Tell me, Muse, ....III

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: Phaeacia : Close to the island of Phaeacia, Poseidon, furious about Zeus's decision, destroys Odysseus raft with a thunderbolt. Odysseus is swimming among the tossing waves, gulping water and prepraring to die. But he is saved by the godess Leucothea, who sometimes appears to the shipwrecked in great storms and rescues them. : ---- : The return voyage from Russia, the shipwreck off the Scottish coast. Lymond's belief that he is about to die... : ---- : The island is the home of the Phaeacians, halfway between the world of men and an extraordinary miraculous world. the Phaeacians' profession is transport. They are seamen with magical boats. The inhabitants are a little like Hermes, the god of journeys and crossings, of traffic between the one world and the other. This island, furthermore, is not in direct contact with the outside world. The Phaeacians are ferrymen, but no one ever comes to their land, no human foreigner ever ventures there. : Odysseus, exhausted, filthy, caked in salt is discovered by Nausicaa, the King's daughter. At first she is frightened by the stranger, whose glance, because he is wary, glitters with menace. But she realizes that appearances may be deceptive when she hears him speak. He may be dreadful to behold, but he is sweet to hear - he is the man of skillful talk. So she orders her maids to see to this man. And indeed, when he has bathed Odysseus gleams with beauty and appeal, with "charis" - grace, radiance, charm. And now the idea germinates in Nausicaa's head that this foreigner sent by the gods is somehow available, that before her stands the possibility of the spouse, the husband she has dreamed of. She urges Odysseus to go to the palace of her father, Alcinous, and her mother Arete. He is welcomed as a guest. : ----- : Lymond's time in France in Checkmate. Catherine D'Albon - despising Lymond at first and the discovering his "charis", and being ready to marry him. Welcomed by her parents, welcomed by the King.. : ---- : A great festival is held and its course Odysseus displays matchless athletic abilities. One of the kings's sons does his best to provoke him, but Odysseus keeps his composure. He throws the discus farther than the prince, and thus proves himself a man of valour, a hero. : ---- : The Marshall of France, the hero of Calais. And the plotting de Guises... : ---- : A bard is called to sing. Odysseus is seated beside the king, and the bard begins to tell of the Trojan War. he recounts the great exploits and the death of some of Odysseus companions. At that Odysseus can no longer contain himself. He lowers his head and pulls his garment over his eyes to hide his tears, but Alcinous sees through his ploy; he understands that to be so overcome by the song, this man beside him must be one of the heroes the bard is celebrating. He stops the song, and then in a way, Odysseus takes it up. He confesses his identity, and goes on to recount, like a bard, a large part of his adventures. : ---- : Music, the knife without hilt... : ---- : The king decides to take Odysseus back to his home in Ithaca. He does so because he must, but not without regret, for he too had his daughter in mind. He gives Odysseus to understand, that, if he should choose to stay, he would make an ideal son-in-law. Odysseus explains that his world, his life, is in Ithaca, and asks that the king help him get back to them. : ----- : Lymond's leave-taking of the king of France before setting out to Scotland. : ---- : The Phaeacian's ship transports Odysseus from the world of nowhere - the place he has lived in at the frontiers of the human race, on the margins of light and of life - back towards his fatherland, his home, in Ithaca. : They lay the sleeping Odysseus on the shore, and leave. But Poseidon, having been foiled once again, takes revenge. Just as the ship reaches port, he gives a great blow with his trident, the ship turns to stone, and taking root in the sea, becomes a rock isle. The Phaeacians can no longer act as ferrymen between the worlds. The door, through which Odysseus passed at the start of the story, and again on his way home - that door is shut forever. The human world is now one integral thing, and Odysseus is part of it for good. : ---- : Sybilla, bringing Lymond back to the world of the living by drawing on his promise, and extracting his oath to live and return to Scotland. But in a way this also echoes in Richard's observation on the ship to Scotland: : "unless in his heart of hearts he recognized as Lymond did, that what lay around him were shut gates; and what lay before him was nothing." Or Lymond's statement: "I am tired of journeys. It is time I arrived somewhere." : ----- : Athena has decided, that before Odysseus gets home, he has to undergo a complete transformation. During his absence, a hundred suitors, believing Odysseus dead or at least gone forever, have occupied his palace. Penelope has been successfully putting them off, but they have discovered her ruse and demand that she make a decision. : Athena wants to keep Odysseus from making Agamemnons mistake - coming back in his own identity and falling into the trap set by those who await him. He must therefore reappear in disguise, incognito. : The ploy works. Odysseus manages to kill all the suitors and Athena transforms him back into his true features. : ---- : Philippa's suitor - Austin, of course, and his attempt at killing Lymond. And Marthe, disguised as Lymond. The killing of Austin and the appearance of the real Lymond.. : ----- : Odysseus appears to Penelope then in all his beauty as a hero, and still she cannot bring herself to acknowledge him. She wants to be sure that this is indeed Odysseus, this particular person, a man who was her husband in the past and who was gone for twenty years. She wants some secret sign, a sign that only he and she can know. So she orders the bed to be brought out from her chamber for Odysseus. Odysseus exclaims that it should be immovable, its base being an olive tree rooted in the earth, he should know, since he built it. Penelope now knows it is truly him. The immutable nature of the base of this nuptial bed expresses the immutability of the secret the two of them share, that of her steadfastness and his identity. : ---- : Philippa's moment of recognition: "the face was the one which, before God she loved...the voice which had drawn her from her warm home here at Flaw Valleys, and had taken her through deeper seas and over crests more steep than her spirit alone would ever have striven to conquer." : ---- : Odysseus retires to their chamber with Penelope, and it is like the first night of their marriage: They meet again as newlyweds: Athena causes the sun's chariot to stop in its tracks so that day does not break too soon, and dawn holds back. This night is the longest that ever was. The pair talk together, they tell each other their adventures and their hardships. All is now as it was long ago; time seems to fall away. And Odysseus is able to sleep peacefully at last. : ---- : All of this beautifully echoed in the end of Checkmate, when Lymond and Philippa are reunited in Philippa's room: : "He slept half the night through after that, motionless in her arms in the kind of peace he had probably not known since childhood.." : "Sleep overcame them far into the day, and the November light was falling grey through her windows when he woke her to joy again..." : And later: "...all through it their voices murmured, talking and talking. Then at some point what they learned must have been put behind them.." : ---- : This would appear to be the end, but such is not entirely the case. There is still Laertes, Odysseus father, who has not heard about his son's return. The story is not done until Odysseus has revealed himself to his father, the next day. Laertes is alone, unhappy, working in the orchard, he does not at first recognize Odysseus, but when he does, his joy is great, and the old man, who had been like a derelict, feels himself King Laertes once again. : ---- : As, at the end of Lymond's journey, after his reunion with Philippa, there is by his reunion with Sybilla, bringing the story to a close: " ...Rest at peace. We are your children and we love you." : : Wie hat Celis das so herrlich ausgedrückt? Ja so ist das mit Dunnett. Es wird immer länger als man denkt :-) : Birgit

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