A Dreamer's Tales

by Lord Dunsany

  THE SWORD AND THE IDOL

  It was a cold winter's evening late in the Stone Age; the sun had gonedown blazing over the plains of Thold; there were no clouds, only thechill blue sky and the imminence of stars; and the surface of the sleepingEarth began to harden against the cold of the night. Presently from theirlairs arose, and shook themselves and went stealthily forth, those ofEarth's children to whom it is the law to prowl abroad as soon as the duskhas fallen. And they went pattering softly over the plain, and their eyesshone in the dark, and crossed and recrossed one another in their courses.Suddenly there became manifest in the midst of the plain that fearfulportent of the presence of Man--a little flickering fire. And the childrenof Earth who prowl abroad by night looked sideways at it and snarled andedged away; all but the wolves, who came a little nearer, for it waswinter and the wolves were hungry, and they had come in thousands from themountains, and they said in their hearts, "We are strong." Around the firea little tribe was encamped. They, too, had come from the mountains, andfrom lands beyond them, but it was in the mountains that the wolves firstwinded them; they picked up bones at first that the tribe had dropped, butthey were closer now and on all sides. It was Loz who had lit the fire. Hehad killed a small furry beast, hurling his stone axe at it, and hadgathered a quantity of reddish-brown stones, and had laid them in a longrow, and placed bits of the small beast all along it; then he lit a fireon each side, and the stones heated, and the bits began to cook. It was atthis time that the tribe noticed that the wolves who had followed them sofar were no longer content with the scraps of deserted encampments. A lineof yellow eyes surrounded them, and when it moved it was to come nearer.So the men of the tribe hastily tore up brushwood, and felled a small treewith their flint axes, and heaped it all over the fire that Loz had made,and for a while the great heap hid the flame, and the wolves came trottingin and sat down again on their haunches much closer than before; and thefierce and valiant dogs that belonged to the tribe believed that their endwas about to come while fighting, as they had long since prophesied itwould. Then the flame caught the lofty stack of brushwood, and rushed outof it, and ran up the side of it, and stood up haughtily far over the top,and the wolves seeing this terrible ally of Man reveling there in hisstrength, and knowing nothing of this frequent treachery to his masters,went slowly away as though they had other purposes. And for the rest ofthat night the dogs of the encampment cried out to them and besought themto come back. But the tribe lay down all round the fire under thick fursand slept. And a great wind arose and blew into the roaring heart of thefire till it was red no longer, but all pallid with heat. With the dawnthe tribe awoke.

  Loz might have known that after such a mighty conflagration nothing couldremain of his small furry beast, but there was hunger in him and littlereason as he searched among the ashes. What he found there amazed himbeyond measure; there was no meat, there was not even his row ofreddish-brown stones, but something longer than a man's leg and narrowerthan his hand, was lying there like a great flattened snake. When Lozlooked at its thin edges and saw that it ran to a point, he picked upstones to chip it and make it sharp. It was the instinct of Loz to sharpenthings. When he found that it could not be chipped his wondermentincreased. It was many hours before he discovered that he could sharpenthe edges by rubbing them with a stone; but at last the point was sharp,and all one side of it except near the end, where Loz held it in his hand.And Loz lifted it and brandished it, and the Stone Age was over. Thatafternoon in the little encampment, just as the tribe moved on, the StoneAge passed away, which, for perhaps thirty or forty thousand years, hadslowly lifted Man from among the beasts and left him with his supremacybeyond all hope of reconquest.

  It was not for many days that any other man tried to make for himself aniron sword by cooking the same kind of small furry beast that Loz hadtried to cook. It was not for many years that any thought to lay the meatalong stones as Loz had done; and when they did, being no longer on theplains of Thold, they used flints or chalk. It was not for manygenerations that another piece of iron ore was melted and the secretslowly guessed. Nevertheless one of Earth's many veils was torn aside byLoz to give us ultimately the steel sword and the plough, machinery andfactories; let us not blame Loz if we think that he did wrong, for he didall in ignorance. The tribe moved on until it came to water, and there itsettled down under a hill, and they built their huts there. Very soon theyhad to fight with another tribe, a tribe that was stronger than they; butthe sword of Loz was terrible and his tribe slew their foes. You mightmake one blow at Loz, but then would come one thrust from that iron sword,and there was no way of surviving it. No one could fight with Loz. And hebecame ruler of the tribe in the place of Iz, who hitherto had ruled itwith his sharp axe, as his father had before him.

  Now Loz begat Lo, and in his old age gave his sword to him, and Lo ruledthe tribe with it. And Lo called the name of the sword Death, because itwas so swift and terrible.

  And Iz begat Ird, who was of no account. And Ird hated Lo because he wasof no account by reason of the iron sword of Lo.

  One night Ird stole down to the hut of Lo, carrying his sharp axe, and hewent very softly, but Lo's dog, Warner, heard him coming, and he growledsoftly by his master's door. When Ird came to the hut he heard Lo talkinggently to his sword. And Lo was saying, "Lie still, Death. Rest, rest, oldsword," and then, "What, again, Death? Be still. Be still."

  And then again: "What, art thou hungry, Death? Or thirsty, poor old sword?Soon, Death, soon. Be still only a little."

  But Ird fled, for he did not like the gentle tone of Lo as he spoke to hissword.

  And Lo begat Lod. And when Lo died Lod took the iron sword and ruled thetribe.

  And Ird begat Ith, who was of no account, like his father.

  Now when Lod had smitten a man or killed a terrible beast, Ith would goaway for a while into the forest rather than hear the praises that wouldbe given to Lod.

  And once, as Ith sat in the forest waiting for the day to pass, hesuddenly thought he saw a tree trunk looking at him as with a face. AndIth was afraid, for trees should not look at men. But soon Ith saw that itwas only a tree and not a man, though it was like a man. Ith used to speakto this tree, and tell it about Lod, for he dared not speak to any oneelse about him. And Ith found comfort in speaking about Lod.

  One day Ith went with his stone axe into the forest, and stayed there manydays.

  He came back by night, and the next morning when the tribe awoke they sawsomething that was like a man and yet was not a man. And it sat on thehill with its elbows pointing outwards and was quite still. And Ith wascrouching before it, and hurriedly placing before it fruits and flesh, andthen leaping away from it and looking frightened. Presently all the tribecame out to see, but dared not come quite close because of the fear thatthey saw on the face of Ith. And Ith went to his hut, and came back againwith a hunting spear-head and valuable small stone knives, and reached outand laid them before the thing that was like a man, and then sprang awayfrom it.

  And some of the tribe questioned Ith about the still thing that was like aman, and Ith said, "This is Ged." Then they asked, "Who is Ged?" and Ithsaid, "Ged sends the crops and the rain; and the sun and the moon areGed's."

  Then the tribe went back to their huts, but later in the day some cameagain, and they said to Ith, "Ged is only as we are, having hands andfeet." And Ith pointed to the right hand of Ged, which was not as hisleft, but was shaped like the paw of a beast, and Ith said, "By this yemay know that he is not as any man."

  Then they said, "He is indeed Ged." But Lod said, "He speaketh not, nordoth he eat," and Ith answered, "The thunder is his voice and the famineis his eating."

  After this the tribe copied Ith, and brought little gifts of meat to Ged;and Ith cooked them before him that Ged might smell the cooking.

  One day a great thunderstorm came trampling up from the distance and ragedamong the hills, and the tribe all hid away from it in their huts. And Ithappeared among the huts looking unafraid. And Ith said littl
e, but thetribe thought that he had expected the terrible storm because the meatthat they had laid before Ged had been tough meat, and not the best partsof the beasts they slew.

  And Ged grew to have more honour among the tribe than Lod. And Lod wasvexed.

  One night Lod arose when all were asleep, and quieted his dog, and tookhis iron sword and went away to the hill. And he came on Ged in thestarlight, sitting still, with his elbows pointing outwards, and hisbeast's paw, and the mark of the fire on the ground where his food hadbeen cooked.

  And Lod stood there for a while in great fear, trying to keep to hispurpose. Suddenly he stepped up close to Ged and lifted his iron sword,and Ged neither hit nor shrank. Then the thought came into Lod's mind,"Ged does not hit. What will Ged do instead?"

  And Lod lowered his sword and struck not, and his imagination began towork on that "What will Ged do instead?"

  And the more Lod thought, the worse was his fear of Ged.

  And Lod ran away and left him.

  Lod still ruled the tribe in battle or in the hunt, but the chiefestspoils of battle were given to Ged, and the beasts that they slew wereGed's; and all questions that concerned war or peace, and questions of lawand disputes, were always brought to him, and Ith gave the answers afterspeaking to Ged by night.

  At last Ith said, the day after an eclipse, that the gifts which theybrought to Ged were not enough, that some far greater sacrifice wasneeded, that Ged was very angry even now, and not to be appeased by anyordinary sacrifice.

  And Ith said that to save the tribe from the anger of Ged he would speakto Ged that night, and ask him what new sacrifice he needed.

  Deep in his heart Lod shuddered, for his instinct told him that Ged wantedLod's only son, who should hold the iron sword when Lod was gone.

  No one would dare touch Lod because of the iron sword, but his instinctsaid in his slow mind again and again, "Ged loves Ith. Ith has said so.Ith hates the sword-holders."

  "Ith hates the sword-holders. Ged loves Ith."

  Evening fell and the night came when Ith should speak with Ged, and Lodbecame ever surer of the doom of his race.

  He lay down but could not sleep.

  Midnight had barely come when Lod arose and went with his iron sword againto the hill.

  And there sat Ged. Had Ith been to him yet? Ith whom Ged loved, who hatedthe sword-holders.

  And Lod looked long at the old sword of iron that had come to hisgrandfather on the plains of Thold.

  Good-bye, old sword! And Lod laid it on the knees of Ged, then went away.

  And when Ith came, a little before dawn, the sacrifice was foundacceptable unto Ged.