river

36:31

and the seashore, and on

36:33

the seaward slope of Drumna's headland, out

36:35

of sight of the city and the

36:37

plain of Klontaaf. I

36:40

came suddenly upon a dying warrior. He

36:43

was tall and massive clad in grey mail.

36:46

He lay partly in the folds of

36:48

a great dark cloak, and his

36:50

sword lay broken near his mighty right

36:53

hand. His horned helmet

36:55

had fallen from his head, and his

36:57

elf-locks blew in the wind that swept

36:59

out from the west. Where

37:01

one eye should have been was

37:04

an empty socket, and the

37:06

other eye glittered cold and grim as the

37:08

North Sea, though it was glazing

37:10

with the approach of death. Blood

37:13

oozed from a rent in his corset. I

37:16

approached him warily, a strange

37:18

cold fear that I could not

37:21

understand gripping me, axe

37:23

ready to dash out his

37:25

brains. I

37:27

bent over him, and

37:30

recognized him as the chief who

37:32

had slain Prince Murakh, and

37:34

who had mown down the warriors of the

37:36

gale like a harvest. Wherever

37:39

he had fought, the Norseman had prevailed.

37:43

But in all other parts of the

37:45

field, the gale had been irresistible. Now

37:48

he spoke to me in Norse, and

37:51

I understood, for had I not toiled

37:53

as slave among the sea people for

37:55

long, bitter years. For

37:58

overcome, he gasped, in a voice whose Tambr

38:00

though low-pitched, sent a curious

38:02

shiver of fear through me. There

38:05

was in it an undertone,

38:07

as of icy waves sweeping

38:09

along a northern shore, as

38:11

of freezing winds whispering among

38:13

the pine trees. Doom

38:15

and shadows stalk on Asgard,

38:17

and here has fallen

38:20

Ragnarok. I could not be

38:22

in all parts of the field at once,

38:24

and now I am wounded unto death. A

38:27

spear, a spear with

38:29

a cross carved in the blade. No

38:32

other weapon could wound me. I

38:35

realized that the chief, seeing mistily my red

38:37

beard and North Armor I wore, supposed me

38:40

to be one of his own race, but

38:42

crawling horror surged darkly in the

38:44

depths of my soul. White

38:47

Christ, thou hast not yet

38:50

conquered, he muttered deliriously. Lift

38:52

me up, man, and let me speak

38:54

to you. Now

38:56

for some reason I complied,

38:59

and as I lifted him to a sitting

39:01

posture, I shuddered, and my flesh crawled at

39:04

the feel of him, for his flesh was

39:06

like ivory, smoother

39:08

and harder than his natural for human

39:10

flesh, and colder than even

39:12

a dying man should be. I

39:15

die as men die, he muttered,

39:18

full to assume the attributes of

39:20

mankind, even though it was to

39:22

aid the people who dave by me. The

39:24

gods are immortal, but

39:26

flesh can perish, even

39:29

when it clothes a god. Haste

39:32

and bring a sprig of the magic plant,

39:34

even holly, and lay it on my bosom.

39:38

Ay, though it be no

39:40

larger than a dagger-point, it

39:42

will free me from this fleshy prison I put

39:44

on when I came to war with men with

39:47

their own weapons, and I will

39:49

shake off this flesh and stalk once

39:51

more among the thundering clouds. So

39:54

then to all men who bend not

39:56

the knee to me, haste I

39:58

will await your coming. His lion-like

40:00

head fell back, and feeling shuddering

40:03

under his coarsalate, I could

40:05

distinguish no heartbeat. He

40:08

was dead, as Mende,

40:10

but I knew that locked in that semblance

40:13

of a human body there but slumbered the

40:15

spirit of a fiend of the frost and

40:17

darkness. I knew him, Odin,

40:21

the Grey Man, the One-Eyed,

40:24

the God of the North, who had taken

40:26

the form of a warrior to fight for

40:28

his people. Assuming the form

40:30

of a human, he was subject to

40:32

many of the limitations of humanity. All

40:35

men knew this of the gods who often

40:38

walked the earth in the guise of men.

40:41

Odin, clothed in human semblance,

40:43

could be wounded by certain

40:45

weapons and even slain. But

40:48

a touch of the mysterious holly would

40:50

rouse him in grisly resurrection.

40:54

This task he had set me, not knowing

40:56

me for an enemy, in human

40:58

form he could only use human

41:00

faculties, and these had been

41:02

impaired by onstriding death. My

41:06

hair stood up and my flesh crawled.

41:08

I tore from my body the Norse

41:11

armor and fought a wild panic that

41:13

prompted me to run blind and screaming

41:15

with terror across the plain. Nauseated

41:18

with fear, I gathered boulders and

41:20

heaped them for a rude couch,

41:22

and on it, shaking with horror,

41:24

I lifted the body of the

41:26

Norse god. And as

41:28

the sun set and the stars came

41:30

silently out, I was working with fierce

41:33

energy, piling huge rocks above the corpse.

41:36

Other tribesmen came up and I told them

41:38

of what I was sealing up, I hoped,

41:41

for ever. And they, shivering

41:43

with horror, fell to aiding me.

41:46

No sprig of magic holly should

41:48

be laid on Odin's terrible bosom.

41:51

Beneath these rude stones the

41:53

northern demon should slumber until

41:55

the thunder of Judgment Day,

41:58

forgotten by the world. which

42:00

had once cried out beneath

42:02

his iron heel, yet not

42:05

wholly forgotten. For as

42:08

we labored, one of my comrades said,

42:10

This shall be no longer Drumna's headland,

42:12

but the headland of the gray man.

42:16

He's established the connection between my

42:18

dream-self and my sleeping-self. I

42:20

started up from sleep exclaiming, Gray

42:23

man's headland! I

42:25

looked about dazedly, the furnishings

42:27

of the room faintly lighted by

42:30

the starlight in the windows, seeming

42:32

strange and unfamiliar, until I slowly

42:34

oriented myself with time and space.

42:37

Gray man's headland, I repeated. Gray

42:40

man's, gray man's, grimin's, grimin's

42:42

headland! Good God! The

42:45

thing under the can! Shaken,

42:47

I sprang up and realized that I still

42:49

gripped a piece of stone from the can.

42:52

It is well known that

42:54

inanimate objects retain psychic associations.

42:58

Around stone from the plain of Jericho

43:00

has been placed in the hand of

43:02

a hypnotized medium, and she

43:04

has at once reconstructed in her mind

43:06

the battle and siege of the city,

43:09

and the shattering fall of the walls. I

43:13

did not doubt that this bit

43:15

of stone had acted as a magnet

43:17

to drag my modern mind through the

43:19

mists of the centuries into

43:22

a life I had known before.

43:25

I was more shaken than I can describe,

43:27

for the whole fantastic affair fitted

43:30

in too well with certain

43:32

formless, vague sensations concerning the

43:34

can, which had already lingered at

43:36

the back of my mind, to be

43:38

dismissed in an unusually vivid dream.

43:41

I felt the need of a glass of wine, and

43:43

remembered that Ortarle always had wine in his

43:46

room. I hurriedly donned

43:48

my clothes, opened my door, crossed

43:50

the corridor, and was

43:52

about to knock at Ortarle's

43:54

door, when I noticed

43:56

that it was partly open, as

43:59

if someone had neglected I neglected to close it

44:01

carefully. I entered, switching

44:03

on a light. The room was

44:06

empty. I realized

44:08

what had occurred. Otali

44:10

mistrusted me. He feared to

44:12

risk himself alone with me in a lonely

44:14

spot at midnight. He had postponed

44:16

the visit to the cairn merely to trick

44:19

me, to give himself a

44:21

chance to slip away alone. My

44:24

hatred for Otali was for the

44:26

moment completely submerged by a wild

44:28

panic of horror at the thought

44:30

of what the opening of the

44:32

cairn might result in, for

44:35

I did not doubt the authenticity of

44:37

my dream. It was no dream. It

44:40

was a fragmentary bit of memory

44:42

in which I had relived that

44:45

other life of mine. A

44:47

man's headland, grimin's

44:50

headland, and under

44:52

those rough stones at grizzly

44:54

corpse in its semblance of

44:56

humanity, I could not

44:58

hope that imbued with the imperishable

45:00

essence of an elemental spirit that

45:02

corpse had crumbled to dust in

45:04

the ages. Of

45:07

my race out of the city

45:09

and across those semi-desolate reaches, I

45:12

remember little. The night

45:14

was a cloak of horror through which

45:16

peered red stars like the

45:18

gloating eyes of uncanny beasts, and

45:21

my footfalls echoed hollowly, so

45:24

that repeatedly I thought

45:26

some monster loped at my heels.

45:29

The straggling lights fell away behind me,

45:31

and I entered the region of mystery

45:34

and horror. No wonder

45:36

that progress had passed to the

45:38

right and to the left of

45:41

this spot, leaving it untouched, a

45:43

blind back-head he'd given over to

45:45

goblin dreams and nightmare memories. Well,

45:49

that so few suspected

45:51

its very existence. Dimly,

45:54

I saw the headland, but fear

45:57

gripped me and held me aloof. I

45:59

had a veil of hope. vague, incoherent idea of

46:01

finding the ancient woman, Maeve

46:03

McDonald. She was grown old

46:06

in the mysteries and traditions of the

46:08

mysterious land. She could aid

46:10

me if indeed the blind fool

46:12

or Tarly loosed on the world

46:14

the forgotten demon men once

46:17

worshipped in the north. A

46:19

figure loomed suddenly in the starlight, and

46:21

I caromed against him, almost upsetting

46:24

him. A stammering voice

46:26

in a thick brogue protested with the

46:28

petulance of intoxication. It was

46:30

a burly, longshore man returning to

46:33

his cottage, no doubt, from some

46:35

late revel in a tavern. I

46:38

seized him and shook him, my

46:40

eyes glaring wildly in the starlight.

46:43

I'm looking for Maeve McDonald. Do you

46:45

know her? Tell me, you fool! Do

46:47

you know old Maeve McDonald? It

46:51

was as if my words sobered him as suddenly

46:53

as a dash of icy water in his face.

46:56

In the starlight I saw his face

46:58

glimmer, whitely, and a catch of

47:00

fear was at his throat. He

47:02

sought to cross himself with an uncertain

47:04

hand. Maeve McDonald, are

47:06

you mad? What would you be doing

47:09

with her? Tell

47:11

me, I shrieked, shaking him savagely,

47:13

where is Maeve McDonald? Dare,

47:16

he gasped, pointing with a shaking hand,

47:18

where dimly in the night something loomed

47:20

against the shadows. In the name of

47:23

the holy sense, begone, be he madman,

47:25

or devil, and I am an

47:27

honest man alone. Dare ye'll

47:29

find Maeve McDonald, where they laid

47:31

her full three hundred years ago!

47:35

Half heeding his words, I flung

47:37

him aside with fierce exclamation, and,

47:40

as I raced across the weed-grown

47:42

plain, I heard the sound

47:44

of his lumbering flight. Half

47:46

blind with panic, I came to the low

47:49

structure the man had pointed out, and

47:51

floundering deep in weeds, my feet sinking

47:54

in the musty mould, I

47:56

realized with a shock that I was

47:58

in the ancient graveyard, on the inland

48:00

side of Grimmin's headland, into

48:03

which I had seen Maeve Macdonald disappear

48:05

the evening before. I

48:07

was close by the door of the

48:09

largest tomb, and with an eerie premonition

48:12

I leaned close, seeking to

48:14

make out the deeply carven inscription,

48:17

and partly by the dim light of the

48:19

stars, and partly by

48:21

the touch of my tracing fingers. I

48:24

made out the words and figures

48:27

in the half-forgotten Gaelic of

48:29

three centuries ago, Maeve

48:31

Macdonald, 1565-1640. With

48:36

a cry of horror I recoiled, and

48:38

snatching out the crucifix she had given

48:40

me, made to hurl it into the

48:42

darkness, but it was as

48:44

if an invisible hand caught my wrist,

48:47

madness and insanity, but

48:50

I could not doubt. Maeve

48:52

Macdonald had come to

48:54

me from the tomb wherein she

48:57

had rested for three hundred years

48:59

to give me the ancient, ancient

49:02

relic entrusted to her so

49:04

long ago by her priestly

49:06

kin. The memory of her words

49:08

came to me, and the memory of

49:10

Ortaali and the grey man. From

49:13

a lesser horror I turned squarely to a

49:15

greater, and ran swiftly

49:17

toward the headland, which loomed dimly

49:20

against the stars toward the sea.

49:24

As I crossed the ridge I saw in

49:26

the starlight the cairn, and

49:28

the figure the toiled gnome-like above it.

49:31

Ortaali, with his accustomed,

49:33

almost superhuman energy, had dislodged

49:35

many of the boulders, and

49:38

as I approached, shaking with

49:40

horrified anticipation, I saw

49:42

him tear aside the last layer, and

49:44

I heard his savage cry of triumph

49:47

that froze me in my tracks, some

49:49

yards behind him looking down from the

49:51

slope. An unholy

49:53

radiance rose from the cairn, and

49:55

I saw in the north the

49:58

aurora come up suddenly terrible

50:00

beauty, paling the starlight.

50:03

All about the cairn pulsed a

50:05

weird light, turning the rough stones

50:07

to a cold shimmering silver, and

50:10

in this glow I

50:12

saw Ortaali, all heedless,

50:15

cast aside his pick and

50:17

lean gloatingly over the aperture

50:19

he had made, and

50:21

I saw there their helmeted head

50:24

reposing on the couch of stones

50:26

where I, Red Kumal,

50:29

had placed it so long ago. I

50:32

saw the inhuman terror and beauty

50:34

of that awesome, carven face, in

50:37

which was neither

50:39

human weakness pity nor

50:41

mercy. I saw

50:43

the soul-freezing glitter of the one

50:45

eye, which stared wide open in

50:48

a fearful semblance of life. All

50:51

up and down the tall-mailed figure

50:53

shimmered and sparkled cold darts and

50:56

gleams of icy light, like

50:58

the northern lights that blazed in

51:00

the shuddering skies. I,

51:03

the gray man, lay,

51:06

as I had left him, more

51:08

than nine hundred years before,

51:11

without a trace of

51:13

rust or rot or

51:16

decay. And

51:18

now, as Ortaali leaned

51:21

forward to examine his find,

51:23

a gasping cry broke from

51:25

his lips, for the sprig

51:27

of holly worn in his

51:29

lapel in defiance of nordic

51:31

superstition, slipped from its place,

51:34

and in the weird glow I plainly

51:36

saw it fall upon the mailed,

51:39

mighty breast of the figure, where

51:41

it blazed suddenly with a

51:44

brightness too dazzling for human

51:46

eyes. My cry

51:48

was echoed by Ortaali. The

51:52

figure moved, the

51:54

mighty limbs flexed, tumbling

51:57

the shining stones as if it had

52:00

New gleam lighted the terrible

52:02

eye, and a tide

52:04

of life flooded and animated

52:06

the carbon features. Out

52:09

of the cairn he rose, and

52:11

the northern lights played terribly about

52:13

him, and the grey

52:15

man changed and altered in horrific

52:17

transmutation. The human

52:20

features faded like a

52:22

fading mask. The armor

52:24

fell from his body and crumbled

52:26

to dust as it fell, and

52:28

the fiendish spirit of ice and

52:31

frost and darkness that

52:33

the sons of the north deified as

52:35

Odin stood nakedly and

52:38

terribly in the stars. About

52:41

his grisly head played lightnings, and

52:44

the shuddering gleams of the aurora.

52:47

His towering anthropomorphic form

52:49

was dark as shadows

52:51

and gleaming as ice.

52:55

His horrible crest reared

52:57

colossally against the vaulting

52:59

arch of the sky,

53:02

autolly-coward screaming wordlessly

53:04

as the taloned malformed hands

53:06

reached for him. In

53:09

the shadowy, indescribable features of

53:11

the thing, there was no

53:13

tinge of gratitude toward the man who

53:15

had released it, only

53:18

a demoniac gloating and

53:20

a demoniac hate for all the sons

53:22

of men. I saw

53:25

the shadowy arms shoot out and

53:27

strike. I heard autolly scream

53:29

once, a single unbearable screech that

53:32

broke short at the shrillest pitch.

53:35

A single instant a blinding

53:37

blue glare burst about him,

53:40

lighting his convulsed features and

53:42

his upward rolling eyes. His

53:46

body was dashed earthward as

53:48

by an electric shock, so

53:50

savagely that I distinctly heard the

53:52

splintering of his bones. But

53:55

autolly was dead before he touched the

53:58

ground. Dead. shriveled

54:00

and blackened, exactly

54:02

like a man blasted by

54:05

a thunderbolt. To

54:07

which cause, indeed, men

54:09

later ascribed his death. The

54:12

slavering monster that had slain

54:14

him lumbered now toward me

54:16

shadowy, tentacle-like arms

54:19

outspread, the pale starlight

54:21

making a luminous pull of

54:23

his great inhuman eye, his

54:25

frightful talons dripping with I

54:27

know not what elemental forces

54:29

to blast the bodies and

54:31

souls of men. But

54:34

I flinched not, and in

54:36

that instant I

54:38

feared him not, neither

54:41

the horror of his countenance nor

54:43

the threat of his thunderbolt dooms,

54:45

for in a blinding white flame

54:48

had come to me the

54:50

realization of why Maeve Macdonald

54:52

had come from her tomb

54:54

to bring me the ancient

54:56

cross which had lain

54:58

in her bosom for three hundred

55:00

years, gathering unto itself

55:03

unseen forces of good and

55:05

light which war forever

55:08

against the shapes of lunacy and

55:10

shadow. As I

55:12

plucked from my garments the ancient cross,

55:15

I felt the play of gigantic unseen

55:17

forces in the air about me. I

55:20

was but a pawn in the game, merely

55:23

the hand that held the relic of

55:25

holiness, that was the symbol of

55:27

the powers opposed for ever against the

55:30

fiends of darkness. As

55:32

I held it high, from it shot

55:34

a single shaft of white light,

55:37

unbearably pure, unbearably white,

55:40

as if all the awesome forces

55:42

of light were combined in the

55:44

symbol and loosed in one concentrated

55:47

arrow of wrath against

55:49

the monster of darkness. And

55:52

with a hideous shriek the demon

55:55

reeled back, shriveling before my

55:57

eyes. Then with

55:59

a The great rush of vulture-like

56:02

wings is soared into the

56:04

stars, dwindling, dwindling

56:07

among the play of the flaming

56:09

fires and the lights of

56:11

the haunted skies. Fleeing

56:13

back into the dark limbo which

56:15

gave him birth, God

56:18

only knows how many

56:20

grisly aeons ago. The

56:24

End Everybody

56:33

Knows, don't they? So

56:39

that was The Ken on the Headland by

56:41

Robert E. Howard and that was kindly sponsored

56:43

by Joe Crockett. So

56:45

let me tell you something about Robert E. Howard. He

56:48

was born in 1906, died in 1936 so he didn't

56:50

live long. He

56:53

was an American author best known for his

56:55

contributions to the fantasy and horror genres. He

56:57

is most famous for creating the character of

57:00

Conan the Barbarian who I'm sure you've all

57:02

heard about. Howard was born

57:04

on January 22nd 1906 in Pista,

57:06

sorry if I've mispronounced that. Texas,

57:09

he was the only child of Dr.

57:11

Isaac Mordecai Howard and Hester Jane Irving

57:13

Howard. His father was a country doctor and

57:15

his mother was a hankswife. The family

57:17

moved frequently during his childhood, eventually setting

57:20

in Cross Plains, Texas in 1919. He

57:23

was an avid reader from an early

57:25

age, particularly drawn to adventure and fantasy

57:28

stories. He began writing his own stories

57:30

at the age of nine and continued

57:32

to do so. He was also a

57:34

talented athlete, enjoyed boxing, football and

57:36

weightlifting. So in 1924, so

57:38

we work out, he was 18, his

57:42

father fell into a coma and

57:44

died from tuberculosis, the profound impact

57:46

on Howard and became increasingly withdrawn

57:48

and isolated. His

57:51

first published story, Spear and Fang, he was only

57:53

19, he had been paid in 1925 in the

57:56

pulp magazine, Weird Tales. This

57:58

managed, this marked the beginning of a new story. his career as

58:00

a professional writer. Over the next

58:02

decade Howard wrote hundreds of stories and poems, many

58:05

of which were published in Weird Tales and other

58:07

pulp magazines, very much a pulp writer. In

58:09

1932 he created his most

58:11

famous character, Conan the Barbarian, with

58:13

the publication of the story The

58:15

Phoenix and the Sword. So

58:18

Conan was a fierce and powerful warrior who lived

58:20

in a fictional world of sword and sorcery. Despite

58:23

his success he struggled with depressions and

58:25

feelings of inadequacy. He also

58:28

had a tumultuous relationship with his mother

58:30

who disapproved of his writing and often

58:32

criticized him. In 1936 he took his

58:34

own life by shooting himself

58:37

in the head unfortunately. Conan

58:40

was an Irish name of course

58:42

and he created other characters such

58:44

as Solomon Kane, Bran MacMahon who

58:46

I believe was a Pict in

58:49

the mythical land of Hyperboree and I read these

58:51

in my teens. So

58:53

let's say something about the story. So this

58:56

story, The Kane on a Headland, was

58:58

published in 1933 in

59:01

Strange Tales. So

59:03

it's true pulp, it's big pulp,

59:05

pulp times. Howard

59:10

and Lovecraft were frenemies,

59:13

somebody says, in one of

59:15

the reviews. So they clearly

59:17

inhabited the same world they were writing with the

59:19

same magazines and they

59:22

also love overblown language.

59:25

I think Lovecraft is more of a

59:29

tongue twister whereas

59:33

Howard's use of

59:35

adverbs is immense, ghostily. And

59:38

it is an adverb, possibly unnecessary

59:40

one in each sentence. So

59:44

the language is a lot

59:47

as they say, it's big in

59:50

this. And again this is coming

59:52

from, I'm going

59:55

to be talking about Vanya the

59:57

Vampire who was almost a century. 1845,

1:00:01

Varney's of Ampey. So 90

1:00:03

years before. But Varney's of Ampey was very

1:00:05

much for working class people because it came

1:00:07

out in the penny dreadfuls which

1:00:10

were very cheap and low

1:00:12

quality publications because books were expensive.

1:00:14

Even the circulating libraries, the subscription was

1:00:16

out of most working people's reach.

1:00:20

And oh, you know, I don't know that was

1:00:22

a fact but it was quite still expensive. And

1:00:25

so then the blue books came out in Britain

1:00:27

and they were a bit less expensive but still

1:00:29

for the urban poor they were a lot

1:00:32

of money. So the penny dreadfuls came out.

1:00:34

So my point is in 1845 you

1:00:36

get things like Sweeney Todd and Varney the Vampire

1:00:38

and other penny dreadfuls. And they're written in this

1:00:41

very rich language with lots of adjectives,

1:00:43

lots of kind of uncommon words that

1:00:46

you wouldn't be using in everyday speech.

1:00:48

And so there was still this kind of

1:00:50

idea that reading was a heightened experience in

1:00:53

the same sense that poetry is a heightened

1:00:55

form of speech so that when we're

1:00:57

in love or somebody dies, we

1:01:00

turn to poets, don't we?

1:01:03

So in this sense, this exalted

1:01:07

language finds its

1:01:09

way 90 years later through Lovecraft

1:01:11

and Robert E. Howard into the

1:01:13

pulps which were for working

1:01:15

class people really, ordinary people. But

1:01:18

the language is like, whoa, it's like

1:01:21

somebody hit you in the face with a fish. And

1:01:26

so one of my first observations is the

1:01:28

language. The second is the cosmic horror theme

1:01:30

of it. So in a sense,

1:01:32

I thought this was one of the better parts

1:01:34

of the story. It could be that it

1:01:37

lifted it a little bit, I thought,

1:01:39

in that we could have just had

1:01:41

pure Norse myth Odin there. Somebody said

1:01:44

it was perhaps an influence on Neil

1:01:46

Gaiman's American Gods because of the different

1:01:49

gods there. I'm not so sure really. I mean,

1:01:51

he's probably read it, but it

1:01:55

didn't strike me very

1:01:57

much like that at all. What I

1:01:59

was going to say was these Lovecraftian ancient

1:02:01

cosmic horror. So the

1:02:04

point of cosmic horror is the terrifying

1:02:07

thing in cosmic horror are these immense

1:02:10

star creatures because it goes up into the

1:02:12

stars, remember, at the end.

1:02:15

They aren't really human. They may take

1:02:17

on certain forms to be more approachable

1:02:19

to us or we may perceive them

1:02:21

in certain forms because that's the only

1:02:23

way our small brains can get a

1:02:25

can grok them as they say. But

1:02:30

yeah, so cosmic horror, it wasn't just Odin,

1:02:32

was it? It was what he's suggesting is

1:02:35

that Odin was some kind of interstellar

1:02:39

potentially, certainly

1:02:41

superhuman creature that

1:02:43

took on the shape of a God in

1:02:45

order to interact with humans. So I think

1:02:48

that's a cosmic horror element and I think

1:02:50

that lifts the story. If you

1:02:52

are Irish, I really apologize for my accent. It

1:02:54

could have been a lot worse. I mean, you

1:02:56

know, in many of my stories,

1:02:59

I have to apologize to whole nations for

1:03:01

my use of their approximation,

1:03:03

rough approximation of the way

1:03:05

they speak. I

1:03:08

actually tried to do Odin in a...

1:03:10

I looked up some videos of how

1:03:13

Norwegian people speak English and

1:03:16

Odin rises and I started to do that and

1:03:18

I was cracking up. I just couldn't

1:03:21

carry it through. So I had to go back and

1:03:24

rerecord the Odin bits in a kind of a more

1:03:26

normal. So I could have done

1:03:28

autaleas in Italian. I presume that's what he was

1:03:30

supposed to be, Latin, some other

1:03:33

than that. And I could have done our

1:03:36

man James O'Brien as

1:03:39

an American. Just imagine

1:03:41

how horrific that would

1:03:43

have all sounded together. It was bad enough with

1:03:45

the Irish. So you're going to say, why did

1:03:47

you keep calling them jams? And that's

1:03:49

my little joke to myself that I

1:03:51

couldn't actually stop

1:03:54

myself from doing. So

1:03:57

because... And I'll tell you why. So

1:04:00

when I studied Irish a long time ago

1:04:02

at university, there was a guy called Miles

1:04:04

Nagoplin, also known as Brian Nolan. He was

1:04:06

an Irish writer. He wrote very

1:04:09

famously in English, A

1:04:11

Swim, Two Birds, and The Third

1:04:13

Policeman, and all of these ones.

1:04:15

He also wrote stuff in Irish. Now, I remember my

1:04:18

tutor had been

1:04:20

at Trinity College

1:04:23

Dublin, and

1:04:25

he taught me Irish, but he'd

1:04:28

been there. And I think he either knew

1:04:30

him or knew him or knew people who knew him, and

1:04:33

he said that Brian Nolan

1:04:35

would write for

1:04:38

the College Magazine in Old Irish because he was a

1:04:40

very skilled Irish Gaelic

1:04:43

scholar, but he would write pornography. I

1:04:45

maybe said this somewhere else. So Dick

1:04:47

Skerritt told me he'd write pornography in

1:04:49

Old Irish on the grounds, and the

1:04:51

people who could read it, nobody

1:04:54

but the reading it, and the people who

1:04:56

could understand it rather wouldn't read it.

1:04:59

So that was a kind of joke. So

1:05:02

yeah, why James O'Donnell?

1:05:05

Because he also wrote

1:05:07

a book called The Pearl Mouth,

1:05:09

which is translated into English since

1:05:11

a very, very funny book. It

1:05:14

is comic, very comic. So

1:05:16

basically, when the

1:05:19

English, because it's at

1:05:21

the time when it was

1:05:24

occupied by the British, so they

1:05:26

couldn't, and they used to go to the west of Ireland, and

1:05:28

they couldn't speak Irish, and the Irish

1:05:31

couldn't speak, those Irish couldn't speak English.

1:05:33

And so they

1:05:36

would say what the name was, and

1:05:38

it would be a long, flowery Gaelic name.

1:05:41

And the English would just go, no, your name,

1:05:43

and in this joke, it's Jams O'Donnell. So

1:05:49

they were all called Jams O'Donnell because the English

1:05:52

couldn't say their name, so this is the joke,

1:05:54

you see. So I couldn't resist calling them Jams,

1:05:56

to be honest. And there's a character

1:05:59

who's the f- father, I think,

1:06:01

in it, called him Chandanaliah,

1:06:03

the old grey man. So that made

1:06:05

me think of Odin.

1:06:07

He missed a trick, you know, because that

1:06:10

was the grimin headland.

1:06:14

Not very convincing, because who would have

1:06:17

named it? Grey man, grimin, grimin. You

1:06:19

know, they didn't speak English when the

1:06:21

names were given. So it wouldn't have

1:06:23

been that, would it? It would have

1:06:26

been Chandanaliah, the old grey man. Rua

1:06:30

and Chandanaliah, the

1:06:33

point of the old grey man. But, Grima was

1:06:40

a name for Odin. So Grimsdyke

1:06:42

and places like that are named after,

1:06:44

by Grima meaning the masked one. Now

1:06:46

if you know you're Tolkien, you'll remember

1:06:48

Grima Wormtongue. And Grima was

1:06:50

the name of Odin, one of his hidden

1:06:52

names. So we used to go around amongst

1:06:55

humans, as the story says, with

1:06:57

a mask, or masked up, or disguised. So Grima

1:06:59

was his name. It would have worked like that.

1:07:01

That would have been more. You could have potentially

1:07:03

got away with a Norse

1:07:05

name. There aren't some Norse names

1:07:08

in Ireland. But

1:07:10

no, he missed that one. But that would have

1:07:12

been better. Grimin headland, I didn't get it. There

1:07:15

were times, honestly, it was so overdone.

1:07:18

So what did I think about the story? I thought

1:07:20

that the story itself was quite fun.

1:07:23

I think it was a solid

1:07:25

structure, really, for a fantasy story.

1:07:27

And the key thing with the

1:07:29

fantasy story is, and with all

1:07:31

of these stories, is you've got

1:07:33

to not make people laugh because

1:07:35

they'll go along with you, no matter

1:07:38

how preposterous what you're saying. Think about

1:07:40

Alien, a tanker or something, going between

1:07:42

the stars, it picks up this face-hugging.

1:07:45

Well, that could potentially be preposterous.

1:07:48

And all of this stuff, Stephen King,

1:07:51

you could just laugh at it, really. But

1:07:53

the secret is not to take it so far, to

1:07:56

push the boundaries of what

1:07:58

is jay. generally experienced

1:08:00

by people, but not so far

1:08:02

as it becomes ludicrous. And

1:08:05

I think, so the story itself

1:08:08

of the reincarnation of, I

1:08:11

wasn't the only bit I wasn't sure about

1:08:13

worked really was this idea

1:08:15

that, you know, so, okay, so

1:08:18

far, he's a poor guy

1:08:21

and he's at university and he's at this college

1:08:23

and the professor laughs at him or mocks him

1:08:25

and he doesn't put up with it and then

1:08:27

they have a fight and punch him. And my

1:08:29

granddad did that once to a bloke where

1:08:32

he worked, he used to be a tram

1:08:34

driver and this boss was given

1:08:36

him grief and I think my granddad was

1:08:38

a, he was an Irishman, he was a

1:08:40

fiery chap and he lamped

1:08:43

him and apparently they

1:08:45

were all gonna sack him and then all the tram

1:08:47

drivers came out and strike his old Jimmy, Jimmy

1:08:50

Hand was a well-liked man and so

1:08:52

he got away with it but

1:08:54

became a shop steward. But

1:08:57

so, okay, I can

1:08:59

believe that and

1:09:01

the next bit is how

1:09:05

this autarly covers up

1:09:07

because he sees potential. I

1:09:09

could see blackmail if the guy had

1:09:12

any money, yeah, but the blackmail is,

1:09:14

he blackmails him because he counts on

1:09:16

his future academic success. So

1:09:19

he counts on him making a fortune

1:09:21

as an academic. I'm like, no,

1:09:24

no, no, that just doesn't work.

1:09:27

That just does not work. So that didn't work

1:09:29

for me and also the bit about the death,

1:09:31

you know, he runs at him with a letter

1:09:33

opener, he slips on a tiny rug and bad

1:09:36

luck, he falls and somehow it buckles and goes right,

1:09:38

this letter opener goes right in his heart. I mean,

1:09:40

I'm not saying it couldn't happen but it is stretching

1:09:43

it and that's the whole point. You

1:09:46

can't stretch credulity too far with it before people go,

1:09:48

nah, that isn't gonna work. Yeah,

1:09:52

but otherwise the structure was all right, you know,

1:09:54

if you, as long as you don't push it

1:09:56

too far, make it silly, but

1:09:58

he's language at times. times was just too much for

1:10:01

me and I was cracking up. Maybe

1:10:03

here that I over, I hamed it

1:10:05

up a lot, which I enjoyed doing.

1:10:08

But there were times I had

1:10:10

to stop, particularly when I started

1:10:13

doing Odin in a cod

1:10:15

Norwegian accent. I thought, I

1:10:17

just can't get away with this. I cannot get away with this.

1:10:21

So you make me pleased to know I

1:10:23

do. Even I have some limits where I

1:10:25

go, no, no, no, no. That's not going

1:10:27

to do. You've heard some of my other

1:10:29

accents, my Italians or my Frenchmen or

1:10:32

New Yorkers and you're

1:10:35

like, no. Surely

1:10:38

this guy got no limits. Well, now you know

1:10:40

I have. I'll draw short of

1:10:42

doing a Norwegian accent. I

1:10:46

struggle with Dutch. I mean, people talk about,

1:10:48

I don't know if you've heard my Dracula,

1:10:51

my Van Helsing. It's kind

1:10:54

of, he's got a Dutch name, but he's,

1:10:56

I think he's supposed to be German. So

1:10:58

he's got a very weird accent in that. And

1:11:00

so is my Dracula. And of course, then I

1:11:03

use the same accent for Dracula as I did

1:11:05

in Ray Russell's Sardonicus. So you

1:11:07

can go now and look those up and don't

1:11:10

laugh. Maybe I've made them preposterous now and

1:11:12

you'll laugh. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that.

1:11:14

Thank you again to Joe

1:11:16

Crockett for bugging

1:11:18

me some cash for it. Thank you very, very

1:11:20

much. I am prepared.

1:11:24

I am prepared to do a lot of things for money. I

1:11:27

will read some stories for money. There's

1:11:30

some I won't. There's

1:11:32

some I do. Honestly, I do have these

1:11:34

standards, not standards, but there are certain lines

1:11:36

that I won't cross. The

1:11:38

only other things I wanted to say about the story was it

1:11:42

was in the 30s. It was

1:11:44

phenomenally racist in the

1:11:46

1930s sense whereby they

1:11:49

had this idea of different races having, you

1:11:51

know, you are German, you

1:11:53

are Irish, therefore you are this. This is

1:11:55

the kind of person you are. Or you are

1:11:58

Latin, therefore you're, you didn't like Latin. did

1:12:00

he thought it was soft and sat on

1:12:02

silk cushions amongst

1:12:04

crumbling pillars and there

1:12:06

were feet and

1:12:09

all that and but the true toughness

1:12:12

of the north, I'd north you know, it's

1:12:14

cold, it's miserable, the

1:12:17

weather's awful, it's freezing, the food's

1:12:20

dreadful, the land

1:12:22

is barren but men

1:12:24

are men, you know. So

1:12:27

there was a bit of that

1:12:29

and I also thought there was

1:12:31

a decided dash of

1:12:33

homo-roticism there, you know, whereby

1:12:35

these Irish guys, they fight

1:12:38

a bit naked, and

1:12:41

I thought he was, I thought he liked that. I

1:12:44

don't know about, you know,

1:12:46

what his preference was but

1:12:48

I thought oh yeah, yeah, yeah, okay,

1:12:51

yeah, yeah, because you remember there's no

1:12:53

women in it, there is the old witch and she is

1:12:55

not described in any sense, I'm

1:12:57

not saying she should be, whereas

1:13:00

the men are, you know, these

1:13:02

thong-fued, thick-fued half-naked warriors who are

1:13:04

tough guys and like to wrestle

1:13:06

around in the sauna with you.

1:13:09

I think, anyway, you

1:13:12

know, it's, yes, I

1:13:15

suppose the message of that is what we write

1:13:18

is reflects us, our

1:13:21

culture, our times and our personalities and preferences.

1:13:23

So in my stories a lot of people

1:13:25

eat chilli con carne because I like it

1:13:28

and there are a lot of them actually

1:13:30

listen to Hawkwind. Now

1:13:33

it has come to my notice, I was going to say

1:13:35

something else now, it has come to my notice and not

1:13:37

all people like chilli con carne or Hawkwind. The

1:13:40

thing I was going to say has come to my notice, I read a

1:13:42

lot of comments as you know and you'll

1:13:44

be pleased I'm not going to go on with a rant

1:13:47

about that as I often do

1:13:49

but the thing is, it

1:13:51

strikes me and I think I'm guilty of this as well,

1:13:54

we all assume that our taste

1:13:56

is the taste, this is the

1:13:59

taste everybody else. So if I

1:14:01

listen to a story, because I'm a bit

1:14:03

deaf, it's too quiet, then the story's too

1:14:05

quiet. You know, it's not that I'm

1:14:07

a bit deaf or my sound system is

1:14:10

rubbish. The dogs are here, they're asleep. I

1:14:14

think it's Ruby or Kelly's, they're growling in a

1:14:16

sleep, she's having a fight, honestly. Yeah,

1:14:19

so no, we all assume that our taste

1:14:21

is the taste and

1:14:24

everybody else is wrong. So for

1:14:26

example, somebody's on James Joyce's

1:14:28

The Dead considered potential has been considered up

1:14:31

there and running for the best short

1:14:33

story in the English language. And

1:14:35

it may be you don't like it. Fair enough. I

1:14:38

don't really like Mozart, being honest. But,

1:14:41

but the point is that Mozart and James Joyce

1:14:44

and Shakespeare and people like this, and lots of

1:14:46

other people like that. The

1:14:49

consensus is they were pretty good at what

1:14:51

they did. Now, if we don't like it,

1:14:53

that's that's us. It's not the

1:14:56

rest of the world. People

1:14:58

go, oh, James Joyce, it was boring. That

1:15:00

story. Okay, but it's

1:15:02

considered by people who study these

1:15:04

things and huge numbers of people to be wonderful.

1:15:07

No, no, it's boring. So

1:15:10

and then their view is, well, that is

1:15:12

that there's not I think it's boring, but

1:15:14

it is boring. That is its quality. Yeah,

1:15:19

there's, there's a lot of psychological

1:15:21

research on that. We won't go into that. But

1:15:23

what's that principle whereby the less you know, the

1:15:25

more you think you're right. I'm gonna have to

1:15:27

look it up. Yeah, it's the Dunning and the

1:15:30

Dunning Kruger effect. I didn't know it. I was

1:15:32

listening to a podcast about the other day. And

1:15:34

it is to say that if you have limited

1:15:36

competence in a particular domain, you overestimate your abilities.

1:15:38

So this is like, perhaps

1:15:40

somebody who is not, has

1:15:43

not been exposed to a great deal

1:15:45

of stories, literature,

1:15:48

has never studied it, and perhaps

1:15:51

are a gardener,

1:15:53

not wrong being a gardener. But

1:15:56

they believe that their view on James

1:15:59

Joyce. is the one that

1:16:01

counts, you know. Or

1:16:04

the other way around, somebody who knows

1:16:06

nothing about horticulture, who is

1:16:08

an author or a

1:16:10

professor of literature,

1:16:13

starts going to this person's garden and giving

1:16:16

advice on gardening, you

1:16:18

know, thinking that they're right

1:16:20

on the basis, they know very little about it, they're

1:16:22

done in kruger effect, there you go. So

1:16:24

I'm sure I do that all the time. Anyway,

1:16:27

enough rambling, hope you're all well. I'm going

1:16:30

to have to go and give Ruby a

1:16:32

cuddle because she's doing it

1:16:34

again. You probably can't hear it. I've got

1:16:36

this set up so it cuts

1:16:38

out background noises. As

1:16:41

you know, I like the dogs up when I'm doing

1:16:43

the commentaries because I don't think it matters so much

1:16:45

if they're carrying on, but in the stories I ban

1:16:48

them because inevitably they start wrestling.

1:16:50

But there we are. We had a

1:16:52

lovely walk this morning, a bit of spring

1:16:54

sunshine's gone now, but it was lovely.

1:16:56

Anyway, hope you're all well. Thanks again

1:16:58

to Joe Crockett for sponsoring this episode.