The Wood Beyond the World

by William Morris

  CHAPTER XXV: OF THE TRIUMPHANT SUMMER ARRAY OF THE MAID

  When the day was bright Walter arose, and met the Maid coming from theriver-bank, fresh and rosy from the water. She paled a little when theymet face to face, and she shrank from him shyly. But he took her handand kissed her frankly; and the two were glad, and had no need to telleach other of their joy, though much else they deemed they had to say,could they have found words thereto.

  So they came to their fire and sat down, and fell to breakfast; and erethey were done, the Maid said: "My Master, thou seest we be come nighunto the hill-country, and to-day about sunset, belike, we shall comeinto the Land of the Bear-folk; and both it is, that there is peril if wefall into their hands, and that we may scarce escape them. Yet I deemthat we may deal with the peril by wisdom."

  "What is the peril?" said Walter; "I mean, what is the worst of it?"

  Said the Maid: "To be offered up in sacrifice to their God."

  "But if we escape death at their hands, what then?" said Walter.

  "One of two things," said she; "the first that they shall take us intotheir tribe."

  "And will they sunder us in that case?" said Walter.

  "Nay," said she.

  Walter laughed and said: "Therein is little harm then. But what is theother chance?"

  Said she: "That we leave them with their goodwill, and come back to oneof the lands of Christendom."

  Said Walter: "I am not all so sure that this is the better of the twochoices, though, forsooth, thou seemest to think so. But tell me now,what like is their God, that they should offer up new-comers to him?"

  "Their God is a woman," she said, "and the Mother of their nation andtribes (or so they deem) before the days when they had chieftains andLords of Battle."

  "That will be long ago," said he; "how then may she be living now?"

  Said the Maid: "Doubtless that woman of yore agone is dead this many andmany a year; but they take to them still a new woman, one after other, asthey may happen on them, to be in the stead of the Ancient Mother. Andto tell thee the very truth right out, she that lieth dead in thePillared Hall was even the last of these; and now, if they knew it, theylack a God. This shall we tell them."

  "Yea, yea!" said Walter, "a goodly welcome shall we have of them then, ifwe come amongst them with our hands red with the blood of their God!"

  She smiled on him and said: "If I come amongst them with the tidings thatI have slain her, and they trow therein, without doubt they shall make meLady and Goddess in her stead."

  "This is a strange word," said Walter "but if so they do, how shall thatfurther us in reaching the kindreds of the world, and the folk of HolyChurch?"

  She laughed outright, so joyous was she grown, now that she knew that hislife was yet to be a part of hers. "Sweetheart," she said, "now I seethat thou desirest wholly what I desire; yet in any case, abiding withthem would be living and not dying, even as thou hadst it e'en now. But,forsooth, they will not hinder our departure if they deem me their God;they do not look for it, nor desire it, that their God should dwell withthem daily. Have no fear." Then she laughed again, and said: "What!thou lookest on me and deemest me to be but a sorry image of a goddess;and me with my scanty coat and bare arms and naked feet! But wait! Iknow well how to array me when the time cometh. Thou shalt see it! Andnow, my Master, were it not meet that we took to the road?"

  So they arose, and found a ford of the river that took the Maid but tothe knee, and so set forth up the greensward of the slopes whereas therewere but few trees; so went they faring toward the hill-country.

  At the last they were come to the feet of the very hills, and in thehollows betwixt the buttresses of them grew nut and berry trees, and thegreensward round about them was both thick and much flowery. There theystayed them and dined, whereas Walter had shot a hare by the way, andthey had found a bubbling spring under a grey stone in a bight of thecoppice, wherein now the birds were singing their best.

  When they had eaten and had rested somewhat, the Maid arose and said:"Now shall the Queen array herself, and seem like a very goddess."

  Then she fell to work, while Walter looked on; and she made a garland forher head of eglantine where the roses were the fairest; and with mingledflowers of the summer she wreathed her middle about, and let the garlandof them hang down to below her knees; and knots of the flowers she madefast to the skirts of her coat, and did them for arm-rings about herarms, and for anklets and sandals for her feet. Then she set a garlandabout Walter's head, and then stood a little off from him and set herfeet together, and lifted up her arms, and said: "Lo now! am I not aslike to the Mother of Summer as if I were clad in silk and gold? and evenso shall I be deemed by the folk of the Bear. Come now, thou shalt seehow all shall be well."

  She laughed joyously; but he might scarce laugh for pity of his love.Then they set forth again, and began to climb the hills, and the hourswore as they went in sweet converse; till at last Walter looked on theMaid, and smiled on her, and said: "One thing I would say to thee, lovelyfriend, to wit: wert thou clad in silk and gold, thy stately raimentmight well suffer a few stains, or here and there a rent maybe; butstately would it be still when the folk of the Bear should come upagainst thee. But as to this flowery array of thine, in a few hours itshall be all faded and nought. Nay, even now, as I look on thee, themeadow-sweet that hangeth from thy girdle-stead has waxen dull, andwelted; and the blossoming eyebright that is for a hem to the littlewhite coat of thee is already forgetting how to be bright and blue. Whatsayest thou then?"

  She laughed at his word, and stood still, and looked back over hershoulder, while with her fingers she dealt with the flowers about herside like to a bird preening his feathers. Then she said: "Is it verilyso as thou sayest? Look again!"

  So he looked, and wondered; for lo! beneath his eyes the spires of themeadow-sweet grew crisp and clear again, the eyebright blossoms shoneonce more over the whiteness of her legs; the eglantine roses opened, andall was as fresh and bright as if it were still growing on its own roots.

  He wondered, and was even somedeal aghast; but she said: "Dear friend, benot troubled! did I not tell thee that I am wise in hidden lore? But inmy wisdom shall be no longer any scathe to any man. And again, this mywisdom, as I told thee erst, shall end on the day whereon I am made allhappy. And it is thou that shall wield it all, my Master. Yet must mywisdom needs endure for a little season yet. Let us on then, boldly andhappily."