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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 4763056" data-attributes="member: 54707">III. Being a Small Section of the Lay of the Myth of the Eldevens – Below is to be found a small section of one of the most ancient versions of the Lay of the Eldeven.EĻDEVÅLAËRAŅETHE LAY OF THE ELDEVENĦLO’SĶIEŊLBefore AllBeing the Account of the Arrival and of the Old WorldBefore all there was another Iÿarlðma (another world, another Ghantik). In those days many ancient and wondrous things visited Iÿarlðma from elsewhere, wandering this world and inhabiting it for brief seasons, yet never long lingering. The world in those days was broad, and deep, and untamed, filled with many archaic and dangerous creatures full of strange life. Many things did creep and crawl and did seek out the untrodden secrets of hidden recess which are now long buried beneath the deep mounds of great age. But none with mind and soul, as we think it now, yet lived to walk upon Iÿarlðma, or to measure out her expanse, or count her passing years. Those days were long, and many, and continued unabated, huge and unknown creatures stalking all the lands both near and far.Then came the Nephýařla (the Neph, the Other Ones). They settled upon the lands, reshaping the djarńae (ground?) after their own will, planting, growing, hunting, and killing the huge creatures which then freely roamed the world. Still other creatures they tamed or remade according to their own secret intentions, so as to befriend or to belabor that creature as they best saw fit. With them the Nephýařla brought the H’alel, the forebears and forefathers of the ancient Nephili, the mighty Tardeek. And the Neph made living souls as mates for the H’alel, and to serve them, and they mated and bore forward offspring who became the Nephili, the ancient Tardeek. And even the young Tardeek were as very large, tall, and strong Eldeven, but as they grew they became gigantic, and some became monstrous, and all of them were fearsome to behold. And the Tardeek were great and grave in battle, so that any who saw them watched in awe, and fled from them for fear of their great strength and tremendous height.<img src="http://www.bestpriceart.com/vault/cgfa_fbayeu1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />And for long ages the H’alel and the Nephili lived together, and the H’alel taught the Tardeeks many useful arts and many cunning and clever things. For the Tardeeks were monstrous and powerful, and being versed in all the H’alel taught them they could move great weights and build many terrible and wonderful monuments and could carve out mountains to build homes in which to dwell. And the H’alel were proud for a season with their offspring, and yet the H’alel were beings of craft and lore, and ever did they seek to know more craft and lore, and as time passed they grew dissatisfied with the labors of their children and grandchildren, and with the crudeness and naïf of their mates. For their mates were not as they, and were more sensual and unrefined, and more like their children, who often disdained subtlety in favor of strength and power. And the thoughts of the H’alel grew dark, and did wander far and wide throughout Iÿarlðma seeking those more like themselves for companionship. And they found none, for the Nephýařla who had brought them into Iÿarlðma had moved into the deep places of the world, and to dwellings far sundered, engaged in their own pursuits, and had left the H’alel to their own devices and pleasures. And the H’alel despaired of finding any like themselves, as mighty as themselves, or as subtle and cunning as themselves. Then in the Spring of the Morning of the faring of the Eldevens upon the earth did the Sidh arrive, and the H’alel were taken unawares.AŒSEI-SÎDELHI FĖLĲThe Tareåsarmãrl of the Felidic SîdhBeing the Great Tale of the Fate of the Sidelhi, First of the EldevensThen did the Sidelh appear, the first of the Eldeven folk, and none knew from where, or how they arose. And their appearance was as a shock, and a surprise to the Nephýařla, and to the H’alel, for the Sidh had been foreseen by neither, and neither knew from where they came. And the Sidelh themselves could not explain their lives, for they were living souls, and wise, but knew not how they came to be, or from where, or why.For a while did the Nephýařla watch the Sidelhi from afar, as they approached the lands in which dwelt the H’alel, and the Nephili. And the Nephýařla sent secret emissaries to the Sidelh and they did converse and parley one with another, each seeking to learn what they could of the other. For the Nephýařla did not know if the Sidelhi came as enemies, or unknown strangers, and the Sidh knew nothing of the Neph, or of any of the peoples of the world. So much in word and deed did pass between them, and yet much went unsaid and unlearned, for the Sidelhi did not know from whence they arose, or how, and the Nephýařla would not say from whence they also arose, nor why. But finally, being satisfied in themselves with the nature and intent of the Sidelhi the Nephýařla returned to their own places and left the Sidh to approach that part of the world then inhabited by the H’alel, and their mates, and their children the Tardeeks.And when the Sidh did arrive then the young Tardeeks saw the females of the Sidh and that they were very fair and pleasing to look upon. So because of the beauty of the females of the Sidelhi the Tardeeks took many of them as wives, and with some consent did the Sidh in those days betroth the Nephili (for in those days they were not foemen, but new companions one to another), and by some clever means known only to the Sidh did their women-folk bear the giants off-spring. And the offspring of the Sidelhi became the Tardeem, the Adharma. And the Adharma were, and yet still are, the half-giants, larger than the Sidh but smaller in statue and strength than their fathers, the ancient giants. And the Sidh also bore unto the Tardeeks the Gabar, the Deirae, the Great and Renown Ones, terrible in war, firm and fixed in form, and as shrewd and strong as any beast of the field. Yet the Gabar were smaller than their brethren, the Adharma Tardeem, being the same in stance and statue as their parents, the Sidelhi. But both races were also sure and powerful, like their forebears, and neither did fear any that lived. Even their own sires.Then did the H’alel look with envy upon the Tardeem and the Gabar, for they too wished to possess the females of the Sidh for themselves, as their children did. For they reckoned the Sidelhi to be a people filled with lore and wisdom, and beauty, subtle, like themselves, and in this they did not err. And they thought well that the Sidh would make of them the companions of which they wished, and that the Sidh folk would be naturally inclined with favor towards themselves. Yet in this they were much mistaken. For the H’alel were very different from the Sidh, and although both folk were filled with cunning and craft of their own, they were alien and estranged one to another. And the female Sidh did not desire to be wives to the H’alel, and they could not produce offspring between the two. So some of the H’alel did abduct and steal away some of the Sidelhi and they did many unnatural and dark things to those Sidh they held captive, and to themselves as well in order to make them true for each other. But these things all failed and gravely frustrated the H’alel, and in their foiled lust and desire they took to rape and rapine against the Sidh. And in their anger and jealousy the H’alel forbade the Tardeeks and the Tardeem and the Gabar from taking anymore wives of the Sidh. In those days the H’alel had grown great, waxing to the full measure of their craft and their power, and they had taught many arts and skills to their children the Tardeeks, and the Tardeeks in their turn had taught these things to their own children and grandchildren. And the Tardeeks as well had taught their arts to the Sidelhi, and the Sidh learned much that was noble and high, but the Sidh also had secret and unknown arts of their own, and they held these arts unused and unseen. For they had envisioned from afar what was to pass, and they held their craft in cunning abeyance for the day in which their foreknowledge would bloom in blood. As it was foreseen and spoken as a watchword among them;Asö læbethl karavądyarcølmed urýl Sîdelhi-ryt gařthe boľgaed, Saêđr jya gűayaţr…Which is to say, “The secret arts of the Sidelhi are to be held against the day when the spear of naked war is broken by craft, and by guile…”</blockquote>

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